FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2003
Volume 3, Issue 8
FR
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Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
FANTASY 5 27, 37, 8, 16, 12
DAILY 3 Afternoon picks: 8, 8, 8 Evening picks: 0, 6, 4
DAILY DERBY 1st Place: 10 Solid Gold 2nd Place: 5, California Classic 3rd Place: 8, Gorgeous George
Race Time: 1:42.72
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by Chuck Shepard
Kids who commandeered family vehicles and drove off: Ms. Taccara King’s 2-year-old son (crashed a pickup truck into the B Line Transport office, Vero Beach, Fla., July). Rex Davis, 2 (crashed a car into a room at a Red Roof Inn, Tampa, Fla., September). A 5-yearold girl and her 4-year-old brother (crashed car into a McDonald’s, Edmonton, Alberta, September). A 6year-old boy (drove his baby-sitter's car 30 miles, looking for his mother, hitting only three cars along the way, Luling, Texas, July). A 7-year-old boy, assisted by a 3-year-old girl holding down the gas pedal (crashed into a tree, Hannibal, N.Y., July).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Imitation is the sincerest form of television.” – Fred Allen
INDEX Horoscopes Find other waters fast, Pisces . . . . .2
Local Stage is set for Beach Bowl . . . . . . .3
Opinion Human cloning is our duty . . . . . . .4
State Bush is really a tree-hugger . . . . . .7
Entertainment ‘Gothika’ is pathetika . . . . . . . . . . .8
National Shark-bitten surfer undaunted . .12
People in the News Washington in state of Nirvana? . .20
Carter murder Beam me up still unresolved Two families, community are waiting for answers
but said murder investigations take time, especially when there is a lot of evidence to analyze. Three days after Carter’s heart BY JOHN WOOD was struck by a .22-caliber bullet Daily Press Staff Writer shot through his back on Sept. 2, PICO NEIGHBORHOOD — police arrested Arthur Archuletta, Nearly three months after Santa 21, and booked him for secondMonica’s first homicide of the degree murder. But prosecutors year, residents of this eastside decided not to pursue charges against Archuletta, neighborhood where saying there was insuf19-year-old Jalonnie ficient evidence. He Carter was gunned was released from jail down are still waiting less than a month later. for justice. During the time he Santa Monica Powas in custody, Archlice detectives said uletta was being held evidence from the on an unknown parole 20th Street shooting violation. links a neighbor and Now back at home former schoolmate of with his parents and Carter’s to the fatal shooting. Meanwhile, Jalonnie Carter siblings, Archuletta is in constant danger community members are accusing police of not being because of the arrest, his mother, Terry Arch-uletta said. Archuletta diligent in resolving the case. SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega said See CASE, page 6 detectives are working the case,
Drinking water suit may be settled today City Council to hold special closed session BY JOHN WOOD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL — After more than three years of litigation, a massive lawsuit over the quality of Santa Monica’s drinking water
is expected to be resolved today. The City Council is scheduled to meet this morning to review the terms of a settlement agreement that reportedly calls for more than a dozen oil companies to pay City Hall hundreds of millions of dollars for allowing a toxic chemical to seep into the local groundwater. Craig Perkins, City Hall’s direc-
Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press
A construction worker directs a crane as it lowers a beam into the new Circuit City building at the corner of Fourth Street and Arizona Avenue. Construction crews blocked off a part of Arizona Avenue on Thursday as work continued at the site.
tor of environmental and public works management, wouldn’t discuss the details of the settlement, but is confident it will be approved. “I would love to tell you (about the deal),” he said. “We’re obviously fairly confident since we’ve talked to them about the agreement, that the final vote will be for approval.”
City Hall’s lawsuit was levied against 18 oil companies and manufacturers in 2000. The suit alleges the oil outfits are responsible for allowing MTBE, a gasoline additive, to leak into the groundwater in 1996, subsequently forcing the closure of seven of Santa See MTBE, page 6
Dems want to pull plug on energy bill over MTBE By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Congress is one vote away from sending a massive energy bill to the White House, but it could still hit a snag in the Senate over a dispute involving a gasoline additive that has contaminated drinking water in several dozen states. The energy legislation won
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solid backing from Republicans as well as a surprising number of Democrats on Tuesday as it whizzed through the House by a 246-180 margin, leaving it up to the Senate to take up the bill in the coming days. But some Senate Democrats are counting votes to see if they might be able to derail the legislation — the product of 2 1/2
months of sometimes bitter negotiations between House and Senate Republicans — by a filibuster. They want stripped from the bill a provision that protects makers of MTBE from product liability lawsuits arising from the gasoline additive fouling drinking water. The measure, covering some 1,100 pages, would provide $23
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billion in tax incentives and other measures to produce more coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power and double the need for cornbased ethanol, a bonanza for the Farm Belt states. The boost in ethanol production to 5 billion gallons a year has broad Republican and Democratic support and is viewed as a key to getting the bill passed.
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