Eagles fall Weekend FORUM to Laney entertainment Our readers write ...................................Page 4 .............Page 6 ..............Page 3 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Tomorrow: Rain at times 7 58551 69301 0 THURSDAY March 23, 2006 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 16 pages, Volume 147 Number 348 email: [email protected] AT HIGH SCHOOLS AROUND THE COUNTY TAXING TIMES ‘Invisible’ Volunteers drug use with AARP reported offer tax help on campus By SETH FREEDLAND Students, youth workers The Daily Journal As Tax Day looms closer, some say otherwise successful Mendocino County residents are ditching students using cocaine, that American tradition of procrastinating their tax filings to the bitter end. abusing prescription drugs Instead, go-getters have been assembling By LAURA CLARK in the Ukiah Senior Center, taking part of a The Daily Journal free tax preparation service provided by the Cocaine, Ecstasy, LSD and a slew of American Association of Retired People. prescription drugs are readily available About 150 local residents have sought aid on the average high school campus, from the bank of volunteer “accountants” according to teens and youth workers. this year, organizers said. The service -- While the teens which runs on Wednesdays and Fridays, labeled “stoners” from 9 to 11:30 a.m., until April 14 -- is are easily recog- ‘In the last two believed to be in its third decade in Ukiah. nizable, the “invis- years we have Norma Exley, district coordinator for ible drug culture” AARP in Mendocino County, was one of is not, said Joanna become more and many workers who called the efforts Olson, Mendocino more aware of the “rewarding.” No one is turned away from County Youth the Senior Center, Exley said, but there is an Project program invisible drug emphasis on low-income or elderly resi- director for Project dents. Share and School culture that exists in The unpaid volunteers do almost all the Based Services. highly successful prep work -- from W-2s to Social Security The Mendocino accounts to sales of stock -- on laptops on County Youth students.’ loan from the Internal Revenue Service, a Project runs the co-sponsor with AARP for the program. teen crisis line JOANNA OLSON of the Delores Harder, a Ukiah resident receiv- countywide. Crisis Mendocino County ing help with her tax returns, said the pro- workers receive gram was special because it is held in such a calls weekly Youth Project comfortable environment -- and the price regarding issues can’t be beat, she added. such as drug and alcohol use, homeless- Aiding Harder with her forms, volunteer ness, grief, family conflict, peer con- Milli Hickey said she found it “very reward- flict, runaways, etc. ing to help other seniors … to set them at “Anything that a teen can experi- ease and provide confidence.” ence, we get calls about ’cause that is Programs like these create a security what we do,” Olson said. “But in the blanket on an annual rite commonly fraught last two years we have become more with terror. The Associated Press reported and more aware of the invisible drug last year that, given the option of sitting in a culture that exists in highly successful dentist’s chair or preparing one’s taxes, 49 students,” she said, noting these stu- percent chose the dentist and 48 percent the dents range in age from freshmen to tax man. Isaac Eckel/The Daily Journal seniors, and many of them come from It is estimated that a third of the 133 mil- Milli Hickey, right, a volunteer with the AARP tax assistance program, helps stable families. Many students know lion income tax returns expected this year Delores Harder with her taxes Wednesday morning at the Ukiah Senior Center. this invisible culture exist, but few of will come in to the IRS during the last these users are recognized by authority weeks. An IRS spokesman anticipated that figures, according to Olson. almost 9 million will file extensions so they DOCUMENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE YOUR TAXES “We have a fine pulse on youth activ- can file late returns -- through www.irs.gov - ity and they self-identify to us,” she - and 2- to 3 million are expected to miss the • A W-2 from each employer. • If you donated a car, you need a state- said, noting the students might get in trouble and they either call the crisis See TAXES, Page 15 • All 1099 forms showing interest and/or ment from the charity stating how much it received from the sale of the vehicle. A line, or their family or friends do. Many dividends as well as documentation showing of the parents who call the confidential the original purchase price of your sold deduction based on the Kelley Blue Book value of the car is no longer acceptable. crisis line don’t want their children to assets. be in the “known system,” she