Snapshots of life in the Golden State. : Budget Cuts May Shelve Trips to Local Libraries

State Librarian Gary E. Strong reports that California’s 168 public library systems are taking it on the chin in the state budget crisis.

Their total income is down 5%, leading to cutbacks of 6% in hours of operation, 3% in staff, and 16% in money for books and other materials.

Last year, the state’s libraries purchased 826,094 fewer new books and other lending materials than the previous year.

Because of budget constraints, Strong says, the average Californian “will discover, first, that there is no library service outlet anywhere in his vicinity. If he perseveres enough to find one, an average of six miles distant, he is likely to find the outlet closed.”

And, oh yeah, fines and fees are up 15%.

Among the few thriving city libraries, where budgets have increased 15%: Benicia, Colton, Covina, Escondido, Livermore, Los Gatos and Thousand Oaks.

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The King of Stamps

The U.S. Postal Service conducted a random survey of post offices to tally sales of Elvis stamps on Jan. 8. On that day, the stamp debuted at noon everywhere except the Graceland Post Office in Memphis, Tenn. There, at Elvis’ home, fans lined up to buy the stamp at the stroke of midnight--12 hours earlier than elsewhere. California post offices are in boldface.

POST OFFICE STAMPS SOLD Graceland, Memphis 470,740 Church St., New York 96,960 Walnut Creek 76,680 Loop, Chicago 61,085 Worldway Cntr., LAX 50,240 Van Nuys Main 42,975 San Diego Main 42,807 Hollywood 42,000 San Mateo 32,000 Newton-Boston 26,660

Source: U.S. Postal Service, Southern California Communications Service Center

Compiled by Times researcher Tracy Thomas

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Blue suede shoes to boot: Elvis fans who want letters with an official “Return to Sender, Addressee Unknown” postal marking won’t have to send them to bogus addresses any more--at least not today in Sacramento.

The main post office in California’s capital city has designated today as “Return to Sender Day,” when postal workers will, for no charge, stamp the marking on any mail with Elvis stamps that customers bring in. Die-hard fans can also ogle Elvis’ original blue suede shoes on display there.

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Water bed down: The Adelanto Fire Department in the high desert is the latest to provide water beds for its firefighters. They use them at firehouses in El Centro and Compton, too.

Not only are water beds said to provide better back support and muscle stress relief, but “firefighters have to jump out of bed at all ungodly hours, go out on emergency calls, go back to the station and get some sleep before their next call. A lot of studies indicate you can go back to sleep faster on a water bed,” said Adelanto Fire Chief Gary Long.

Water beds were installed for the three firefighters at Adelanto’s older station. How about the new station in town?

“Can’t,” Long said. “It was designed with built-in Murphy beds, and it’s kind of hard to fold a water bladder back into the wall.”

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Default deja vu: They’re out. They’re in. They’re out. Now Patrick and Dee Ann Kelly, the folks who out of fiscal frustration painted their Riverside home in psychedelic colors when on the brink of foreclosure, say they want in again.

The Kellys, you’ll remember, were rescued from foreclosure in November when rock singer Alice Cooper, moved by his image on the house, staged a yard sale of sorts to raise $13,000 for house payments. That got the couple current, at least until their January payment.

But Standard Mortgage said the couple had fallen behind again, and rumors circulated that they had abandoned the home to foreclosure. Not so fast, said Dee Ann Kelly, who recently called the mortgage company to report that they haven’t given up hope of finding a buyer.

Who’d buy a home worth maybe $200,000 but still sporting bizarre colors that’s got the entire neighborhood seeing red?

“Someone might buy it for the publicity or its unique paint job,” said Pam Beck of Standard Mortgage. “You know what they say: There’s a house for everyone.”

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Life after death: Each of the primary prosecutors who worked toward last year’s execution of San Diego murderer Robert Alton Harris is now wearing a black robe.

Richard D. Huffman, the chief San Diego County deputy district attorney who initially prosecuted Harris, is on the bench of the state 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego. Michael Wellington, who as a deputy state attorney worked on the Harris case appeals for 10 years, is a San Diego Superior Court judge. Jay Blood, a death penalty coordinator for the state attorney general’s office, was appointed as a judge in San Diego Municipal Court two years ago.

And last month, Lou Hanoian, who as a deputy state attorney general finally saw the end of the appeals and got Harris into San Quentin’s gas chamber, was seated as an El Cajon Municipal Court judge.

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Life term: Louie David Villalba and Debra Ann Voth were married in the Imperial County community of Calipatria. Why is this noteworthy?

The vows were recited within the guarded walls of Calipatria State Prison, where Villalba is serving a 19-years-to-life sentence on a second-degree murder conviction.

And his bride was one of the Orange County jurors who convicted him.

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Life after defeat: Conservative Republican Bruce Herschensohn won’t let his defeat for a Senate seat get in the way of the soapbox.

Herschensohn has joined the nonpartisan but conservative Claremont Institute as a senior fellow, where Vice President Brian Kennedy says Herschensohn will write a book and conduct a series of conferences on the “dangerous growth of the federal bureaucracy, America’s national security in a changing world and the flat tax.”

EXIT LINE

“There was never any danger of it being used.”

-- Principal Ginny Krauszer of Del Dios Middle School in Escondido, after she learned that a boastful seventh-grader had stashed a loaded, semiautomatic .25-caliber handgun in a campus locker. Classmates turned him in.