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NO PLACE LIKE HOME: LAKERS WIN, CLINCH TOP SEED IN WEST/B1 SATURDAY MARCH 28, 2009 TODAY’S OUTLOOK: INLAND: 80|49 MOUNTAINS: 66|35 DESERT: 83|54 COMPLETE LOCAL FORECAST: B8

INL AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ’S NEWSPAPER

Budget Obama woes hit new UCR schools

sees lengthy war

AFGHANISTAN: The president doesn’t set a timetable for troop involvement, but says defeating terrorists in the region is critical. BY BRYAN BENDER AND FARAH STOCKMAN THE BOSTON GLOBE

SHORTFALL: The state’s economic troubles could delay the university’s planned public policy and medical colleges. BY SEAN NEALON THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama warned the American people Friday to prepare for years of war in Afghanistan, and he unveiled a new strategy that will send more military trainers, civilian advisers, and foreign aid to combat the growing threat from terrorists in the region. Obama sought backing to “take

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the fight to the Taliban,” strengthen the Afghan and Pakistani security forces, and build durable local institutions, saying the campaign that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States by al-Qaida terrorists has been shortchanged by the war in Iraq. “I don’t ask for this support lightly,” Obama said. “These are challenging times. Resources are stretched. But the American people must understand that this is a

down payment on our own future.” Obama publicly named al-Qaida top leaders — Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who are believed to be hiding in the lawless border region — to make his case. “Let me be clear: Al-Qaida and its allies — the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks — are in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said. “Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaida is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the

Afghan government falls to the Taliban — or allows al-Qaida to go unchallenged — that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.” The president did not set a timetable for the U.S. mission. His plan, the product of a two-month review, specifically calls for 4,000 U.S. military trainers, on top of the 17,000 additional combat troops he approved last month. That would bring the U.S. force to nearly 60,000, the most ever, and more

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C O L L EG E B AS E B A L L : U C R I V E R S I D E BE ATS TOP- R ANKED F ULLERTON

The University of California’s bleak economic state is filtering down to UC Riverside, affecting everything from library book buying to faculty hiring to the opening of the School of Public Policy. The university system faces an estimated two-year $450 million budget shortfall through June 2010. UCR officials estimate their piece of that is $28 million. That’s left them planning budget cuts up to 15 percent. Some decisions have been made. The School of Public Policy opening will be delayed a year, and a nationwide search for a dean has been halted. The College of Natural and Agriculture Sciences has decreased faculty hiring by two-thirds. Library book-buying has been scaled back, upsetting faculty and students. More decisions remain to be made. The medical school opening could be delayed because of a lack of state funding. Class sizes are likely to increase. The number of classes is likely to decrease. UCR officials said uncertainty makes budget planning difficult.

SEE UCR CUTS/A7

CALIFORNIA SHORTFALL

Stimulus not enough to halt cuts

DAVID BAUMAN/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

UC Riverside’s Michael Hur (25) is greeted by teammates at home plate after belting a three-run homer in the sixth inning of the Highlanders’ 3-1 victory Friday night over Cal State Fullerton, the nation’s top-ranked team, according to Baseball America. UCR has a 7-3 record against the Titans when they’ve been ranked No. 1 in recent years. Game 2 of the three-game series is today at 2 p.m. at the Riverside Sports Complex. STORY/B1

Developer cuts ties to Inland investors

INSIDE

BY JUDY LIN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO — State officials on Friday said California will not receive enough direct aid from the federal stimulus package to prevent nearly $1 bilIN LOCAL PLUS lion in program cuts and higher r Federal taxes. stimulus The state fimoney could nance director and prevent state treasurer deteacher termined that the layoffs, but federal stimulus more funding bill will provide alcuts may be most $8.2 billion to coming. D1 offset declining general fund revenue between now and June 30, 2010. The state needed nearly $10 billion to avoid certain cuts and higher taxes under the budget deal lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reached in Febru-

SEE CUTBACKS/A7

An ‘Extreme’ scene in Phelan

PARTNERSHIP: Others say Jeff Burum’s role in a recent scandal makes his decision appear to be a good one.

Ty Pennington and his “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" crew tackled an extra-large job — a souped-up home, plus an animal compound. D1

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Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum, who spearheaded the creation of a public-private partnership to solve Inland Southern California’s massive foreclosure problem, no longer has ties with the organization. In the wake of a political scandal in which Burum also played a central role, the chairman of the Inland Empire Economic Recovery Corporation says Burum’s decision to step away may be a blessing. Burum gave Jim Erwin, who resigned Monday night as San Bernardino County Supervisor

Neil Derry’s top aide, a nearly $12,000 Rolex watch and a trip to New York. Erwin failed to report the gifts as required by California’s disclosure law and was arrested last week on 10 felony counts. Burum faces no criminal charges. The Recovery Corporation was founded in January by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors with $2.5 million in seed money. Its goal is to pool public and private money to buy up large blocks of foreclosed homes at a discount throughout San Bernardino and Riverside counties, then sell them off to help restore neighborhoods and revitalize the region’s economy. Burum, an expert in affordable housing issues, effectively lobbied local and federal officials on the idea with Supervisor Paul Biane,

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FRIDAY JULY 3, 2009 TODAY’S OUTLOOK: INLAND: 93|63 MOUNTAINS: 83|56 DESERT: 106|80 COMPLETE LOCAL FORECAST: B8

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Investor pullout puts firm on brink TEMECULA VALLEY BANCORP: A group calls off its proposal. Seizure by regulators could happen if capital isn’t raised. BY LOU HIRSH

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

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Death of ‘good kid’ caught in crossfire ‘a big loss’ BY PAUL LaROCCO THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

SAN BERNARDINO — Pascual Popoca turned 18 on Wednesday — the day he died after being hit by a stray bullet on his way to the church he attended almost daily. Two nights earlier the teen had been shot in the head when he SPECIAL TO THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE inadvertently drove past a shootPascual Popoca was shot when he out near 16th and G streets. The inadvertently drove through a gunmen, both gang members, were gunbattle in San Bernardino. fighting over kids who had been

sitting on a car, prosecutors said. “This was an innocent guy, just driving, doing something good,” said Elias Alexander Cardenas, a volunteer and the pastor’s brother at Iglesia Cristiana el Camino De Las Asambleas de Dios at Base Line and F Street. “He was coming to church. I don’t believe it.” As the congregation mourned Thursday, prosecutors charged Ardell Holmes Jr., 43, with murder in Popoca’s death. Holmes faces spe-

cial allegations of use and discharge of a handgun, according to a criminal complaint filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court. He will not be charged in the death of Ivory Lee Houston, 32, who police said was the other shooter. “Had he survived, he would have been charged with murder as well,” Supervising Deputy District Attorney Rick Young said of Houston. Arraignment will take place af-

SEE SHOT/A8

The future of Temecula Valley Bank’s parent company grew more cloudy Thursday, after a private equity group called off a proposed $210 million investment in the struggling banking company. Depositor money is federally insured and not in jeopardy, but Temecula Valley Bancorp still faces a Monday state and July 15 federal deadline to raise new capital or find a buyer or merger partner. Otherwise, it faces potential seizure by regulators, who would run the bank or turn it over to a buyer. Temecula Valley Bank, started in 1996, has about $1.4 billion in assets and employs 220 people at 11 offices in Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties. It has been reeling during the past year from delinquent construction loans made to home builders and commercial developers, and posted a $36 million loss in the first quarter of 2009. Chief Executive Officer Frank Basirico said by phone Thursday he was disappointed by recent developments but remains hopeful that new capital can be raised. The company is still in consultations with its financial advisors at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. to find buyers or capital investors. Responding to regulator warnings since the start of the year, the bank has made a series of corrective actions, managerial changes, hiring freezes and shifts in its loan portfolio and other operations. “We’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing for the last six months,” Basirico said. “This

IOUs not A-OK for all

JOB LOSSES

Dorothy Cottrill, of the California State Controller Printing Office, examines IOUs issued Thursday in Sacramento. The state controller’s office plans to send out about $3.3 billion worth of IOUs in July, with a 3.75 percent interest rate and an Oct. 2 maturity date.

SEE BANK/A8

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Economic momentum interrupted BY KEVIN G. HALL MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — Worse-than-expected unemployment numbers and an uptick in the jobless rate renewed fears Thursday that the U.S. economy remains very fragile and recovery is elusive. “The economy is moving in the right direction, but painfully slowly,” said Mark Zandi, the chief econoIN BUSINESS mist for forecaster ! Stagnated wages starting Moody’s Economy.com in West Chesto affect ter, Pa. consumer Employers shed spending. E1 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate rose another tenth of a percentage point to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, the Labor Department reported. Mainstream economic forecasts had projected job losses of around 350,000 — about the same as May’s initial reading — so the June report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics dampened hopes that the U.S. economy was getting back on its feet. June broke a four-month streak of improving employment

SEE JOBS/A8

Some banks set strict deadline amid ever-growing state budget shortfall BY JIM MILLER SACRAMENTO BUREAU

SACRAMENTO — California began issuing its first IOUs in nearly two decades Thursday to avert a cash crisis caused by the state’s severe budget problems. The state controller’s office plans to send out about $3.3 billion worth of IOUs in July, with a 3.75 percent interest rate and an Oct. 2 maturity date. Another $1.7 billion in IOUs loom in August if the state’s budget mess persists, officials said. Companies that do business

with the state, regional centers that serve the developmentally disabled, people expecting tax refunds and others are in line for IOUs, known as registered warrants. State lenders, employees and other required payees will continue to get their checks. Wells Fargo and Bank of America have said they will accept IOUs through July 10. Riverside-based Altura Credit Union and San Bernardino-based Arrowhead Credit Union will take IOUs from members, representatives said. Recipients also can hold onto the

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with fear of not getting paid out in early October. An IOU issued Thursday for $1,000 would yield $9.38 in interest Oct. 2, according to the state controller’s office. “We just want to be able to help our members. And if we get interest on it, good,” said Ricki McManuis, Altura’s senior vice president for corporate communications. Riverside County plans to immediately cash its IOUs with its bank, Union Bank, said county finance

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New policy downplays raids on undocumented workers NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

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IOUs and redeem them after the Oct. 2 maturity date. Or they can open an account with a financial institution that will accept them. It was unclear whether the IOUs would be accepted by all of the banks in California. A few banks, including Bank of the West, indicated that they would accept the IOUs but only through the middle of the month. The state’s banking trade association offered moderate optimism that more banks would step up, citing the technical difficulties in managing the warrants coupled

Immigration authorities had bad news this week for American Apparel, the T-shirt maker based in downtown Los Angeles: About 1,800 of its employees appeared to be illegal immigrants not authorized to work in the United States. But in contrast to the highprofile raids that marked the enforcement approach of the Bush administration, no federal agents with criminal warrants stormed the company’s factories and rounded up employees. Instead,

the federal immigration agency sent American Apparel a written notice that it faced civil fines and would have to fire any workers confirmed to be unauthorized. The treatment of American Apparel, which has more than 5,600 factory employees in Los Angeles alone, is the most prominent demonstration of a new strategy by the Obama administration to curb the employment of illegal immigrants by focusing on employers who hire them — and doing so in a less confrontational manner than in

SEE IMMIGRATION/A8

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Tribute planned as probe deepens JACKSON MEMORIAL: The event would be at Staples Center. Meanwhile, LA police ask for federal help. BY JONATHAN D. GLATER AND LIZ ROBBINS NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

LOS ANGELES — Even as plans were taking shape Thursday for a memorial event for Michael Jackson at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles next week, the investigation into the causes of his death appeared to deepen and a possible custody battle emerged. The Los Angeles Police Department has asked the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to assist in the investigation of Jackson’s mysterious collapse last week, heightening speculation that prescription drugs may have played a role in his death. The possibility of a custody dispute emerged after

Debbie Rowe, the mother of Jackson’s older two children and his former wife, told the Los Angeles television station KNBC that she wanted custody of the two children she had shared with the singer. The couple divorced in 2000, and in 1999 she agreed that Jackson would have sole custody, according to The Los Angeles Times. But on Thursday afternoon Eric George, Rowe’s lawyer, told reporters on a conference call that his client was not sure what she wanted to do. “There’s no news,” George said. “Debbie has not reached a final decision concerning the pending custody proceeding.” Earlier this week, Judge Mitchell Beckloff of Los An-

geles Superior Court granted temporary custody of Jackson’s three children to the singer’s mother, Katherine Jackson. On Thursday afternoon, the judge approved a request by lawyers for Rowe and Katherine Jackson to move a scheduled guardianship hearing to July 13 from Monday.

ESTATE QUESTIONS A hearing will still take place Monday, but it will deal with the disposition of Jackson’s estate, which could also lead to a bitter legal brawl pitting Katherine Jackson against the executors named in a 2002 will filed in court on Wednesday. Rowe delivered two of Jackson’s children, 12-year-old Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., also known as Prince Michael, and Paris

Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. Jackson had another child, Prince Michael Jackson II, 7, called Blanket, who was carried to term by a surrogate who has never been identified. Despite the potential for those legal battles, the Jackson family, along with city officials and those from the Staples Center were preparing a grand forum for public memorial of the singer. The scale of the planned event reflects Jackson’s effect on pop culture and on his fans; the Staples Center, where the reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers play, can accommodate 20,000 people. Plans were under way to televise the event for thousands of additional onlookers watching outside from Nokia Plaza. Randy Phillips, chief exec-

utive of AEG, the company that owns the Staples center and was promoting Jackson’s London concert series to begin this month, said he was waiting for Katherine Jackson’s final approval. “As we speak, we’re working on the details,” Phillips said Thursday afternoon. He said he thought that it would begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday and be free to the public.

DEA ASSISTANCE As plans for the memorial event developed, the Los Angeles Police Department asked the Drug Enforcement Agency for help in its investigation of Jackson’s death. A spokesman for the agency, Rusty Payne, would not discuss the details of the investigation, but noted that generally in cases involving possible prescription drug

use, the DEA looks first for sources of supply, like online pharmacies. “And then of course the doctors involved,” Payne added. “Have they always practiced within the bounds of legitimate medical treatment, what’s the doctor-patient relationship.” An autopsy was inconclusive pending toxicology tests. Jackson’s private physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist, has said the singer had shown no signs of illness before he was discovered with only a faint pulse in the bedroom of his rented Holmby Hills home last Thursday. Murray said he immediately began performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, but Jackson was pronounced dead at CedarsSinai Medical Center a short while later.

Panel rebukes judge over online sex material BY BOB EGELKO

But the panel said it saw no need to punish Kozinski SAN FRANCISCO — The chief because he has now removed judge of the federal appeals the postings from his Web court in San Francisco was site and promised to install rebuked but not formally safeguards. The panel also disciplined by a judinoted that Kozinski cial panel Thursday requested the invesfor posting sexually tigation himself, coexplicit material on operated fully and his private Web site apologized profusely. and failing to remove “My unfortunate it when he learned it was publicly accessicarelessness ... has embarrassed the fedAlex ble. eral courts. And for Alex Kozinski was Kozinski this, I am deeply sorcareless and showed “poor judgment” in possess- ry,” Kozinski said in testimoing offensive material and ny to the panel. Had it found misconduct, failing to keep it private, said the 11-judge panel of the U.S. the panel could have cenCourt of Appeals in Philadel- sured Kozinski, temporarily halted his case assignments, phia. In a decision that it labeled or taken the first steps leadTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS an admonishment, the panel ing to possible congressional told Kozinski that his con- impeachment and removal Companies that do business with the state, regional centers that serve the developmentally disabled, people expecting tax duct “created a public con- from office. But the panel refunds and others are in line for IOUs. State lenders, employees and other required payees will still get their checks. troversy that can reasonably made no such findings, said date. A new state law would get deal is still months away, negotiating over the long be seen as having resulted in Arthur Hellman, a Universiallow the IOUs to be re- the controller’s office said. embarrassment to the in- ty of Pittsburgh law profesholiday weekend. deemed earlier if conditions Larry Sharp, president of Senate President Pro Tem stitution of the federal judi- sor and authority on judicial CONTINUED FROM A1 ethics. improved, the governor’s of- Arrowhead Credit Union, Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacraciary.” said a 1.5 percent interest mento, reported “significant director Paul McDonnell. fice said. “I think 1.5 percent is rate would have been unac- progress” since this week’s RATE DISAGREEMENT really fair,” said Tom Shee- ceptable. failed votes. “I think it will “It’s not just the carrying take a couple of days but I As with most parts of the hy, chief deputy director for SERVING RIVERSIDE AND SAN BERNARDIN O C O U N T I E S state’s budget drama, offi- policy in Schwarzenegger’s cost of the money. We’ve got think we will get it done,” he the cost of handling (the told reporters. cials disagreed Thursday Department of Finance. HE RESS NTERPRISE Based on figures from the IOUs) separately from our about IOU specifics during a Other top lawmakers took Published by The Press-Enterprise Co., a subsidiary of meeting of the state’s three- governor’s office, the higher checks,” Sharpe said. As it is, a tougher line Thursday. member Pooled Money In- rate approved Thursday will he said, the 3.75 percent In a column in the Huffingvestment Board. cost the state general fund interest rate may prove inad- ton Post, Assembly Speaker www.ahbelo.com NYSE: AHC A representative of Trea- almost $31 million in interest equate if IOUs drag on. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, 951-368-9460 CUSTOMER SERVICE Nosediving state revenue said Schwarzenegger “has surer Bill Lockyer and Con- through Oct. 2 — $19 million Nights and weekends For missing paper, starts, changes troller John Chiang — both more than the rate the ad- and voters’ rejection of sev- abdicated his fiscal responsi951-368-9460 or questions, call 877-473-6397 eral budget-related ballot bilities” by opposing this Democrats — voted for a 3.75 ministration wanted. 800-794-NEWS Customer Care Call Center The controller’s office measures opened a $26.3 bil- week’s stopgap legislation. percent interest rate, with TO PLACE A DISPLAY AD hours of operation: countered that the 3.75 per- lion hole in the state’s Februan Oct. 2 maturity date. Schwarzenegger accused PHONE 951-684-1200 Monday-Friday: 7 a.m.-5 p.m. But Gov. Arnold Schwar- cent rate will cost $25.8 mil- ary spending plan. Democrats of being beholdBanning/Beaumont ...951-368-9577 Saturday and holidays: 7 a.m.-10 Corona/Norco .........951-368-9250 zenegger’s representative lion. A June 2010 maturity en to public-employee a.m. Hemet/San Jacinto ....951-763-3401 on the panel proposed a date would be unfair to IOU NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE unions. Sunday: 8 a.m.-11 a.m. Moreno Valley ..........951-763-3447 1.5 percent interest rate and recipients and suggest to or e-mail Schwarzenegger and leg- The New York Times News Service Coachella Valley .......760-391-9993 [email protected] skittish investors that a buda mid-June 2010 maturity islative leaders will continue contributed to this report. Riverside ................951-368-9250 SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

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SACRAMENTO

DMV offices to shut 3 Fridays in a row California’s budget impasse will put a closed sign on state Department of Motor Vehicles offices for three consecutive Fridays, starting next week. Pursuant to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s order to furlough state workers three days a month, all DMV offices will be closed July 10, 17 and 24. Drivers needing to renew their vehicle registrations or driver’s licenses can do so on the agency’s Web site at www.dmv.ca.gov/. Those with licenses or renewals that expire on Fridays when offices are closed will have the penalties waived until the next business day.

