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July 17, 2003
Targeting
soda pop:
A proposal to ban the
sweet stuff from schools is before the state Legislature
by
HELEN SANDERSON
With child obesity on the increase,
politicians and children's health advocates want to ban soft
drinks from schools.
State Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento)
is pushing a bill that would make it illegal to have soft drink
vending machines in California public schools. She says such
a step will promote better nutrition.
Lobbyists with the California-Nevada
Soft Drink Association assert that soda pop is not the cause
of child obesity; they say the main culprit is lack of exercise.
Ortiz's bill passed the Senate
in late May. If the Assembly also gives the bill a green light,
and Gov. Gray Davis signs it, elementary and middle-school kids
in Humboldt and elsewhere in the state will not be purchasing
soda on campus come 2005, nor will high school students by 2006.
Some school officials have sided
with the industry, noting that thousands of dollars in sales
from the vending machines go back to the schools, funding educational
programs and after-school sports. Others, however, have declared
their discomfort at being fiscally dependent on fizzy drinks.
Last year, Los Angeles County, with the second-largest school
district in the United States, made headlines when the board
unanimously voted to stop selling soda to their students beginning
next year.
Until recently, some Arcata
schools didn't even have vending machines. But then students
at Sunny Brae Middle School mounted a campaign for them, and
the school board agreed -- on the condition that the machines
dispense only juice and bottled water.
In Eureka, school officials
are drafting a policy that would prohibit the purchase of soda,
candy and high-fat potato chips on middle school and high school
campuses where they are currently available.
Northern Humboldt High School
District Superintendent Brian Stevens argued that if Arcata High
students can't buy soda on campus, they'll simply buy it elsewhere.
With an open campus, students can leave the school for their
lunch hour and head to the market, where the food and drink options
are limitless. Keeping the soda dispensers, Stevens says, keeps
kids on campus.
"I don't think that you
can legislate what people want to drink," Stevens said.
"I know that some health food advocates would think I'm
a nut, but to what extent should schools play the role of mom
and dad and at what point is a person responsible for their own
weight?"
Stevens added that the vending
machines bring in $2,000 to $3,000 a year, which goes towards
activities for the student body.
Joyce Hayes, a Eureka school
board member and a supporter of Ortiz' bill, argued that banning
soda would encourage students to make healthier food and beverage
choices. She also challenged the fiscal objection, citing Ortiz'
claim that school vending machines that dispense healthy items
generate similar revenue to machines featuring pop and candy
bars. Hayes added that bottled water is a "hot item right
now."
"Eating habits are developed
at a young age and it's a fact that health is influenced by diet,"
Hayes said. "We don't want to eliminate vending completely,
we just prefer that nutritious food is offered instead."
Rabid fox
bites child
A fox that attacked a child
in the Carson Woods area of Fortuna is the seventh within a 5-mile
radius of that town to test positive for rabies in the last three
months, the Humboldt County Public Health department reported.
Although rabies is normally
present in local wildlife, it is very unusual to see such a high
concentration, officials said.
The rabid foxes all had encounters
with humans or domestic animals, and several were unusually aggressive.
In the most recent incident, on July 6, a fox attacked and severely
bit a child on the leg and an adult on the boot. It was killed
the following evening in a fight with the neighbor's dog.
The child, a 6-year-old boy
who was playing ball in his backyard with his father, received
rabies shots and is recovering, officials said. In another recent
attack, a fox bit a man who was in his garage removing a frozen
steak from an ice chest.
"They lose that fear, that
natural fear they have" of humans, said Brent Whitener,
the county's Vector Control Officer.
Rabies is fatal to humans if
it goes untreated. For that reason, there is a strict legal requirement
to vaccinate pets against the disease, lest they contract it
from a wild animal and then pass it on to humans. A pet that
is not current on its vaccinations and encounters a rabid animal
may have to be euthanized.
County officials urged all pet
owners to make sure all their animals' rabies vaccinations are
up to date. Many vets offer low-cost shots.
Officials also warned people
to avoid contact with wild or stray animals, report animal bites
to an animal control officer, tell children not to touch a wild
or stray animal, and wash bites immediately with soap and water,
then seek medical attention. Keep wild animals away from your
home by bringing pet food indoors at night.
Questions about rabies should
be directed to the Vector Control Desk of the health department,
268-2203.
The life
of the upper class
Humboldt high schoolers who
will be juniors or seniors in the fall and have yet to pass the
state's challenging -- and controversial -- exit exam can relax;
they don't need to pass to graduate.
Next year's freshmen and sophomores,
however, are still on the hook. They will have to pass the test
-- which gauges math and language skills -- to get a diploma.
That's the net effect of last
week's decision by the state Board of Education to suspend the
exam as a graduation requirement until the 2005-06 school year.
The board took the step under pressure from critics, including
many teens, who have maintained that the exam tests students
on material they have not yet been taught.
Some questioned whether a two-year
postponement was enough time to give teachers a chance to better
prepare students. Board officials, however, said a longer delay
would be a step backward as the high-stakes test is forcing schools
to improve instruction.
The board last week made the
test somewhat less demanding, trimming the exam time from three
days to two and eliminating a writing test.
Humboldt students have done
better on the test than their counterparts elsewhere in the state,
with slightly more than half passing the math portion and 70
percent passing the language section over the past two years.
That compares to the statewide average for the same time period
of 40 percent for math and 61 percent for language.
Grandma
sentenced
Dianna Mae Preston, the Trinidad
woman who gunned down Kevin LaPorta in what she claimed was defense
of her granddaughter, was sentenced Monday in Humboldt County
Superior Court to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Preston, 59, told the court
"I easily pay this price" for LaPorta's murder.
