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TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2006
Volume 5, Issue 248
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
DAILY LOTTERY 17 24 35 46 54 Meganumber: 33 Jackpot: $56M 5 10 24 26 38 Meganumber: 23 Jackpot: $70M 5 15 19 23 29
THIS WEEK IS BE KIND TO HUMANKIND WEEK
Water treatment mired DELAYED: Legal dispute, technical questions plague MTBE cleanup efforts
MIDDAY: 1 6 8 EVENING: 8 8 4
BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON Daily Press Staff Writer
1st: 06 Whirl Win 2nd: 08 Gorgeous George 3rd: 12 Lucky Charms RACE TIME: 1:45.87 Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the winning number information, mistakes can occur. In the event of any discrepancies, California State laws and California Lottery regulations will prevail. Complete game information and prize claiming instructions are available at California Lottery retailers. Visit the California State Lottery web site at http://www.calottery.com
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
SHEPARD
■ At commencement this year at Gallatin High School in Nashville, Tenn., the principal had the valedictorian arrested for trying to make a speech that was reserved for the senior class president. ■ The Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported skyrocketing absentee rates at local high schools this spring because of a new district policy that the lowest possible semester grade would be 50, even for those missing every class (meaning that a grade as low as 80 for one semester could be averaged with a no-show 50 to reach the minimum-passing grade of 65).
TODAY IN HISTORY Today is the 241st day of 2006. There are 124 days left in the year. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast near Buras, La.; 2005 the resulting floods devastated the city of New Orleans. More than 1,300 people died in Louisiana while an estimated 300 Louisiana residents died out of state; some 230 people perished in Mississippi. Property damage estimates were in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
QUOTE OF THE DAY “In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is.”
GERTRUDE STEIN
INDEX
Andre Mayis/Photo courtesy (Above) The city’s water wells at Arcadia Wells, a treatment plant at Bundy Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, have been contaminated with MTBE since 1996. (Below) A new facility is slated to be built at the plant once an agreement can be reached.
CITY HALL — It will likely be 15 years after the city’s drinking water was contaminated that Santa Monicans will be able to tap into their own wells again. That’s because a bitter legal battle and complicated water treatment design process appear to be at an impasse between City Hall and the lawyers representing three major oil companies, which have admitted to allowing methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive, to seep into the groundwater, thus contaminating the city’s drinking water wells in 1996. In a landmark settlement in 2003, Shell, ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil agreed to pay City Hall more than $120 million for their role in the water contamination. The oil companies also agreed to pay for the design, construction and maintenance of a water-treatment plant at Arcadia Wells, a source of city water located in West Los Angeles. The wells were originally set to be cleaned up by 2008. But now it appears it will be at least 2011 before Santa Monicans will have clean drinking water from the city’s own supply, said Craig Perkins, City Hall’s environmental and public works director. “We’re at least five years away,” he See MTBE, page 5
Horoscopes Out and about tonight, Virgo
2
Surf Report Water temperature: 69°
3
Opinion Big Brother rides along
4
State Emissions mission
7
SM Parenting Breaking boredom
10
National Park transit
12
International A spike in violence
13
MOVIETIMES Catch a flick!
15
Comics Yak it up, yakmeister
16
Classifieds Ad space odyssey
17-19
Farrell ‘stalker’ must stay away By Daily Press Staff
SM COURTHOUSE — Colin Farrell obtained a stay-away order Monday against a Santa Monica woman who confronted the “Miami Vice” star on stage during a taping of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in Burbank last month. Santa Monica Superior Court Judge John H. Reid issued a preliminary injunction directing 31-yearold Dessarae Bradford to stay at least 150 yards from Farrell, his 2-yearold son, James Nathaniel, and the
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boy’s mother, Kim Marie Bordenave, according to City News Service. The order expires in August 2009. Neither Bradford nor Farrell attended the hearing. Bradford reportedly called the courtroom later and said she would be filing a petition to set aside the order, a clerk said. Bradford allegedly accosted the 30-year-old Irish actor July 20 in front of Leno, NBC security and a studio audience, according to a petition.
The next day, a judge pro tem issued a temporary restraining order against Bradford, who is a former phone-sex operator and model, according to People magazine. “I don’t know Ms. Bradford, nor have I had personal contact with her prior to (last night), when she accosted me during a taping of a television show,” Farrell said in a petition, City News Service reported. “I am concerned for the safety of my family,
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School board race filled with passion, clout BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY WIDE — With six candidates boasting strong ties to education and the connections in the community to back them up, the race to fill four seats on the Santa MonicaMalibu Unified school board has all See SCHOOL BOARD, page 6
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