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dupe a teenager, who later committed suicide. Judge George H. Wu said that he was tentatively acquitting the woman, Lori Drew, of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization, and that the ruling would be final when he issued his written decision. In November, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Drew of three misdemeanor charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal law designed to combat computer crimes. But in court on Thursday, Wu said that the federal statute was too vague when applied in this case and that were he to allow Drew’s conviction to stand, “one could literally prosecute anyone who violates a terms of service agreement” in any way.

one day reach the U.S. Supreme Court. During his first hearing on the suit, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said it was his job as a trial judge to settle any factual disputes surrounding the voter-approved ban and its effect on the civil rights of gays and lesbians before the case goes to a higher court. “I am reasonably sure that, given the personalities in this courtroom, this case is only touching down in this court and it will have a life after this court,” Walker said. The judge, who was named to the bench by President George H.W. Bush, has been asked to strike down Prop. 8 as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of due process and equal protection.

his home in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla. Mr. Klein became a special correspondent for Copley Newspapers after serving in World War II. There, he covered Nixon’s 1946 congressional campaign, starting an association that eventually led him to the White House. Mr. Klein accompanied Vice President Nixon to Moscow in 1959 for historic meetings with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. He resigned in 1973, one year before the Watergate scandal forced Nixon to step down. Mr. Klein returned to journalism and was named editor of the San Diego UnionTribune in 1980.

SAN FRANCISCO

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The clogged tourist travel route between Southern California and Las Vegas has been designated as a federal high-speed rail corridor. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the route is now part of the California rail corridor, a designation that endorses the viability of high-speed train travel in the region.

Judge wants full trial Ex-Nixon aide Conviction tossed on gay nuptials ban Klein dies at 91 in online bullying case A federal judge on Thursday threw out the conviction of a Missouri woman on charges of computer fraud for her role in creating a false MySpace account to

A federal judge in San Francisco said Thursday that he wants to conduct a full trial on a lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s same-sex marriage ban because he expects the case to

Herbert G. Klein, Richard Nixon’s former White House director of communications, has died. He was 91. Family members said Mr. Klein died Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at

High-speed rail route wins U.S. designation

THURSDAY JULY 2, 2009 TODAY’S OUTLOOK: INLAND: 89|63 MOUNTAINS: 83|56 DESERT: 103|79 COMPLETE LOCAL FORECAST: B8

INL AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ’S NEWSPAPER

Advocates fear scant access to medical pot in S.B. County BY IMRAN GHORI AND MICHAEL PERRAULT THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Even as San Bernardino County prepares to comply with state law and issue identification cards to medical marijuana patients in August, advocates say access to cannabis may remain difficult. The same day the Board of Supervisors approved the ID card program, the board also voted to enact a moratorium on the opening

of dispensaries — to allow time for county planners to draft land-use and permitting rules for the facilities. It’s not yet clear what kind of restrictions the county will place on dispensaries or collectives. While the county’s rules will apply only to unincorporated areas, many cities in both San Bernardino and Riverside counties already have banned dispensaries or enacted moratoriums.

Riverside County has banned them in unincorporated areas, though it does issue identification cards to patients whose physicians have prescribed marijuana to ease various symptoms, including pain and nausea. San Bernardino County fought the state’s medical marijuana law for more than three years on the grounds that it conflicted with federal law. The county lost the

SEE MARIJUANA/A7

INLAND IMPACT San Bernardino County expects to begin issuing ID cards in mid-August. CITIES: Many have banned dispensaries or enacted moratoriums. PATIENTS: Most get their marijuana in Orange or Los Angeles counties. Riverside County also issues IDs.

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Gap grows more dire CALIFORNIA BUDGET: The shortfall jumps by $2 billion as state employees are ordered to take a third furlough day.

S P OT T I N G BL A Z E S E A R LY: N O S U B STI TU TE F O R WATC HF U L E YE

BY JIM MILLER SACRAMENTO BUREAU

MARK ZALESKI/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Fire lookout volunteer trainer Brad Eells scans the Temecula Valley and San Bernardino Mountains for smoke. Watchful eyes will again peer from the High Point Lookout tower in the Cleveland National Forest. The tower had not been staffed since the early 1990s.

ON THE LOOKOUT AGAIN Cleveland National Forest tower back into service with volunteer fire spotters BY ALICIA ROBINSON THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

With a spanking-new visitors book full of fresh, blank pages, the High Point Lookout fire tower in the Cleveland National Forest is beginning a new chapter in its nearly 75-year history. After a painstaking restoration, the lookout is about to join nine other towers in area forests from which volunteers watch for smoke. With the 2009 fire season ramping up, High Point just became the second staffed lookout in the Cleveland National Forest when volunteer fire spotters began regular shifts in June.

See a video on the reopened fire lookout tower. PE.com

SEE BUDGET/A2 The comeback of the High Point Lookout, which had sat vacant since 1992, is part of a larger resurgence of interest in saving and staffing historic fire lookouts. More than 8,000 lookout towers once dotted the country. A sort of early-warning system for remote areas, many were built in the 1930s for the U.S. Forest Service on mountains or other elevated spots where people could search for signs of fires. Fire lookout volunteers Michelle Brandhuber and Curt Waite check Up in their perches and armed weather conditions during a training session at the High Point Lookout

SEE FIRES/A6 tower on Palomar Mountain.

Riled up by TV remotes? Changes are on the way BY VICTOR GODINEZ THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

This remote has an underside trigger that does away with the traditional keypad.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state employees to take off a third unpaid day a month as part of a new round of measures made Wednesday to close a growing budget shortfall. Schwarzenegger’s actions followed the acrimonious collapse late Tuesday of legislative efforts to pass stopgap budget solutions and prevent the state’s issuance of IOUs. Barring a last-minute budget deal, California Controller John Chiang today will issue the first round of $3.36 billion in July IOUs to keep Gov. the state from run- Arnold ning out of cash later Schwarthis month. Almost zenegger 29,000 IOUs, totaling $53.3 million, will be IN LOCAL sent out, mainly to PLUS taxpayers awaiting r State workers refunds. Others in line for dealing with IOUs include compa- furlough days nies doing business as budget with the state and crisis state-funded region- continues. D1 al centers serving developmentally disabled people. IOUs would also go to the state Student Aid Commission, which pays financial aid for college students. Wednesday, the governor’s office pegged the state’s budget gap at $26.3 billion through June 2010, up from $24.3 billion earlier this week. The change largely reflects an increase in the state’s obligation to schools in the fiscal year that began Wednesday after lawmakers failed to make changes to the law this week. The furloughs will close many

In 1955, Zenith introduced the first wireless TV remote control, the FlashMatic, followed a year later by the Space Command. Since then, the standard remotes that most viewers get with their TVs or when they sign up for cable have changed little, adding buttons but retaining the same basic design and button format in an effort to keep costs low. But as technology improves and gets less expensive — and the remote manages a wider range of content — it’s finally ready for a makeover. Several companies are working on major upgrades to the remote as the number of viewing options grows and Internet content migrates from the PC to the TV.

INS IDE Factory rebound? The index that measures manufacturing in the Inland area shows growth for the second straight month. BUSINESS/E1

50 cents

Everything from touchpads to voice control will soon come to your humble remote. Expensive, high-end remote controls have been around for years from independent companies such as Logitech. But when it comes to the low-cost remotes bundled with a TV or provided by a cable or satellite service, the basic layout would be recognizable to any time-traveling couch potato from 1956. Juergen Schroter, an executive director with AT&T Labs, said current remotes aren’t going to cut it for much longer. “The options for the typical viewer are exploding,” he said. Schroter said that the conventional

SEE REMOTE/A6

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PAKISTAN

Refugee aid by U.S. wins no friends BY JANE PERLEZ AND PIR ZUBAIR SHAH NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

QASIM PULA, PAKISTAN — Islamist charities and the United States are competing for the allegiance of the 2 million people displaced by the fight against the Taliban in Swat and other parts of Pakistan — and so far, the Islamists are in the lead. Although the United States is the largest contributor to a U.N. relief effort, the Pakistani authorities have refused to allow U.S. officials or planes to deliver the aid in the camps for displaced people. The Pakistanis do not want to be associated with their unpopular ally. Meanwhile, in the absence of effective aid from the government, hard-line Islamist charities are using the refugee crisis to push their anti-Western agenda and to sour public opinion against the war and the United States. Last week, a crowd of men, the heads of households uprooted from Swat, gathered here in this village in northwestern Pakistan for handouts for their desperate families. But before they could even get a can of cooking oil, the

SEE PAKISTAN/BACKPAGE

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CALIFORNIA | PERSONALITIES | STORY FROM A1

THURSDAY, July 2, 2009

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Jackson will holds surprise AFTERMATH: Diana Ross is the backup guardian for his children, and there won’t be a memorial at Neverland. BY RANDALL C. ARCHIBOLD AND JONATHAN D. GLATER

Jackson, 50, who died Thursday of undetermined causes. No details were released. Officials in Santa Barbara County confirmed that representatives of Colony Capital LLC, the company that acquired the ranch last year as Jackson’s finances spiraled out of control, had approached them Tuesday about a burial there. But after examining state regulations on burying people on private land, the representatives were told the necessary state and local approvals would take “months, not weeks,” said Michael Ghizzoni, the county’s lawyer.

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

As they searched for a suitable place for Jackson’s funeral and burial, the family and their representatives also sought to clarify issues regarding his assets and the custody of his three children, Michael Joseph Jr., 12, known as Prince Michael, Paris Michael Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7. A five-page will written in 2002 and filed in state court Wednesday by two executors who were once business partners of Jackson gives the entire estate to a family trust, and names his mother, Katherine Jackson, as a beneficiary of the trust and as legal guardian of his three children. If Katherine Jackson were unable to serve as guardian,

the will named Diana Ross, who helped start Jackson’s career in the 1970s, as a back-up to raise the children. Ross had no comment. Debbie Rowe, the mother of Jackson’s two oldest children, has not made a claim for custody, nor has the mother of the youngest child. That woman’s name has not been revealed. If the 2002 will is deemed valid and a trust receives all of Jackson’s assets, many of the details of his finances could remain secret. The trust documents are private. The value of the estate was estimated in excess of $500 million, but Jackson also carried unspecified debt as his career foundered in recent years.

LOS ANGELES — Nearly a week after he died, Michael Jackson has not been buried, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS but his will has given up tantalizing details, including Hundreds marched Wednesday in Sacramento against his choice of Diana Ross as a additional state pay cuts and furloughs. guardian of his children if his mother were unable to care for them. Estimated size of state budget Meanwhile, despite gathCONTINUED FROM A1 ering fans and a swirl of shortfall Wednesday: news media reports, there state agencies on Fridays, $26.3 BILLION would be no memorial for administration officials said. Jackson at Neverland, the Hundreds of angry state em- Estimated size of state budget ranch he once owned in ployees rallied at the Capitol shortfall Tuesday: Santa Barbara County. shortly after the governor’s $24.3 BILLION announcement. The family, however, was “I tell everyone and my- New budget cuts unveiled by the planning a public memorial for self, I’m blessed to have a governor’s office Tuesday: job,” said Fannie Bradford of $4.89 BILLION Corona, a 16-year state employee who works at the SOURCE: GOVERNOR’S OFFICE California Rehabilitation Center in Norco. “We don’t mind a day. We banking leaders and encourneed to contribute like every- aged them to accept the state one else. When they asked IOUs. for the second day, that was TRANSIT BUDGET HIT pushing the envelope. The third day, that’s just over the Lawmakers also spent top,” said Bradford, who Wednesday absorbing the traveled by bus to the Capitol implications of an appeals with about 100 other Inland court ruling that California members of the largest state had improperly used public employees union. transit money to balance Schwarzenegger’s office past budgets and the 2009-10 estimated that the third day spending plan approved in of furloughs would save February. $425 million. Michael Genest, SchwarIn addition, the governor zenegger’s finance director, wants to save $3 billion by said the decision would suspending the state’s con- punch an estimated $3.4 bilstitutional school-funding lion hole in state finances. guarantee and making The state will appeal, he said. $1.4 billion in cuts to the Bus and commuter rail University of California and agencies applauded the California State University court ruling. systems. The state would “This is a significant step finish the year with a in restoring transit funding $1.1 billion reserve. to its rightful place,” said Schwarzenegger said he Riverside Transit Agency THE ASSOCIATED PRESS would veto all bills unrelated spokesman Brad Weaver. About 4,000 farmers, farmworkers and their supporters march in Fresno to protest water shortages. Growers in the to the budget that reached Omnitrans CEO Durand top-producing agriculture county in the U.S. want federal officials to ease protections for threatened fish that have his desk until lawmakers Rall said the agency’s up- drastically reduced supplies pumped into the state’s vast canal system. Environmental activists say that without protections solve the problem. Senate coming fiscal year budget for the delta, the fishing industry will continue to suffer, as will the ocean species that depend on those fish for survival. President Pro-Tem Darrell will not change, but officials Steinberg, D-Sacramento, are hopeful the state money halted all committee hear- is returned to bus and rail ings to focus on the budget. agencies soon. FROM NEWS SERVICES Legislative leaders and Staff writer Dug Begley contributed Schwarzenegger met pri- to this report. vately Wednesday. Schwar- Reach Jim Miller at 916-445-9973 or SACRAMENTO tism. SAN LUIS OBISPO Brown, Whitman zenegger also called major [email protected] Consumer Watchdog, a Feds could seize six lead in fundraising Blown fuse halts Santa Monica group that monitors insurance pracPotential rivals for Califor- nuclear reactor parks if they close tices, filed a lawsuit Tuesday nia governor in 2010 released California officials said their fundraising totals for One of two nuclear re- in Los Angeles Superior SE RVING RIVERS ID E AN D SAN BERN ARD IN O CO UN TIE S Wednesday they are try- the first half of the year actors at the Diablo Canyon Court. It asks a judge to order the ing to avert the federal Wednesday, showing Attor- power plant remains shut HE RESS NTERPRISE government’s threat to ney General Jerry Brown down because of a blown Department of Managed Published by The Press-Enterprise Co., a subsidiary of Health Care to require inseize six parks that could and former eBay chief exec- fuse. be closed to help reduce utive Meg Whitman well A spokeswoman for Pacif- surers to provide autistic the state’s ballooning bud- ahead. ic Gas & Electric said children with certain serwww.ahbelo.com NYSE: AHC get deficit. Brown, a Democrat and Wednesday the company vices ordered by their doc951-368-9460 CUSTOMER SERVICE National Park Service Re- former California governor, doesn’t know why the fuse tors. 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CORRECTION: A map accompanying Tuesday’s story about solar energy development in the Mojave Desert contained an error. The dark gray areas on the map, from Interstate 15 near Barstow southeast to the Arizona border, are U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands being analyzed for solar development.

r The eldest Jonas broth- Diego, injuring a customer er, Kevin Jonas, and his inside. girlfriend Danielle Deleasa Zandra Rhodes, whose cliwere engaged Wednesday. ents have included celebriThe 21-year-old Jonas is ties such as Princess Diana, one-third of the popular Jo- confirms she was in the nas Brothers, along crash Tuesday but with Joe and Nick didn’t want to discuss Jonas. the cause of the acciA spokeswoman dent. for the Jonas BrothSan Diego fire ers confirmed the enspokesman Maurice gagement. Luque says a The young couple 42-year-old woman in have not yet set a Kevin the Meanley & Son date. Their engage- Jonas Ace Hardware store ment was first reportwas struck when the ed by People magazine. Peo- car smashed into the store, ple quoted Kevin Jonas as hitting a table that slammed describing his girlfriend’s into her. The woman was reaction as “yes, yes, yes like taken to a hospital but did 500 times super fast.” not have life-threatening inr A celebrity fashion de- juries. signer crashed her car It was not immediately through the front window of know if any charges would a hardware store in San be filed.

