Golden Bears’ RELIGION Mr. Money Saturday Faith community news ...................................Page 3 ............Page 6 Sept. 2, 2006 INSIDE Mendocino County’s Daily Digest The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Sunday: Mostly sunny Monday: Mostly 7 58551 69301 0 sunny and very warm 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 16 pages, Volume 148 Number 146 email: [email protected] STRUCTURE FIRE Driver in crash failed to set brake Vulture By BEN BROWN to roll down the slight decline The Daily Journal Impact disrupts local phone service towards East Gobbi Street. Simple carelessness was to blame “Apparently, he the cause for a semi-truck that jumped the curb telephone and high-speed data lines the driver of the truck was unloading forgot to set the park- FOLLOW-UP on Main Street at 3 p.m. Thursday for portions of southeastern Ukiah. goods at the El Sombrero restaurant of blaze and flattened a steel box that housed Ukiah Police Sgt. Sean Kaeser said on Main Street when the truck began See CRASH, Page 2 The Daily Journal An eight-foot by eight-foot SCHOOL SCORES shed on Wallace Drive in Redwood Valley was destroyed in a fire caused by a vulture running into unshield- GRAFFITI ABATEMENT PROGRAM ed power lines at 1:03 p.m. Friday. 7 local Firefighters from the Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire Department and the California Department of schools Forestry and Fire Protection responded to the fire and had See FIRE, Page 16 exceed Class for targets teenage By LAURA MCCUTCHEON The Daily Journal California’s 2005-06 Accountability Progress Report drivers indicates the majority of Ukiah The Daily Journal Unified’s schools are not making California Highway Patrol huge improvements in test scores, Capt. Ray Madrigal, area but they are showing steady growth. commander for Ukiah, has Or, as Assistant Superintendent of announced a new program Educational Services Bryan Barrett aimed at reducing the number put it, they are “very static.” of vehicle accidents involving The APR -- released Thursday by teenage drivers. State Superintendent of Public California has the second Instruction Jack O’Connell -- is highest fatality rate among comprised of the state Academic teenage drivers in the nation, Performance Index (API), the feder- and traffic collisions are the Isaac Eckel/The Daily Journal al Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), leading cause of death for dri- For the past 10 years, John McCowen has been spending his own time each month to paint and the federal Program vers between the ages of 15 over graffiti in various areas throughout Ukiah. Improvement (PI). and 25. “The tragic loss of these API young lives is a major con- The 2005-06 results show the cern to me and my officers, Man on mission to help police state’s average API score has grown and my hope is that this pro- to 720, an 11-point gain from the gram will reduce the death 2004-05 school year, moving closer toll statewide and locally for to the state goal of 800. The median our teens,” Madrigal said. combat graffiti around Ukiah score for all schools also increased, The program, called Smart from 714 in 2003 to 745 in 2006. Start, will address traffic safe- By LAURA MCCUTCHEON However, only 52 percent of the ty issues that directly affect The Daily Journal new drivers. It will include A local man’s mission to wipe out graffiti has teaching collision avoidance assisted with the arrest of several taggers since See SCHOOLS, Page 2 techniques, detailing the com- the inception of the Graffiti Abatement Program mon causes of collisions, and two years ago. explaining driver responsibil- While the official program was born in early WHAT THE SCORES MEAN ities and local traffic trends. 2004 after Ukiahan and City Council member Two classes will be held at John McCowen approached the Ukiah Police The Daily Journal the Ukiah area CHP office at Department volunteering to paint over graffiti, 540 S. Orchard St. on Sept. 21 he’s actually been doing API and Sept. 28, from 7 to 8:30 just that, for about 10 years p.m. Anyone wishing to sign The API is a numeric index that ‘I don’t like graffiti. I now. ranges from a low of 200 to a high up can contact the CHP office “I would see the graffiti; in person or by phone at 467- think it makes our of 1000. The 2005 results estab- I would report it to the lished the current baseline and acad- 4040. Space is limited, and police; they would take a people are encouraged to sign town look crummy, picture, and then I would emic growth targets for each up as soon as possible. and if no one ever paint it out,” McCowen school’s academic performance. A said of the early days. school’s annual growth target