When Lawmakers Drive Wheels of Misfortune

If you are what you drive, then you can call him Assemblyman Scott Jalopy, Republican of Huntington Beach.

The GOP believes it’s the victim of retread retribution; the Democratic leadership in the Assembly says it’s just giving the Republicans what they want--clunkers.

For years, the Assembly has waged “Car Wars,” one side whacking on the other for what vehicles its members buy with (and sometimes beyond, evidence Willie Brown’s three Cadillacs, plus drivers) their car allowances. And Assemblywoman Martha Escutia, a Huntington Park Democrat, who drove the oldest, crummiest car in the legislators’ fleet, was prevailed upon to take a slightly newer Taurus because the 1989 Lumina was costing hundreds a month in repairs.

Now that the Democrats just spent nearly 800 grand for new cars, Orange County Republicans Dick Ackerman and Scott Baugh went after Speaker Cruz Bustamante over it.

Upshot: Instead of getting those new 1998 Dodge Stratuses they had been assigned, Ackerman and Baugh now have dented, rusting, 9-year-old blue Plymouths--a “jalopy” is how Baugh aides describe the boss’ wheels.

Bustamante doesn’t consider the car switch retaliatory at all; his spokesman, Ron Gray, declared blandly: “They both expressed a preference for older cars.”

Gentlemen, gentlemen. Remember, a rusting, dented blue Plymouth is the very symbol of frugality that got Gov. Jerry Brown so much, uh, mileage.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Abortion Rates

Thursday is the 25th anniversary of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Even today, the availability of abortion services varies widely. Here are the highest and lowest rates of legal abortion per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. 1992 is the most recent year for which statistics are available.

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Rank 1974 1984 1992 1.District of Columbia 187.7 142.9 138.4 2.New York 43.1 46.6 46.2 3.Hawaii 27.2 41.6 46.0 4.Nevada 10.3 39.8 44.2 5.California 32.7 47.8 42.1 47.Utah 5.4 10.9 9.3 48.West Virginia 0.1 10.4 7.7 49.Idaho 4.5 11.6 7.2 50.South Dakota 11.9 11.4 6.8 51.Wyoming 3.7 8.1 4.3

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Sources: The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York; Planned Parenthood

Researched by TRACY THOMAS / Los Angeles Times

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World peace? NIMBY! At Stanford University, scholars will be spending Saturday considering the legacy of Bob Dylan and the music on his 42 albums in American culture.

But back in San Francisco, in the Winter After the Summer of Love Plus 30 Years, they’ve given peace a chance, and blew it.

A plan to raise a 24-foot-high stainless steel peace sign sculpture at the entrance to Golden Gate Park didn’t even get as far as the Board of Supervisors; the Art Commission voted it down.

Opposition came from the very residents of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood whence the peace sign sprang. Locals variously described it as a commercialized cliche, anachronistic, and an inappropriate lure for the nostalgically misguided.

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More Muir: A new 32-cent stamp honors John Muir, the remarkable naturalist and environmentalist who urged the government to create Yosemite National Park, whose beauties the Scottish immigrant often enjoyed by strapping himself to a tree to watch the snow blown by winter storms. The stamp makes Muir one of the few to be double-stamped: His 1964 stamp cost 5 cents. Here he poses with conservation- minded President Teddy Roosevelt, with whom he camped out, alone, in Yosemite for three days in 1903.

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A miss and a hit: CalSPAN viewers might have thought they were watching a commercial network’s annual September special because there she was, Miss America (without crown or sash), alongside Assemblywoman Carol Migden.

The San Francisco Democrat, whose efforts for AIDS patients coincide with Miss America’s own mission to highlight their plight, introduced Kate Shindle to her fellow legislators, and remarked, “We’ll make sure you’re in absolute erect attention now.” Miss A raised her eyebrows and gave forth with a pained and amused smile.

The Assembly passed a resolution commending Miss A for her work on behalf of AIDS patients.

CalSPAN caught it all. Watch for reruns during sweeps week.

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One-offs: The San Francisco Zoo has been digging holes for months to find the head of a zoo elephant who died and was buried to preserve her skull for educational purposes, but no one can remember exactly where it was interred. . . . The Riverside office of the Internal Revenue Service is at 1040 Iowa Street. . . . The same week documents reveal that the tobacco industry did indeed target kids with smoking propaganda, the attorneys general from 22 states have demanded that a San Francisco company stop making its “Classic Hemp” collectible trading cards with marijuana varietals such as Acapulco Gold and Thai Stick.

EXIT LINE

“If she doesn’t get the hang of it by Valentine’s Day, that’s it. Everyone has to earn his keep around here.”

--San Francisco plumber Jeff Renfro, speaking of Peaches, one of three trained pigs he uses to find buried sewer lines. Peaches, however, had never gotten the hang of the job, and was en route to a Sonoma petting zoo when she escaped on the Bay Bridge and tied up traffic for an hour before being recaptured. Renfro had to pay $20 to bail her out of an animal shelter. Quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle.

California Dateline appears every other Friday.