Wildcats Weekend EXIT EXAM rally for win entertainment Court ruling likely Friday ......................................Inside ................Page 6 ..............Page 3 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Tomorrow: Mostly sunny and warm 7 58551 69301 0 THURSDAY May 11, 2006 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 16 pages, Volume 148 Number 32 email: [email protected] UKIAH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT TAKE A WALK ON THE WEST SIDE MAY 21 Elementary schools move to uniforms By LAURA CLARK uniforms. The Daily Journal “We are totally in favor, the The Ukiah Unified School staff is too, so is the PTA and District board Tuesday night SSC,” Hopland Principal approved mandatory uniform Jeanne Yttreness said. programs at three more local School board member and elementary schools. former Frank Zeek Principal Grace Hudson and Frank Naomi Engstrom also sup- Zeek elementary schools ports a mandatory uniform already require students to policy -- but only if adminis- wear uniforms, with the trators are prepared to enforce exception of those children it. whose parents signed waivers “I am not in favor of (a opting out of the program. mandatory uniform policy) Oak Manor, Nokomis and unless we know you guys Hopland elementary schools have starch in your back- will follow suit next school bones,” she said. Engstrom year. noted the implementation of A recent survey showed 66 such a program is “initially percent of parents in favor of very labor intensive,” but it Isaac Eckel/The Daily Journal uniforms at Hopland School; has a “huge effect” on stu- Judy Pruden relaxes outside her home, one of six that will be on display for the “A Walk on the West 4-1 voted in favor of uniforms dents’ attitudes. “I personally Side” house tour Sunday, May 21, which will benefit the Ukiah Players Theatre. at Nokomis School, and of the would have had (a uniform parents who responded to Oak program) 10 years ago, but I Manor’s survey, 78 to 44 were didn’t think people were in favor of a uniform policy, ready for it,” Engstrom said. Home tour according to principals of the “I feel it would be a success sites. ... and I have starch,” “Many parents didn’t seem Yttreness responded. to have an opinion either way, helps UPT regarding uniforms,” Oak Additional Dual By BEN BROWN Manor Principal Joy Tucker Language Immersion The Daily Journal told the school board. The Class approved The Ukiah Players Theatre is invit- majority of members with ing everyone who has ever wanted to Parent Teacher Organizations The school board Tuesday see the inside of some of the homes and School Site Councils rep- night also approved a fourth that grace Ukiah’s west hills to Take a resenting the schools were Walk on the West Side May 21. also reportedly in favor of See UUSD, Page 15 This is the third year UPT has con- vinced west side property owners to open their doors to the public to help Exit exam decision raise funds for the theater. Tickets are $30 each and include a tour of six homes followed by refreshments and live music at McGarvey Park. expected on Friday One of the rooms that will be showcased in the Pruden-Morgan 47,000 high school cating he will stop the state See TOUR, Page 15 home. from denying students a seniors at risk of diploma based on the exit not graduating exam. In that ruling, the judge By JILL TUCKER appeared to side with plaintiff ANG Newspapers attorneys who argued that the OAKLAND -- An estimat- six students named in the suit ed 47,000 high school seniors hadn’t been given the same who haven’t passed the exit opportunity to learn the mate- exam will likely find out rial as other students across Friday whether a judge will the state -- a violation of their let them graduate with their constitutional rights. class. After hearing arguments The odds were in their Tuesday, Freedman gave no favor late Tuesday. indication he would change An expected final ruling on his mind. the fate of the California High The judge did clarify his School Exit Exam was tentative ruling, saying in expected after a formal hear- court that it is not his intent to Ticket holders will be able to tour Bill and Sarah Harrison’s historic home at 420 Todd Road (above ing Tuesday, but was delayed stop the state from administer- left), one of six on the “A Walk on the West side” home tour. The Bellows-Indermill Home at 1144 W. while Superior Court Judge ing the exam or to suspend the Church will also be featured on the tour.Tickets for the house tour are on sale at the Mendocino Book Robert Freedman considers remedial help students are Company and the Ukiah Players Theatre. which students can be includ- receiving now. ed in the decision. Freedman suggested in On Monday, Freedman issued a tentative ruling indi- See EXIT, Page 15 Firm facing air quality permit suit gets Confusion Hill contract The Daily Journal California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit Attorney General’s Office. The California Department of Transportation announced against MCM Construction in January, alleging the company In response to the suit, Kerry Shea, MCM Construction’s Tuesday that it will award the contract for the Confusion Hill failed to file for necessary air quality permits while working on lawyer at Thelen, Reid and Priest, said MCM Construction was realignment project in Mendocino County to MCM the Noyo Bridge and other contracts for Caltrans. in compliance with all environmental laws when the suit was Construction Inc. of North Highlands, Calif., which came in The suit also alleges MCM gained an unfair business advan- filed and that the issue was not compliance but whether or not with the low bid of $65.7 million. tage over its competitors by not obtaining those permits, which The contract will commence this summer and will involve can cost between $15,000 and $20,000, depending on the coun- MCM had the proper permits during construction. building a new highway approximately two-miles long that will ty. Lockyer offered to settle the suit for $35 million, but Shea cross the south fork of the Eel River away from the Confusion The case was started by Mendocino County District Attorney called that figure astronomical. Shea said she hoped a solution Hill slide area and require building two bridges to act as a con- Norman Vroman and Ventura County District Attorney Gregory could be reached without litigation but said MCM was prepared necting roadway. Totten, who brought allegations from individual counties to the to go to court. 1400 Hastings Rd • Ukiah www.thurstonhonda.com CREDIT UNION HONDA 1-800-287-6727 DIRECT 707-468-9215 LENDING 2 – THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2006 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] wide last month in “terrorist” violence — most of them civilians. FUNERAL NOTICES Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla commander, said Iraqis feel The world briefly “shock, dismay and anger” at the ongoing slaughter, including [\ Sears Store. Her family attacks by sectarian death squads that torture and kill their victims DELILAH CANDUS BAUER and friends will remember before dumping the mutilated bodies in the streets. the pride she took in her “What is asked of the political parties is that they strenuously children and grand- Iran leader dismisses nuclear worries and clearly condemn these crimes, regardless of who the perpetra- children, her enjoyment of JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Iran’s president on Wednesday tors are,” Talabani said in a statement. “Clerics — be they Muslim, music, reading, movies, the dismissed Western concerns over its nuclear program as “a big lie,” Christians, Shiite or Sunni — from all factions should also issue outdoors and dancing. She a day after key U.N. Security Council members agreed to present edicts rejecting these acts.” lived life to it’s fullest. Tehran with a choice of incentives or sanctions in deciding whether Figures from the ministries of health and interior showed that Delilah is survived by to suspend uranium enrichment. during April, 686 civilians were killed nationwide in politically her sons Edward Meanwhile, in a letter to Time magazine published on its Web motivated violence, along with 190 insurgents, 54 policemen and Straight of La Grande, site, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 22 Iraqi soldiers. Oregon, Allen Bauer of offered new options for solving the impasse with the United States Eighty-two coalition troops — including 76 Americans, three Tucson, Arizona, daugh- and its allies. Italians, one Romanian, one Britain and one Australian — died in ters Kathryn D. Straight of Hassan Rohani, Iran’s former top nuclear negotiator, said Iraq during the same period. Puyallup, Washington, Tehran would consider ratifying an International Atomic Energy Sharon Meyer of Agency protocol that provides for intrusive and snap inspections Fed raises interest rates to 5-year high Vancouver, Washington, and would also address the question of preventing a pullout from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve boosted Terri Pahl and Donna Americans’ borrowing costs for the 16th time in a row on Bauer both of Ukiah, her Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, says of the Time magazine letter, “We’ve seen it. ... I think there really isn’t Wednesday — this time to the highest level in five years — but brother Donald Nelson of suggested what happens next will be much less predictable. Vancouver, Washington, anything new in it.” He said the letter does not deal at all with Delilah “Dee” Candus enrichment. Chairman Ben Bernanke and his Fed colleagues left their seven grandchildren and options wide open to order yet another increase or to take a break Bauer, 77, entered into eleven great-grand- rest on March 31, 2006.