Thursday, SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 VOLUME LV, NUMBER 37 Your Local News Source Since 1963 SERVING DUBLIN, LIVERMORE, PLEASANTON, SUNOL Weapons Expert: U.S. Is Maintaining Nuclear Arsenal Without Nuclear Testing By Jeff Garberson The U.S. is successfully maintain- ons) stockpile without having to Group, reviewing the history of in book form within a year or two. ing its nuclear arsenal with the do nuclear testing,” said Bruce nuclear weapons development, Goodwin said he made extensive use of powerful computer models Goodwin, formerly the principal with particular emphasis on min- use of a prepublication text in and by carrying out sophisticated associate director in charge of iaturization, in the years since developing his talk. laboratory scale tests, according to LLNL’s nuclear weapons program. World War II. Started at Los Alamos a weapons expert who spent years Goodwin today is a senior fel- In doing so, he gave credit to See Inside Section A The U.S. nuclear weapons pro- helping to guide the effort. low at LLNL’s Center for Global Tom Ramos, LLNL physicist- gram famously was based on Section A is filled with Especially important are ex- Security Research, a think tank turned-historian, who has spent scientific and technical work done information about arts, people, periments using research facili- aimed at providing back-and-forth the better part of the past decade and orchestrated from a top-secret entertainment and special events. ties like LLNL’s National Igni- communications between the compiling first a classified and World War II site in northern New There are education stories, a tion Facility, which can generate technical community and politi- then an unclassified history of Mexico, in the tiny town of Los variety of features, and the arts temperatures like those found in cal and military policymakers in LLNL’s nuclear weapons program. Alamos. and entertainment and nuclear explosions, the expert said. Washington, D.C. Ramos’s unclassified history The fission bombs designed bulletin board. “We know how to indefinitely He spoke two weeks ago at is now being reviewed by Cornell there, based on energy released sustain the modern (nuclear weap- a meeting of the Valley Study University Press for publication (See WEAPONS, page 12) City Council Takes on the Friends of Livermore Committee By Bruce Gach Throughout the Livermore City to assess their validity. Council meeting last Monday, He also stated that when people councilmembers and citizens ar- are running for office, there is an gued over the issues related to the ethics pledge, a Current and Fair Downtown Plan. The comments Campaign Practices Pledge, to during the Citizen’s Forum and abide by certain principles when the Downtown Concept Plan for running for election. “So when a the landscape design guidelines political action committee (PAC) brought on both agreeing and op- or a group comes forward with posing views from the public and a referendum and anything that the Council members. needs to be reviewed by the City, Council members stated that a pledge like that should be de- the referendum information was veloped for PACs and for people “deceptive” and that residents seeking to issue referendums, with were being told lies. At the end of some of the same goals about not the meeting, Councilman Steve purposely misleading people.” Spedowfski recommended send- This was not to be a requirement, ing a letter to the Alameda County he stated, but it should be asked. Registrar of Voters to verify every In addition, Spedowfski wanted single signature as registered vot- city staff to provide an update on a ers. Typically, the County only requested FPPC investigation that takes a sample of the signatures (See COUNCIL, page 8) Tawin Puripunpinyo of Dublin milks "Fiona" at 10th Anniversary Celebration of Aviso Adobe Park Measure U Two Sides Argue Over Livermore Medical Initiative By Ron McNicoll Livermore voters in the Nov. start, said union spokesperson Sean The result would be more of a 6 election will be asked to ap- Wherley. burden on such low-income medical prove or reject Measure U, which The measure would limit a pro- services in the Valley as AXIS Com- backers believe will help control vider’s health care revenue to 115% munity Health, said Dauner. medical charges, and opponents of costs of services. Anything above But Wherley said, “This is their claim will result in job layoffs the 115% would be transferred to the attempt to get voters to say no. The and pay cuts for medical workers, health care insurer. That would be thrust of the initiative is to limit and the flight of practitioners from the patient, if self-insured, or a pa- charges for people who get care at Livermore. tient’s medical insurance company, medical facilities.” The initiative was placed on the said Wherley. Wherley said