Santa Monica Daily Press, January 01, 2004

FR EE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2004

Volume 3, Issue 43

Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

FROM THE STAFF AT THE SANTA MONICA DAILY PRESS! NEWS OF THE WEIRD

by Chuck Shepard

Buffing it out

Stories that put Santa Monica in national spotlight

By Daily Press staff

“Mentally Disabled Taught How to Vote” (a Mainichi Daily News report on how employees at a nursing home in Yokkaiichi, Japan, have for years instructed residents how to print out names of their favorite candidates on ballots) (November).

“Woman Gets Probation for Chasing Kids With Dildo” (a Pottstown, Pa., Mercury report about Linda Schultz, 36, engaging in inexplicable conduct in front of three small children and being referred for psychological counseling) (October).

QUOTE OF THE DAY

There was no shortage of news in Santa Monica this past year and much of it gained national attention.

From the Farmers’ Market tragedy to the largest court settlement in City Hall’s history, to the fire chief retiring and a hotly contested recall race, Santa Monica was in the thick of it.

Budget woes nearly crippled the local school district and community college while City Hall dealt with its own mess. City Hall cracked down on its homeless population, although some say not enough. And preservationists reserved the right to tell homeowners whether their properties are historic.

The Santa Monica Daily Press revisits the top 10 news stories of the year. Wednesday highlighted the top five news stories of the year. Today we present the list of the No. 5 through No. 10 news stories of 2003.

Here’s a list of the top news stories of 2003: 1. Summertime tragedy strikes 2. Largest settlement for city on record 3. Santa Monica’s only homicide 4. Santa Monica woman murdered in Hollywood 5. Budget woes linger

“A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.”

Horoscopes Get some shut-eye, Gemini . . . . . . .2

Local Your local surf report . . . . . . . . . . . .3

State Wind farm on horizon . . . . . . . . . . .5

File photo

Voters went to the polls last summer, resulting in $39 million for Santa Monica and Malibu schools.

Muddy waters on the border . . . . .7

■ No: 6: Taxpayers bail out schools

Cracking a cold case . . . . . . . . . .11

Back Page

Wine affectionately called ‘Two-Buck Chuck’ by many Associated Press Staff Writer

INDEX

National

Vintner behind low-priced label is unapologetic

BY JERRY HIRSCH

– Anonymous

National

Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press

A worker buffs out the roof on the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center’s newest building. The hospital is going through a $275 million overhaul.

A new tax that will pump $6.5 million annually into the local school district for the next six years barely won at the polls in a June special election. Known as Measure See REVIEW, page 3

Route 66 a biker haven . . . . . . . . .16

LODI — Here on the western edge of the Sierra foothills, underneath the soaring cooling towers of the defunct Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, 5,000 acres of rock-strewn vineyards mark the birthplace of Fred Franzia’s Two-Buck Chuck.

As the amiable and ample Franzia leads a visitor through neatly planted Cabernet Sauvignon vines, he discusses why he’s perplexed that his Bronco Wine Co., which makes the $1.99 wine sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s stores in California, has become the bane of the industry. Franzia is facing litigation over labeling practices and criticism from retailers and distributors who fear their profit margins will erode if the popularity of low-priced wine grows.

To his thinking, the Charles Shaw brand and inexpensive labels such as Estrella, ForestVille and Napa Ridge have done a lot to promote California wines by fighting the deluge of cheap imports and reducing the state’s grape glut.

“We have vineyards where you drive three miles before you have to turn the tractor around.”

— FRED FRANZIA Vintner

In a rare interview, Franzia, whose family has made wine in California for 110 years, talked about California’s wine industry, his business and the Two-Buck Chuck phenomenon.

Question: How can you sell wine at a price point so low that Trader Joe’s can offer it for $1.99 in California?

Answer: Our vineyards are so efficient. Bronco controls 30,000 acres of California vineyards. We have vineyards where you drive three miles before you have to turn the tractor around. Do you know how much money I save on rubber by turning the tractor less and not using up tires compared to the average farmer who See VINTNER, page 6

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ARIES (March 21-April 19) ★★★ You might want to chill out and do something that you feel is appropriate for the new year. Stay close to home and relax with a loved one. A buffet dinner with close friends might be the best way to christen 2004. Tonight: Indulge, my dear Ram.

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20) ★★★★★ You delight in what others do.

Friends are full of surprises. Get ready — this will be a continuing pattern for several years.

Stability won’t be found through your friends.

What you can count on being stable is instability. Tonight: You are the cat’s meow.

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GEMINI (May 21-June 20) ★★★ You might need to use today to catch up on sleep. You also might need to have a private discussion with a family member who means a lot to you. Finances could be a prime topic. You might want to avoid that subject.

Tonight: Sleep at last.

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CANCER (June 21-July 22) ★★★★★ Ask for what you want, but don’t be surprised if it arrives at your door in a twisted or surprising manner. Count on an O. Henry twist here. Avoid someone who might be rather combative or difficult — OK? Know that, ultimately, you will have what you want. Tonight: Still partying?

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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) ★★★ You need to be on top of your game right now. News from a distance could have you regrouping and thinking through a personal matter. You might have a knee-jerk reaction. Try not to act on it. Wait awhile, as the situation could change. Tonight: A must show.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) ★★★★★ Not everyone looks at a situation the same way you do. Right now you have the luxury of detachment. Though someone’s reaction could throw you off, you do understand it.

Help others understand as well. Tonight: Relax to music or a movie.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) ★★★★★ You might find that a loved one could be very difficult and, in your opinion, edging for a fight. Gain a perspective through discussion. You could have a greater impact than you realize right now. Think about your longterm desires. Tonight: Togetherness works.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) ★★★★★ Others seek you out en masse.

You might want to get something done, and therefore express your frustration a bit harshly.

Use your unusually creative streak, and you’ll find the solution. Break past your normal thought patterns. Tonight: Just don’t be alone.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) ★★★ Have a discussion with a partner or key associate. You are creative and fiery in whatever you do, though you might want to step back to see the end results. A family member creates an uproar. Tonight: Slow down.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) ★★★★★ Your imagination and creativity come forth. Unexpected news heads your way from a source you might not expect. You’ll like what happens if you stay open. Your fiery side emerges within the family. Tonight: Play away.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) ★★★ Lay low and make this a lazy day, if you can. Just because someone else thinks you should do something doesn’t mean you have to.

Don’t get irritated or start the year with harsh words. Gentleness goes a long way. Tonight: Order in. “Easy” is the word.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) ★★★★ Your unpredictability could be one person’s delight and another person’s horror. Be realistic about a risk. Don’t let something backfire more than you can afford it to. Keep conversations going, even if you want to shut down.

Tonight: Catch up on a friend’s news.

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Santa Monica Daily Press ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Page 3

LOCAL

2003: The year in review REVIEW, from page 1 S, it passed by 169 votes, just slightly more than the two-thirds vote it needed to pass.

The campaign began shortly after the fall of 2003’s defeat of Measure EE, which proposed a gradual increasing parcel tax that would have capped at $360 per parcel in 2006.

The tax helped the local school district close a $13.7 million shortfall in state funding for next year. The district was able to rehire many of the 200-plus workers who were laid off in March.

School supporters — mostly parents — were relentless in their campaign to convince voters that the tax was not only necessary, but absolutely crucial for the district to maintain quality education in Santa Monica and Malibu. They raised more than $200,000 and spent it on a finely tuned campaign that targeted regular voters, Democrats and parents with children in local schools. They hired campaign consultants and outspent their opponents by $193,000.

But the campaign for raising money didn’t end at Measure S. Knowing that the tax revenue wouldn’t be enough, those same school supporters marched in front of the Santa Monica City Council a month later and successfully got another $5.25 million in city funds. The City Council in past years has traditionally given $3 million to the district. This year, City Hall, which faced its own multi-million dollar deficit, gave another $2.25 million to the district. City Hall for the past few years has given extra money to the school district.

■ No. 7: Homeless get dose of tough love

Best-exposed breaks have a good chance of seeing shoulder-plus-high surf, although conditions look less than ideal thanks to consistent SE-SW winds and periods of heavy rain.

The swell is expected quickly fade out today. Smaller leftover swell is expected on Thursday.

Write us at wood@smdp.com and tell us what the surf is doing today at your local break.

LOW TIDE Morning Height WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY

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1.6 0.9 0.4 0.0 2.5 5.0

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Sunset: 5:01 p.m.

HIGH TIDE

Evening Height 10:19 11:04pm 11:46pm N/A 2:18 2:50

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Homeless activists took to the streets last January to announce that they were suing City Hall over one of its anti-homeless laws.

In response to complaints from a very vocal business community, the City Council passed laws in 2002 that were designed to remove homeless people from downtown Santa Monica. Those laws started to be enforced this past year, but some say it has had little effect.

The police began enforcing the first law, which forbids people from sleeping in downtown doorways, in March. But many merchants say the law is problematic because it requires any business that doesn’t want people sleeping in its doorway to place a sign in the window saying so. If there is no sign posted, police can’t enforce the law, which prohibits sitting or lying in downtown doorways from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. And See REVIEW, page 4

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Police recently began to enforce the second law, which requires groups who feed the hungry to go through a rigorous government process to get a permit from the city and Los Angeles County to provide meals in a public place. The law prompted a group of homeless advocates, saying the ordinance is unconstitutional, to sue City Hall in federal court. The lawsuit, which was dismissed by a federal judge this past fall, sought an injunction on stopping the food lines. City Hall chose not to enforce the law until the judge made a decision. Food lines are now regularly monitored, which forces large groups to distribute food no more than three times in a 90-day period.