LATIN AMERICA | STORY FROM A1

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

MARIJUANA CONTINUED FROM A1

legal battle in May and now must issue the identification cards. With so many bans and moratoriums in place, there are only a few Inland locations where patients can buy marijuana. Dispensaries can be found in Palm Springs in Riverside County and the city of Yucca Valley in San Bernardino County. “Most of these towns have banned them outright,” said Scott Bledsoe, a Crestline resident who sued San Bernardino County over its refusal to implement the state medical marijuana card program. “That’s an uphill fight for us.”

DESERT DISPENSARY While dispensaries in other counties can be freewheeling places where patients choose their pot from jars with colorful names, the Yucca Valley dispensary looks more like a pharmacy. The California Alternative Medical Solutions office sits in a remote Yucca Valley industrial park surrounded by swaths of Joshua trees and a public works yard. It has been operating nearly a year. Co-owner D.J. Ross and the group’s board of directors examined dispensary ordinances across the state and decided to give their operation a clinical look. Employees in scrubs dole out medicinal doses of cannabis in prescription bottles with labels, all weighed on certified and inspected scales. “People get this idea that it’s a black market drug and a shady operation,” said Ross, who regularly invites people to tour his operation. Patients enter a small foyer and present their ID cards and prescriptions to personnel behind a glass window. They also can purchase herbal remedies or schedule appointments for massages, chiropractic adjustments and other alternative medicine therapies. But Ross said he is concerned about an ordinance drafted by the Yucca Valley Planning Commission that would ban outlets like his. Ross said concerns generally focus on the dispensary’s proximity to children attending classes at the adjacent Desert Ballet Centre and Yucca Valley Karate businesses. Planning commissioners say the dispensary in nearby Palm Springs should be sufficient for local patients. Ross argues that the dispensary presents no danger to children and that there have been no nearby crimes. He invites parents and grandparents to visit. “I welcome them,” Ross said. “I tell them, ‘Please come in and see what we’re all about.’” San Bernardino County may have a second dispensary if Carl Clines, owner of California Alternative Caregivers in Venice, gains approval. Clines, who opened the first legal dispensary in Los Angeles four years ago, has approached county planners and sheriff’s officials about opening one at Big Bear Lake. He has invited them to visit his Venice dispensary, which he says operates under very strict rules. All the marijuana is packaged in sealed medical bottles and patients are not allowed to smoke on the premises, he said. Clines said he is scouting locations away from sensitive neighbors.

CONCERN OVER RULES Advocates fear that San Bernardino County’s ordinance governing dispensaries will consign them to outof-the-way industrial areas next to strip clubs instead of allowing them in a commercial district alongside pharmacies or tobacco shops. Bledsoe said he believes they can operate discretely in such areas. He is frustrated by the contradiction of governments issuing identification cards to patients while banning the dispensaries that provide the marijuana. “It does no good to have cards if you can’t possess it legally,” he said. Most Inland patients get their marijuana in Orange or

“It does no good to have cards if you can’t possess it legally.” SCOTT BLEDSOE, WHO SUED S.B. COUNTY TO GET THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARD PROGRAM IMPLEMENTED Los Angeles counties.

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BOLIVIA

bus will start test runs on the streets of South America’s biggest city in August and will be joined by three similarly powered vehicles next year. In a fuel cell, hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water. The state government has not provided information regarding investment or future production plans.

Leader: Obama ‘lied’ about cooperation President Evo Morales on Wednesday accused Barack Obama of lying by pledging to change America’s historically heavy-handed relationship with Latin America and then halting $25 million in annual trade benefits for Bolivia. The U.S. on Tuesday said it is ending the import duty waivers because world’s No. 3 cocaine-producing country is not doing enough to reduce “unconstrained” cultivation of coca. Morales said the move contradicts Obama’s promise at the Summit of the Americas in April to be a peer rather than an overseer of countries in the region. “President Obama lied to Latin America when he told us in Trinidad and Tobago that there are not senior and junior partners,” he said.

ARGENTINA

For patients with cancer or AIDS who can’t drive, that’s not an easy alternative, Bledsoe said. “Most people get their marijuana the old-fashioned way: from black market criminals,” said Lanny Swerdlow, medical director at the THCF Medical Clinic and Patient Center in Riverside. The clinic provides assistance to medical marijuana patients but does not provide marijuana. San Bernardino County spokeswoman Lynn Fischer said patients can grow a small amount of marijuana for personal use. But they BRAZIL still must find a source of New bus powered by plants or seeds. The county expects to be- hydrogen fuel cells gin its ID card program in mid-August, after the suSao Paulo state officials pervisors formally adopt the have launched what they say ordinance on July 14. is Latin America’s first pasStaff writer Michael Perrault contrib- senger bus with an electric engine powered by hydrogen uted to this report. Reach Imran Ghori at 909-369-9558 fuel cells. or [email protected] Gov. Jose Serra says the

New health minister must tackle swine flu Argentina swore in a new health minister on Wednesday as the spreading swine flu epidemic prompted schools nationwide to give students an early vacation and one province to declare a public health emergency. Juan Luis Manzur, a doctor and vice governor in Argentina’s Tucuman province, announced plans to boost public health spending by $263 million this year. He replaces Health Minister Graciela Ocana, who resigned on Monday as concerns over the virus rose. Argentina’s northwestern Jujuy province became the nation’s first province to declare a public health emergency on Wednesday, after the capital district of Buenos Aires declared its own emergency on Tuesday.

THURSDAY, July 2, 2009

DISPUTE: The attorney general wants to know why the president was exiled instead of charged. BY FRANCES ROBLES MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS — The attorney general’s office in Honduras has launched an investigation into why overthrown President Manuel Zelaya was flown out of the country Sunday and not taken before a judge to face criminal charges, a top law enforcement official said Wednesday. Deputy Attorney General Roy David Urtecho said his office filed charges against Zelaya last week for abuse of power and treason and issued a warrant for his arrest. It’s unclear, he said, why the president was taken to Costa Rica instead of court. It was the first time a Honduran authority suggested that forcing Zelaya into exile may have been illegal. Zelaya was ousted Sunday after a week of tense crisis over the president’s plans to hold a nonbinding referendum that the attorney general and courts had declared illegal. Zelaya vowed to defy both and confiscated ballot

materials that had been marked as evidence in a criminal case. The military executed Zelaya’s arrest warrant — normally done by police — because the National Police had been participating in Zelaya’s plans to hold the public opinion poll, Urtecho said. “The military was only acting on behalf of the Supreme Court,” newly appointed President Roberto Micheletti said Wednesday. The former president insists he is the only legal leader of this nation of 7.5 million people. In Washington, the Organization of American States issued an ultimatum Wednesday, giving Micheletti’s new administration three days to resolve the matter before getting kicked out of the hemispheric group. Zelaya, who had vowed to return to Honduras Thursday, postponed his arrival until Saturday. Authorities say he is more than welcome home — and will be arrested upon arrival. He faces charges of treason, abuse of power, “usurping functions” and activities against the established government.

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TO FIND THE STORE NEAREST YOU, VISIT MACYS.COM. Macy’s Card/pass discount doesn’t apply to specials. *Sale prices in effect Saturday, July 4, through Sunday, July 5, 2009, except as noted. Special prices are in effect through Friday, July 3, 2009. STOREWIDE SAVINGS AND VALUES. †Intermediate price reductions may have been taken. Clearance items are available while supplies last. REG. & ORIG. PRICES ARE OFFERING PRICES, AND SAVINGS MAY NOT BE BASED ON ACTUAL SALES. SOME ORIG. PRICES NOT IN EFFECT DURING THE PAST 90 DAYS. SALE PRICES IN EFFECT THROUGH JULY 5, 2009, EXCEPT AS NOTED. Specials are available while supplies last and are not available by phone order. Due to consolidation, some prices may be different at your local Macy’s. You will receive prices at or lower than prices advertised here. ††Hours may vary by store; visit macys.com for exact hours. Extra savings are taken off already-reduced clearance prices. “Final Cost”shows price after extra savings, and does not include any coupons/Macy’s Card discount. Orig./Now and Special Purchase items will remain at advertised prices after event and are available while supplies last. Sales apply to selected items only. Everyday Values are excluded from “sales”and coupons/Macy’s Card savings. Prices and merchandise may differ on macys.com. Advertised items may not be available at your local Macy’s, and selections may vary. No phone orders. ‡Sheet set contains flat sheet, fitted sheet and pillowcase(s).

INSIDE: E5

BUSINESS

Watched index rises again

SECTION

E THURSDAY JULY 2, 2009

ACTIVITY: A Purchasing Managers Index above 50 suggests the manufacturing sector is growing, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. Inland Index 51.8

65

MANUFACTURING: A second straight monthly increase in the Inland region fuels hope for the beginning of economic recovery. BY JACK KATZANEK THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Inland Southern California’s factories appear to be continuing a slow climb back toward being one of the region’s active economic sectors, a report released Wednesday found. The Purchasing Managers Index for San Bernardino and Riverside counties rose to 51.8 in June from 50.7 the previous month, the In-

stitute of Applied Research at Cal State San Bernardino reported. It was the second straight month the index, considered one of the Inland area’s key economic indicators, has been above 50. If the PMI stays above that level one more month, it will signal that manufacturing in the two-county area has started an expansion cycle after a moribund period lasting more than a year. Econo-

mists look for three straight months of readings on the same side of 50 before considering a trend. The national PMI is still below that level, but the reading of 44.8, up from 42.8 in May indicates that while manufacturing is still shrinking, the rate of contraction is slowing. A higher PMI is significant for the economy because it means factories may have to hire workers or purchase supplies from Inland area vendors.

When the index, provided by the Tempe, Ariz.-based Institute for Supply Management, increased in May, economists suggested factories might be producing more in response to the likelihood that President Barrack Obama’s stimulus package will need new supplies of building materials and other goods for public works projects. Others suggested the increase was not based on new orders but rooted in manufacturers that have been selling product out of existing

60

National Index 44.8

55 50 45 40 35

30 June Aug. Oct. Dec. Feb. Apr. June 09 08 SOURCES: CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO INSTITUTE OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND POLICY ANALYSIS; INSTITUTE FOR SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

SEE INDEX/E3

Housing refinance program expands

A

EASIER TO QUALIFY: Originally, a loan could not exceed home value by more than 5 percent. The new limit is 25 percent. BY LESLIE BERKMAN THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Many more homeowners will be able to refinance under a federal program announced Wednesday that extended eligibility to those whose houses are worth up to 25 percent less than what is owed on them. When the original federal refinancing program was unveiled in February as part of President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce foreclosures, it was criticized as irrelevant in places such as Riverside and San Bernardino counties that have experienced declines in KIMBERLY PIERCEALL/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE property values that are deeper Super Shuttle has been the only company to qualify for a new rule imposed at Ontario International Airport and elsewhere. than in most of the nation. Under the original refinancing guidelines, a mortgage could not exceed the home value by more than 5 percent. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie four others who have operated at dinators stationed at terminal ONTARIO INTERNATIONAL: Only one company that provides Mae and Freddie Mac, said it has the airport for several years to curbs and in a holding lot. Now curbside pickups has been able to afford the new requirements. either combine forces or look the airport won’t pay anything to authorized the government-sponBY KIMBERLY PIERCEALL sored lenders to expand their will require shuttle companies to elsewhere for shuttle work. Trav- coordinate the shuttles, and it THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE Home Affordable Refinance Prohave at least 15 shuttles in their elers flying into Ontario can still will add at least $50,000 from each gram, making up to 1 million Ontario International Airport fleet, pay the airport $50,000 up walk up to a waiting Super Shut- company to the airport’s revenue. additional loans across the nation expects a new rule will save more front and pay for their own tle van, or make reservations Once a shuttle company makes potentially eligible for refinancing. than $600,000 annually, but at coordinator to arrange for curb- ahead of time to be picked up by 10,000 trips, they will have to pay “It is definitely a significant a $5 fee to the airport per pickup. least one shuttle company owner side pickups and shuttles in the other shuttle companies. development and a positive change Approved shuttle companies Before Wednesday, the airport expects it will cost him his busi- holding lots. because there are a large number So far, Super Shuttle is the only had spent more than $600,000 also have to comply with the ness. of homeowners who were left out As of Wednesday, the airport company that qualifies, leaving annually to pay for shuttle coorSEE SHUTTLES/E3 of the original version of the program and will now be eligible,” said Dustin Hobbs, spokesman for the California Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications can be made immediately for the expanded program, with new financing delivered Sept. BY JEFF GREEN 1 for Fannie Mae mortgages and pace for June would climb above 10 analyst estimates, suggesting that Corp. said. AND KEITH NAUGHTON Oct. 1 for Freddie Mac mortgages, Total sales fell 28 percent, to million for the first time this year. the industry hasn’t started to reBLOOMBERG NEWS according to the Federal Housing GM blamed its worse-than-ex859,847 vehicles, the 20th straight bound yet. Finance Agency. The annual rate fell to 9.69 monthly decline, the Woodcliff pected results on a new U.S. proU.S. auto sales in June again Fred Arnold, immediate past failed to reach a 10 million annual million cars and light trucks last Lake, N.J.-based company said. gram to spur trade-ins of older president of the California Associ- pace as General Motors Corp. and month, from 9.9 million in May and Analysts surveyed by Bloom- vehicles, saying that kept some SEE REFINANCE/E3 Toyota Motor Corp. fell short of 13.7 million in June 2008, Autodata berg had projected that the annual buyers on the sidelines.

AIRPORT RULE SCUTTLES SHUTTLES

U.S.’s auto-sales rate for June slips

Offer tendered for Fleetwood’s housing division $28.9 MILLION: Phoenix-based competitor Cavco places the bid to beat in taking over the bankrupt company’s operations. BY KIMBERLY PIERCEALL THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

A smaller competitor has offered a $28.9 million bid for Fleetwood Enterprises’ manufactured housing division, according to a statement from Fleetwood. A week after agreeing to sell its RV business to a New York equity firm, Fleetwood has an offer from Phoenix-based Cavco Industries Inc. and its investment partner Third Avenue Trust Value Fund, for the rest of the Riverside-based manufacturer’s operations. If the bid is approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court it would become the bid to beat in an auction. Cavco is interested in buying seven plants that employ 700 peo-

TERRY PIERSON/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The Fleetwood Enterprise manufactured housing operation in Riverside is included in a $28.9 million bid. ple — including the Riverside plant — along with an office building, equipment, inventory, trademarks, intellectual property, contracts and leases. The offer doesn’t include Fleetwood’s plants in Al-

THE NUMBERS +57.06

DOW

8,504.06

After selling 1,802 manufactured housing units in 2008, Cavco was +10.68 NASDAQ 1,845.72 ranked seventh among manufactured home builders, according to Statistical Surveys Inc., which +4.01 S&P 500 923.33 tracks the RV and manufactured housing industry. Fleetwood was BONDS ranked second, just above Champi0.00 4.34% 30-yr U.S. on Homes and below Clayton Homes, owned by Warren Buffett’s DOLLAR Berkshire Hathaway. +0.20 96.52 in Yen The Riverside manufacturer held about 12.8 percent of the GOLD industry’s market share. Cavco’s +13.90 $941.00 New York sales accounted for about 1.3 percent. BUSINESS BRIEFING: E2 | LOCAL STOCKS: E3 If Cavco’s bid wins and is apMARKET REPORT: E4 proved by the court, the company would go from having three factories to 10. As of March, Cavco had 660 employees. The company earned $458,000 in its fiscal year that ended March 31, compared to How’s the search going? If you’ve had success in the job hunt, $6.3 million the year prior. Reach Kimberly Pierceall at 951-368-9552 or let us know how you did it.

ma, Ga., Elizabethtown, Pa. and Garrett, Ind. In a statement released Tuesday, Fleetwood said it would entertain bids for all of its operating plants. [email protected]

PE.com/blogs/business

BUSINESS

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

THURSDAY, July 2, 2009

Reach Leslie Berkman at 951 368-9423 or at [email protected]

INDEX inventories finally needing to replenish some stocks. “Factories do need to fill some shelves,” said Raymond Sfeir, economics professor at Chapman University. “They’ve been on inventories alone for the last several months.” Many Inland manufacturers are small operations that produce building materials, everything from doors and windows to fireplace mantels, and they are unlikely to be seeing many new orders because residential and commercial construction activity remains weak. But other factory executives say there has been an improvement. “We are seeing that, over the last eight weeks or so,” said Bob Kaplan, president of California Quality Plastics, an Ontario-based factory that makes a variety of products, including trophy cases and aquariums. “It seems the bottom of the trough has been reached and it’s a slow climb out,” he said. Kaplan said he’s encouraged by a lot of custom orders from a variety of customers. That’s a better sign than new orders coming in for only a few stock items, he said. “We’re not setting the world on fire, but it is getting better,” he said. Dan Weber, vice president for operations at Faust Printing in Rancho Cucamonga, said he’s also seen a “slight uptick” lately, getting repeat

E3

Clueless lawyers need to grow up

REFINANCE ation of Mortgage Brokers, said the benefit of helping homeowners refinance to a more affordable mortgage is that it reduces the potential for future foreclosures and shores up a weak economy by giving homeowners more discretionary income to spend. Arnold said at the Los Angeles brokerage office he owns that about 70 percent of applicants for the federal refinancing program have failed to qualify because of the minimum equity requirement. Changing eligibility so homeowners can be as much as 25 percent “upside down” on their loans, Arnold said, means that about half those applicants his company turned away for not having enough equity could now qualify if they reapply. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, about 80,000 mortgages have been refinanced so far under the new program, of which about a third were for homes in which owners had less than 80 percent equity. Redlands-based economist John Husing said now the refinancing program will help those who bought or refinanced their homes in 2003 and 2004 and some who got mortgages in 2004. But he said it still does no good for many who financed houses in 2006 and 2007, when he said prices had “gone through the roof.” To be eligible for the federal refinancing program, a homeowner also must occupy a home with a mortgage that is owned or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, be current on the mortgage payments, and have sufficient income to support the new mortgage payment. Mortgage experts said while the expanded federal program is welcome, a cloud has come in the form of rising interest rates that makes refinancing less attractive. “Increasing interest rates in recent weeks has limited the effectiveness of the (refinancing) program,” said John Mechem, spokesman for the Mortgage Bankers Association. Between May 15 and June 26, the association reported that the rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage climbed from 4.69 percent to 5.34 percent.

