TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2005
Volume 4, Issue 171
FR EE
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
DAILY LOTTERY
‘Sensibility’ sought for SM City Hall
A day to remember
SUPER LOTTO 5 19 35 38 46 Meganumber: 13 Jackpot: $32 Million
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
SHEPARD
■ In March, accused U.S. fugitive securitiesswindler Frederick Gilliland, living on the lam in Canada, was tricked into coming back across the border, just for a free meal. A vengeful private investigator offered to buy Gilliland lunch at Brewster’s in Point Roberts, Wash., and then alerted authorities, who intercepted the super-hungry Gilliland as he approached the restaurant. ■ The police report column in the March 16 Newton (Mass.) Tab newspaper listed a “hate crime” committed by someone who apparently left the familiar Nazi symbol on the dirty window of an SUV. The police report read: “On the rear hatch someone with their finger traced out ‘wash me’ and below that was a swatz sticker symbol.” (The officer is not the only one unclear on Nazi history. In 1994, News of the Weird reported that a murder defendant in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., had asked a judge for permission to wear a Ku Klux Klan robe in court and to be addressed by the “honorable and respected name of Hi Hitler.") ■ Apparently important to actor Robert Blake’s acquittal on a murder charge in March was the lack of credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses, including an alleged methamphetamine abuser who once thought his house was surrounded by large, horned animals and “people dressed like sagebrush or Joshua trees.” To testify that drug users are unreliable witnesses, the defense presented a UCLA psychopharmacologist who revealed that in the course of his own drug use 25 years ago, he had once crawled into a cage of monkeys that were smoking crack cocaine.
TODAY IN HISTORY Today is the 151st day of 2005. There are 214 days left in the year. On May 31, 1889, more than 2,000 people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown, Pa. In 1962, World War II Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel for his role in the Nazi Holocaust. In 1977, the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making, was completed. In 1913, the 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was declared in effect.
QUOTE OF THE DAY “Nothing exceeds like excess.”
— UNKNOWN
INDEX Horoscopes Stay close to home, Cap
2
Surf Report Water temperature: 61°
3
Letters to the editor SMPD officer will be missed
4
Parenting Preschool a parent’s therapy
8
State Lesbians fight for countryclub life 10
International China trade war brewing with U.S. 11
Classifieds Get rid of your baggage
14-15
Businesses, residents form coalition to prioritize city issues BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON Daily Press Staff Writer
At least 70 mayors from cities such as London, Rio de Janeiro, Tehran, Capetown, Sydney and Shanghai are scheduled to attend
Frustrated Santa Monicans may know all too well the saying, “You can’t fight City Hall” but if enough fed-up residents unite their voices, local government may have no choice but to listen. That’s the hope of Santa Monicans for Sensible Priorities, a newlyformed coalition that is recruiting a broad-based network of citizens who can force the city’s leadership to address long-standing issues And the survey says: that have been met with minimal solutions over the past several Homelessness is the years, organizers say. same old problem With hundreds of members, the coalition is backed by big money BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON from local business interests — Daily Press Staff Writer including the hospitality industry — as well as residents. Santa Santa Monicans are primariMonicans For Sensible Priorities’ ly concerned about traffic and primary focus right now is to estabhomelessness — and they are lish the community’s key issues. willing to pay for solutions, The next task will be to find potenaccording to results of a recenttial candidates who will run a camly-conducted phone survey. paign based on those issues. The Santa Monicans for Sensible coalition will then help get them Priorities, a coalition of hunelected in 2006 when three City dreds of residents and business Council seats will be open. interests, hired Moore “The idea here is, what do peoInformation, a research firm ple care about and why it’s not based in Portland, to conduct being addressed,” said Seth the survey in March. The firm Jacobson, the coalition’s polled 300 residents throughout spokesman and whose public relathe city, of all ethnic backtions firm has been hired by the grounds, 50 percent of whom group. “By this time next year, we were male and 50 percent want a credible coalition of people whom were female, said Bob who are willing to join together Moore, owner of the research and impact the election.” firm. In the past few months, the coaliThe firm, which has done tion has spent more than $20,000 on other surveys in Santa Monica, phone surveys and mailers in an used a sample survey based off effort to find out what’s important of voting records. Based on the to Santa Monicans and what’s fruscoalition’s objectives, Moore trating them. Information drafted 49 quesThe results from the phone surtions to ask respondents that vey conducted this past spring ranged from quality of life found that homelessness was the issues to how city government top concern among the 300 resishould be run. dents polled. That came as no surIt was similar to City Hall’s prise to the group’s organizers annual survey in that the results since it’s been the top concern show that the community’s top among residents in City Hall’s priorities are solving the issues phone survey for the past five See SURVEY, page 6 years. But what’s being done about it is one of the coalition’s primary concerns. That’s why the group is planning to host a forum in July on the issue, with representatives participating from other cities, who have been able
See FIGHT THE HEAT, page 7
See CENTS & SENSIBILITY, page 5
Nicky Five Aces/Five Aces Photo F. Wayne Parish (far left) of the American Legion during Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday delivers an oratory before a symbolic lone grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in tribute to all soldiers killed in action.
World’s mayors seek to fight global warming BY TERENCE CHEA Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayors from some of the world’s biggest cities are gathering here this week to forge a set of international guidelines for sustainable urban living — billed as a municipal version of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming that the United States never ratified. Mayor Pam O’Connor will attend, as well as some city staff members to discuss what Santa Monica is doing to be more sustainable. The Urban Environmental Accords, to be signed at the United Nations World Environment Day Conference, is the latest example of cities seeking to tackle climate change despite reluctance from their national governments. “We cannot afford to wait for the state or federal government to do the job. There are too many excuses going around, particularly
in this country,” said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. “Increasingly, the world will look at mayors to become the stewards of the environment since the vast majority of the pollution comes from cities.”
More than 230 community activities for World Environment Day are scheduled around the San Francisco Bay area.
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