The City Council also in 2003 passed a law forbidding the homeless to sleep on the bluffs below Palisades Park.

The bluff is a steep, deeply eroded and unstable area that expands about one and half miles above the Pacific Coast Highway and below Palisades Park. The bluffs’ height varies in height from 50 feet to 180 feet and is accessible from the PCH or the park.

Several tunnels, caves and shelves along the bluffs are used by transients to store belongings and to sleep. Not only is it unsafe to be there because the rock is unstable and is subject to slides, but the area is frequently littered with trash.

materials spill. His name is listed on a plaque in front of the new Public Safety Facility that commemorates officers who died in the line of duty.

“I get to see his name every time I get to work. It’s good,” Hone told the Daily Press this past fall.

■ No. 9: A total recall

■ No. 11: A landmark diner in Santa Monica shuts its doors

■ No. 8: Fire chief retires

File photo

Arnold Schwarzenegger brought the circus to town when he set up his campaign headquarters in downtown Santa Monica.

File photo

Ettore Berardinelli (center) retired as Santa Monica’s fire chief in July.

It was a bittersweet end for Santa Monica Fire Chief Ettore Berardinelli’s career as a firefighter. Berardinelli retired this summer, but not before he experienced the worst accident in his 31 years. Berardinelli hung up his hat shortly after the Farmers’ Market tragedy, which left 10 dead and 63 injured in downtown Santa Monica.

Berardinelli spent nearly his entire fire-fighting career in Santa Monica. Berardinelli, who has held every rank in the department since he started as a firefighter in 1972, ended his six-year term as chief on July 24. He moved to the administrative side of the department in 1982.

If there’s just one thing Berardinelli said he wishes he’d done differently, he would have kept a diary. He would have written in it after the fire that gutted Cheerio Restaurant in the 1980s, the Carmel Hotel fire in 1972, the Stafford Street fire of 1976 or the more recent Sea Castle fire. He would have recorded his thoughts on New Year’s Day, 1979, after a fire ripped through Thrifty Drug store.

Berardinelli was replaced in October by Jim Hone, who served as assistant chief and fire marshal before being promoted. Like Berardinelli, Hone has been a firefighter in Santa Monica throughout most of his career.

Hone, who first applied with the department while on leave from the Air Force in 1979, was chosen as Santa Monica’s Fire Chief from what began as a pool of 24 applicants.

After spending six years in the Air Force as a firefighter and aircraft rescue specialist, Hone was hired as a Santa Monica firefighter and paramedic in 1980. In 1983, he was promoted to fire captain and paramedic, and in 1988 he was named captain of the hazardous-materials unit. In 1990, Hone became support-services division chief, and in 1995 he was promoted to assistant chief and fire marshal.

Jack Hone, Hone’s little brother and a Santa Monica firefighter, died in 1996 after responding to a hazardous-

forced the measure to the ballot box after they collected nearly 13,000 signatures for a special election. They argued that the Landmarks Commission has made it too difficult to remodel their homes and, in some cases, prevented them from tearing down old, dilapidated structures because they are considered historically significant.

But preservationists argued they want to protect the character of Santa Monica by keeping its buildings and architecture intact. If a home is deemed historic or a structure of merit, there are limitations to what can be done to its exterior, but not its interior.

When a city-hired consulting firm found in 2002 that hundreds of homes in Santa Monica could have the potential to be historically significant, residents became nervous that the future of their properties could be controlled by the Landmarks Commission.

The election was Santa Monica’s first-ever mail-only ballot, a move that was designed to increase voter turnout. It cost the city $100,000 to hold the election.

The recall of Governor Gray Davis was definitely a top story throughout the state. And although it had implications in Santa Monica, it didn’t become one of the city’s top stories until one of Santa Monica’s own entered the race and won.

And it wasn’t just anyone.

It was the Terminator, who also happens to be a local businessman. Not only does Arnold Schwarzenegger spend a significant amount of time in Santa Monica, he also own several properties here and is a landlord to many business owners.

Schwarzenegger brought the circus to town shortly after he announced that he would run for governor. At first, his headquarters were at 310 Main St. above Shatzi’s on Main, a building he owns. Then he set up a second shop in downtown Santa Monica on Fourth Street, once again putting Santa Monica in the national spotlight.

Members of the media from all over the world broadcast from here, giving the world a glimpse of our community.

But it wasn’t just the media circus that came to town.

The headquarters on Fourth Street quickly became the site for feminists and Schwarzenegger critics to march, protest and yell harsh slogans.

And while Schwarzenegger haters were marching in the streets, his supporters and friends were right there, yelling even louder. All day long, motorists honked as they passed the Schwarzenegger headquarters on Fourth Street between Arizona Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.

On election night, the place became a ghost town as the Schwarzenegger camp packed up and moved their party to Century City.

The closing of Dee’s Diner downtown wasn’t chosen as one of the top 10 stories of 2003, but it was close.

Workers, residents, firemen, police, homeless people — everyone loved this little home-style diner on Santa Monica Boul-evard. And its closing in August symbolized the end of an era for local merchants.

Owners Debra and Bob Moini will make more renting the property out to a French-style bakery than they ever did as restaurateurs. But that’s not the reason they shut the doors. The couple want to spend more time with each other and their family.

The community institution — known for its piping hot corned beef hash and for the voice of Frank Sinatra crooning softly on speakers overhead — is now forever gone.

In a community profile last week, Jay Fiondella, owner of Chez Jay’s, a famous bar and restaurant on Ocean Avenue, said the closing of Dee’s constituted a real loss to Santa Monica. Fiondella wasn’t alone.

In the last few days that Dee’s was open, people from all walks of Santa Monica came to pay their tribute to the old diner. And the Moinis, who met and fell in love with each other while working at the old A&W in Santa Monica, were there with their children to say farewell to each of them.

With the diner now closed, longtime cook Reginald Aguayo and waitress Maribel Garcia have moved next door to The Britannia, a bar, and are still serving the same Dee’s breakfast menu. And while orders of chorizo con huevos or bacon and eggs taste the same, locals say the charm of Dee’s is sorely missed.

■ No. 10: Homeowners batted down in election by preservationists As the saying goes, “You can’t fight City Hall.” Well you can, but you might not win. Homeowners lost their battle with preservationists and City Hall in a March special election. Proposition A, also known as the “Homeowners’ Freedom of Choice Initiative,” pitted homeowners against landmark lovers, who continue to reserve the right to designate homes as historic without the owner’s consent. It’s been a power that the Landmarks Commission has held for more than two decades.

Property owners throughout the city in the fall of 2002

File photo

Bob Moini and his son, Mike, were fixtures outside of Dee’s Diner, a local’s favorite.

Santa Monica Daily Press ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Page 5

STATE

Wind farm seen as model for future energy sources

BY TERENCE CHEA Associated Press Writer

BIRDS LANDING — One of the nation's largest wind energy projects is being completed in the rolling hills between San Francisco and Sacramento, where dozens of turbines rising more than 300 feet tower over wheat fields and herds of sheep.

The High Winds Energy Center is a model for how wind energy should be developed, environmentalists say. With turbines nearly 20 times more powerful than earlier generation machines, it produces electricity at competitive prices and doesn't disturb the surrounding farms and wildlife.

When all of its 90 turbines are operating by year's end, it will have the capacity to generate 162 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 75,000 homes, according to Florida-based FPL Energy, which owns and operates High Winds along with 30 other wind facilities in 10 states. Set in the Montezuma Hills in Solano County, the new wind farm rises above six farms and ranches just north of the Sacramento River.

“This is the future of wind power,” said Ralph Cavanagh, energy program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It doesn't displace agricultural uses, it complements them.”

Environmentalists have championed wind power as an alternative form of energy for decades because wind is a free, renewable resource that generates electricity without polluting the air or water.

But since the first large wind facilities were built in the early 1980s, they have run into technological, economic and political obstacles. Early versions didn't produce electricity efficiently enough to compete with fossil fuel, while communities complained that small forests of turbines marred the landscape and environ-

mentalists fretted that the blades were killing birds.

The new Solano County wind farm, environmentalists say, has overcome such obstacles.

High Winds is different kind of wind farm from the ones familiar to most Californians. The state's two biggest areas for wind energy — the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco and the Tehachapi Pass north of Los Angeles — are home to dozens of wind farms where thousands of small, low-power turbines dot the hills.

High Winds' turbines are taller, more powerful and more efficient than older generation turbines, which means the project can generate more energy with fewer machines. Each turbine generates 1.8 megawatts, 18 times more than the 100kilowatt turbines built two decades ago.

Older turbines can't rotate from side to side, so they often remain idle, and only operate at maximum efficiency when the wind blows in the right direction. High Winds' turbines swivel to face oncoming breezes, capturing energy at wind speeds as low as eight mph, said FPL spokesman Steven Stengel.

High Winds hasn't run into the kind of opposition plaguing other wind energy projects, such as the offshore towers near Massachusetts' Cape Cod, where residents worry that 40-story turbines will harm ocean views, seabirds and tourism. Here in the agricultural Montezuma Hills, there have been few complaints.

“It's a win-win situation,” said Jackie Crockett, chief of staff for Solano County Supervisor Ruth Forney, who represents the district where the wind farm has been built. “We just assumed when we took office that it was another thing we'd get complaints on, and we haven't had any.”