Preston waited for LaPorta,
47, in the parking lot outside his Eureka acupuncture office
last July, fired several shots at him, then followed him into
the kitchen of Liu's Chinese Restaurant, where she shot him again.
She later said she believed
LaPorta was molesting her 19-month-old granddaughter, who is
also LaPorta's daughter, though she had been told several hours
before the shooting that DNA tests exonerated LaPorta.
Mill A back
on track
After being shut down for two
years, Eel River Sawmills reopened this week under the ownership
of Eel River Lumber Products, a division of the Eel River Acquisitions
Corporation.
Mill A, which previously employed
100 people, now has 35 workers, although another shift will be
hired within the next six weeks, a company official said.
Also in upcoming months, though
no date has been set, Mills B, C and D are scheduled for purchase
by the Eel River Acquisitions Corp. While Mills B and D are not
expected to reopen, Mill C, which houses the log chipping operation,
may run once again. The equipment from Mills B and D will be
used in Mill A.
At its height in the late 1980s,
Eel River Sawmills had 450 employees.
Rock shop
owner dies
Warren "Buzz" Chapman,
co-founder and longtime owner of Chapman's Gem and Mineral Shop,
died July 9 -- his 75th birthday -- of complications from heart
surgery, his wife, Charlotte, said.
Chapman, who also worked as
a masonry contractor until his retirement five years ago, had
been interested in rocks since he collected beach agates as a
young child. A native of Santa Rosa, he moved to Humboldt County
with his family in 1944 when he was a sophomore in high school.
It was there, at South Fork High in Miranda, that he met his
wife-to-be.
After they married, the Chapmans
decided to go into the rock business; they bought their first
shop in Rogue River, Ore., in 1950 and their second one in Miranda.
But neither site proved adequate for Chapman's dream: to open
a rock museum along with the store. So they kept searching.
"We looked all over the
West Coast and even Nevada," Charlotte Chapman said.
The current location -- four
miles south of Fortuna on Highway 101 -- has attracted thousands
of tourists. Some come from as far as San Francisco just to see
the collection.
Geologist Don Garlick, professor
emeritus at Humboldt State, called the store "arguably the
best rock shop on the West Coast."
The Chapmans themselves visited
every continent and all 50 states in search of new treasures.
Among their finds: a slab of rock from Morocco containing fossil
ammonites, marine mollusks that are now extinct; a polished sphere
of amethyst-bearing agate from Brazil; a 700-pound thigh bone
from a brontosaurus; and a foot-long egg from an elephant bird,
a species native to Madagascar that became extinct in the 17
th century. The shop also houses a large collection of cut and
polished stones, polished wood and a "fluorescent room"
where fluorescent lights turn drab stones into sparkling gems.
The day before his surgery,
Chapman was in the shop, putting in steel for the walls of the
new addition, which will house his crystal collection.
"My son will finish it,
and then we'll get it arranged the way (Buzz) wanted it,"
Charlotte Chapman said.
The Chapmans' daughter and son-in-law,
Sharon and Lyle Brown, will continue to run the rock shop.
Chapman is survived by his wife,
his son Stephen Chapman of Ukiah, his son Jerry Chapman of Honeydew,
his daughter Sharon Brown of Hydesville, six grandchildren and
three great-grandchildren.
A memorial service was held
July 12.
To pay or
not to pay
Property owners north of Humboldt
Bay are voting on whether to pay more money to keep year-round
fire and emergency services.
The mail-in ballot, due Aug.
5, asks whether property owners in Westhaven, the Trinidad area,
Big Lagoon and Orick favor an additional assessment over the
next several years to keep the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection's Trinidad office open 24 hours a day from
November through May.
State taxes pay for the office's
operation during the summer months, but during the other half
of the year the community "rents" the staff and equipment,
said Battalion Chief Allan Gradek.
The necessary funds, projected
to be as much as $72,927 for the coming winter season, enable
emergency personnel to assist with fires, car accidents, rescues
and medical emergencies in the rural area. From November 2002
though May 2003, they responded to 159 such incidents. The extra
money is needed to cover rising staff costs, Gradek said.
Approximately 1,400 ballots
have been mailed to property owners, whose assessments vary depending
on how many and what type of parcels they own.
Bike lane
brouhaha
A proposal to create bike lanes
along Myrtle Avenue was both praised and criticized at Tuesday's
Board of Supervisors meeting.
Project engineer Robert Bronkall
of the county's public works department told the board that the
lanes on either side of the street would be 5 feet in width and
would be located along a 1.2-mile strip between Harrison and
Hall Avenues.
Some residents and business
owners claimed that the bike lanes would reduce parking availability
and cut off access to delivery vehicles. An Arcata resident maintained
that since the establishment of bike lanes in Arcata, property
values there have increased. Bronkall said that large trucks
could briefly pull into the bike lanes to make their deliveries
and that property owners could simply use their driveways.
The board is expected to make
a decision on the matter by Aug. 5.
The long-term plan is to have
a safe bike route from Arcata to Eureka via Old Arcata Road,
which connects to Myrtle Avenue.
Don't be
duped
A bogus e-mail is being sent
to computer users in Humboldt County, among other places, in
an attempt at identity theft, the District Attorney's office
warned.
The e-mail is from a man calling
himself Paul Komo, who claims to be the minor son of a wealthy
cocoa merchant in the Ivory Coast. He writes that he needs a
foreign bank account into which he can safely deposit $5 million
his father left him when he died.
Once an unwitting recipient
gives him a bank account number and other personal information,
the thief can then use the information to withdraw all money
from the account, obtain new credit cards and loans, and mortgage
the victim's home.
"This e-mail is part of
a criminal fraud, one of many Internet scams," the DA's
office said in a written statement. "Do not respond to this
or similar e-mail if you receive it."
If you have responded, notify
local police immediately.
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