further stadium corruption

SAN DIEGO — Local officials are letting friends and family use a luxury stadium box, when they really should use it for guests who will promote city and county interests, according to a grand jury report.

In a report scheduled to be released tomorrow, the grand jury claims that officeholders who get two free tickets for all stadium events use the "city box" for family, friends and employees.

The panel reviewed randomly selected sign-in sheets for 21 Padres games, four Chargers games and a U2 concert.

The policy establishing guidelines for the box states: "The Director's Area was developed for use by the San Diego City Council, San Diego County Supervisors and the San Diego Stadium Authority and their guests, to provide access to the Stadium for persons who can aid the growth and promotion of the City and County of San Diego."

The grand jury found, however, that those guidelines are largely ignored because the city is not getting any promotional value from the box.

The report, called "Take Us Out to the Ballgame,"does not allege laws have been broken. But it does recommend that the policy either be observed or rewritten. It also recommends that, in the future, elected officials reimburse the city for tickets used by friends and family.

The unusual grand jury topic is appropriate to the panel's mission of "serving as a watchdog and uncovering waste and inefficiency in government," said Scott Barnett, executive director of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.

Many of the politicians indirectly criticized in the report reportedly objected to its characterizations.

The policy is "very general," according to Councilman Byron Wear, who said his guests have included constituents involved in youth programs and community groups. His most frequent guest, however, reportedly appeared to be his brother, a city fire captain.

Wear countered that the stadium is a "city asset" and it's one of the opportunities that councilmembers have "to share with other people," Wear said.

Councilwoman Barbara Warden was one of several politicians who refused to give the grand jury any information about guests whose names appeared on sign-in logs. Her guests reportedly included a daughter-in-law and a niece.

The five county supervisors were not forthcoming either. The report cited that on four different occasions, for example, Supervisor Bill Horn's tickets were used by his children and by Fallbrook constituents on others. In each case, he identified them as "guests of Supervisor Horn, pursuant to council policy."

It would be difficult to calculate the value of the 52-seat city box and its 26 free parking spaces and catered food and drinks, said assistant stadium manager Steve Shushan.

However, the box could reportedly generate about $400,000 a year.

For comparison, an eight-seat box costs $50,000 a year while the cost for a 20-seat box runs from $80,000 to $90,000.

 

Salvador guardsman freed in murdered nuns case

By Alberto Barrera

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (Reuters) - A former El Salvador guard condemned for the rape and murder of three U.S. nuns has been freed after 17 years in jail, court officials said.

Two other guards convicted in the same case should be released in the next two days, they added.

They were convicted of abducting, raping and murdering American nuns Maura Clarke, Ita Ford and Dorothy Kazel, who were killed along with lay worker Jean Donovan on Dec. 2, 1980. The nuns belonged to the Maryknoll order.

Judge Gloria Platero ordered the men freed on parole after a group of U.S. lawyers said they acted on orders from above in the crime which occurred near the start of El Salvador's brutal civil war. Two other men were also convicted in the case but were not granted parole.

Former agent Daniel Canales was the first of the men granted liberty. He left Quezaltepeque prison some 12 miles north of San Salvador on Tuesday evening after a court official delivered the release order.

He said only that he was "satisfied" at regaining his liberty.

Former agent Jose Roberto Moreno, behind bars in the town of La Esperanza about four miles further north, will have to wait until later Wednesday morning for his release, prison officials said.

Former deputy sergeant Luis Antonio Colindres was expected to be freed early Wednesday from jail in San Vicente, 38 miles east of San Salvador.

Two other former national guards, Carlos Joaquin Contreras Palacios and Francisco Orlando Contreras, will remain in jail despite appeals by their lawyers, which were overturned.

They were ordered to serve full sentences after being convicted of subsequent crimes while in custody.

The rejection of their appeal cleared the way for Platero to issue the release orders on Tuesday. All five men had to stay behind bars until judges ruled on the appeal.

The case received international attention in April when four of the five former guards told a group of New York lawyers they were following orders in committing the crimes.

Relatives of the victims, members of the Catholic church and other humanitarian organizations have appealed for the case to be reopened in order to find and punish the crime's intellectual authors.

But El Salvador authorities have rejected the request, saying that reopening the case was not possible under national law since the events occurred more than 10 years ago.

 

The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794

- by Elmer E. Specht (SPECHTELME@aol.com)

Be sure to celebrate, and encourage others to do so, the upcoming anniversary of Whiskey Rebellion Day --- July 16th. Back when we knew how to run a country, the farmers of western Pennsylvania (and others in Carlisle, PA, Hagerstown, MD, and various parts of Virginia later joined the fray) rose up at the imposition of a tax on spiritus frumenti, of which it is duly recorded they produced and consumed prodigious amounts. It seems moonshining was the only way they could get their produce to market in the east, notably Philadelphia, without undesirable spoilage. But Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, in his wisdom, imposed an ad valorem tax amounting to twenty-five percent of the value of the spirits.

Thus ired, the western Pennsylvania rustics, restless since June, surrounded the home of the local tax man, one John Neville of Bower Hill, near Pittsburgh, and invited him to depart the county. He thought to demur, having some militiamen with him, and succeeded in killing one Oliver Miller in what was the opening shot in the rebellion. The "rebels" then fired back, Neville signaled his slaves to fire from the rear, and more blood flowed. Thus it was a scant 24 years between the time the "lobsterbacks" of King George fired on the colonists in Boston (in 1770), killing five, and the time the federal government took to killing its own citizens. The next day, July 17, 1794, James McFarlane, a Revolutionary War veteran, and popular commander of the local militia, was shot dead in what may have been a ruse to lure him into the open, thinking the soldiers defending Neville wished to parley. That ended any hope of peaceful resolution, and the locals proceeded to burn Neville's buildings to the ground as he was spirited away by the federal troops.

The federal government responded as one might anticipate, by relying on yet more force. President Washington recruited a militia from the surrounding states (to their everlasting shame) --- which was dubbed, derisively, the "watermelon army." After a few more months, during which time some of Neville's sycophants were tarred and feathered just prior to their hasty and unscheduled departures for the east, the rebels, realizing they could not withstand the onslaught of the government, disappeared into the countryside. Two of these stalwarts were tried for treason, convicted, and pardoned by Washington. Thomas Jefferson condemned the use of military force and Hamilton's arrogation of power by the feds. It was, along with some other intraparty miscues, the (ignominious) end of the Federalist Party. Jefferson was elected as a Republican-Democrat in 1800, defeating John Adams in his bid for a second term.

You will not read much, if any, of this in your local newspaper, but I am committed to bringing back the memory of this mirific and glorious event in the history of our great country, so mark your calendars for July 16th accordingly, and drink a toast to those who knew how to deal with corruption and greed in high places, and share a moment of silence for Oliver Miller and James McFarlane, the first two American patriots killed by their own government.

Credit where credit is due department: read Thomas P. Slaughter's The Whiskey Rebellion (Oxford University Press) for the whole unvarnished story.