•

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chantix and Zyban must carry a warning over side effects including suicidal thoughts.

Smoking pills get warning on suicides BY SHANNON PETTYPIECE

January that Chantix may increase the risk of suicide or erratic behavior, and the Federal Aviation Administration banned its use in pilots. Chantix sales plunged 36 percent to $177 million in the first quarter, Pfizer said. “In someone on these drugs trying to quit smoking, you need to watch them for these events,” said Bob Temple, director of the FDA’s Office of Drug Evaluation I. “We don’t want to scare people off from using the medications to stop smoking, we just want them to be monitored.” The medicines may cause a change in behavior, depressed mood, hostility and suicidal thoughts, the FDA said. Pfizer, based in New York, and London-based Glaxo will be required to conduct a clinical trial to determine how often psychiatric side effects occur, the FDA said.

Pfizer hasn’t been able to determine whether the reported behavior changes are related to quitting smoking or a result of the drug, Briggs Morrison, head of medicines development for Pfizer’s primary care business unit, said Wednesday in a conference call. Pfizer saw no reported suicides in its clinical trials. Glaxo hasn’t seen enough evidence to show a link between Zyban and suicides when used for smoking, said spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne in an e-mailed statement. The FDA said it first received an alert about Chantix and behavior changes from European regulators about two years ago. The agency began investigating a possible risk from Chantix in September 2007 when Carter Albrecht, a keyboard player for Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, was killed after taking Chantix.

state’s alternative fuel policies. Shuttle companies that don’t qualify for the agreement would be barred from picking up anyone from the airport unless a traveler made a reservation with the company. In that case, the company would still be charged a $5 fee to pick up travelers. Before, shuttles had to pay $5 per pickup, but didn’t have to pay $50,000 up front or hire a coordinator.

Shuttle owners received notice from the airport a few weeks ago, and the plan was approved last week by commissioners for Los Angeles World Airports, the Los Angeles city agency, which owns and operates Ontario Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport, airport spokeswoman Maria Tesoro-Fermin said. Ontario Airport has been particularly hard hit by passenger losses and airline cutbacks. The airport’s expenses have been cut 11.1 percent for its fiscal year,

which started Wednesday. The airport has also raised airline landing fees. George Abugattas said he started Apollo Shuttle eight years ago in the Inland region after driving for Super Shuttle for 12 years. About 70 percent of his business is from Ontario Airport travelers. The rest is spent picking up or dropping off passengers at John Wayne Airport or LAX. He said he’s preferred Ontario because there were only six companies vying for business. Now, he

business from area customers who need catalogs and other marketing materials. “They’re looking to sell more, so they need to print,” Weber said. “But they’re using less color and making decisions that save on the paper.” At PneuDraulics Inc., a

Rancho Cucamonga firm that makes aircraft components, no recovery has been in evidence or is anticipated for a while, said Terry Herrmann, director of materials. The plant has more than 200 employees but has shed several dozen this year because

of fewer orders. “Our industry has stabilized, but aerospace is going to be sitting on its hands for at least 18 months,” Herrmann said.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s quit-smoking treatments must carry the strictest U.S. warning about psychiatric side effects, including the risk of suicide. The Food and Drug Administration is adding the warnings, which will be highlighted in a black box, to the prescribing information of Pfizer’s Chantix and Glaxo’s Zyban. The agency has received a combined 317 reports of suicides and attempted suicides among patients taking the drugs, said Curtis Rosebraugh, director of the FDA’s Office of Drug Evaluation II, in a conference call today with reporters. Pfizer said it stands by the safety of Chantix and Glaxo said it doesn’t believe there is enough evidence to prove a link. The FDA warned in

SHUTTLES

Reach Jack Katzanek at 951-368-9553 or at jkatzanek@PE .com

Q:: As a legal assistant, I have to deal with some very annoying attorneys. We all work in the district attorney’s office, but the assistants are paid by the county, while the lawyers are paid by the state. There is a huge difference in pay scales, benefit programs and retirement plans. The attorneys constantly talk about their new homes, fancy cars, lavish vacations, and plans for early retirement. That’s OK, but they also seem to enjoy making fun of our low pay and inferior benefits. They say things like “you’d be better off working in fast food” or “you won’t be able to retire until you’re 80.” I’ve tried to brush this off, but I am becoming extremely resentful. So far I haven’t confronted them, because getting upset might just encourage them to continue. How should I handle this? A:: The attorneys’ pay may be high, but their maturity level is awfully low. Flaunting their superior compensation is not only juvenile and rude, but also self-defeating. They seem to be encouraging their assistants to look for betterpaying jobs. Avoiding an angry confrontation is smart, but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer in silence. However, you don’t want to be the lone protester, so ask other offended employees to join you in speaking up. One option is to try to enlighten your clueless colleagues. The objective is not to chastise them, but to help them understand the demoralizing effect of their cruel comments. If some of the attorneys seem to “get it,” ask them to help make your case. But if appealing to the perpetrators seems pointless, take your group and says, he’s not sure what he’ll do. “I don’t know how long I’m going to be in business,” Abugattas said. Abugattas and other shuttle owners, managers and drivers picketed outside the airport’s terminals Wednesday, and he said that he planned to appeal the ruling and hoped to raise enough money to increase his advertising budget to assure more travelers make reservations with his company. He had a fleet of 10 vans at Ontario airport, employing about 25 drivers. Discount Shuttles had five vans, New Express Transportation

M AR I E M C I N T YR E The Office Coach meet with the appropriate manager. Explain the business problems caused by the lawyers’ thoughtless remarks. For example: “We thought you should know about an issue that’s creating morale problems for the support staff. The attorneys constantly joke about how bad our salaries and benefits are. We’re not complaining about our pay, but we are really tired of their insulting comments. We would appreciate your speaking to them about this.” A third alternative is to simply ignore them, while being silently thankful that you were brought up to have better manners. Q: One of my co-workers manages to be absent whenever a critical project is due. I always pitch in and complete his work because I don’t want our department to look bad. However, I’m getting tired of covering for him. This guy is very defensive and edgy, so I’m reluctant to approach him about it. Talking with my boss hasn’t helped. What else can I do? A: You can stop doing his work. By covering for him, you ensure that neither he nor your boss will suffer any consequences from his slacker behavior. A few late projects might finally persuade your boss to deal with the problem. Marie G. McIntyre is a workplace coach and the author of “Secrets to Winning at Office Politics.” Send in questions and get free coaching tips at www.yourofficecoach.com.

three and Go Fly Shuttle two, he said. Airport officials have said smaller shuttle companies could combine to create a co-op. Abugattas said the costs would still be too high. Before, it cost each company about $3,000 per van in fees paid to the airport for pickups. Adding the $50,000 up-front fee, plus the estimated cost of a coordinator for about $250,000, Abugattas said he and other owners would face costs of $14,000 per van. In that case, “we go out of business within a week or so,” he said.

This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy Notes. The offer is made only by Prospectus to residents of CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, KS, MA, MD, MN, NJ, OR, PA, UT. The Notes are being sold by Advanta Corp. The Notes represent obligations of Advanta Corp. and are not insured or guaranteed by the FDIC or any other governmental or private entity. Advanta Corp. is a publicly owned company with common stock traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (Symbols: ADVNA & ADVNB). * The Annual Percentage Yield assumes interest is paid only at maturity. Annual Percentage Yields (APYs) are subject to change weekly.

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52-WK RANGE LO HI

0.59 41.27 27.00 0.21 0.47 29.05 5.41 50.86 5.31 23.09 0.65 18.91 4.98 25.11 3.17 21.20 20.52 3.66 9.27 15.96 6.90 8.45 57.41 11.88 43.36 33.81 3.50 2.50 4.00 16.12 34.29 14.62 8.99 0.27 9.54 20.24 33.28 37.99 20.17

1 7.54 3 60.78 6 42.00 1 4.75 2 8.00 4 69.50 6 14.20 4 110.04 1 20.00 3 52.35 3 2.85 3 58.00 4 12.18 9 55.34 5 23.10 5 50.00 5 44.02 1 10.74 5 23.00 4 42.58 4 25.43 5 29.41 4 120.30 6 30.24 8 76.92 4 72.19 5 9.11 6 6.87 3 10.28 9 39.06 7 58.99 5 30.60 4 43.29 1 7.75 4 31.85 4 46.67 4 85.80 5 70.00 0 33.97

CLOSE .96 46.64 35.35 .38 1.85 42.23 10.11 73.05 6.22 31.86 1.28 27.81 7.64 50.84 11.46 33.40 31.19 3.87 15.01 25.95 13.31 17.84 80.64 21.18 70.00 46.09 6.02 5.10 5.49 34.71 49.78 22.06 21.31 .38 18.43 30.44 52.75 50.85 33.92

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NBA FINALS: LAKERS VOW THEY WILL NOT GET COMPLACENT/B1 SATURDAY JUNE 6, 2009 TODAY’S OUTLOOK: INLAND: 70|57 MOUNTAINS: 58|45 DESERT: 84|63 COMPLETE LOCAL FORECAST: B10

INL AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ’S NEWSPAPER VISTA MURRIETA FALLS IN DIVISION II TITLE GAME

A medical marvel amid a tragedy ADENHART CRASH: A victim, recovering from internal decapitation at his parents’ Murrieta home, hopes to witness the defendant in court Monday. BY SONJA BJELLAND THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The Broncos can’t solve Etiwanda pitcher Natalee Pulver and lose, 4-0, in the CIF-Southern Section Division II softball title game. B SECTION

UCR CHANCELLOR

Financial outlook two times as painful

S E N

Jon Wilhite hopes he can go to court Monday to see the man charged with killing three friends, including Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, in an April traffic collision. Doctors and his family say it’s a medical miracle that he could even think about going. The 24-year-old former Cal State Ful-

lerton Titans catcher suffered a rarely survivable injury in the crash when his skull separated from his spine. Authorities say Andrew Thomas Gallo was drunk and sped his minivan through a red light at a Fullerton intersection, broadsiding Courtney Stewart’s Mitsubishi Eclipse. The impact instantly killed Stewart and Henry Pearson. Adenhart, a rookie who only hours earlier had pitched the best game of his career, later

died. On Monday, Gallo, a former Riverside resident, is scheduled to be arraigned in an Orange County court on charges that include second-degree murder and driving under the influence of alcohol. At the time of the collision, Gallo, 22, was on probation in San Bernardino County for a 2005 DUI case, according to court records. He fled the scene of the Fullerton crash on foot and was arrested about two miles away, according to the Orange County district attorney’s

Jon Wilhite suffered an injury few survive.

SEE WILHITE/A7

Oyler sentenced to die

BY DAVID OLSON THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The state’s expanding financial woes may force UC Riverside to cut up to $40 million from its budget — doubling a previous estimate — through employee layoffs, furloughs, eliminating programs and other adjustments, Chancellor Timothy P. White said Friday. White estimates that the school will need to cut that much for the fiscal year beginning Timothy July 1 to deal with P. White Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to the UC system in the wake of the May 19 defeat of five budget-related propositions. The school had originally projected $19 million in cuts. White made his comments in a letter and video to faculty, staff and students that were posted Friday afternoon on the university Web site. “We are being forced to take what I view as misguided and WILLIAM WILSON LEWIS III/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE shortsighted actions that are Raymond Lee Oyler joked with his attorneys when he entered the courtroom Friday. He maintains that he is innocent of setting the Esperanza Fire, working opposite to the social, which killed five firefighters in October 2006. “He feels terrible about their losses,” defense attorney Mark McDonald said.

SEE UCR/A6

‘No one will ever know’ why he set deadly blaze, judge says I N SI D E Jobless report carries mixed economic message Unemployment reached 9.4 percent in May, worse than anticipated, but companies trimmed jobs at the slowest rate in months. BUSINESS/E1

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BY RICHARD K. De ATLEY

Watch video of Raymond Lee Oyler as he is sentenced to Raymond Lee Oyler was sen- death for the murder of five federal Also read past coverage of the tenced Friday to die for the arson firefighters. Esperanza Fire and the Oyler trial. PE.com murders of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters who perished in the path of the 43,000-acre Esperanza he knew the consequences, and he Fire, the largest in a series of knew of the possibility of people blazes he was convicted of setting dying in that whole process.” in 2006. Nwandu and her fellow jurors “Whatever Oyler got was what had recommended the death senhe deserved,” juror Ethel Nwandu, tence for Oyler on March 18, and of Moreno Valley, said afterward. Superior Court Judge W. Charles “He knew what he was doing, and Morgan said Friday there was no THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

reason to turn the jurors aside. “Mr. Oyler set on a mission ... to wreak havoc in this county by setting fires by his own design for his own purposes. As proven by the evidence, he became more and more proficient,” Morgan said. “Why? No one will ever know,” Morgan said of Oyler’s motives. Oyler, 38, of Beaumont, was convicted March 6 of five counts of murder and 20 counts of arson, Gloria Najera-Ayala, mother of along with 17 counts of using an firefighter Daniel Hoover-Najera,

SEE OYLER TRIAL/A7 listens to Judge W. Charles Morgan.

Deputies: Stepdad raped girls, impregnating 1, and mom knew BY PAUL LaROCCO THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

A girl discovered explicit text messages on the cell phone of a BUSINESS: E 16-year-old classmate on Tuesday. By Friday, San Bernardino Briefing .........E2 Stocks ..........E4 County sheriff’s deputies were alleging not only that the teen’s CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . XX E5 stepfather sent the messages, but HOME SERVICES CLICK ’N’ CLACK . . . XX G2 JUMBLE PUZZLE . . . XX E5 that he also had repeatedly raped

her and her younger sister over the last four years and fathered her 13-month-old baby. And the girl’s mother knew about it, investigators say. Tony Slone, a 43-year-old longhaul trucker and convicted sex offender, was arrested late Thursday on a $1 million warrant as he delivered a load in Chester, N.Y., a

village 60 miles northwest of Manhattan. On Friday morning, deputies jailed his wife and the girls’ mother, Anita Slone, 47, on charges she committed child abuse by failing to report the crimes. The couple live in Phelan, on the west end of the High Desert near Victorville.

The older girl’s friend at Silverado High School in Victorville found the text messages on the girl’s phone and reported them to the Sheriff’s Department. In a criminal complaint filed in court, Tony Slone is charged with continuous sexual abuse, lewd acts and forcible rape of the older girl,

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SATURDAY, June 6, 2009

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A7

Mexico day care WILHITE fire claims 29 CONTINUED FROM A1

100 INSIDE: The blaze apparently started at a nearby tire depot in the city of Hermosillo. BY OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Flames engulfed a day care center in northern Mexico on Friday, killing at least 29 children and injuring dozens as neighbors and teachers ran through thick, black smoke to pull preschoolers from the blaze, officials said. The fire apparently started at a tire depot Friday afternoon and spread to the neighboring ABC day care center in the city of Hermosillo, said Jose Larrinaga, a spokesman for Sonora state investigators. There were about 100 children in the day care at the time. Larrinaga said the fire was controlled within two hours and that most children died of asphyxiation. “We’re still investigating what caused the fire and where exactly it started,” Larrinaga said. Guadalupe Ayala, coordi-

nator of Red Cross rescue workers, said the children ranged from 6 months to 5 years old. “Firefighters had to knock holes in the walls to get the children,” he said. Neighbors rushed to the burning day care to rescue children as teachers ran screaming through black smoke. The injured were taken to at least five hospitals. President Felipe Calderon said in a statement that the Mexican Social Security Institute, which outsourced services to the ABC day care center, has sent 15 doctors with experience treating burn victims to Hermosillo, along with three air ambulances, breathing devices and medicine. Calderon said he has also ordered Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora to start an investigation. Most of the city’s police and public safety chiefs were at a meeting with U.S. counterparts in Tucson when they were notified of the fire and returned immediately, Larrinaga said.