is set Study shows licensing paints it out then it “That was cumbersome at 5 percent of the difference law reducing teen because I wouldn’t know if between the school’s base API and looks like this is our they had gone out there the statewide performance target of driver accidents and taken a picture,” he 800. The announcement of this town every day, all said, noting it was for this By law, numerically significant driver’s safety class comes in the time.’ reason he approached the student subgroups within a school the wake of the release of a police department about must also make improvement for a study from the nonprofit starting an official pro- school to meet its API targets. These Insurance Institute for JOHN MCCOWEN gram, which involves tak- subgroups include ethnic subgroups, Highway Safety that indicates ing the photos himself. socio-economically disadvantaged that California’s graduated “If they see it first, they students, and, for the first time in licensing law has reduced will take the picture, but then they call me to say, 2006, English learners and students traffic accidents among ‘We have this graffiti here; we have it document- with disabilities. teenagers by 23 percent and ed, but it needs to be painted out.’” As expected, introducing these nighttime accidents by 27 While it’s McCowen alone -- with the excep- two new student subgroups into the percent. tion of one helpful friend on occasion -- who McCowen often has to paint the same place mul- 2006 API results reduced the per- In 1998, California became spends on average about 20 hours a month tiple times throughout the year. While he donates centage of schools meeting their the first state to pass a gradu- his time, Mendocino Solid Waste Management API growth targets, accounting for ated licensing law. The law See GRAFFITI, Page 16 donates much of the paint used. about one quarter of the decline increased the time a driver between 2005 and 2006. See TEENS, Page 2 See SCORES, Page 2 IT’SIT’S HOTHOT TUBTUB TIMETIME IT’S TIME TO REVIVE YOURSELF IN A NEW SPA FROM MOIR’S 509 S. State St. • Ukiah 462-7305 2 – SATURDAY, SEPT. 2, 2006 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] POLICE REPORTS API, from 726 to 701. U.S. missile defense interceptor Schools Calpella’s growth target had The following were been four points. However, Barrett said: “It’s compiled from reports Continued from Page 1 prepared by the Ukiah hits target in test over the Pacific explained due to the fact that Police Department. To they only test one grade level, Associated Press vehicle” separated from the ing to field, continuing to schools met all of their API anonymously report growth targets this year, a and a lot depends on that one crime information, call LOS ANGELES — An interceptor. Moving at 18,000 deploy and continuing to group of kids in second grade. interceptor missile destroyed mph, it struck a 4-foot-long decline from last year’s 68 463-6205. develop a missile defense sys- percent. They have about 100 kids ARREST -- Justin a mock warhead in space over mock warhead released by the tem,” said Obering. there. The rest of the schools the Pacific Ocean on Friday, a other missile and both disinte- Seven schools in the Ukiah Cook, 18, hometown not North Korea characterized Unified School District -- have at least three grades to listed, was arrested on sus- key test of the U.S. missile grated more than 100 miles up the test as provocation. average out their scores.” defense system that prompted and a few hundred miles west Pomolita, Nokomis, Grace picion of receiving or con- Although Obering Hudson, South Valley, cealing stolen property in North Korea to accuse of Vandenberg, said Missile described the test as realistic, America of threatening war. Defense Agency spokesman Redwood Academy of Ukiah, AYP the 300 block of Leslie the target missile did not The 54-foot interceptor Rick Lehner. Accelerated Achievement Statewide AYP results Street at 2:26 p.m. deploy decoys or other Academy and Tree of Life show that 65 percent of Thursday. shot out of an underground The test was a “total suc- silo at Vandenberg Air Force cess,” Lt. Gen. Henry A. devices that might be aboard Charter -- showed significant schools met AYP require- ARREST -- Robert Lee an actual long-range ballistic gains in their API scores, ments, up from 62 percent last Copeland, 27, of Texas, Base on the central California Obering III, the agency direc- coast at 10:39 a.m., 17 min- tor, told a Pentagon news con- missile fired by an attacking Barrett said. year. was arrested on suspicion country. Obering said decoys Pomolita Middle School Asked how Ukiah Unified of driving under the influ- utes after a target missile was ference.