that Measure U ballot by the Livermore City Council Duane Dauner, a retiring head of opponents are also arguing that because it received enough votes to the California Hospital Association, the initiative would raise costs be placed on the ballot. is leading an effort by Livermore to Livermore taxpayers. A study Measure U asks, “Shall the medical people and community commissioned by the Livermore measure regulating and limiting members to defeat Measure U. City Council in July was done by Unifed Livermore rally at Blacksmith Square the amount that specified hospitals, Dauner said that the union’s initia- Henry Zaretsky, a Sacramento-based medical clinics, and other health tive simply won’t work. If a medical consultant who at one time headed care providers in Livermore with provider has to refund payments the California Office of Statewide Unify Livermore Rally Defends Downtown Plan the medical services provided to over 115% of costs, it will be coming Health Planning and Develop- By Carol Graham patients in Livermore be adopted?” out of the provider’s pocket. That ment. Zaretsky’s report says that The sponsoring Service Employ- would not leave enough revenue to Livermore would be spending $1.9 Around 60 people attended a Uni- months, and when I first started, cover everyone’s cost. million annually to hire auditors to fy Livermore rally held on Sep- my main goal was that that’s not ees International Union - Health Care Workers (SEIU-HCW) hos- Many patients can’t pay their keep track of transactions for patient tember 21 at Blacksmith Square. a dirt lot for my entire life. We can own way, especially Medicare and services. “My name is Karl Wente, and do better. We don’t want perfect pital workers union, which paid for solicitation of signatures to put it on Medi-Cal patients. They are subsi- Mayor John Marchand said that my family has been in Livermore to get in the way of good as we’re dized by people who can afford their the tax bite from initiative enforce- for five generations — since 1883. going forward, but not to stagnate the ballot, states that enacting Mea- sure U will give users of Livermore own insurance. If they are covered ment would amount to 40% of the But here today I only speak for as a community. The Council lis- medical facilities an instrument to by a health insurance firm, that busi- city's library budget. myself, as a citizen who cares,” tened, they’re doing a good job, we limit health care costs. The federal ness will get the amount of money Wherley said that the measure said Wente, director of Unify have a great plan in place, and we and state governments are not doing above 115%. The only individuals is not about costs to the city, but Livermore. “I want to continue to don’t want that disrupted.” it, so the cities are a good place to who would get a “refund” would be “what it does for the residents of have this community, this culture He added that those in support those who are self-insured. Livermore.” of who we are, be the best that it of Unify Livermore include the (See MEASURE U, page 12) can be.” Stockmen’s Association, Interfaith Pleasanton Boosts Development Fees Unify Livermore was recently Housing, the Chamber of Com- By Ron McNicoll formed to defend a downtown plan merce, Livermore Downtown, home increased by $22,000. Some revenue for projects and fees al- that the City Council approved the Livermore Valley Winegrow- The Pleasanton City Council $17,000 of that rise came in the lowed, the first fee study Pleasanton on Sept. 10. The plan calls for ers Association, the Science and voted unanimously to increase affordable housing fee, which rose completed in 20 years. an eastside 133-room hotel with Society Center, and the Livermore development fees that would align from $27,000 to $44,000. The city has raised some fees underground parking, 130 multi- Shakespeare Festival. Pleasanton fees to the level of the The affordable housing fee for annually, but they were tied to the family workforce housing units, Asa Strout, director and CEO average of Dublin and Livermore multi-family units rose even more construction price index, which retail space, a Science and Society of Unify Livermore, grew up in fees. dramatically, from $15,600 per sometimes behaves differently Center, a theater, a parking garage, Livermore and is now the father The council voted for the in- 1,200 square-foot unit to $43,000, than the Consumer Price Index, the and open space. Following the ap- of a baby girl. creases at its meeting on Sept. 18. which is only $1,000 less than a better-known inflation index. proval, the Friends of Livermore “The last thing I want is that as Councilmember Jerry Pentin made single-family home pays, per 3,000 At the meeting, Mayor Jerry began collecting signatures for a a citizen of Livermore is to delay the motion, with Karla Brown sec- square-foot unit.