Unlike Altamont Pass, where turbine blades have killed an estimated 22,000 birds, High Winds' turbines rotate more slowly, so few birds get caught in the

blades.

And local landowners welcome the extra income — FPL pays between $2,500 and $4,000 a year to lease the space for each turbine, while the surrounding land can still be used to raise animals, grow crops and other activities.

“Far from being an intruder on the landscape, this represents economic opportunity for rural America,” said the NRDC's Cavanagh. “This is adding value to farms without displacing the farming.”

Projects like High Winds also benefit from government incentives. Wind energy projects developed since 1994 get 10 years of federal tax credits of 1.8 cents for every kilowatt-hour of energy produced.

The latest credit expires at the end of the year, but wind advocates expect Congress to extend it again next year.

About a dozen states require utilities to increase their use of renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy. A California law passed last year

requires 20 percent of the state's electricity to come from renewable energy by 2017, and state regulators want to push the deadline up to 2010.

For now, wind remains a minor player in the U.S. energy markets, and while California leads the nation in use of wind power, less than 2 percent of the state's electricity came from wind last year, according to the California Energy Commission.

Technological advances, along with government incentives, have now made wind energy cost-competitive with oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy, said Jan Johnson, a spokeswoman for PPM Energy, an energy wholesaler that has already sold most of High Winds' output to cities including Anaheim, Pasadena, Glendale and Sacramento.

“If you have a choice between any form of electrical generation,” Johnson said, “are you going to choose one that generates greenhouse gases or wind power?”

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Charles Shaw vintner: Others should promote California wines VINTNER, from page 1 is turning his tractor every quarter mile?

The efficiencies of maintaining large acreages allow us to pick tonnages at lower cost. There is nothing like watching 20 or 30 harvesters go out and pick 120 truckloads. It is like an orchestra operating. Trucks moving 3,000 tons of grapes a night. Everything is done on a mass scale, correctly and efficiently. Our strategy is to fish where the fish are. I think more people in the marketplace are buying wines costing $2 to $8. If we felt there was more business at the higher price strata we would be in that market.

Q: You will sell more than 60 million bottles of Charles Shaw this year. Are you making money?

A: Yes. The margin varies with every batch. But I am not going to give you an answer as to what the margins are. Just remember, we aren’t losing weight over this.

Q: What’s your company’s annual revenue?

A: You would not be out of order guesstimating $250 million. We processed 300,000 tons this year, plus or minus. It is the equivalent of around 20 million cases of wine. We sell over half of that at the retail level. The rest is sold as bulk wine to other wine companies.

Q: Industry lore says you are buying up tanks of highbrow wine on the bulk market and using that for the Shaw label. Or is it most of your own fruit and then you use bulk wine for blending? What’s the truth?

A: I can’t give you a 100 percent answer that would be true for every variety. It moves around. I am not trying to be evasive; that is just part of the process.

Our winemakers blend to keep consistency in the wine taste. They have access to a wide range of grape products that we have in our wineries to do that. Some wines might be blended with Petit Verdot or Cabernet Franc or Shiraz, depending on the winemaker’s taste. It is up to him to keep the consistency.

Overall, our company grows about 60 percent of our grapes and purchases about 40 percent of what we process.

Q: Why don’t we see more $1.99 wines in the markets?

A: There is no reason why more retailers in California can’t be doing the same.

Some retailers are buying similar wine from us at about the same price, and they are selling it to their consumers at a higher markup. I am not going to name names.

Charles Shaw has done wonders for our company. I think Trader Joe’s has been an instrumental partner in this combination. They are willing to sell the consumer a product at such a fair price.

Q: How does the average consumer walking down the wine aisle know the difference between a $5, $8, $15 or $50 bottle of wine?

A: The consumer has to make the trial and error with his own palate and taste buds. Don’t listen to some wine writer’s rating system that is just numbers.

Somebody might rate a wine at 94 points, but you as a consumer might not like it and then say, “If I can’t appreciate what somebody said was a 94, then I am not going to go buy wine.”

There is an old-fashioned way of find-

“We processed 300,000 tons this year, plus or minus.”

— FRED FRANZIA Vintner

ing wine that works. You try it, you taste it and, if you like it, buy it. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. We feel very confident that if you taste our wines, you will buy our wines and continue to buy them.

Q: You’re involved in a legal battle with the Napa Valley Vintners Assn. over the use of names such as Napa Ridge on bottles that don’t contain grapes from Napa Valley.

What do you think of their complaint?

A: There is a vocal minority that is leading some of them on a quest to put Napa on a pedestal. But we don’t believe in that. “Napa” could mean auto parts to most people. To us, it is just the location where we bottle our wines.

Q: But why bottle wines there when you don’t grow grapes there?

A: The reason we built the bottling operation there was because we have customers whom we bottle for and they wanted it located there so that they can watch the bottling of their products. We had completed and opened that plant long before we introduced Shaw. Certain Charles Shaw labels say “Cellared & bottled in Napa.”

Q: Even though you are a nephew of Ernest Gallo, people say you have a “prickly” relationship with the wine industry establishment. Why is that?

A: Well, there may be some people who don’t know me and who have operations and might want to throw rocks because of my success and their lack of success or their financial problems or they can’t sell their wine. They can’t blame me for that. I didn’t go there and tell them to try to build some monument of a winery.

California vintners should be concerned with promoting California wines and planning for the future to make us competitive instead of being prickly in their opinions about the people who are trying to be competitive.

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Santa Monica Daily Press ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Page 7

NATIONAL

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Plan would give unity to Mexican and U.S. governors on Rio Grande issues

BY LESLIE HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The muddy water of the Rio Grande that meanders through this Southwest metropolis is liquid gold to many.

Farmers rely on it for crops. City leaders, both here and in Texas, need it for their residents and count on it for urban growth. The pinky-sized silvery minnow and other species depend on it for life.

Recent drought and surging population have complicated the fight over Rio Grande water. But so does a fact that draws less attention — namely, that the river winds along a long stretch of the U.S. border with Mexico.

With that in mind, a plan is in the works to bring the governors of New Mexico, Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas together to draft a water agreement. The goal: to help future generations on both sides of the border manage the basin.

“I'm very concerned by the lack of attention Mexico's federal government and the U.S. government are giving to water issues at the border,” said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is behind the effort.

Richardson wants the five governors to draft an agreement that would cover water use, conservation and management of the river. He hopes to rally the leaders as chairman of the U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference.

If successful, Richardson and others say the agreement would be a breakthrough for the border.

The effort is in its infancy. Richardson staffers and a University of New Mexico research center, which has been tapped by the governor to help, are still months away from making formal contact with other states.

But in the meantime, the Utton Transboundary Research Center is drafting a comprehensive briefing report on the basin's water issues for the governors to review. The report is expected early next summer.

Richardson's Mexican counterpart in the effort is Alberto Szekely, a former Mexican diplomat who has worked as a special negotiator for transboundary water issues and adviser to the foreign minister.

“The most critical issue is that we don't have a law of the river,” Szekely said.

“The water has been given on the basis of concessions instead of water law.”

That creates a problem, especially given that the bilateral institution created as a referee for treaty disputes over water — the International Boundary and Water Commission — has a limited mandate, he said.

“It only distributes the water and manages the hydrology infrastructure that holds that water,” Szekely said. “... But it has absolutely no mandate to deal with the

sustainable management of the resource.”

Sally Spener, a spokeswoman for the U.S. section of the commission, argues that her agency is increasingly taking a more proactive role on water management issues, especially given the drought.

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“The most critical issue is that we don’t have a law of the river.”

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— ALBERTO SZEKELY Former Mexican diplomat

She points to language in recent agreements between the United States and Mexico in an ongoing fight over Mexico's water-sharing obligations under a 1944 treaty. The pacts, which called for transfers of water to the United States, also addressed water conservation and the commission's drought management role.

The pacts are amendments to a 1944 treaty stipulating that the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River. Mexico has not been meeting its commitment to send the 350,000 acre-feet annually and now owes the United States 1.3 million acrefeet. An acre-foot is enough to flood an acre of land a foot deep.

Mexican officials have said their states simply don't have enough water to send. But Texas officials cite recent heavy rainfall and point to satellite images they say prove there is now enough water for Mexico to pay a sizable portion of its water debt.

The Texas fight shows the need for state-level cooperation on border water management, said Bill Hume, Richardson's director of policy and issues.

The question is whether it's feasible to get five governors to sit down and agree on an issue that already has produced bitter battles.

Hume acknowledged “it would be naive to believe this would be easy.”

However, “with the alternatives being litigation and hard feelings or negotiation and comprise, clearly it's worth seeing if we can have more of the latter,” he said.

A complicating factor that has stalled previous efforts is a difference in governance between the United States and Mexico, said Marilyn O'Leary, head of the Utton Transboundary Resources Center. Water rights are governed at the state level in the United States but are a federal issue in Mexico, she said.

“So you haven't had a fit in terms of who talks about it or how it gets talked about,” O'Leary said.

The Mexican and American federal governments would have to sign off on an agreement, which could take the form of an addendum to an existing water treaty, if it were to be binding, Hume said.

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Page 8 ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Santa Monica Daily Press

NATIONAL

Bush, greens seek reforms for Endangered Species Act

BY DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO — As the federal Endangered Species Act turned 30 years old this past weekend, groups warring over the landmark conservation law say they're edging toward a consensus that its future lies in cooperation instead of confrontation.