ABUSE CONTINUED FROM A1

as well as continuous sexual abuse of her younger sister, now 13. All of the charges are felonies. The lewd acts felony comes with a special allegation he inflicted great bodily harm on the now-16-year-old girl, which could enhance any penalty. Anita Slone is charged with the single felony of child abuse. She is being held at Victorville city jail with bail set at $100,000. “It’s our understanding that mom indicated to police that she knew her eldest daughter’s baby was Mr. Slone’s,” Deputy District Attorney Kathleen DiDonato said. “At the very least, that should have been an indicator to mom that she needed to step up to the plate.” State records show that Tony Slone served nearly seven years in state prison for a 1995 conviction of lewd acts with a child under 14 using force or fear. The conviction occurred in Kings County in the Central Valley. He was released in October 2001, and was discharged from parole three years later. Shortly after, he married Anita Slone. The criminal complaint alleges that one of the first instances of abuse took place in July 2005. At the time, the older girl was 12; her younger sister was 9.

TAKEN ON TRIPS Two Victorville sheriff’s deputies, Mark James and James Marshall, began the investigation Tuesday after receiving the report of the cell phone messages. The 16-year-old girl told them that she had been “molested

Tony Slone

Anita Slone

and repeatedly raped” by Slone. Anita Slone allowed her daughters to accompany her husband on long-haul trucking trips to Arizona and Nevada, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said. Some of the lewd acts may have occurred on those trips, she said. Slone’s occupation was one reason charges were filed within days of the initial tip, despite the fact that evidence is still being gathered, DiDonato said. “There were concerns he would find out what was going on and flee, or harm himself or somebody else,” she said. Prosecutors had no immediate information that anyone else in the girls’ lives, including doctors or teachers, was aware of the abuse or that Tony Slone was the father of the older girl’s child. “I have no information that anyone but the mother knew at this point,” DiDonato said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the girls and the baby were with other family members, or in the custody of child protective services. Deputies believe that Tony Slone may have also molested a family acquaintance in the Phelan area, and others as far away as New York, Beavers said. Anyone with information may call James or Marshall at 760-241-2911 or WeTip at 1-800-782-7463.

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office. Wilhite is recovering at his parents’ home in Murrieta. His family is thankful Jon survived but constantly think about the other families, said his uncle, Riverside County sheriff’s Lt. Charlie Wilhite. “Both he and our entire family realize that we are the ones who are blessed and lucky that he survived and realize that there are three families that don’t have the same opportunities that we’ve been given,” Charlie Wilhite said. The morning of the crash and days following, the doctors were not very hopeful, he said. Doctors were not sure the recent college graduate and Dodgers fan who was twice voted Cal State Fullerton’s Teammate of the Year would live, much less recover.

RARE INJURY What happened to Jon Wilhite is technically called atlantooccipital dislocation, sometimes referred to as an internal decapitation. Speaking generally, a sudden impact can stretch or tear the ligaments in the neck, allowing the head to move so much that it could permanently damage the spinal cord and the brain stem, said Alex Valadka, a neurosurgeon at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. Harm to the cranial nerves at the brain stem can affect the person’s ability to swallow, speak and move facial muscles. Wilhite’s doctors could not speak about his case because of federal privacy laws. The injury may also leave people weak or paralyzed on one side of the body and cause damage to nearby arteries, Valadka said in a phone interview. The top vertebrae control a person’s ability to turn the neck. To correct the dislocation, a surgeon will fuse the head to the spine, forever limiting the patient’s movement. “It’s something you’d rather not do to a patient, but sometimes there’s no alternative,” said Valadka, who has performed four of the surgeries in his 15 years at one of the country’s busiest trauma centers. Many doctors will never have the opportunity to perform the surgery. The injury can paralyze the diaphragm and prevent the person from breathing. “A lot of times they are diagnosed at autopsy because the patient doesn’t survive long enough to make it to the hospital,” Valadka said. Improvements in emergency transportation and care have allowed more peo-

OYLER TRIAL CONTINUED FROM A1

arson device. His trial lasted 10 weeks, including the penalty phase. The firefighters who died were Engine 57 Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 43, of Idyllwild; Jason McKay, 27, of Apple Valley; Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont; Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley; and Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto. Morgan heard from family members of the firefighters before imposing the sentence. “The damage he did to our family can never be repaired. He stole something from us that he cannot repay,” said Joshua McLean, brother of Jess McLean. “I hope, sir, you send him to die for what he did to my brother.” The death sentence for Oyler “was the right thing. It was necessary for what he did,” said Deputy District Attorney Michael Hestrin, who prosecuted the case. Oyler’s family did not make statements in court, but his daughter Heather, 22, said later that her father is innocent of setting the deadly fire. “I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe my dad over anybody. I will stand behind his innocence.”

MATT BROWN/THE PRES-ENTERPRISE

Jon Wilhite played baseball for Cal State Fullerton from 2004 to 2007. One of his Fullerton teammates, Oakland Athletics catcher Kurt Suzuki, is raising money to help him recover.

INTERNAL DECAPITATION: The sudden impact caused by a car crash can be too much for the muscles and ligaments connecting the skull to the body.

Cranial nerves that come out of the bottom part of the brain stem control swallowing, speech and facial movement.

FRIENDS SUPPORT

The skull can separate from the spinal cord without severing it or breaking Spinal cord any bones.

Brain stem

Skull

Ligaments help

The top two vertebrae, C1 and C2, control head movement such as turning from side to side and nodding. In surgery, doctors fuse the head to the top of the neck, which forever limits the patient's range of motion.

hold the head on top of the neck. Sudden impact can stretch or tear the ligaments, allowing the head to move so much that it could permanently damage the spinal cord and the brain stem.

Vertebra

SOURCES: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ROENTGENOLOG Y, NEUROSURGEON ALEX VALADKA

RESEARCH BY SONJA BJELLAND GRAPHIC BY CHRIS RAMOS/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

FUNDRAISER Oakland Athletics catcher Kurt Suzuki is holding an auction to raise money for his friend Jon Wilhite. WEB SITE: oakland.athletics.mlb.com/oak/ community/auctions_landing.jsp ple to survive such injuries, he said. Charlie Wilhite said his nephew suffered some damage to the spinal cord and it will take a while to build back the communication between the brain and the spine. Twenty-one days after the crash, Wilhite was released from UC Irvine Medical Center. He can move his arms and legs but has limited ability to walk. He has no

An appeal is automatic to the California Supreme Court. It will take years, especially if it goes into federal court, said Oyler attorney Mark McDonald. “I don’t think Oyler will ever meet his demise through execution,” McDonald said. Oyler, dressed in orange jail clothing and wearing a goatee, showed no emotion during the sentencing. He joked with his attorneys when he entered the courtroom. “I have never once seen any sign of remorse” from Oyler, Cecilia McLean, Jess

In the days after the crash, 100 people visited him in the hospital. The unwavering support has been the biggest help, Charlie Wilhite said. People from across the world have left thousands of messages for the family on Web sites. “When you have that many people wishing you well, that’s an inspiration to anybody,” Charlie Wilhite said. Some of that support is now coming from Major League Baseball teams. Oakland Athletics catcher Kurt Suzuki and Jon Wilhite were once nonscholarship teammates with the Titans. Suzuki and his wife, Renee, have organized a series of fundraisers to help with the medical costs. They sent a mass e-mail to everyone in the Major League Baseball system asking for donations for an auction fundraiser. The couple was soon inundated with signed jerseys, batting helmets and gameused bats. Word spread beyond baseball, so items now include a signed Shaquille O’Neal jersey and Mia Hamm gear. “Once people heard that he was still alive, they really wanted to help out,” Renee Suzuki said in a phone interview. Only a few items have bids. The online auction will continue through the end of the month at Oaklandathletics.com. On Aug. 1, the Suzukis will hold a silent auction during the game. Renee Suzuki said she and her husband were happy they were in a position that they could help. “It’s lifted Jon’s spirits and his family’s spirits and ours too,” she said.

noticeable brain damage and can talk, Charlie Wilhite said. Because of the injury, he has moved from Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County, where he grew up, to his parents’ home in Murrieta in southwest Riverside County. Several times a week he now attends hours of outpatient rehabilitation, including physical and occupational therapy. He has to relearn how to eat and swallow. He has lost weight because he has not been able to eat and work out the way he did when he was a 6-foot, 190-pound baseball player. The drive and determination that made Wilhite a good athlete are now helping him rehabilitate, his uncle said. Reach Sonja Bjelland at “Basically everything 951-368-9642 or [email protected]

McLean’s mother, told Morgan during the sentencing hearing. Oyler’s family and attorney said later that Oyler feels bad for the firefighters and their families but maintains he is innocent of setting the fire that killed them. “He feels terrible about their losses. I think he feels more terrible that he’s blamed for those losses. That’s probably the best way I could sum it up,” McDonald said. WILLIAM WILSON LEWIS III He said he advised Oyler /THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE not to make any statement “I believe my dad over before sentencing.

anybody. I will stand behind his innocence,” said Heather Oyler, daughter of Raymond Lee Oyler.

we’ve learned in our lifetime, he’s trying to relearn,” Charlie Wilhite said. “He’s learning those basic selfcare tasks.”

ESPERANZA FIRE

made of cigarettes and matches bound by a rubber band were found where the blaze started. Arson investigators said it was one of a series of devices, usually a combination of wooden matchsticks with a cigarette as a timed ignition device, that they found at ignition points during a series of 2006 wildfires. Oyler’s defense attorneys tried to convince jurors that multiple arsonists were setting blazes in the area during 2006. Morgan would not allow Oyler’s defense team to introduce evidence that among the serial arson suspects in 2006 was a former U.S. Forest Service arson investigator who later faced unrelated criminal charges in Los Angeles County. McDonald said Friday that the exclusion would likely be part of any appeal of Oyler’s case. Penny Reese, the grandmother of firefighter Jason McKay, told Morgan her grandson’s death was frustrating because of how he died. “He lost his life putting out a fire that someone started just for the fun of it, just to watch it burn,” she said.

The Esperanza Fire was set Oct. 26, 2006, in Santa Ana wind conditions on the outskirts of Cabazon, about 40 miles east of Riverside. The blaze was reported at 1:11 a.m. and rushed up the San Jacinto Mountains. By 6:30 a.m., winds were gusting to about 30 mph. It destroyed 39 homes. The fire overran the five men of U.S. Forest Service Engine 57 as they made a stand at a home in the mountain community of Twin Pines. Three of the men died at the scene, Loutzenhiser survived about three hours and Cerda died Oct. 31, the same day Oyler was arrested. Reach Richard K. De Atley at Remnants of a device 951-368-9573 or [email protected]

NCAA TOURNAMENT: UCLA HANGS ON, NORTHRIDGE FALLS/B1 FRIDAY MARCH 20, 2009 TODAY’S OUTLOOK: INLAND: 75|49 MOUNTAINS: 61|30 DESERT: 82|55 COMPLETE LOCAL FORECAST: B8

INL AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ’S NEWSPAPER

S E W N

Aide to S.B. County supervisor arrested FELONIES: Jim Erwin, a former assistant assessor, faces 10 charges, stemming from gifts he received from a developer. BY IMRAN GHORI THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Bill Postmus

Jim Erwin

See court and related documents on Thursday’s arrest of San Bernardino County official Jim Erwin. Also read past stories about the investigation into the assessor’s office. PE.com

The top aide to a San Bernardino County supervisor was arrested Thursday on charges of providing false reports about gifts he received from an influential land developer, including a Rolex watch and prostitution services. Jim Erwin, chief of staff to Supervisor Neil Derry, was arrested at the County Government

Center and charged with eight felony counts of perjury and two felony counts of offering false or forged documents. If convicted on all counts, Erwin, 46, of Highland, could face up to 11 years in state prison. He was being held at the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino on $220,000 bail. Shortly after the arrest, Derry said he was placing Erwin on administrative leave. The events

were “shocking and disappointing,” he said. “No one can be above the law and I will not tolerate unethical conduct by any county employee, no matter where they work,” Derry said. Erwin has had a turbulent, nearly 20-year career in county government, including as chief of the union representing law enforcement and as an assistant assessor. He is the latest San Bernardino County government official to be swept up in an ongoing investigation of the assessor’s office that began in

November 2007. So far, it has resulted in Bill Postmus’ arrest on drug violations and resignation as assessor, and the arrest of Adam Aleman, a former assistant assessor. Aleman faces six felony charges, including destroying public records and preparing false evidence. The charges against Erwin stem from his failure to report gifts he received from Jeff Burum, a managing partner with Colonies Partners, in January 2007, shortly after Erwin began working as assistant

SEE AIDE HELD/A10

Obama pushes state aid CALIFORNIA: The president wraps up a two-day tour, offering backing to the governor’s May ballot measure. BY CARLA MARINUCCI SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

LOS ANGELES — Presenting a highprofile display of bipartisan cooperation in the face of California’s hard-hit economy, President Barack Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday praised each other’s efforts to aid IN MAIN NEWS recovery. r Inland Rep. SchwarzenDarrell Issa egger, a Republi- savors role as can, called the watchdog on Democratic presi- stimulus dent a “leader in spending. A12 economic recovery.” In turn, Obama gave some backing to the governor’s reform initiatives that will be on a special election ballot in May. Obama’s support for the governor’s ballot initiatives — led by a budget spending cap — came on the second of a two-day listening tour in California. The president offered millions of dollars in federal funding to ease California’s housing crisis and unveiled a $2.4 billion program to encourage hybrid vehicle development. In a move intended to aid the Inland area’s foreclosure-ridden housing market, Obama announced federal approval of California’s plan to spend $145 million THE ASSOCIATED PRESS of $3.9 billion in funds Congress approved last July to assist governGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger applauds President Barack Obama as the president prepares to speak at a town hall meeting in Los Angeles. “You ments in purchasing abandoned can’t ask local elected officials to balance the budget,” cut taxes and improve roads, Obama said. “Somebody’s got to pay for it.” and foreclosed homes. The $145 million, which will be dispersed by the state Department of Housing and Community Development to areas of the state most in need, is part of $529 million that will be funneled to government agencies statewide, including BY DUANE W. GANG $133.5 million to 14 cities and coun“It’s your ingenuity that will THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE ties in the Inland area. help create the new jobs and new When the allocations were anPOMONA — President Barack Oba- industries of tomorrow.” nounced in September as part of a ma toured an electric-car research The funding announcement Neighborhood Stabilization Procenter in Pomona on Thursday and came on the final leg of the presigram, government jurisdictions announced a $2.4 billion initiative dent’s two-day swing through were told that before they could to produce the next generation of Southern California to push his receive money, the Department of plug-in hybrid vehicles. economic recovery initiatives. His Housing and Urban Development “Day by day, test by test, trial by West Coast trip drew thousands of must approve their spending plans. painstaking trial, the scientists, residents from across the region SEE OBAMA/A12 the engineers, the workers at this hoping to see and possibly meet site are developing the ideas and the 44th president. View images of President innovations that our future will Events included a town-hall Barack Obama, who depend on,” the president said meeting Wednesday in Costa Meannounced $2.4 billion in federal money to STAN LIM/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE after touring Southern California sa, a second town-hall in Los fund the next generation of plug-in hybrid Edison’s Electric Vehicle Tech- Angeles later on Thursday and an Diane Divinity, of Chino Hills, right, and her mother, Rebecca Hughes, of vehicles. PE.com SEE TOUR/A12 Pomona, get a glimpse of the president in his motorcade. nical Center.

Presidential stopover brings energy to region

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SINALOA: The bust follows the arrests of hundreds of the drug gang’s members all over the U.S. amid a broad crackdown.

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Mexico captures cartel chief without a shot

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

District attorney misses budget deadline Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, right, tells District Attorney Rod Pacheco he has until next Friday to submit a budget for his department. D1

MEXICO CITY — A purported top leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel was in police custody Thursday, as authorities extended a cross-border crackdown on the gang that has included the arrest of 755 of its members in the U.S. Vicente “El Vicentillo” Zambada was arrested before dawn Wednesday at a home in an elite Mexico

IN MAIN NEWS

Cabrera, who runs the terrorism r The lurid headlines of murders and and drug trafficking unit in Mexico’s federal attorney general’s threats of decapitation have not office. deterred the soccer fans of Ciudad Zambada’s father, Ismael “El Juarez’s club team. A8 Mayo” Zambada, also is considCity neighborhood, said Gen. Luis ered a top leader of the Sinaloa Arturo Oliver, the Mexican De- cartel and is among Mexico’s mostfense Department’s deputy chief of wanted suspects. operations. Last month, the U.S. announced Oliver said Zambada became a that investigators had arrested 755 top Sinaloa cartel leader last year, Sinaloa cartel members all over with control over logistics and the the United States. authority to order assassinations The U.S. is seeking Zambada’s of authorities and rivals. extradition under a 2003 traffick“This significantly affects the ing indictment, but he will have to organization’s ability to operate face charges in Mexico before the SEE MEXICO/A11 and distribute drugs,” said Ricardo

WORLD | STORY FROM A1

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

MEXICO CONTINUED FROM A1

request can be considered. The Sinaloa cartel is alleged to have bribed top Mexican security officials including former drug czar Noe Ramirez, who is accused of accepting $450,000 to tip cartel leaders to police operations. Ramirez has denied the charges.

