Who Will Be Next for a License Plate Portrait?

The Gipperplate is now a piece of the California car culture.

At a ceremony at the Ronald Reagan state building in downtown Los Angeles, former President Ronald Reagan’s wife, Nancy, watched--just as she had at her husband’s myriad bill-signing ceremonies--as Gov. Gray Davis put ink to paper to authorize a commemorative Reagan license plate. It is the nation’s first, according to the bill’s sponsor, to show the face of a real person, living or dead.

Proceeds from the $50 or so extra cost of each plate will benefit the Reagan presidential library.

Now, precedent having been set with the face plate, why stop there? What other singular Californians (or even adopted sons and daughters, considering that Reagan’s birthplace was Illinois) could generate money for causes?

John Muir: the environment. Jerry Garcia: a free concert ticket fund. Gertrude Stein: the beautification of Oakland, her hometown, of which she famously wrote that there is “no there there.”

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Pen, sword and shield law: A former newspaper reporter who refused to reveal his sources to a San Bernardino County Grand Jury has the law on his side. An appeals court judge ruled that John Rezendes-Herrick does not have to go to the slammer for refusing to identify the source for his stories on a controversial landfill project that is the subject of a criminal investigation.

The high school social studies teacher and former reporter for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin had been ordered to name names or check into the Graybar Hotel for five days. Prosecutors said that sometimes reporters get stuff that’s too good not to be handed over in spite of the shield law.

But a judge agreed with Rezendes-Herrick’s attorney that prosecutors didn’t show that Rezendes-Herrick’s information was crucial enough to override the law, showing that the shield is mightier than the subpoena.

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A ticklish issue That hot plumage bestowed on the governor of California is still warmish, but in the process of cooling down.

As Gov. Davis was negotiating with Native Americans about casino politics, a group of Indians bestowed an eagle feather upon him, symbol of spiritual and temporal power.

Unfortunately, for a non-Native American, such a feather also represents six months in the pokey or a $1,000 fine, or both. Davis and his plume may avoid any state consequences because he represents California, and the state can possess a raptor feather.

So, the feather in question is under lock and key in the office of the governor while his application for a permit to possess it goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife folk.

Still something of a mystery is why the feather was delivered to Sacramento by a non-Native American representative of the Cabazon tribe. The Cabazons’ director of legal affairs is at pains to point out that they did not “give” Davis the feather so much as “entrust” it to him, for “no one can own an animal.”

Which must be quite a consolation to the eagle.

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Women in Business

California leads the nation in businesses owned by women, and they sell more and employ more people than their counterparts elsewhere, according to 1999 estimates* released by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners. More than one-third of all businesses in California are owned by women. Here are the top 10 states:

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EMPLOYEES SALES STATE FIRMS (in millions) (in billions) 1. California 1.2 million 3.8 $548.7 2. Texas 627,300 1.8 $222.2 3. New York 599,900 1.9 $304.0 4. Florida 582,000 2.0 $227.4 5. Illinois 384,700 1.4 $194.8 6. Ohio 352,000 1.1 $120.8 7. Pennsylvania 339,100 1.3 $161.2 8. Michigan 302,000 .78 $99.4 9. New Jersey 251,500 .85 $133.3 10. Georgia 239,400 1.1 $182.4

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* Based on 1987 and 1992 U.S. Census data analyzed, then projected to 1999.

Researched by TRACY THOMAS / Los Angeles Times

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One-offs: Stockton police arrested three people after neighbors’ tips led to the discovery of methamphetamines being brewed atop a washer and dryer. . . . The California Prune Board reports some success in marketing prune puree to the nation’s school cafeterias as an ingredient in hamburger meat, barbecue and pizza sauce and gingerbread cookies. . . . The late Bosco, a dog who was elected honorary mayor of the town of Sunol in 1981, is being memorialized with a life-size beer tap that issues forth brew by lifting the rear legs. . . . The practice of “shark finning”--catching a shark and cutting off only its fins for shark-fin soup, then dumping the dying fish in the water--would be banned under a bill presented by Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Escondido) and backed by several conservation groups.

EXIT LINE

“The people were just a bunch of lowlifes who jacked up the car and pulled it.”

--Randy Evans, who says his car was towed even after he paid for his space. A pending criminal prosecution and civil lawsuit are considering accusations that a San Francisco towing company hauled away legally parked cars, among 2,700 code violations of various kinds in three years, according to the city. In one case, a homeless woman signed over title of her car to get back her dog and her belongings after her car was towed illegally, according to the city. The company has denied the accusations.

California Dateline appears every other Tuesday.