Supporters and opponents alike say the act is being loved to death by environmental groups that have used it not only to save species from extinction, but to block — or at least slow — rampaging development.

The Bush administration's chief overseer declared the act “broken,” snapped under the weight of myriad lawsuits that now drive most aspects of the law.

Environmental groups counter that Bush has sabotaged the law by not seeking sufficient money through a Congress that, in turn, is so split it hasn't reauthorized the act since 1988. It's funded instead on a year-to-year basis as critics and supporters spar over its future.

For all the rancor, both sides are charting a more cooperative future, with incentives for landowners who participate in protection programs instead of a regulatory hammer.

“I think 30 years hence, it's going to be the standard way of operating,” said Crain Manson, assistant interior secretary for wildlife.

He cites the example of a central California ranch family whose young children stumbled across a protected frog, a remnant of once-widespread population made famous by Mark Twain's tale of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

The family told The Associated Press they hesitated to come forward for fear of heavy-handed federal intervention, but have been happily surprised with the cooperation between state, federal and local officials and environmental organizations.

“You've got to have a cooperative approach to make this work,” Manson said. “You give people a reason to want to cooperate with the government and the tools to do it.”

That's the same message being preached by William

Robert Irvin of the World Wildlife Fund and Michael Bean of the Environmental Defense.

“I think it is the future,” said Irvin. “You can get a lot farther with carrots than sticks. I certainly think there is a shared interest in promoting incentives.”

Strong protections must remain to spur the sort of cooperation Manson touts in the case of Twain's frog, cautioned Robert J. Stack, who is coordinating that effort through his Jumping Frog Research Institute in Angels Camp.

“You’ve got to have a cooperative approach to make this work.

You give people a reason to want to cooperate with the government and the tools to do it.”

— CRAIN MANSON Assistant interior secretary for wildlife

Even conservation groups promoting a cooperative vision accuse the Bush administration and Republican Congress of using it to mask assaults on the act. Those include easing protections on military bases and national forests, and seeking to repeal a provision requiring the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for endangered species.

It's the critical-habitat portion of the law that is drowning in lawsuits from both environmental groups pushing designations and development groups opposing them.

The endless litigation has kept the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “from focusing on other, more important things, so in that aspect (the act) is broken,” Manson said.

As recently as May, Manson joined Fish and Wildlife officials in blaming the court battles for eating up all their funding and forcing them to miss countless legally mandated deadlines. Environmental groups and even federal judges have blamed Congress and the Bush administra-

tion for underfunding the agency.

But Manson and House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., discounted that financial argument in interviews with the AP. “It's definitely more than a question of funding when it comes to critical habitat,” Manson said. He said the service is reluctant to make legally required designations not because it lacks money, but because “it doesn't add a great deal of environmental benefit.”

Pombo has targeted the act for revision next year after a series of nationwide hearings.

“It has not been successful in terms of recovering endangered species, and it's caused a lot of conflict with property owners,” said Pombo, who questions the quality of the science behind many protection decisions.

Yet Pombo, who has fought a running battle with environmental groups, said he thinks Congress could finally reauthorize the act based on a consensus that promotes more use of tools like Habitat Conservation Plans.

Such plans can shift the emphasis to managing large swaths of property to benefit an entire ecosystem, minimizing critics' complaints that the act micromanages landowners to benefit a single endangered species sometimes to the detriment of other wildlife, Pombo said.

Environmental Defense and the World Wildlife Fund tout similar measures like Safe Harbor Agreements and Candidate Conservation Agreements, which also promise property owners some regulatory freedom so long as they take steps to protect endangered species.

“Regulatory incentives really do result in landowners doing good things for their land,” without worrying they'll be punished for their good works, said the World Wildlife Fund's Irvin.

Irvin proposes a national commission be formed to focus on the act's benefits and shortcomings at age 30.

“Everybody sees the need to have an Endangered Species Act. We've been arguing for years what that (act) should look like,” Pombo said. “As long as we stick to the areas where there is general consensus, I think we can move forward.”

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Santa Monica Daily Press ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Page 9

NATIONAL

Western farms going dry to supply suburban homes

BY SETH HETTENA Associated Press Writer

ROCKY FORD, Colo. — Ron Aschermann could barely eke out a living raising melons, cucumbers, tomatoes or other crops on his 300-acre farm. But quitting the business will earn him more than $1.2 million.

Aschermann and scores of others farmers on the high plains of southeastern Colorado are selling water, which once produced melons, to the Denver suburb of Aurora.

The prairie will retake land that has long known the plow.

“Yeah, it's not a healthy thing to do for the area, but let me tell you: Farming is not that great anymore either.

These rural communities in almost any state you want to go into, they're all getting smaller,” said Aschermann a 60year-old whose family has farmed in the area since 1911.

“The best dollar for the asset right now is the water.”

The same thing is happening across the West as the nation's fastest-growing region shifts more water from farms to thirsty cities. Billions of gallons changed hands last year in eight Western states, and even more will flow in years to come. California recently approved a 75-year shift of water from desert farms to San Diego, the biggest transfer of its kind in U.S. history.

Colorado's Arkansas River Valley serves as a cautionary example for the West's burgeoning water market. For a one-time payment of $18 million, Aurora bought water to flush toilets and grow flowers in new homes, and a faded farm region will be dealt another blow. What was once the town's pride, a 13-mile ditch that settlers dug by hand shortly after the Civil War, will be nearly drained.

When the water leaves, more jobs and local businesses are expected to dry up as well.

“Westwide, over the next 25 to 50 years, you will clearly see additional examples of what's happening in the Arkansas Valley,” said Bennett Raley, a Denver water lawyer who is now the Bush administration's point man for Western water issues.

Across the Arkansas River from Rocky Ford, Carl McClure, the 65-year-old president of the local farmer's union, offers a tour of what happened to a neighboring county that sold most of its water to Colorado Springs and other cities.

McClure noses his pickup past Crowley County's closed railroad stations, empty storefronts and a shuttered car dealership. An alfalfa field has disappeared beneath the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, a mediumsecurity state facility. McClure retired after working there 12 years to supplement his farm income.

“This is what replaces farms, when you take the water away,” McClure said, gazing at the prison's floodlights and chain-link fence.

Down the road is the newer Crowley County

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Correctional Facility. Together, the two prisons house more than 2,000 male inmates, nearly half the county's population and much of its growth.

“It can be very depressing,” McClure said. “Crowley County is a prime example of what shouldn't happen.”

It's a fate that California's Imperial Valley, the state's poorest region, hopes to avoid. In October, the desert farm region, which uses more Colorado River than most states, narrowly agreed to ship some of its supply to San Diego for $3.5 billion over 45 years _ the biggest sale of its kind in U.S. history.

Imperial found itself under extraordinary and unprecedented pressure to sell. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation threatened to take away some water that it deemed the desert farmers were wasting.

The water sale is designed to give Imperial and its $1 billion-a-year farm economy a measure of financial security, but many worry about the future of the valley tucked in California's southeastern corner. Valley farmers flood desert fields to produce huge amounts of alfalfa, a thirsty, lowvalue crop. The question on many minds is whether growers will be tempted to farm water rather than farm the land.

“It's much easier to go the mailbox and pick up a check then it is to go out there and put in a 60-, 70-, 80hour week,” said John Pierre Menvielle, a third-generation farmer in Heber, Calif., who has been raising crops in the valley for 32 years.

Farm towns in California have gone under when they lost their water to cities. The Owens Valley, in the high desert east of the Sierra, became a dust bowl when Los Angeles quietly acquired its water and flushed it down an aqueduct to the city 90 years ago. The 1974 film “Chinatown” was loosely based on what's been dubbed the “water grab.”

“Whoever brings the water, brings the people,” wrote William Mulholland, the aqueduct's legendary creator.

Modern-day water speculators still stalk the waterways of the West. Denver investors bought up Rocky Ford's sugar beet refinery and sold the water associated with it to Aurora 20 years ago. A decade later, brothers Lee and Edward Bass, oil barons from Houston, quietly bought up Imperial Valley land and then tried unsuccessfully to sell the water out from under it. Recently, another Arkansas Valley canal has attracted interest from investors in Denver and New Orleans.

So what's the answer for the 450,000 farms in the West? Squeezed by rising equipment prices, depressed crop prices and a brutal drought, farmers are finding it harder to hang on. Farms use as much as 95 percent of the water in some areas of the West. Growing cities will continue nibbling away at agriculture's share.

Many believe that water markets offer a way to get water to cities without completely wiping out farms.

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Over the past decade, Northern California's rice farmers have sold smaller stakes of their sizable water supply to Los Angeles over years. Instead of viewing it as a threat to their survival, growers say selling water offers them a financial cushion if the price of rice collapses. “I truly believe that it could be a beneficial part of a farmers' mix at a small level,” said rice grower Don Bransford.

Similarly, a market has evolved for water of the massive Colorado-Big Thompson Project, which brings water over and through the Rockies to northeastern Colorado through a series of dams, tunnels and pipes.

Cities have paid as much as 6 cents a gallon for Big Thompson water, some of the state's and the West's highest prices. (can we say what average price is?)

Towns in Texas lease large amounts of Rio Grande water through well-functioning markets; developers have set up a system to buy Truckee River water for new homes in and around Reno; and Albuquerque, N.M., has been buying up Middle Rio Grande water rights from farmers, according to the Water Strategist, a Claremont, Calif., publication that tracks sales.