said, so • If you have any sales of stocks or bonds, • For self-employed individuals, a 1099 BY THE NUMBERS miscellaneous statement from the company that’s why they don’t call the police or a 1099 from the brokerage. tell school staff. • K-1s from any partnerships, corporations or individual that paid them. • 60.7 million: The number of tax returns the • A form showing pension payouts. “The invisible drug culture that my IRS has received as of March 10, about 1 percent or estates. • An SSA-1099 form if you received staff has become aware of is that which fewer than the same time last year. • If you are a homeowner, a 1098 showing exists among highly successful stu- • 12.3 million: The number of self-prepared Social Security payments. mortgage interest and real estate taxes. If you • Medical receipts if your expenses are dents, who are successful academically, returns that have been filed electronically, a 16.6 don’t have a mortgage on your home, bring a socially and in extracurricular school percent increase over last year. more than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross copy of the property tax bill from your income. activities. Some even have jobs and • $100 million: The amount of tax refunds many are college-bound. that have been direct-deposited so far, up 7.9 per- municipality. • Child care provider information (name, cent over the same period last year. • An acknowledgment form from the ben- employer ID, Social Security number). “What makes them invisible is they Source: Wire services eficiary for any charitable deduction. Source: irs.gov Web site aren’t in trouble in any area; they can’t be identified as standing out by having See ‘INVISIBLE,’ Page 15 16,000 acres of forest offered for sale to Conservation Fund By BEN BROWN land is currently owned by the er for Campbell Timber land in order to promote economic species is to protect their habitat,” The Daily Journal Hopland Timber Company, but may Management, the company oversee- development and environmental pro- said Chris Kelly, California program Home to spotted owls, coho soon be sold to conservationists. ing the sale for the Hopland Timber tection, has been offered the opportu- director for the Conservation Fund. salmon and steelhead trout, the Big “We recognize that there are cer- Company. nity to buy the land. The group hopes Among the species in this area are River tract and the Salmon Creek tain values in those two watersheds Levesque said the land is not cur- to raise $48 million to purchase the coho salmon, a species that has taken watershed represent almost 16,000 and we believe that a conservation rently up for public sale. The land in order to protect the endan- a beating in recent years. In 2002, acres of redwood and Douglas fir group could do good work there,” Conservation Fund, a group that gered species living on it. forest in Mendocino County. The said Stephen Levesque, area manag- gathers money to buy privately held “The best way to protect these See FOREST, Page 2 2 – THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Prosecutors in Marion County decided to drop charges Christian. The conversion is a crime under Afghanistan’s Tuesday after a judge rejected a plea deal that would have kept The world briefly Islamic laws, and a death sentence is possible. Debra Lafave out of prison. But prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said questions have been Prosecutors, defense attorneys and the victim’s mother urged raised about his mental fitness. the judge to accept the deal so the boy wouldn’t have to testify. “We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He A psychiatrist who examined the teenager told the judge previ- U.S., Iraqi forces trap dozens of gunmen doesn’t talk like a normal person,” he told The Associated ously that the boy suffered extreme anxiety from the media cov- BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — U.S. and Iraqi forces trapped Press. erage of the case. dozens of insurgents Wednesday during a two-hour gunbattle at Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil, however, said the a police station south of Baghdad, a day after 100 masked gun- Missing family found alive after 2 weeks lack of prison time for Lafave under the plea deal “shocks the men stormed a jail near the Iranian border and freed more than conscience of this court.” 30 prisoners, most of them fellow insurgents. GLENDALE, Ore. (AP) — A family that disappeared more Explaining the decision to drop the charges, Assistant State Sixty gunmen, firing rocket-propelled grenades and automat- than two weeks ago after leaving for a short trip in an RV was Attorney Richard Ridgway, said: “The court may be willing to ic rifles, attacked the Madain police station before dawn, police found alive in a remote area of southwestern Oregon.