AREA STAKED OUT Oliver said police and military personnel were closely watching the exclusive Lomas del Pedregal neighborhood where Zambada was arrested after receiving complaints about armed men in cars. They surprised Zambada and five bodyguards and arrested them without a shot, seizing three AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifles, three pistols, three cars, and several thousand dollars in cash. Paraded in front of reporters Thursday in a black blazer and dark blue jeans, the 33-year-old stared straight ahead, stone-faced. His clean-cut look was a sharp contrast from a U.S. Treasury Department photo released in 2007 that showed him in a mustache and cowboy hat. His family has long been tied to drug trafficking. Zambada’s uncle, Jesus “The King” Zambada, was arrested last year in Mexico City and accused of helping smuggle cocaine and methamphetamines through the capital’s airport. He also is under investigation for the killing of top police officials in Mexico City. The other two known Sinaloa cartel leaders at large are Joaquin Guzman Loera, known more commonly as “El Chapo” Guzman, and Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, or “Nacho Coronel.” Mexican officials have issued a $5 million reward for Guzman after he escaped from a prison in 2001 hidden in a laundry truck. Forbes Magazine recently ranked Guzman at No. 701 on its list

FRIDAY, March 20, 2009

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E R U PT I O N : U N D E R S E A VOLC ANO NE AR TONG A PUTS ON S HOW

of the world’s richest people, with an estimated $1 billion fortune. A U.S. indictment accuses both Vicente and Ismael Zambada of using planes, boats, trucks and cars to move nearly $50 million worth of cocaine from Colombia to New York, New Jersey, Chicago and California between August 2001 and June 2002. Vicente Zambada apparently rose through cartel ranks after supervising the unloading of cocaine from ships off the Mexican coast and verifying quantities coming from Colombia, according to the indictment.

ON DEFENSIVE Mexico’s drug cartels are increasingly on the defensive as the U.S. and Mexico mount a cross-border crackdown. After taking office on Dec. 1, 2006, President Felipe Calderon immediately sent thousands of soldiers and federal police to drug strongholds across Mexico in an attempt to bring warring gangs under control. Cartels, already fighting each other for territory and drug routes into the U.S., responded with unprecedented violence, killing some 8,000 people. About 10 percent of those victims are police or soldiers. The rest are believed to be linked to the drug trade, with others caught in the crossfire. On Thursday, seven people were found dead in western Mexico. They included three victims who were bound, shot and dumped on the side of a highway outside the city of Morelia; three dismembered and headless bodies found in plastic bags in a park in the city of Uruapan; and a police officer shot dead while walking to work in the port of Lazaro Cardenas. And on the sandy banks of a river in the resort of Acapulco, authorities uncovered a shallow grave with four young men who appeared to have been bound and hacked to death with machetes.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Spectators watch an undersea volcano erupt off the coast of Tonga, tossing clouds of smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet into the sky above the South Pacific on Wednesday. Authorities said Thursday the eruption does not pose any danger to islanders at this stage, and there have been no reports of fish or other animals being affected. The steam and ash column first appeared on Monday morning, after a series of sharp earthquakes.

Chavez maneuvers to jail top foe VENEZUELA: The president in December said he would do all he could to put Manuel Rosales in prison. BY PHIL GUNSON MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — President Hugo Chavez took a big step closer Thursday to his stated goal of putting his former rival for the Venezuelan presidency, Manuel Rosales, behind bars. A prosecutor in the western border state of Zulia made a formal request for an arrest warrant against Rosales, the former state governor, who in November was elected mayor of Maracaibo, the state capital. The charge is “illicit enrichment.” Rosales, who stood against Chavez in the De-

cember 2006 presidential election, winning just under 40 percent of the vote, attributed the arrest warrant to “an order from Chavez” and said he would fight it “on all fronts.” In December, Chavez announced publicly that he was “determined to put Manuel Rosales in jail.” Prior to the November election, he had threatened to launch “a military plan” against Rosales if he won. He has also threatened to “wipe Rosales from the political map.” Rosales, 56, was governor of Zulia from 2000 to 2008. In April 2002, he signed the

infamous decree issued by the de facto president, Pedro Carmona, dissolving all branches of government but the executive, after Chavez was briefly ousted in a failed coup. The Venezuelan leader has never forgiven him for what he considers an act of treachery. The arrest order must now be approved by a judge at a hearing within the next three weeks. If convicted, Rosales could face between three and 10 years in jail. The specific charge, first leveled in 2004, is that Rosales failed to account for some $66,000 in income, which the mayor says came primarily from his private activities as a rancher and

was declared to the tax authorities. It is just one of a number of accusations against him that have been raised, or revived, since Chavez warned three months ago that he was determined to jail him. In December, legislators in the national assembly, which is dominated by Chavez supporters, determined that the mayor was “politically responsible” for irregularities in the state lottery. Although the courts and the prosecution service are nominally independent from the executive, in practice they have a record of doing the president’s bidding.

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I NLAND S OUTHERN C ALIFORNIA ’ S N EWSPAPER FORECLOSURE

As families start over, they apply life lessons

S E W N

Obama faces defiant world G-20: When he heads overseas on his first summit trip, the president will find resistance to his economic plans. BY HELENE COOPER

Despite his immense popularity around the world, Obama will confront resentment over American-style capitalism and resistance to his economic prescriptions when he lands Tuesday in London for the Group of 20 summit meeting of industrial and emerging market nations plus the European Union.

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is facing challenges to American power on multiple fronts as he prepares for his first trip overseas since taking office, with THE ASSOCIATED PRESS the nation’s economic woes emYou’ve heard about the bad boldening allies and adversaries mortgages, about sad struggles alike. with insolvency, about the wave of foreclosures that has crashed over America. But what happens next? Every day, thousands of Americans begin their lives again after they are ejected from their homes. They rent, live with friends or family, or seek refuge in a shelter. They usually have stacks of overdue bills, empty savings accounts and a red flag on their credit reports that will take years to fade. They often suffer from feelings of shame, failure and displacement. The Housers, the Gambinos, the Boykins — three families from different backgrounds and different states — are enduring the same life smack-down. They’ve all lost their homes within the past year. They’ve learned lessons and changed behaviors. They’ve opened new doors after their front doors closed, turned to social programs that helped or let them slip through a crack. They all seek happily-ever-after endings. But there are no guarantees.

He will not even try to overcome NATO’s unwillingness to provide more troops in Afghanistan when he goes on later in the week to meet with the military alliance. He will be tested in face-to-face meetings by the leaders of China and Russia, who have been pondering the degree to which the power of the United States to dominate global affairs may be ebbing. Obama is unlikely to push for specific commitments from other

countries on stimulus spending to bolster their own economies, White House officials acknowledged Saturday in a teleconference call, despite the fact that administration officials would like to see European countries, in particular, increase their spending to try to prompt a global economic recovery. “Nobody is asking any country to come to London to commit to do

SEE G-20/A9

It’s years away, but there’s much work to be done on the Highway 91 Express Lanes that will introduce toll roads — and their revenues — into Riverside County

BITTER MEDICINE

TOIL GOES INTO TOLL ROADS BIG PLANS: Extending toll lanes from Orange County into Riverside is one part of the Highway 91 improvement project officials propose, at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. Riverside

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11. Build two toll lanes and one

I N SI D E Flood fears ease The Red River reaches its crest earlier and lower in Fargo, N.D., than had been predicted. A3

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Pierce St.

general-purpose lane in each direction between the Orange County line and Interstate 15 in Corona.

33. Build an eastbound auxiliary lane between the Orange

a oli gn e. a M Av

County line and Serfas Club Drive in Corona.

44. Build a general-purpose lane between the Orange County line and Pierce Street in Riverside.

22. Build numerous auxiliary lanes to allow people to get on and off the freeway without disrupting through traffic.

91

Main St.

SEE FORECLOSURE/A9

MARK ZALESKI/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Kip Field, Corona’s acting public works director and city engineer, talks about how the Highway 91 onramps at Main Street will be widened when the 91 Express Lanes are built. The Riverside County Transportation Commission is preparing for the $1.5 billion toll road project.

rra Sie . La Ave

Her family’s health fell apart with such ferocity that Sarah Houser, of Gahanna, Ohio, laughs in disbelief when she remembers it. Their troubles began in the summer of 2007 with a sharp pain in her husband Eric’s stomach from a debilitating intestinal disease that required several surgeries and left him with seven hernias. Days later she came down with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t go away. “It was like the Thursday after his surgery I found out that the cancer was back,” Houser, 38, says. “There’s four tumors in my neck ... the biopsies say that the lymph nodes are malignant.” Eric Houser was kept out of work for months, and this family of seven — which includes three kids, a 1-year-old granddaughter and their son’s fiancee — lost their medical coverage. Their income dropped, while their monthly health care costs soared from about $165 to about $480. Their $1,300 monthly mortgage bill went unpaid. In November 2008, a little more than a year after they got sick, a

55. Improve the connections between Highway 91 and both Highway 71 and Interstate 15. SOURCE: THE RIVERSIDE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

BY DUG BEGLEY THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

R

ecent economic doldrums might have slowed housing and commercial development in Riverside County, but transportation officials are embarking on a massive widening plan along Highway 91 through Corona that will be the costliest in county history. The widening plan from the Orange County line to Pierce Street in Riverside relies on extending the 91 Express Lanes — toll lanes that offer discounted carpool rates — east into Riverside County, and then paying for the $1.5 billion project with the fees paid by drivers. In addition to two toll lanes in each direction to Interstate 15, the 91 will also get an additional free lane, and interchanges through Corona will be widened and redesigned. Though officials have two years before they formally commit to the

project, the Riverside County Transportation Commission is proceeding with plans to hire a consultant to oversee the project, in advance of using a new method of designing and constructing the project, possibly through a state pilot program. Tolling for roads is new to Riverside County but not Southern California. After watching toll roads in Orange County grow — providing more lanes for commuters without added taxes — Riverside County officials realized it was time to follow suit. Some said they have little choice as the state cuts back to get its finances in order. “There are going to have to be more creative ways to finance projects,” said John Standiford, deputy director of the transportation commission. “I think you are going to see more tolls, not just

SEE TOLL ROADS/A8

GhostNet system loots Dalai Lama, global government data BY JOHN MARKOFF NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

TORONTO — A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents Chuck Jaffe.....F2 Motley Fool .....F2 from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . F5 including those of the Dalai Lama, HOME SERVICES . . . F6 Canadian researchers have conJUMBLE PUZZLE . . . F6 cluded. PE HOMES . . . . . . . . . G3 In a report issued this weekend,

the researchers said the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved. The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama to examine

its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware. Their sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India,

Brussels, London and New York. The researchers said they believed that in addition to the spying on the Dalai Lama, the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Intelligence analysts say many governments, including those of

SEE GHOSTNET/A8

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INLAND EMPIRE | STORIES FROM A1

SUNDAY, March 29, 2009

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Officials: Hassle will be worth the outcome

CORONA: Improved interchanges are the payoff for the expected gridlock and closures of city streets. BY DUG BEGLEY THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The massive construction project planned for Highway 91 through Corona will be worth the trouble, city officials said. Sure, the work at interchanges and widening of the

freeway to accommodate four additional lanes — and up to six in some places — will cause traffic snarls, Corona Public Works Director Kip Field said. “But we also get better interchanges and better connections,” Field said.

The trade-off for Corona is that the construction will clog city streets as freeway bridges are widened and bigger entrance and exit ramps are built. Sometimes city streets will have to close. The Riverside County Transportation Commission is overseeing the freeway project. “We’re talking to them on

a daily basis about the construction schedule,” Field said, although the project is two years from breaking ground. Once finished, officials believe the added lanes will make travel in Corona easier. Rather than the connector ramp between northbound Interstate 15 and the 91 looking like “a parking lot

all the time,” Field said more merge lanes along the 91 will help traffic move faster. Enlarging entrance and exit ramps to major city streets will also keep commuters from backing up onto the freeway as they try to exit. Corona Councilwoman Karen Spiegel said the new interchanges will also help

TOLL ROADS CONTINUED FROM A1

here, but throughout California.” San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties are pursuing state approval for toll projects. Other states are also relying much more on tolls to open new roads and expand freeways. Tolling is a popular alternative because it places the cost on those who choose to use the lanes, explained Brian Taylor, chairman of UCLA’s urban planning department.

BUYING TIME Most publicly funded road projects are paid for by gasoline taxes, which make up about 63 cents of the price of a gallon of fuel. When gas taxes were first enacted about 90 years ago, Taylor said it made sense because people paid the tax based on how much gas they used, which corresponded to the amount they drove. As cars became more fuel-efficient and the buying power of California’s gas tax was lessened by inflation, things got out of whack, he said. “If we were going to bring the gas tax back to 1960 levels, it would be somewhere around $1.20 a gallon,” Taylor said. Taylor said tolls also have the advantage of being a choice drivers can make, while others can benefit from free lanes made a little less congested by those who take the toll road. But Taylor said officials who argue tolls help add lanes are missing the point. Selling tolls to drivers isn’t about convincing them they want new roads, it’s about offering them a way to ease their commute. “They are not buying traffic, they are buying time,” Taylor said. “…What you are selling people is a choice they did not have before.” Standiford stressed commission members are not interested in public-private partnerships, popular with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, because they give the businesses that own the toll roads more control of pricing and repairs than officials are willing to concede. Taylor agreed, noting sometimes companies have different priorities than the general public. Prior to the Orange County Transportation Authority purchasing the 91 Express Lanes in 2003,

GHOSTNET CONTINUED FROM A1

China, Russia and the United States, and other parties use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information. The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected. This is also believed to be the first time researchers have been able to expose the workings of a computer system used in an intrusion of this magnitude.

INVASION CONTINUES Still going strong, the operation continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers said in their report, “Tracking ‘GhostNet’: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.” They said they had found no evidence that U.S. government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated.

MARK ZALESKI/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Riverside County is planning to extend the 91 Express Lanes in Orange County over the county line to Interstate 15 and into Corona. San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties are also pursuing state approval for toll projects.

TOLLS: Toll lanes planned for Highway 91 from the Orange County line to Interstate 15 could

open by 2016. Along with an additional general-use lane and auxillary lane around interchanges, the expansion would take the 91 from 10 lanes wide, to 16 in places. Carpool lanes

General use lanes

EXISTING

be ready once growth returns to the Inland area. By the time the economy rebounds and growth happens, it’ll be too late, said Corona Councilwoman Karen Spiegel. “If you don’t have the initiative, it’ll never get done,” Spiegel said.

BUILDING BOON Toll/carpool lanes

PROPOSED

SOURCE: RIVERSIDE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION

a private firm operated the lanes for eight years. Taylor said the difference was the private firm was trying to keep costs low and didn’t use the proceeds to repair the entire freeway. Still, he said drivers need to realize good roads are something they’ll have to pay to use, even if government carries some of the load. “Public transit agencies don’t give transit away for free, they charge for it,” he said.

HELPING HAND A final decision to construct the tolls lanes won’t happen until 2011 when the commission is asked to approve selling bonds for the project. The bonds will be repaid from the money raised by the tolls. Until the bonds are sold, the commission can use money from the Measure A sales tax, which allows for spending tax dollars on congestion relief along the The malware is remarkable both for its sweep — in computer jargon, it has not been merely “phishing” for random consumers’ information, but “whaling” for particular important targets — and for its Big Brotherstyle capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. Working with the Tibetans, the researchers found that specific correspondence had been stolen and that the intruders had gained control of the electronic mail server computers of the Dalai Lama’s organization. The electronic spy game has had at least some realworld impact, they said. For example, they said, after an e-mail invitation was sent by the Dalai Lama’s office to a foreign diplomat, the Chinese government made a call to the diplomat discouraging a visit. And a woman working for a group making Internet contacts between Tibetan exiles and Chinese citizens was stopped by Chinese intelligence officers on

county’s freeways. Voters in 2002 approved using sales-tax funds for work on the 91, but ideally officials said toll revenues will repay Measure A accounts, freeing up more dollars for other uses. The next step for the massive toll project is to hire a consulting firm to guide the staff through the process, said Michael Bloomquist, toll program director for the Riverside County Transportation Commission. “In the toll program, we are fully staffed at three,” Bloomquist said. Preparing for a $1.5 billion project from planning to funding to legal agreements is a task suited for tens of workers — many with very specific skills. The consultants, called a project-and-construction management team, would shepherd the commission through the construction process, work to draft local and statewide agreements clearing the way for the

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

lanes, and prepare for construction. A second phase of the contract would start once design and construction commence, during which the consultant would oversee the project. Bloomquist said in a report to the commission that the first phase would likely be a $10 million to $12 million contract. Officials expect phase two to be more expensive, but could not estimate the cost. If built by 2016, the toll lanes and assorted improvements will be the most expensive single road project in Riverside County, though others, such as the $3 billion Mid-County Parkway proposed between San Jacinto and Corona and the $6 billion Irvine-Corona Expressway that includes a tunnel under the Cleveland National Forest would surpass it. Moving ahead with billions of dollars in road projects while the economy flounders is the only way to

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

Researchers, from left, Ronald J. Deibert, Greg Walton, Nart Villeneuve and Rafal A. Rohozinski, from the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, have tracked the computer spying program called GhostNet. her way back to Tibet, shown transcripts of her online conversations and warned to stop her political activities. The Toronto researchers said they had notified international law enforcement agencies of the spying operation. Although the Canadian researchers said that most of the computers behind the spying were in China, they cautioned against conclud-

ing that the Chinese government was involved.