Page 10 ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Santa Monica Daily Press

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Energy expansion plans prompt concerns over air pollution in Four Corners

By The Associated Press

DURANGO, Colo. — Plans to add thousands of natural gas wells in the Four Corners region has prompted concern among state and federal agencies about skyrocketing air pollution.

The gas industry plans to drill more than 10,000 wells over the next 20 to 30 years in the San Juan Basin, one of the nation's richest repositories of fossil fuel.

The basin extends from southern Colorado into New Mexico.

The Durango-based San Juan Citizens Alliance said the federal Bureau of Land Management office in Farmington, N.M., backed industry plans to add 10,000 New Mexico wells without adequate analysis.

The BLM this fall said the potential impacts of gas development include poor visibility and air quality standards in Mesa Verde National Park and the Weminuche and San Pedro Parks wilderness areas.

BLM field manager Steve Henke in Farmington said his agency is committed to meeting federal air-quality standards.

San Juan County, N.M., has only onefifth of the Albuquerque area's population of 557,000. Yet state air-quality experts say the area posts some of the highest levels of surface ozone in the state.

“It is surprising,” New Mexico Air Quality Bureau manager Mary Uhl told The Denver Post. “Most ozone problems in the United States occur in metropolitan areas with populations greater than a million.”

Just how bad the ozone problems are in Durango and other parts of southern Colorado isn't known: The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment focuses its ozone-monitoring efforts on the Front Range, spokesman Christopher Dann said.

“We ought to at least know what the ozone level is in Durango and whether it is going up or down,” retired public health physician Brooks Taylor said. “We're not in a crisis yet. We're right before it.”

Ozone is an odorless, colorless component of smog. Even at low concentrations, it can cause chest pains, coughing, nausea and throat irritation. Repeated exposure can cause lung damage.

The Environmental Protection Agency's national standard for ozone is 84 parts per billion. The EPA describes readings between 65 ppb and 84 ppb as “moderate” and anything lower as “good.”

San Juan County levels often exceed 70 ppb. Two monitoring sites on the Southern Ute Reservation had average ozone levels that hit about 60 ppb in 2002.

Albuquerque showed an average level of 77 ppb, while Denver averaged about 78 last summer.

Gas industry officials noted the Four Corners levels don't exceed the EPA standard.

“I would reject any notion that there are or ever have been high ozone levels in this region,” said Bob Gallagher, a spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.

Ozone near the ground is formed by the sunlight-catalyzed combination of nitrogen oxides and organic compounds.

The pollutants come from vehicles, gas heaters, power plants and oil and gas well units, Uhl said.

In the Four Corners area, oil and gas equipment emitted more than half the volatile organic compounds measured in the airshed in 2001, New Mexico officials said. Vehicles accounted for 37 percent.

As for nitrogen oxides, the oil and gas industry contributed 25 percent of emissions. Two power plants contributed 71 percent. Vehicle emissions were relatively insignificant.

Most of the new wells planned in the region will be drilled in the New Mexico portion of the basin, which already has roughly 18,000 gas wells. In the Colorado part of the basin, there are roughly 2,500 gas wells and plans for another 1,000 over the next few decades.

Yellowstone employees may still get to use snowmobiles

By The Associated Press

BOZEMAN, Mont. — People who live and work in Yellowstone National Park will probably still get to use snowmobiles, despite rules meant to ban the machines in the park.

“Personal, nonrecreational use of snowmobiles will be allowed to continue” for employees, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said last week.

A court in Washington earlier this month ordered the Park Service to revert to a Clinton-era plan that called for a gradual phase-out of snowmobiles in favor of mass-transit snowcoaches.

The number of sleds allowed through park gates has been cut nearly in half for this winter, and all visitors must travel with an officially recognized guide.

But the rules probably won't apply to park workers and residents who are

required to live in isolated, snowbound communities as part of their job, the park said.

The machines are necessary to travel for basic things such as buying groceries, clothing and other items unavailable in the park, she said.

“We recognize these are legitimate purposes for park employees to use personal snowmobiles,” Matthews said.

For now, there are no major restrictions on what type of snowmobiles people can own and bring into the park. But workers “will be encouraged” to use cleaner, quieter machines, Matthews said.

A spokesman for a pro-snowmobile group, which is opposed to the restrictive rules on snowmobiling, said it is not upset with the park continuing to let workers use their machines.

Santa Monica Daily Press ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Page 11

NATIONAL

Guided by spirit, investigators work to solve old slaying

BY PAULINE ARRILLAGA AP National Writer

DENVER — The arrest warrant was burning a hole in Detective Abe Alonzo’s pocket. He knew he needed to turn it over to the fugitive unit, but Alonzo wanted one last chance to nab the guy himself.

He had worked too long and hard on this one to let it go now.

Alonzo swung his unmarked car onto Colfax Avenue, past the tattoo parlors and bars that had turned the corridor near downtown Denver into a hangout for vagrants and drunks. Maybe, just maybe, his suspect would be roaming the street that was one of his favorite haunts.

Then he saw someone: A short man, coat bundled up to his neck, knit cap tugged to his eyebrows. Alonzo pulled into the Conoco, got out and flashed his badge.

“Police. Let me see some identification.” The man raised his head.

Alonzo could hardly believe his eyes, or his luck. Nor could the patrolman who arrived at the scene soon afterward.

“This guy’s wanted for murder,” the stunned officer said.

Still standing on the street, Alonzo punched Bob Ecoffey’s number into his cell phone. He couldn’t wait to break the news to his friend, the man who introduced him to the case that had consumed them both.

How to tell him that after 27 years their first suspect was finally in custody?

“Bob,” he said simply. “I’ve got Arlo.”

The arrest came on her birthday: March 27, 2003. Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash would have been 58 had she not been shot in the head and left to die in a lonely ravine on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Ecoffey assured Alonzo the timing was more than mere coincidence.

“It was meant to happen,” he said. “It was always meant to happen.”

Once, Alonzo would have been skeptical. He was unfamiliar with the Indian way until he met Ecoffey, an Oglala Sioux who grew up at Pine Ridge. At first, the detective had scoffed at his beliefs.

Anna Mae changed all that.

A member of the Mi’kmaq Tribe of Canada, she came to Pine Ridge in the early 1970s when the American Indian Movement was gaining strength with its calls to reassert tribal sovereignty.

She participated in the 1973 occupation of the village of Wounded Knee, S.D., a 71-day standoff between AIM activists and federal agents. Working both as a guard and supply courier, she established herself as a key player in the group.

The FBI considered AIM an extremist organization, and planted spies and snitches in the group. In early 1975, the bodyguard of an AIM co-founder revealed himself as an FBI informant.

Doubt soon shrouded Anna Mae — a Canadian “outsider” who always seemed to be around when busts went down.

Tensions escalated in June 1975 when two FBI agents searching for a robbery suspect at Pine Ridge were killed in a gunfight with AIM members. That November, police stopped a motor home carrying the alleged shooter, activist Leonard Peltier. Peltier eventually was convicted in the deaths.

Anna Mae was among those riding in the motor home when it was pulled over, and rumors circulated that perhaps she had tipped off authorities. She was arrested, but after being released on her own recognizance sought refuge at an AIM

“It gave me a little bit more strength. It was like, ‘I’ve got to finish this — we’ve got to finish this — for her sake.”’

— BOB ECOFFEY Private Detective

safehouse in Denver.

One month later, in December 1975, an AIM security contingent kidnapped Anna Mae from the Denver house, Alonzo and Ecoffey contend. She was returned to South Dakota and interrogated, the investigators say, then driven to a remote ridge on the reservation and killed.

In the months and years that followed, the investigation languished. Many Indians considered the FBI to be the enemy, and were reluctant to cooperate.

Some even blamed the agency for Anna Mae’s death, charging it fueled false rumors that she was an informant to turn AIM members against one another.

There were allegations of a cover-up after a coroner initially ruled that Anna Mae died of exposure. An independent autopsy found she had been shot. Federal authorities have always denied any wrongdoing.

Four grand juries examined the case without returning an indictment. With each passing year, it seemed less likely that anyone would ever face charges in Anna Mae’s slaying.

Then in 2003, the improbable happened: Two former AIM members were indicted on charges of first-degree murder in Anna Mae’s kidnapping and death. The alleged triggerman, John Graham, is jailed in Canada pending extradition. Accused conspirator Arlo Looking Cloud, a homeless man captured that March day in Denver, is scheduled to stand trial in February.

Investigators contend they were instructed to kill Anna Mae. Former AIM leader Russell Means, who previously testified before grand jurors, has pointed the finger at senior AIM members.

Organization spokesman Vernon Bellecourt calls the accusations “ridiculous” and insists the case is part of an ongoing war by the federal government “to silence and discredit the leaders of AIM.” Whatever the truth is, it may finally come out.

But what broke through the distrust that had stalled the investigation?

The work of a few men driven on by the spirit of a woman. One man, an Indian, would dedicate much of his life to the probe; another, a non-Indian, would risk his career. It had been said that Anna Mae couldn’t rest until her killers were brought to justice.

Neither would they.

The young officer was sure he heard it: A woman, crying, over the intercom.

Bob Ecoffey was only 21, a college student working as a guard at the Pine Ridge jail. He checked the female cell block, but everyone seemed fine. He looked inside the juvenile ward, but no one was there.

