<i> Snapshots of life in the Golden State.</i> : Palm Desert Putters With Solution to Air Pollution

It’s been said that there are more golf courses than churches in the Coachella Valley. So perhaps it’s no surprise that one of the nation’s first citywide experiments in the use of electric golf carts on public streets is under way in Palm Desert.

The program is aimed at gauging how effective the zero-emission vehicles would be in reducing air pollution caused by gas-guzzling cars. To pave the way, Palm Desert has striped eight-foot cart lanes on some streets and is allowing carts to mingle with cars on roadways where the speed limit is 25 m.p.h. or lower.

Participating residents must outfit their carts, most of which putter along at no more than 20 m.p.h., with safety gear, including seat belts, brake lights and turn signals. Such costs may be a reason that only 80 of the city’s 3,000 individually owned carts have been registered for the program that began in January.

“We estimated we’d have perhaps twice as many registered as we do at this time,” city environmental conservation manager John Wohlmuth said.

Regardless, the project has already resulted in the design of a model highway sign for golf carts and the construction of a complimentary charging center for golf carts that are running low on power.

The free charging station is opening at the Palm Desert Town Center shopping mall. It accommodates two vehicles at a time, which, on average, are expected to take three hours to recharge.

“It’s a convenience thing, a comfort factor for the shopper,” said mall general manager Douglas Simmons, who noted that the average visitor spends $60 per trip to the mall. “It makes them want to stay here a little longer, we hope, and not worry about driving home without enough juice.”

And what’s next, valet charging?

Memorial Day Ceremonies

California’s six federal veterans’ cemeteries and its one state cemetery will have Memorial Day programs open to the public beginning midmorning on either Sunday or Monday. Below are the seven cemeteries commemorating the day, ranked by the number of veterans buried there. CEMETERY: NO. BURIED Golden Gate National Cemetery, 1300 Sneath Lane, San Bruno: 126,000 Los Angeles National Cemetery, 950 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Westwood: 85,000 Riverside National Cemetery, 22495 Van Buren Blvd., Riverside: 71,500 Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery, On Cabrillo Memorial Drive south of Catalina Boulevard, San Diego: 62,000 San Francisco National Cemetery, The Presidio, Sheridan Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard: 32,000 Veteran’s Home Cemetery, California 29 between Napa and St. Helena, Yountville: 4,711 San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, 32053 W. McCabe Road, near Los Banos: 1,100 Sources: state Department of Veterans Affairs and cemeteries listed Compiled by Times researcher Tracy Thomas *

Busting out: Less than three weeks after the announcement that Calipatria was the state’s No. 1 boom town in 1992, two of the tiny Imperial County community’s top residents have moved on.

Warden Bryan Gunn and Chief Deputy Warden Myrna Rodriguez have been transferred to other institutions from their posts at the maximum-security Calipatria State Prison, which sparked the farming community’s 134% growth rate when it opened in January, 1992.

Because of the state budget crisis, the prison, with a population of 3,900 convicts, is also eliminating nine correctional officers’ positions. Still, efforts are being made to stabilize the bulk of the population, particularly 2,000 inmates serving life sentences.

Officials say a lethal electrified fence is under construction at the prison to allow manned guard towers to be eliminated. “This will be the first (such fence) in the state, but eventually all the institutions will have it,” prison information officer Daniel Paramo said.

The move is drawing criticism from the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. “For 135 years, we’ve had observation towers and they’ve always worked,” CCPOA President Donald Novey said. “This is like going back to the 1930s in Germany.”

Besides, Novey said, “Knowing the inmates out there, they’d throw another inmate on the fence, short it out and get out.”

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Back-stabbers: When it comes to wackiness and political intrigue, some things never change in San Francisco.

Among the 80,000 runners in the recent 82nd annual Bay to Breakers race were wiseacres dressed as Dolly Parton, Joe Montana and Jesus Christ--the latter complete with cross and crown of thorns. At least a dozen other participants came totally undressed. And yet another wore a sign reading “Homeless! Will Run for Food.”

Group entries included a large, moving toothbrush and 13 runners dressed as giant parking meters. Finally, there was the participant with a fake stab wound in his back being chased by a friend wearing an “I love Steffi Graf” T-shirt.

Speaking of back-stabbing, ex-Deputy Police Chief Jack Jordan, the brother of ex-Chief Frank Jordan, who is now mayor, has finally broken his nearly four-year silence after being forced into retirement.

Frank Jordan asked his brother Jack to step down while facing possible disciplinary action for his role in the controversial handling of a pair of public protests. Since being elected mayor, Frank has also pushed out or fired more than a dozen top city officials, including two police chiefs, an acting police chief, a planning director and a redevelopment director.

“Frank reminds me of a black widow spider,” Jack Jordan told the San Francisco Examiner. “He turns on his mates.”

EXIT LINE

“What should people do if attacked by Africanized honeybees? Answer: Run.” --From a state Department of Food and Agriculture press release about the discovery of two swarms of what appeared to be so-called killer bees just south of the border in Mexicali.