‘MURKY REALM’ “We’re a bit more careful about it, knowing the nuance of what happens in the subterranean realms,” said Ronald J. Deibert, a member of the research group and an associate professor of political science at Munk. “This could well be the CIA or the Russians. It’s a murky realm

Getting toll lanes built by 2016, as officials hope, will require a process new to Riverside County, and rarely tested in California. Called design-build, the process allows officials to contract with one firm for the whole project, design and construction, rather than many separate contracts. As part of the contentious budget deal passed by the Legislature last month, officials gave Caltrans the authority to approve 10 pilot projects using design-build. Riverside transportation commission Executive Director Anne Mayer said the toll project could be part of the pilot program, though it does not receive state money. To hedge their bet, the transportation commission is also working with Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Corona, on a bill allowing the commission to use designbuild, even if it is not chosen as part of the pilot program. The bill would require legislative approval and the governor’s signature. Bloomquist said designbuild has a proven track record in other parts of California and nationally that design sequencing, used only in California on 10 projects as a test, did not, giving officials a better set of that we’re lifting the lid on.” A spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in New York dismissed the idea that China was involved. “These are old stories and they are nonsense,” the spokesman, Wenqi Gao, said. The Toronto researchers are publishing their findings in Information Warfare Monitor, an online publication associated with the Munk Center. At the same time, two computer researchers at Cambridge University in Britain who worked on the part of the investigation related to the Tibetans, are releasing an independent report. They do fault China, and they warned that other hackers could adopt the same tactics. “What Chinese spooks did in 2008, Russian crooks will do in 2010 and even lowbudget criminals from less developed countries will follow in due course,” the Cambridge researchers, Shishir Nagaraja and Ross Anderson, wrote in their report, “The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement.” Infection happens two ways. In

city residents get around because wider entrance and exit ramps will help clear city streets. Spiegel scoffed at the notion that a bigger freeway would divide Corona. “There’s already a freeway dividing the city,” she said. “But it’ll be better.” Reach Dug Begley at 951-368-9475 or [email protected]

lessons to learn from. Design-build hires one firm to engineer and construct the project but keeps the planning and building of the project as separate phases. Design sequencing does not, allowing construction to begin before all the plans are finished. But design-build also has detractors, notably Professional Engineers in California Government, a statewide group of engineers, architects and other state workers. Mark Sheahan, the group’s president, called design-build “bad policy and bad economics,” in a December release, citing cost overruns and delays in finishing projects. The group has questioned recent road projects that relied on privatizing engineering work normally done by Caltrans, such as the Highway 22 project that opened in 2007 at a cost of $550 million. The group said the project was delayed and cost were double what it could have been if done by state engineers. State officials have disputed that.

NOT THE SAME Officials stress the designbuild process they are seeking is a stark contrast from design sequencing, the maligned process that contributed to a 23-month delay and 40 percent increase in the cost of the 60/91/215 interchange project, completed in December. Unlike design sequencing, which caused problems when changes to the design delayed and altered construction, Bloomquist said designers and builders cooperate better because they are “working on the same team,” he said. Standiford, the commission’s deputy director, said local officials are also making the design-build choice on their own. “With design sequencing we had a project, the interchange, that we thought could work as part of the pilot program,” Standiford explained, recalling the 2003 decision. “We were in a state budget mess and we had a project we could get out there if we made some changes to get it into design sequencing. “Here, this is a project we are determining is best for design-build,” he continued. “We are determining the best way to deliver it.” Reach Dug Begley at 951-368-9475 or [email protected]

one method, a user’s clicking on a document attached to an e-mail message lets the system covertly install software deep in the target operating system. Alternatively, a user clicks on a Web link in an e-mail message and is taken directly to a “poisoned” Web site. The researchers said they avoided breaking any laws during three weeks of monitoring and extensively experimenting with the system’s unprotected software control panel. They provided a log of compromised computers dating to May 22, 2007. They found that three of the four control servers were in different provinces in China — Hainan, Guangdong and Sichuan — while the fourth was discovered to be at a Web-hosting company based in Southern California. Beyond that, said Rafal A. Rohozinski, one of the investigators, “attribution is difficult because there is no agreed upon international legal framework for being able to pursue investigations down to their logical conclusion, which is highly local.”

WEDNESDAY MARCH 25, 2009 TODAY’S OUTLOOK: INLAND: 76|49 MOUNTAINS: 58|33 DESERT: 82|53 COMPLETE LOCAL FORECAST: B6

INL AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ’S NEWSPAPER BEST IN STATE

U.S. pledges drug war firepower MEXICO: Obama commits $700 million and hundreds of agents to halt violence that has spilled into California and two other states. FROM NEWS SERVICES

Moreno Valley Rancho Verde senior guard Michael Snaer is Gatorade’s California boys basketball player of the year after averaging 28.1 points and 10.8 rebounds a game. B1

S E W N

The Obama administration on Tuesday promised to spend $700 million to eradicate Mexico’s drug cartels as it released plans to deploy hundreds of agents and intelligence operatives to fight narco-driven violence in Texas, Arizona and California. “If the steps that we’ve taken do not get the job done, then we will do more,” President Barack Oba-

ma said during a prime-time news conference. U.S.-Mexican relations are in the midst of what can be described as a neighborly feud, one that stretches along a lengthy shared fence. That border fence, which has become a wall in some places, is another irritant. Mexico’s economy is being dragged down by the recession to the north. American addicts have

turned Mexico into a drug superhighway, and its police and soldiers are under assault from American guns. Meanwhile, NAFTA promised 15 years ago that Mexican trucks would be allowed on American roads, but the Obama administration says they are too unsafe for that. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Mexico today for what will be the first in a parade of visits by top administration officials, including Obama himself April 16 and 17, to try to head off a

major foreign policy crisis close to home. They will find a country mired in a deepening slump, miffed by signs of protectionism in its largest trading partner and torn apart by a drug war for which many in Mexico blame customers in the United States. There is plenty of angst on the other side as well. Many American communities are worried about drug violence spilling over the border, and about Mexican im-

SEE MEXICO/A6

Feds seek power surge Jim Erwin

Supervisor Neil Derry

Broadening scope of investigation takes shape BY DUANE W. GANG THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

It all began with questionable e-mails. An ongoing criminal investigation into the San Bernardino County assessor’s office has entered its second year and already led to the arrests and resignations of three government officials, most recently on Monday. The probe has zeroed in on former assessor Bill Postmus’ campaign fundraising and real estate deals, and broadened to include expensive gifts from a developer who received a $102 million settlement from the county. Investigators have raided more than a dozen government buildings, homes and offices throughout Southern California and sought documents in New York and Washington, D.C. “What I think is happening here is when you have a bunch of people involved in this type of culture of corruption, whenever one of them gets into trouble, they try to get out of trouble by ratting out others,”

SEE PROBE/A4 Read Jim Erwin’s official resignation and more. PE.com

Controversial activist hired in S.B. County BY IMRAN GHORI THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry hired a controversial anti-illegal immigration activist Tuesday, the same day he announced the resignation of another staff member who has been a lightning rod for criticism in the county. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 4-0, with Supervisor Josie Gonzales absent, to Joseph ratify the decision Turner to hire Joseph Turner as a special projects coordinator for Derry’s 3rd District office, despite protests from some who accuse him of having ties to racist groups. Derry’s chief of staff, Jim Erwin, was arrested Thursday on 10 felony counts of perjury for failing to disclose gifts he received from a land developer. Erwin resigned Monday night. Turner has taken strong stances against illegal immigration as executive director of Save Our State. He has accused illegal immigrants of turning California into “a Third

SEE ACTIVIST/A7

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, left, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, told a House panel “we will do what is necessary to stabilize the financial system, and with the help of Congress, develop the tools that we need to make our economy more resilient.”

Broad new authority proposed over financial institutions BY EDMUND L. ANDREWS AND ERIC DASH

IN BUSINESS r UCLA economic forecast grim. E1 r Airlines expecting big losses. E1

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve, still stinging from the political furor over the bailout of American International Group, began a full-court press Tuesday to expand the federal government’s power to seize control of troubled financial institutions deemed too big to fail. In his news conference Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said the government could have handled the AIG bailout much more effectively if it had had the same power to seize large financial companies as it does to take over failed banks. “It is precisely because of the lack of this authority that the AIG situation has gotten worse,” Obama said, predicting that “there is

INSIDE Family tragedy A fatal plane crash brought a tragic end to a reunion of two families in Montana. C SECTION

50 cents

President Barack Obama said his efforts to boost the economy are making progress: “We’re moving in the right direction.” going to be strong support from the American people and from Congress to provide that authority.” Obama also claimed early

progress Tuesday night in his aggressive campaign to lead the nation out of economic chaos and declared that despite obstacles ahead, “we’re moving in the right direction.” Pressed on why he seemed to delay before condemning the AIG bonuses, Obama said, “It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.” Earlier Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner offered a proposal that would allow the government to take control, restructure and possibly close any kind of financial institution that is in trouble and big enough to destabilize the financial system. The federal government has

long had the power to take over and close banks and other deposittaking institutions whose deposits are insured by the government and subject to detailed regulation. But the Obama administration and the Fed would extend that authority to insurance companies like AIG, investment banks, hedge funds, private equity firms and any other kind of financial institution considered “systemically” important. That would let the government for the first time take control of private equity firms like Carlyle or industrial finance giants like GE Capital. The Treasury and the Fed each sent their own proposals to the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, and Obama has asked congressional leaders to put the legislation on a fast track. House Democrats said they plan to

SEE ECONOMY/A9

DOG-EARED DISPUTE Many breeders defend cropping and tail docking, but practices are in decline

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BY SARAH BURGE THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Floppy-eared, long-tailed boxers, Dobermans and the like may be anathema to show-dog breeders, but some veterinarians predict a more natural look may be the norm in the not-so-distant future. Many pure-bred dogs, such as Dobermans, boxers, miniature pinschers and schnauzers have been known for a century or more for their alert, cropped ears and stubby, docked tails. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to find veterinarians who will perform the procedures —

especially ear cropping. In many countries — including most of Europe — ear cropping and tail docking have been outlawed. States, including California and New York, have considered bans. “It is not necessarily that they are horribly traumatic,” Emily Patterson-Kane, an animal welfare scientist with the American Veterinary Medical Association, said of the procedures. But there’s STAN LIM/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE no proven medical reason to perform them, she said. “If you don’t Linda Calamia, of Riverside, with know there’s a benefit, then don’t her Doberman, Troy, defends the cropping of his ears and the cut anything off of an animal.”

SEE DOCKING/A4 docking of his tail.

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STORY FROM A1

WEDNESDAY, March 25, 2009

MEXICO CONTINUED FROM A1

migrants taking scarce jobs. That is forcing the Obama administration, already managing two wars and a deep recession, to fashion a new Mexico policy earlier than it might have wished. The steps announced by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano — more than 400 federal agents shifted to border duty, supplied with dogs trained to detect both drugs and cash, and scanners to check vehicles and railcars heading into Mexico — amount to a subtle but important shift: The blockade of contraband will now be a two-way effort. The fence begun under the Bush administration will be completed, to deter smugglers of drugs and workers. But the new emphasis will be on disrupting the southbound flow of profits and weapons that fuel the cartels.

He’ll meet with Napolitano on Thursday in Texas, and she’ll ask him to make his case that violence in Mexico — especially in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso — warrants more drastic measures.

NUMBER QUESTIONED “Why 1,000?” Napolitano said. “Where did that number come from? Where in Texas? Texas has a huge border with Mexico. And what does he anticipate the Guard doing?”

For now, the U.S. plans more incremental steps: extra Treasury Department efforts to track money laundering and 100 extra customs inspectors to screen vehicles heading into Mexico — a mission never undertaken before. Homeland Security is doubling border enforcement task forces, to 190 officers, and sending 16 new Drug Enforcement Administration agents to posts near the border. Over the next 45 days, the

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will shift 100 workers to the border to intercept guns heading south, and add four employees in Mexico City to help trace guns captured from drug gangs. The U.S. is also boosting the FBI’s intelligence and analysis work on Mexican drug cartel crime. New York Times News Service, The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A bullet-riddled pickup truck is towed after gunmen opened fire on it, killing two, in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday.

THOUSANDS SLAIN The bloody drug war, which has caused 7,000 deaths in 16 months, has become the principal sore point between the countries. Although addiction rates among Mexicans are on the rise, the vast majority of the drugs flowing through Mexico will be sniffed, smoked or injected by Americans. On top of that, 90 percent of the guns used by Mexican drug cartels originated in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “This issue requires immediate action,” Napolitano said Tuesday. “We are guided by two very clear objectives. First, we are going to do everything we can to prevent the violence in Mexico from spilling over across the border. And second, we will do all in our power to help (Mexican) President (Felipe) Calderon crack down on these drug cartels.” Calderon wasn’t pleased when the U.S. military lumped Mexico in the same category as Pakistan as governments at risk of a “rapid and sudden collapse.” Soon, analysts began calling Mexico a “failed state” in which government institutions no longer function at a basic level. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair painted a harsh picture, saying Mexico had ceded control of parts of its territory. That prompted Calderon to bristle, “Let them tell me where I don’t govern.” He also said that the U.S. should look in the mirror and tend to corruption on its side of the border before pointing the finger at Mexico. Tuesday’s announcement was meant to mollify concerns in Mexico that it has borne the brunt of the bloody fight, even though the drug trade is fueled by the U.S. appetite for narcotics. But it didn’t satisfy Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, who reiterated his request Tuesday for “an immediate deployment of 1,000 additional National Guard troops to support civilian law enforcement and Border Patrol agents.”

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KRAFT NABISCO: EARLY RISERS KIM, MCPHERSON ON TOP/B1 SATURDAY APRIL 4, 2009 TODAY’S OUTLOOK: INLAND: 73|47 MOUNTAINS: 55|28 DESERT: 73|48 COMPLETE LOCAL FORECAST: B10

INL AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ’S NEWSPAPER

Urgency lacking, says noted economist INLAND VISIT: The Nobel winner says inadequate actions have slowed any recovery, but “we will do more eventually.”

S E W N

Hope penetrates job gloom MARCH REPORT: As the ranks of the unemployed grow by 663,000, analysts find glimpses of economic improvement. BY KEVIN G. HALL

IN BUSINESS

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

r Fed chairman says bailouts have helped. E1 r Analysis: Employment rate tramples economic strategy. E1

WASHINGTON — A fifth consecutive monthly report showing steep job losses served as a grim reminder Friday of how bad things are in the U.S. economy, but also offered a glimpse of hope that the worst may soon be over. Employers shed 663,000 jobs in March, pushing total U.S. jobs lost

in this recession above 5 million and the unemployment rate up four-tenths of a percentage point to 8.5 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Unemployment in Riverside and San Bernardino counties for February was estimated at 12.2 percent by the state Employment Development Department. Inland jobless figures for March are scheduled to be announced April 17, and it is likely they will pass the modern-era peak of 12.4 percent reached in the summer of 1993. The February report showed a loss of almost 80,000 jobs in Inland Southern California in the last 12 months, with the cuts mostly af-

fecting blue-collar sectors. While steep, the March job losses were consistent with what mainstream economic forecasts had suggested, providing a measure of relief that things aren’t worse than expected. That, and the fact that February’s job losses weren’t revised downward, as previous months’ reports had been, suggested that layoffs may be flattening out. “I think that after months and

SEE JOBS/A7

BY JACK KATZANEK THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The man considered the preeminent economist in the world did not sugarcoat his take on the global financial situation when he took the podium to address an Inland Southern California crowd Friday evening. “I did not imagine in my worst expectations it would be this bad,” said Paul Krugman, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2008. “It’s the crisis of our lifetime. Let’s hope we have wisdom and the audacity to deal with it.” Krugman was in Paul Indian Wells in Krugman front of a packed house at the Renaissance Esmeralda Hotel, part of the Desert Town Hall series, and he said there are tougher times coming as the world tries to fight its way out of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. His speech came within days of his appearance on the cover of Newsweek magazine. Krugman, a Princeton economics professor whose column appears twice a week in the New York Times, was quoted as saying President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan is not forceful enough to pull the country out of the recession. He is emerging as one of the president’s sharpest critics from the left on the economy. In an interview following his hourlong speech, Krugman called the administration’s stimulus measures “sluggish.” “I was naive enough that, in the afterglow of the election, that government would act in unity,” Krugman said. “It didn’t happen. We lost

SEE KRUGMAN/A6

“Home sales in Riverside County have begun to increase but median prices have dropped and distress sales are the norm." BILL LUNA, RIVERSIDE COUNTY EXECUTIVE OFFICER Projected County Discretionary Revenue Budgets

$712 MILLION

2008-09

February projection for 2009-10

$667 MILLION

April estimated projection for 2009-10 0

$625 MILLION 100

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That drop, coupled with sales tax decrease, has Riverside County re-examining budgets Riverside County’s property tax revenue is expected to decrease by an unprecedented 10 percent next fiscal year, double the amount first predicted. The agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting calls for even deeper cuts in the current county budget — including an immediate hiring freeze — as well as lowered expectations for next

The Diocese of San Bernardino has begun a Facebook page in an effort to reach younger Catholics. D1

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Cuts follow fall in property taxes THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Church tries online networking

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CHRIS RAMOS/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

BY RICHARD K. De ATLEY

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year’s budget talks in May. Riverside County has been hit by “rising foreclosure rates, steep declines in property values, reduced sales tax revenues, significant losses in CalPERS (pension fund) investments, and declining returns on county investments,” one paper stated. “A preliminary report . . . now indicates that home values have declined more rapidly and deeply than projected . . . . This erosion

will reduce local revenues available to fund the upcoming budget,” County Executive Officer Bill Luna said in one document. Property taxes account for 75 percent of the county’s $712 million discretionary budget, money the county has raised on its own. Projections for next fiscal year will take the county’s revenue from $667 million to about $625 million, county Finance Director Paul Mc-

Donnell said Friday. Sales-tax revenue was down to a projected $30 million for this fiscal year, $6.6 million less than the previous 12 months. A third-quarter budget update for supervisors is scheduled for April 28. “We are close to an emergency situation,” Supervisor Marion Ashley said. “We have to work now to keep costs down.” The strategy, Luna said, will be

SEE COUNTY/A7

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N.Y. gunman blocks exit, kills 13, self

LOCAL PLUS: D

BY WILLIAM KATES THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Comics .......D6-7 BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — A gunman Home & Garden.D2 barricaded the back door of a Obituaries ......D4 TV Listings .....D8 community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of BUSINESS: E immigrants taking a citizenship Briefing .........E2 class Friday, killing 13 people beStocks ..........E4 fore apparently committing suicide, officials said. CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . E5 CLICK ’N’ CLACK . . . G2 Investigators said they had yet JUMBLE PUZZLE . . . E5 to establish a motive for the massa-

cre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone. The attack came just after 10 a.m. at the American Civic Association, an organization that helps immigrants settle in this country. Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman parked his car against the back door, “making sure nobody could escape,” then stormed through the front, shooting two

receptionists, apparently without a word. The killer, believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant, then entered a room just off the reception area and fired on a citizenship class. “The people were trying to betTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS ter themselves, trying to become Friday’s attack in New York was at citizens,” the police chief said. One receptionist was killed, least the fifth deadly mass shooting

SEE MASSACRE/A7 in the U.S. in the past month alone.