Still, Ecoffey was haunted by the weeping. “If you’re an Indian,” he says, “it means something.”

He confided in his aunt, who sought the advice of a medicine man and returned to her nephew with a prophecy that would redirect his life: There was a woman who was killed before her time. You might not understand now, his aunt said, but one day you will be in a position to help her.

It was early 1976, around the time Anna Mae’s frozen body was discovered.

About five years later, as a special agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Ecoffey started looking into the stillunsolved slaying. But it wasn’t until he was named South Dakota’s U.S. marshal in 1994 that the earlier message began to make sense.

Suddenly, he was in a position to help.

He was the first Indian in the state appointed U.S. marshal. As boss, he could investigate what he wanted and go where he needed.

But there was something else: After years of refusing to cooperate with the FBI, the people of Pine Ridge began going to Ecoffey with information.

“The FBI were like fish out of water at Pine Ridge,” says Paul DeMain, editor of the publication News From Indian Country. “Ecoffey is Lakota. He has family. He has friends. What he did was more in the vein of the old cop who would sit down and have a cup of coffee at the table.

He became a conduit.”

Ecoffey revived the case. Working with BIA investigator Mitch Pourier and FBI agent Jim Graf, Ecoffey pored over old reports, reinterviewed potential witnesses, uncovered new leads. He traveled the country and to Canada.

“It seemed to be an obsession with him,” says Pourier. “Bob would say, `Let’s go again,’ and we’d be off. This matter may have been filed away, but Bob kept it going.”

Some, however, questioned his motives. Messages posted on the Internet suggested Ecoffey was using the case as part of a vendetta against AIM and Peltier.

As a police intern, Ecoffey had worked alongside the agents killed in 1975.

But Ecoffey was undaunted. Finding Anna Mae’s murderers became a personal quest. When hundreds gathered in 1999 for a march to protest alleged treaty violations and unsolved crimes on the reservation, Ecoffey carried a sign that read, “Justice for Anna Mae.” “Most people knew I was doing it for the right reasons ... for Anna Mae and her family,” says Ecoffey, now head of the BIA’s law enforcement branch in Albuquerque, N.M. “It was something that was meant to be.”

The medicine man had taught him that.

The kidnapping that set the murder in motion allegedly occurred in Denver, but Ecoffey didn’t have good contacts there.

During a trip in 1994, he met Detective Abe Alonzo, assigned to escort the visiting U.S. marshal around to check out leads.

The son of a Mexican farmworker who grew up in Denver, Alonzo knew little of Indian activism and even less about Indian faith. When Ecoffey first explained how Anna Mae’s spirit had come to him, Alonzo wondered if he believed in voodoo.

But in Ecoffey, he also saw something he liked. He had expected a stiff in a suit and a tie. What he got was a nice guy in a vest and boots, sporting a ponytail.

“You know,” Ecoffey told him one day, “I could really use some help.”

It would become Alonzo’s first and only homicide case.

In 31 years on the force, Alonzo worked patrol and property crimes; he trained rookies, and served in the intelligence bureau, providing dignitary protection and security.

Alonzo studied the players in Anna Mae’s case, tracked down addresses and helped interview potential witnesses. One was Looking Cloud, who at one point accompanied Alonzo and Ecoffey to what was described as the murder scene in South Dakota and allegedly disclosed details of the crime.

There, on the windy ridge, Alonzo also came to believe that something bigger was driving the investigation. It was a hot summer day, well over 100 degrees, but as Alonzo approached the place where she died, a cold chill shot through him. The hair on his arms stood up.

“That was Anna Mae’s spirit,” Ecoffey explained. “She knows you’re here to help her.”

Ecoffey pulled some tobacco from a cigar and flung it into the breeze as an offering to Anna Mae. “It gave me a little bit more strength,” Alonzo recalls. “It was like, ‘I’ve got to finish this — we’ve got to finish this — for her sake.”’

Their partnership was interrupted when a supervisor pulled Alonzo off the case, turning it over to homicide. The police chief reversed the decision a few months later.

Alonzo and Ecoffey believed they knew how the slaying unfolded and who was involved. They needed corroboration.

Alonzo took the unusual step of posting a letter to American Indians on the Internet, appealing for information.

“I know and have felt Anna Mae’s spirit,” he wrote.

With trial pending, the investigators can’t discuss what finally broke the case open. They will say only that a source was developed that gave them enough to secure the indictment. The 2002 appointment of James McMahon as U.S. attorney in South Dakota also helped, they say. The federal prosecutor’s office “didn’t look at this as being a political case,” Ecoffey says.

Looking Cloud’s supporters insist he has been made the scapegoat by overzealous investigators.

“Arlo is innocent. He’s a helpless, harmless person,” says his cousin, Bernice Bull Bear. “All these people got together and they decided who was going to take the fall.”

Looking Cloud’s attorney, Tim Rensch, acknowledges his client was present at the slaying, but says he took no part.

“He didn’t help with the murder. It was a complete surprise,” Rensch says, adding that he believes prosecutors “were probably hoping to use him as a stepladder to others.”

Anna Mae’s relatives view the upcoming trial as just the first step toward bringing down anyone else who was involved or might have ordered the killing.

“At least a hundred people have lived in fear of retaliation of ending up like Anna Mae if they spoke publicly about her murderers. The whispering has to stop ...,” says Anna Mae’s daughter, Denise Maloney Pictou. “We pray ... our mother will finally have her day in court.”

The investigators see something else: a chance to finally put the past, and an unsettled spirit, to rest.

“Maybe finding those responsible for her death will bring some peace to Anna Mae,” says Alonzo.

“That,” adds Ecoffey, “is true justice.”

Page 12 ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Santa Monica Daily Press

COMICS Natural Selection®

By Russ Wallace

Speed Bump®

Reality Check®

By Dave Coverly

By Dave Whammond

“WORLD FAMOUS”

J A P A N E S E

R E S T A U R A N T

Where the “locals” meet and the “fun loving” tourists always return!

$15 Special FREE California Roll & FREE Miso Soup with $15 purchase or more

Sushi Special Buy 1 get second item free Exp. Dec. 31, 2003

SUN • FUN • GREAT FOOD BEER • WINE • MUSIC SPORTS TV • 2 OUTDOOR PATIOS SMOKING ALLOWED REASONABLE PRICES! CHILDREN WELCOME!

2645 LINCOLN BLVD. IN SANTA MONICA (AT OCEAN PARK INSIDE THOMAS’ COFFEE SHOP)

1615 Ocean Front, Santa Monica (310) 393-2666

(310) 452-2265

At Santa Monica Beach in front of the historic merry-go round, just below & southeast of the pier. This location has been here since 1902

Santa Monica Daily Press ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Page 13

Santa Monica Daily Press

CLASSIFIEDS

$350 per day. Up to 15 words, 20 cents each additional word.

Call 310-458-7737 and promote your business opportunities to our daily readership of over 15,000.

CLASSIFICATIONS: Announcements Creative Employment For Sale Furniture Pets Boats

Employment $3 - 5K per week income potential work from home, NOT MLM. (800)570-3782 Ext. 4020.

Administrative Assistant

Jewelry Wanted Travel Vacation Rentals Apartments/Condos Rent Houses for Rent Roomates Commerical Lease

Employment

Vehicles for sale

BEAUTY STYLIST’S for new Fantastic Sams Salon in Santa Monica. Guarantee 9/hr and up.

(310)890-1222

Claude Short Auto Sales Dealer

ber 31 ($200 after). Only the most credible companies in Hollywood invited. Visit website at www.pitchfest.com< http://www.pitchfest.com/> for full list & more information, or call 1-877-255-2528.

’01 DODGE DURANGO R/T VIN 544097 Loaded, Leather only 31K, 1owner $19995

Send resume with cover letter to:

SMPRC, Attn: Admin. Asst. Position 200 Santa Monica Pier, Suite A, Santa Monica, CA 90401 Fax: 310-656-1698

CASHIERS AND Hourly Supervisor. FT/PT Must be reliable, excellent customer svc skills & available weekends. Experience with Low Carbohydrate diets a plus! Apply in person.Pure Foods 1820 Wilshire Blvd, SM. EOE. EXPERIENCED TELEMARKETERS only. Needed to set appointments for salvage pick-up non-profit organization. Work from home. $400/wk. potential call Manny (310)753-4909.

FIGURE MODEL wanted. Fit female model wanted for figure drawing by artist. No experience necessary. Call (818)5010266 IMMEDIATE OPENING for full or part time Retail Sales Person. Apply in person Mon-Sat 10am-6pm. Wilshire West Fine Paper, 3023 Wilshire Blvd Santa Monica.

ONSITE CLEANROOM cleaning manager full time position (3pm-12am), salary based on experience, medical benefits & 401k, must have own transportation. (888)263-9886.

SALES: 43 year old Forbes 500 ranked affiliate co. is looking for sales pros to keep pace with rising gold market. Top earners make 200k+. Full benefits. No cold calling. Draw/comm. Santa Monica. Visit www.goldline.com or call (310)319-0313.

THE “GREAT American Pitchfest” will be held on Saturday, January 31st. at the Los Angeles Convention Center . This will be the largest pitchfest ever held, and is for writers, producers, and directors for film and television of all genres and formats. Attend training sessions with more than 10 “A-list” speakers, celebrate at our “Sweet Taste of Success” champagne and dessert buffet gala, and meet one-on-one with the power people of Hollywood who can help turn your movie and show ideas into reality. One “decision maker’ for every six participants. $150 until Decem-

For Sale ALL STORE fixtures for sale.

