<i> Snapshots of life in the Golden State.</i> : An Earthshaking Change for Landless Homeowners

If you owned a house but not the land it was built on, would you vacuum the carpets before you mowed the lawn?

This and other thorny maintenance questions have finally been resolved for 800 families in the San Joaquin Valley community of Taft--householders in the rare situation of having title to their four walls but leasing their yards from the family of old-time oilman James W. Jameson.

Many of the turn-of-the-century homes owned by these families were built by Jameson’s oil field workers, who rented the ground beneath them for $3 a month. The land rentals were raised to $9 a month in 1955 and now run around $40 to $50.

The last beneficiary of the Jameson Trust died in 1991. Last fall, the trustees sold the land for $5.6 million. The new owner agreed to let the homeowners buy their parcels for $7,000 to $13,000.

“We’re giving people a chance they haven’t had in three or four generations,” said Chris Gerold of South Taft Properties Inc.

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That’s the ticket: No, you don’t have to move to Canada; amnesty is available right here at home for those who have run afoul of Berkeley’s stiff parking regulations.

The densely populated city of 106,000, where politics are liberal but parking spaces are not, has instituted a forgiveness program for parking citations issued before June 1 and subsequently ignored.

By paying each basic parking ticket, generally $20, before July 31, offenders will not have to pay the penalties they likely racked up while ignoring those pesky pieces of paper--even if their tickets are older than their Birkenstocks.

“The only people who are upset about this are the ones who have already paid their parking fines,” said Berkeley Finance Director Eric Tsao.

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Tug o’ war: The rusting tugboat Hoga, the only working Navy vessel left from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, is facing the junkyard, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The 100-foot tug--now in San Francisco--helped beach the burning battleship Nevada during the attack on Dec. 7, 1941, thwarting Japanese efforts to sink the disabled ship in a channel and bottle up Pearl Harbor.

“With the valiant efforts she waged to save better known, bigger vessels, she deserves our best efforts to save her,” said Richard Moe, president of the Washington-based trust.

Supporters of the embattled Hoga want to return it to Honolulu to become a national monument. The trust does not have estimates on the money needed for the restorations.

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The goose that laid the golden egg: Bird-watchers bring more than binoculars when they flock to the nation’s wildlife refuges to watch their fine feathered friends.

In Imperial County alone, avian enthusiasts from around the world spent $3.1 million between September, 1993, and August, 1994.

This spring, as migrating birds headed north, the Townhouse Lodge Motel in Brawley provided lodging for birders from Switzerland and New Jersey. “It’s amazing,” said Townhouse manager Lou Cooper. “We get them from all over. It blows my mind.”

They came to the region from seven countries, 31 states and 20 California counties, lured by the bird-rich area around the Salton Sea.

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TB in California

Reported cases of tuberculosis were down statewide for the second year in a row in 1994--but two years do not make a trend, say state epidemiologists. While Los Angeles County continued to lead with the most TB cases reported (39% of the statewide total), San Francisco and Imperial counties had the highest rates per capita. Here are the top 10 counties in TB case rates per 100,000 population:

COUNTY: CASE RATE per 100,000

1. San Francisco: 37.2 2. Imperial: 28.2 3. Los Angeles: 20.4 4. Santa Barbara: 19.1 5. Santa Clara: 18.1 6. San Joaquin: 17.7 7. Kern: 17.3 8. Alameda: 15.6 9. San Diego: 15.4 10. Madera: 14.9

Note: Orange County tied with Tulare for 11th place, both with rates of 14.0.

Source: Tuberculosis Control Branch, state Department of Health Services

Researched by TRACY THOMAS / Los Angeles Times

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Wanted, dead, not alive: Sacramento squawfish of all persuasions.

Ugly, bony and voracious, the squawfish are gobbling up tiny salmon and steelhead trout faster than a fisherman can cast. And they are decimating the fragile fish populations of the Eel River, one of Northern California’s prime sportfishing rivers.

Also known as hardhead, bigmouth and box head, the squawfish are about to become endangered themselves; the state Department of Fish and Game has just put a price on their fish heads.

A so-called squawfish derby begins this month and runs through September, with prizes for the fisherman who bags the most and the cook who creates the best squawfish recipe.

Squawfish, which can reach 10 pounds at maturity, “eat anything smaller than themselves,” said Larry Preston, a fish and game biologist. Ladies and gentlemen, keep those Chihuahuas at home.

EXIT LINE

“I call them by the wrong name frequently. It’s one thing if they’re standing in front of you, but not if they’re at second base.”

--Little League coach Craig Alden of the Piedmont Twins, which boasts four sets of twins.

California Dateline appears every other Friday.