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LOTTERY | STORIES FROM A1

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

SATURDAY, April 4, 2009

JOBS CONTINUED FROM A1

months of getting worsethan-expected news, our expectations are in line now with where the economy is. As hard as it is to believe, it is a sign that things are getting better,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wachovia. “We think the worst may be behind us. Job losses are going to remain very large for the next few months, but they should begin to moderate.”

IMPROVEMENT SEEN

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A gunman opened fire at the American Civic Association in New York, killing 13. The man thought to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck.

MASSACRE CONTINUED FROM A1

while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called 911, he said. Police said they arrived within two minutes.

4 CRITICALLY INJURED The rest of those killed were shot in the classroom. Four people were critically wounded. The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said. Police found two handguns — a 9 mm and a .45-caliber — and a hunting knife. Thirty-seven people in all made it out of the building, including 26 who hid in the boiler room in the basement, cowering there for three

COUNTY CONTINUED FROM A1

to improve the county financial situation “and focus on maintaining core services.” County officials said they are trying to avoid layoffs, and supervisors said Friday that they believe the proposals will pull the county through. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider imposing freezes on hiring and some retirement contributions, authorizing furloughs, shutting down some operations one day a week to save energy, and reviewing everything from vehicle usage to landscaping. The items to be considered Tuesday are on top of measures already taken when the revenue was forecast to fall 5 percent. That triggered a 10 percent cut in department budgets for fiscal 2009-10; reduction of 1,546 positions through early retirement, attrition and hiring caps; and 67 layoffs.

LONG-TERM EFFECT “It’s the perfect trifecta of bad news — property taxes, sales taxes and pension costs,” Supervisor Bob Buster said Friday. “We are getting hammered, and not just for the

hours while police methodically searched the building and tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said. Those in the basement stayed in contact with police by cell phone, switching from one phone to another when their batteries ran out, Zikuski said. Others hid in closets and under desks. Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers. They led a number of men out of the building in plastic handcuffs while they tried to sort out the victims from the killer or killers. Most of the people brought out couldn’t speak English, the chief said. Alex Galkin, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, said he was taking English classes when he heard a shot and

quickly went to the base- name wasn’t on it, he said. King, one of 10 children, ment with about 20 other people. “It was just panic,” described his mother as a woman brimming with inGalkin said. terests ranging from the op‘SILENCE, SHOOTING’ era to the preservation sociZhanar Tokhtabayeva, a ety to collecting thousands 30-year-old from Kazakh- of dolls. He recollected a stan, said she was in an recent conversation in which English class when she he told her to enjoy her heard a shot and her teacher retirement. screamed for everyone to go “I said, ‘Mom you’re in to the storage room. your 70s,”’ King said. “She “I heard the shots, every said, ‘What? You don’t think shot. I heard no screams, just I enjoy working?”’ silence, shooting,” she said. Gov. David Paterson said “I heard shooting, very long the massacre was probably time, and I was thinking, “the worst tragedy and when will this stop? I was senseless crime in the histothinking that my life was ry of this city.” finished.” The suspected gunman Dr. Jeffrey King, speaking carried ID with the name of at a Catholic Charities office 42-year-old Jiverly Voong, of where counseling was being nearby Johnson City, N.Y., offered Friday night, said he but that was believed to be was certain his mother, an alias, said a law enforce72-year-old Roberta King, ment official. who taught English at the A second law enforcement community center, was official said the two handamong the dead. guns were registered to JiAuthorities read a list of verly Wong, another name survivors and his mother’s the man used. .

short term,” Buster said. “This will transform the county’s financial picture for many years to come. It will cause a long-term reconstruction of this county’s government and employee costs.” An immediate hiring freeze, and a moratorium on all vehicle purchases until the new fiscal year begins July 1, is “of vital importance to the county’s budget integrity,” one agenda item stated. The county’s 1,200 managers could face furloughs, see their county bi-weekly retirement fund contributions cut in half, and continuation of a program that slashed the number of leave and sick days managers can cash out from 160 to 40. Those cuts and others affecting managers are projected to save more than $2.1 million for the rest of this year. County officials called on the rest of the county’s 17,300 union workers to take part in similar cuts. “We have to confer with our unions, because some of the measures look like they will be appropriate for them as well,” Buster said. The supervisors will also consider recommendations in a 24-point report looking at areas where policy or procedure can be changed to save money. The Safeguard County of

Riverside Against Preventable Expenses or SCRAPE report recommends a revision of the vehicle takehome policy for all departments. “Riverside County’s fleet of vehicles is the largest in the state, with one car for every five employees,” it notes. It calls for a policy review of the 970 vehicles employees can keep overnight, “a substantial enough number to indicate the potential for savings.” San Bernardino County projects a 6 percent drop in property tax revenue for the 2009-10 fiscal year, said David Wert, county spokesman. Each 1 percent drop equates to about $4 million out of the general fund, Wert said. The county is in a hiring freeze and is seeking agreements from union leaders to forego salary increases and implement a 5 percent workweek reduction. The county has required all departments to slash 8 percent from their budgets this fiscal year and another 8 percent in the next fiscal year, Wert said.

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PENSION OUTLOOK

CONSTRUCTION HIT HARD Construction, both residential and commercial, remains in the dumps, and builders axed another 126,000 jobs last month. The new twist is that commercial construction is beginning to suffer just as residential construction was hit last year. “Unlike previous periods in this economic cycle, the bulk of job losses for the first quarter of 2009 were in the nonresidential sector as opposed to the residential sector,” wrote Anirban Basu, the chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors, an industry group. “This suggests that the residential construction sector is much closer to its bottom than is the nonresidential construction sector, which is a relative newcomer to the ongoing downturn.” The government’s economic-stimulus spending should begin to ease some of the pain in the construction sector by spurring infrastructure projects by late this year, Basu said in an analysis of the March job numbers. Retail trade employment fell by 48,000 last month, while the financial services sector shed another 43,000 jobs. Leisure and hospitality lost another 40,000 jobs, while transportation and warehousing lost 34,000. Staff writer Jack Katzanek contributed to this report

for an additional $119 million contribution to the CalPERS, one projection presented to supervisors said. “We are going to see increased rates in the coming years,” McDonnell said. “The final numbers aren’t in — it’s a two-year spread from the time there is a realization of a loss or gain. There is a smoothing formula that spreads out losses or gains over 15 years, but when you have a big loss like this, you feel it right away.” He said county contributions to CalPERS will continue to increase unless CalPERS can somehow make earnings over their projected growth rate of 7.75 percent. The county’s Pension Advisory Review Committee recommended the county “incorporate plans to address the significantly increased pension liabilities in the upcoming budgeting and collective bargaining processes.”

The recession has also affected the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) fund and will require the county to contribute more to cover the shortfalls. CalPERS’ losses on fund investments will cause a decline in the county’s account in excess of $1.5 billion and perhaps as much as $2 billion by this June, according to a county projection. The county also lost $72.7 million from the sale of a pension obligation bond. In two years, Riverside Reach Richard K. De Atley at 951-368County will be on the hook 9573 or [email protected]

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program, and banks are paying taxes on foreclosed homes. “The name of the game is the rolls” — the value of the property, McDonnell said. Median home prices in Riverside County were at $432,000 in 2006, and down to about $220,000 by the end of 2008, a county report shows.

A7

to suggest. “Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last five months,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. “In March, job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.” Although it left its February job-loss estimate intact at 651,000, the BLS revised January’s initial estimate of 655,000 to 741,000, well above March’s 663,000 lost jobs. Manufacturers trimmed another 161,000 jobs in March.

Home sales have actually started to increase in Riverside County, “but median prices have dropped, and

LOTTERY MEGA MILLIONS

distress sales are the norm,” said the report from Luna. “The sales we are seeing right now are what was happening in the market back in late to middle 2001,” said Larry Ward, the county’s assessor clerk-recorder, on Friday. He said homes bought after Jan. 1, 2001, will have their assessed value automatically reviewed “without any prodding from the homeowner” because of the county’s recent home value plummet. Ward said house values dropping “3 percent to 4 percent a month” was the tipping point for his office to revise its forecast from 5 percent to 10 percent decreases in property tax income. “Earlier discussions did not take into account the market would be in a freefall,” Ward said. Finance Director McDonnell said unpaid property taxes are covered by a state

One reason for optimism amid the gloom is that other indicators point to improvement, even if full-scale economic recovery remains distant. These include better-than-expected news on February orders of durable goods, which are bigticket expenditures; stable retail-sales numbers; falling mortgage rates; a 20 percent gain in the stock market over the past month; and a steep drop in volatility in credit markets. The scattered indicators are rays of light that have been missing since at least last September. Until the past few weeks, Vitner noted, the news was all bad. That’s not to minimize the pain that’s still being felt. “For the second month in a row, the headline employment decline didn’t meet the worst fears, but this is still a very weak report,” Nigel Gault, the chief U.S. economist for forecaster IHS Global Insight, wrote in a research note to investors. “The latest figures show job losses of 650,000 or above for each of the last four months.” Since jobs are a lagging indicator, the struggling U.S. economy will continue to shed them even after a turnaround has begun. Many economists think that the unemployment rate could top 10 percent this year, even if economic conditions begin to improve, as some indicators are starting

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I NLAND S OUTHERN C ALIFORNIA ’ S N EWSPAPER

Ex-aide steers clear of scandal

S E W N

HI GH S C HO OL S PO RT S : B I G DAY F O R INL AND ATHL E TE S

SUPERVISOR: Brad Mitzelfelt, who worked for Bill Postmus, is not accused of misdeeds. But some wonder what he knew.

Obama spurs health debate

BY IMRAN GHORI THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The continuing corruption investigation of former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus has ensnared several of his top aides, yet one of his closest former assistants has come through relatively unscathed. County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt says he knew little of what was going on in the assessor’s office, even though he worked closely Brad Mitzelfelt with Postmus for six years as his chief of staff while Postmus was a supervisor Read past from 2000 to 2006. stories on the The two met in investigation 1993, when Mitzelinto San Bernardino felt was working for County a state legislator in government. the High Desert and PE.com hired Postmus as an intern. They went on to work together in government, on other campaigns and in Republican Party politics in the years before Postmus was elected 1st District supervisor in 2000 and Mitzelfelt became his chief of staff. When Postmus left the Board of Supervisors to become assessor in January 2007, he lobbied hard for Mitzelfelt’s appointment to replace him. But as Postmus came under scrutiny for allegations of running a political machine out of the assessor’s office, Mitzelfelt sought to distance himself from his former boss. Postmus resigned in February after an arrest on drug allegations. He has not been charged. “Over time, our relationship became more professional and less of

SEE MITZELFELT/A7

THE NEW WORK FORCE

Layoff fear promoting productivity BY CHRISTOPHER LEONARD THE ASSOCAITED PRESS

Her job description says Madeline Adams is a social worker. But lately she’s begun volunteering for tasks she never had before at the St. Louis marriage counseling agency where she works: planning events, ordering supplies, stocking shelves. She estimates she’s put in hundreds of hours of unpaid overtime work. Adams isn’t gunning for a promotion. She just wants to keep her job. Bosses around the country are discovering it’s not too much to ask for a little extra help around the office. Anything but. More employees seem to be showing up early, forgoing vacation time, taking on extra projects — and doing it all with a smile (whether real or otherwise). In fact, Labor Department figures show workers have sharply boosted their productivity over the past year as layoffs mounted. Workers’ output-per-hour jumped 2.7 percent during 2008 — nearly

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SPEECHES: He seeks to extend coverage to the tens of millions of uninsured and make certain the final bill bears his stamp. BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

KIRBY LEE/SPECIAL TO THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Nick Ross of Vista Murrieta High School celebrates Saturday after clearing 7 feet, 1 inch to win the high jump at the CIF-State Track and Field Championships in Clovis.

WYATT WINS TWICE, ROSS TAKES HIGH JUMP

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here were no national marks Saturday for La Sierra’s Reggie Wyatt, just two dominating performances. Wyatt won his specialty — the 300-meter hurdles — and also raced to victory in the 400 meters at the CIF state track and field finals in Clovis. Vista Murrieta’s Nick Ross also brought home a title, winning the high jump.

Photo galleries from the state track meet and the Division I softball championship game. PE.com

NORCO TOPS SANTIAGO FOR DIVISION 1 CROWN

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orco’s Teagan Gerhart outpitched good friend and rival Kamerin May as the Cougars beat Corona Santiago, 5-1, to win the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 softball championship at Barber Park in Irvine. Gerhart struck out eight in her 30th win of the season. MORE COVERAGE IN SPORTS DAY/B1

MARK ZALESKI/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

It was a happy night for members of the Norco High School softball team after they beat Corona Santiago.

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WASHINGTON — After months of insisting he would leave the details to Congress, President Barack Obama has concluded that he must exert greater control over the health care debate and is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, townhall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers, senior White House officials say. Mindful of the failures of former President Bill Clinton, whose intricate proposal for universal care collapsed on Capitol Hill 15 years ago, Obama until now had charted a different course, setting forth broad principles and concentrating on bringing disparate factions — doctors, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, labor unions — to the negotiating table. But Obama has grown concerned that he is losing the debate over certain policy prescriptions he favors, like a government-run insurance plan to compete with the private sector, said one Democrat familiar with his thinking. With Congress beginning a burst of work on the measure, top advisers say the president is determined to make certain the final bill bears his stamp. “Ultimately, as happened with the recovery act, it will become President Obama’s plan,” the White House budget director, Peter R. Orszag, said in an interview. “I think you will see that evolution occurring over the next few weeks. We will be weighing in more definitively, and you will see him out there.” On Saturday, he used his weekly radio and Internet address to make the case that “the status quo is broken” and to set forth his ambitious goals. Broadly speaking, he wants to extend coverage to the nation’s 45 million uninsured, while lowering costs, improving quality and preserving consumer choice. His budget includes what he called a “historic down payment” of $634 billion over 10 years, accomplished mostly by slowing the growth of Medicare and limiting

SEE HEALTH/A6

Athletic budgets shrinking as recession stretches on COLLEGE SPORTS: Inland programs are slashing games and travel or axing teams. BY SEAN NEALON THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The economic crisis is causing Inland college athletic departments to take budget-slashing measures, including eliminating games, limiting travel and possibly cutting teams. Community colleges statewide will play up to 20 percent fewer games. UC Riverside might put three players, instead of two, in a hotel room when traveling. Cal

State San Bernardino and Cal Baptist University in Riverside have cut out-of-state trips. Cal Baptist may eliminate teams. The athletic department cuts are part of wide-ranging efforts by colleges in California and across the nation to reduce costs and bring in additional revenue as budget shortfalls mount. College officials have also increased student fees, cut enrollment, frozen hiring and salaries and limited travel. Some coaches and players say the cuts to athletics detract from the student-athlete experience.

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