Bel Mondo going out of biz, 1413 Montana Ave. (310)3947272.

Vehicles for sale

of Santa Monica

Vehicles for sale

Vehicles for sale

LEXUS/VOLKSWAGEN OF SANTA MONICA PRE-OWNED CENTER

YEAR END BLOW OUTS! ’02 FORD FOCUS 4-door, ZTS (2W176696) $8,990

✯’00 BMW X5 4.4i✯ 94 JAGUAR XJ6

The Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corporation seeks outgoing, motivated individual to assist Executive Director and staff. Must have excellent clerical and interpersonal skills and knowledge of most MSOffice programs. Visit santamonicapier.org for complete position description.

Business Opportunities Yard Sales Health and Beauty Fitness Wealth and Success Lost and Found Personals Obituaries

Real Estate Real Estate Loans Storage Space Vehicles for Sale Massage Services Computer Services Attorney Services

VIN 687617 Pristine cond.

6 disc changer wire wheels $10995

95 MERCEDES BENZ S-320

Sport Pkg! V8, Loaded, Low Mileage! BEAUTIFUL! (H02400)

2003 INFINITI G35 COUPE 2D

✯’02 Infiniti Q45 Navi✯ THE EXECUTIVE RIDE! All Loaded, Low Miles (v002529) 3 More Available

V6, Automatic, Leather, Moon Roof (206812)

Furniture

VIN 280961 six disc changer Black beauty $19995

✯’03 Infiniti G35 Sedan✯

2 BEDROOM apartment furniture for sale . For complete description & details. Call Paul Lorda (310)395-2558 or (310)804-0810.

DVD Navi, Prem whis, Loaded (v006982)

2002 LEXUS IS 300 SPORT CROSS

97 BMW 328i

✯’01 Ford Mustang✯

4D, Hatchback, Moon, Rear Spoiler, Lthr (042025)

convertible VIN T98113 Super clean low miles $19995

CONVERTIBLE! Automatic 2D, Leather, (8837P)

2003 VW BEETLE

Vehicles for sale 98 DODGE RAM2500 PickupVIN 234380 Camper shell chrome wheels reduced $9500

OF SANTA MONICA

’03 DODGE VIPER VIN 500992 Rare red car w/ black top 43 mls $92500

94 FORD BRONCO Eddie Bauer 4x4 VIN B55118 Immaculate Leather Loaded $9995

$3,995

’98 Chev Cavalier 4DR, Automatic, A/C, CD (ID#807680) $3,995

’02 Chev Tahoe L/S Dual A/C, CD, Dual P/seats, third seat, alloys, much more!

(ID#193678) $24,895

’01 Ford Expedition 4x4, Dual A/C, Loaded (LIC#40BR776 - ID#B59858)

$19,995

’02 Ford Explorer XLT V6, Leather, Rear A/C, Third seat (LIC#4TRX317 ID#A61068) $18,995

1995 HONDA Civic LX 4 door, gray, 96K, great condition $3900 obo call (310)944-9292.

4-Cyl. 2.0L VTEC, Leather, 6-Speed, Manuel (8767P)

’02 PT CRUISER LTD Moon Roof, Leather (2T246299) $15,990

’03 COROLLA LE Power windows and locks (3Z111168) $13,995

’02 FORD TAURUS SES

2001 VW JETTA GLS

PST, AW (2A142548) $9,995

4D Sedan, Automatic, Alloys, Moom Roof (173214)

’01 FORD WINDSTAR

1999 LEXUS ES 300

Super Clean - Loaded (1BB37955) $9,850

✯’02 Lexus IS300✯

4D Sedan, 4-SD, Alloys Moon Roof (163767)

✯’00 Volvo V70 XC AWD✯ SE Wagon

1999 LEXUS LX 470 4D Sport Utility, Automatic, Leather, Moon (075956)

2.4L Turbo, Moon, alloys VALUE PRICED! (v707506)

AD EXPIRES 1/5/04 All advertised prices exclude government fees and taxes, any finance charges, any dealer document preparation charges, and any emission testing charge.

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310-394-1888

(310) 319-1661

800-944-4157

infinitiofsantamonica.com

LAcarGUYcom

LAcarGUYcom

FOR SALE

Instruction

Wanted

DRUM LESSONS in your home! Great w/children & beginners, first lesson FREE! Call Tom (310)422-2699.

“Classic” 1982 Jeep Wagoneer

TUTORING, ASSISTIVE Technology disability rights advocate. Except Algebra/Geometry, Children, adults and seniors w/disability.

Call Karen (310)470-6357.

EXECUTIVE HOUSEKEEPER looking for permanent live-out position. 15 yr experience. With references, bilingual. Have own transportation,CDL/insured,love children and animals. (310)8950993

2501 Lincoln Blvd. in Venice

(310) 395-3712

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$2500 FIRM.

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PLUS TAX, LICENSE & DOCUMENT FEE ON ALL VEHICLES

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310-451-1588

✯’02 Honda S2000✯

’01 NISSAN GXE AT, AC, PW, CD & MORE (16437681) $8,995

HURRY TO: 832 Santa Monica Blvd.

’95 Ford Escort Auto, A/C P/windows, (ID#213592 - STK#P4698)

FULLY LOADED! Premium Whls.

Bose Premium Sound (001079)

Sport Cross, LOADED! Prem Wheels, Leather (043651)

’02 Ford Explorer Sport V6, Automatic PW P/L tilt, CD, Alloys! (ID#54518 STK#P5068) $13,995

GL Turbo Hatchback, 2D, Automatic (424228)

✯’02 Audi A8L✯

’03 ECLIPSE GTS LOADED, Blk, 8K miles (3E083774) $19,995

.

WANTED: SANTA Monica Mermaid City Seal as well as other SM memorobilia. Cash PAid! (310)780-5719.

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ADVERTISE!!!

Now offering obituary listings.

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MOVE IN SPECIALS! (310)862-1000.

.

310.458.7737 ext. 111

Santa Monica Daily Press Classifieds

Page 14 ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Santa Monica Daily Press

CLASSIFIEDS For Rent

Casa Loma Apartment 101 Dudley Ave. Venice

NOW LEASING! Steps to the beach Singles and Studios $695.00 to $1095.00 MOVE IN SPECIAL FIRST MONTH FREE! (Requires S.D. & 1 yr. lease)

1-888-399-1166

For Rent

ROQUE & MARK Co. 2802 Santa Monica Blvd.

310-828-7525 SALES • RENTALS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT RENTALS AVAILABLE NO PETS ALLOWED

SANTA MONICA

NEW STUDIO Apartments available. $1075-$1345. Six blocks to beach. Promenade area! (310)656-0311

1323 12th St. $1150

SANTA MONICA $1295/mo.

1232 Harvard.

Beautiful 1 bdrm, 1ba.

Prestigious location, secluded builiding. Features large closets, stove, dishwasher, gated parking.

Owner will consider pets.

Walk to shops, restaurants & transportation.

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1224 12th St. $1495

SANTA MONICA 1 bedroom condo,endunit, quiet 6Plex, prime location. 1 block North of Montana, gourmet kitchen, Viking Range, stainless steel appliances, Italian tile, patio off of French doors, oak hardwood floors,1 parking space+ storage, laundry, 1 year lease, no pets, $1900/mo. Call for appointment. (323)222-8929.

SANTA MONCA 1+1, lower, r/s, gated, carpet, pool, laundry,parking, elec. included, $950.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com SANTA MONICA: $1100, 2+1,lower, patio, new paint, quiet building, month to month.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com SANTA MONICA $1250/mo. 2 bedroom/ 1 bath. Appliances, no pets, parking, 1935 Cloverfield Blvd. #18 Santa Monica, Ca. 90404 Manager in #19.

WLA $1390/MO. 2 Bedrooms, 1 bath, hardwood floors, large kitchen (310)391-8880.

Lower 1 bed, hardwood floors, gated entry, new updates Upper 2 bed, fridge & stove, balcony, near Wilshire Blvd

927 3rd St. $1300 Upper 1 bed, garage included, new carpet, blinds, & tile

1230 Berkeley $1450

For Rent

Commercial Lease

SANTA MONICA $1850/mo. 2 bedroom, 2 bath, prime location, parking available, hardwood floors.(310)451-2178.

MOTIVATED BUYER: I buy houses, any area, any price, any condition .

Call (310)422-4933 .

SANTA MONICA 2+2, carpet, laundry, new paint, blinds, parking, great building, $1275.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com

Massage

SANTA MONICA bachelor, upper, carpet, laundry, great deal, utilities included $600.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com SANTA MONICA studio, lower, r/s, in 4-plex, near Wilshire, parking, utilities included $725.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com SM 2+2 1/2 2 car garge, direct acces to unit, laundry room.

Near Wilshire $2600/mo.

(310)439-2073.

WLA OCEANVIEW & Breezes.

Top of hill, private deck-yard large 1 bedroom, $1095-$1150.

(310)390-4610.

OFFICE SPACE

Houses For Rent

1247 Lincoln $695

SANTA MONICA duplex 1+!, r/s, new carpet, w/d, remodeled, private, parking, $1100 (310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com

BRENTWOOD WLA/MAR VISTA 10900 S.M. Blvd, West LA, $800 Lower single, new carpet, new linoleum, near UCLA

649 Barrington, Brentwood, $1200 Upper 1 bed, new carpet & blinds, brand new kitchen, pool

12258 Montana, Brentwood, $1950 Upper 2 bed, 2 bath, new berber carpet, gated entry & parking

FOR MORE LISTINGS GO TO WWW.ROQUE-MARK.COM

Century West Properties Exceptional Westside Rentals LEASING CENTER 1437 SEVENTH STREET, SUITE 200 SANTA MONICA

BLISSFUL RELAXATION! Heal your body, mind, spirit. Therapeutic, Swedish, Deep-tissue.

Energy balancing. Strictly nonsexual. Introductory specials from $50.00/1hr. Lynda, L.M.T. (310)749-0621

SANTA MONICA 3+2, new bath, hardwood floors, laundry, remodeled, gated, quiet, $2050.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com

Lower 2 bed, hardwood floors, dishwasher, front unit, yard area

2nd floor, 3 room office, near Wilshire, approx 450 SF

Real Estate Wanted

SANTA MONICA guest house, furnished, r/s, w/d, quiet, yard, parking, utilities included, $1250.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com SANTA MONICA triplex, 1+1, r/s, carpet, yard, remodeled kitchen, utilities included, $1295.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com

Roommates 90 DAY RENTAL: SHARE 2+2 NEAR WILSHIRE/6TH. PARKING, UTILITIES, CABLE/INTERNET, $700/MO. STARTING IN JANUARY. (310)3954433 or nicksper@adelphia.net

SANTA MONICA OFFICES • CHARMING MEDITERRANEAN STYLE • NEAR PROMENADE - WINDOWS OPEN • GARDEN COURTYARD BUILDING • TELEPHONE SYSTEM INCLUDED • NEW PAINT AND CARPET • FURNISHED AVAILABLE • SHORT OR LONG TERM • PARKING INCLUDED • 2 TO 4 ROOMS • AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY

310.395.4620 $1450.00 AND UP..

MDR SHARE space. New suite, 3 space in small Law Firm. Law Library, Conference Room, Receptionist, Copier, DSL, Parking Available, 90 Freeway close.

Starting at $800. (310)5530756.

WILSHIRE BLVD. in Santa Monica from 500 sq/ft & up. Retail $2.75/per sqft. Office $1.85/per sqft. Surrounded by many buildings such as St. Johns, UCLA & Santa Monica Hospital. Call (310)285-0499.

Real Estate AFFORDABLE HOUSING Open Community Corporation of Santa Monica announces the opening of the 2004 Marketing List. To be considered you must pick up an appointment card at 1423 2nd St., #B Santa Monica, between December 15 and January 13. EOH 8:00am3:00pm Mon-Thurs.

SANTA MONICA shared apartment, private room, furnished, fireplace laundry, month-tomonth. $500.

(310)395-7368 www.westsiderentals.com

Commercial Lease SM/OCEAN PARK: room available in well located Chiropractic & Acupuncture office 3 days per/wk $500/mo.

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EXQUISITE, INTUITIVE, strong and tender relaxing bodywork by mature European. Professional Lady Sonja (310)397-0433.

OCEAN THERAPY: nice relaxing massage Spanish & Asian Staff (310)899-3709.

Fitness

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Inquire About Our Way to Wellness Program! Exercise, Eating & Stress Management …

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OLIVIA FULL body massage.

Smooth, thorough, divinely relaxing by beautiful, mature woman. Professional & licensed $120/hr. $80/ 1/2 hr. (310)9155519.

REVITALIZE & Rejuvenate.

Body, Mind & Spirit with a therapeutic Swedish/Deep-tissue massage. Laura (310)394-2923 (310)569-0883.

Facials • Yoga • Pilates • Therapeutic Massage Pregnancy & Post-pregnancy services BRING IN A FRIEND FOR YOGA AND SHE’S FREE!

(310) 458-8190 Dr. Lisa Masterson, M.D.

1333 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica TAI CHI/I-CHIUNG classes in Santa Monica call for info.

(626)429-6360.

Personals

STRONG & SOOTHING Swedish & Deep-Tissue body work.

Only $40/70min. Non-sexual.

Paul: (310)741-1901.

THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE, Swedish, Accupressure, Deep-tissue, Sports Massage, Reflexology. For apt call Tracy at (310)435-0657.

VENUS 1 HOUR RELAXATION MASSAGE. MASSAGE THERAPIST DAVID (MR. MAHYAR), FOR WOMEN ONLY. SWEDISH- $65, FULL SERVICE VALUE. (323)660-3732.

ON CALL.

Fitness

in Santa Monica

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❤

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Santa Monica Daily Press ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Page 15

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Page 16 ❑ Thursday, January 1, 2004 ❑ Santa Monica Daily Press

BACK PAGE

N. Arizona town on Route 66 now a biker haven

BY ANANDA SHOREY Associated Press Writer

BELLEMONT, Ariz. — When Captain America and Billy try to rent a room at the Pine Breeze Inn in the movie “Easy Rider,” the outlaw bikers are turned away.

A man cracks the door, sees the men on their motorcycles and then a glowing “NO” starts blinking in front of “VACANCY” on the sign.

Captain America and Billy — played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper — ride down Route 66 and sleep in the woods.

When the movie came out in 1969, bikers were disrespected and feared. They represented trouble, rebellion and drugs. Not anymore. This tiny town west of Flagstaff even caters to bikers now.

The Pine Breeze Inn is boarded up, white paint peeling and grass creeping up its sides. A rusted gas tank stands in front. And just feet away, what's left of this portion of Route 66 — the fabled Mother Road now largely bypassed

by Interstate 40 — is cracked and overgrown with weeds.

But instead of sending bikers away, the inn now invites them to camp on the 2.5-acre property surrounding the fading building. And just down the road there is a Harley Davidson shop and a Route 66 Roadhouse Bar and Grill, a tribute to everything Harley.

The table tops are glass-covered motorcycle wheels.

There is a Harley Davidson jukebox. A motorcycle from World War II stands in a museum-like room with a “Harley Parking Only” sign. The “No Vacancy” sign from “Easy Rider” hangs from the ceiling.

Bikers wearing leather chaps, skull bandanas, and Harley tank-tops and jackets periodically saunter in for drinks.

About eight years ago, Felix Mansene and his wife, Lori, built the roadhouse. Now it's frequently used for biker parties and charity events.

About 20,000 riders passed by the roadhouse in August while on the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary Ride Home, Mansene said. They partied in a circus tent filled with bands, American Indian dancers, and vendors

selling corn on the cob and beer.

A Harley was raffled in December at the roadhouse to raise money for local charities. Some years, the roadhouse hosts the Arizona Hog Rally.

Mansene, who recently shaved off his waist-length ponytail and now has a bald head and dark-rimmed glasses, has been a biker for 40 years.

He said bikers are perceived much better now than they were in the 1960s and 1970s, the period when Captain America and Billy tried to stay in Bellemont while traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

“It’s relaxing. It’s comforting. It’s uninterrupted.”

— FELIX MANSENE Biker

“Before, when you rode, you weren't really looked at that nicely,” Mansene said.

When he owned a restaurant in Flagstaff, he parked his bike in the alley so customers wouldn't be frightened away.

“Nobody else wanted to go in if there were bikers,” Mansene said.

John Whipp Jr. owns one of the few other establishments in Bellemont — a bar named Junior's, where bikers still gather.

Whipp's dad bought the bar in 1945. Whipp took over the establishment in 1956 and has been living in a back room of the bar ever since.

The decor hasn't changed much over the years. The walls are plastered with posters of women posing by motorcycles. A motorcycle calendar hangs on the wall too, stuck on the year 1977. The countertop is lined with antique stools.

Whipp, who used to buy gas from the tank that still

sits in front of the Pine Breeze Inn, said he hasn't had many problems with bikers.

“The only bad bikers are gang members,” Whipp said referring to a melee in Laughlin, Nev., west of here in April 2002. Two Hells Angels and one Mongols motorcycle gang member were killed and at least 12 were hurt in a brawl inside a casino 170 miles due west of here.

Although certain gangs still have fairly grisly reputations, Joel Gabbard, who owns the Pine Breeze Inn, said bikers, in general, have lost some of their bad-boy image.

The softening started a decade ago when riding became less about transportation and more about recreation, he said.

Now, most people who own bikes are middle-aged businessmen and women who have money to spare.

Purchasing a Harley runs from about $9,000 to $35,000.

A biker since high school, Gabbard is covered with Harley gear — belt buckle, shirt, jacket. His wife's name is painted on his motorcycle's gas tank.

He said he rides to relax, unwind and free his mind of worries. “A Harley Davidson will relieve all stress,” said Gabbard.

Captain America and Billy wanted to taste freedom too. But because of their biker stigma, they faced continuous opposition as they journeyed across America.

“Easy Rider” changed the pop culture landscape. In the movie, the motorcycles represented rebellion, independence and the popularity of psychedelic drugs. But it also was about resistance to hippie communes and living off the land.

At the end of “Easy Rider,” while riding along the Mississippi River, a shotgun-wielding bigot shoots Billy and Captain America.

Gabbard said some people still disapprove of his pastime, but not as much as years ago. Today, bikers can focus on the ride.

“You can just kind of kick back — you and the machine,” Mansene said. “It's relaxing. It's comforting.

It's uninterrupted.”

Drivers wanted.®

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