State Attorney General Bill Lockyer supported Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he took office on Nov. 17, 2003. Now, one year later, the state’s top lawyer has a different opinion. ‘Unfortunately, this last year and last month, the Arnold I see is super right wing, even more right than George Bush,’ Lockyer told the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club at its annual meeting last Saturday in the home of Joe and Pepper Edmiston. Lockyer, a strong advocate for consumer rights, expressed concern over Schwarzenegger’s recent proposal to reorganize state government by abolishing 88 state boards and commissions. He is concerned especially about eliminating professional licensing boards that are responsible for disciplinary actions and oversight. He warned the 100-member crowd that if these important duties are transferred to one executive officer, there is a risk that with the right amount of money or influence, one person can make a case go away. The best lobbyists, he said, are doctors whose licenses are threatened because of malpractice suits. Lockyer explained that they hire the best attorneys money can buy. ‘That’s not right,’ he said, and emphasized that the boards and commissions are important because they make things visible and publicize possible risks to the public. Other boards on the governor’s butcher block include the Electricity Oversight Board, Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation, and the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. Lockyer, who has held the state’s highest law enforcement post since November 1998, is also keeping a close eye on Washington. On Tuesday, he and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell filed a lawsuit to block the Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment, which he said was tacked on to a recently passed Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill in the middle of the night. The Amendment would give health insurance companies, hospitals, doctors and staff the right to refuse to perform, pay for, or provide referral services in abortions, even in an emergency. If any state or local government attempts to enforce state laws to safeguard women’s constitutional right to abortion care, federal funding to health care providers would be denied. This could potentially deny $49 billion in federal funds to California. ‘The Bush administration is trying to repeal Roe v. Wade in a sneaky, backdoor way,’ Lockyer said Saturday. ‘Our suit argues that Congress doesn’t have the power to tack this onto an appropriations bill.’ ‘It’s going to be a tough fight,’ he admitted. His office is working closely with key Californian lawmakers Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman. Lockyer, who believes in the fundamental right of a woman to choose, told the group that the Democratic Party needs to protect U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Roe v. Wade, which marked its 32nd anniversary Saturday. ‘If we change direction on this issue, we don’t deserve to win an election. That is what we’re about,’ he said as the crowd cheered. Lockyer, a former history teacher, advised the Democratic Club not to lose hope despite the 2004 presidential election results. There is a cycle of social progress that occurs every 40 to 50 years, and he reminded the group that in 1964 the situation was reversed. The Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. Though the country was involved in an unpopular war, like today, the incumbent President, Lyndon B. Johnson, won re-election. ‘It’s been 40 years,’ Lockyear said, and noted that it’s time for a change. When asked about whom he supports to head up the Democratic National Committee, Lockyer responded that though he does not have a vote for DNC chair, he thinks former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean would be a good choice because he will be able to energize the party. (Diane Guthman, who lived in Pacific Palisades until she was 11, is a Santa Monica writer.)

Local realtor Michael Edlen and Coldwell Banker Southern California have once again donated $6,500 each to the Palisades Chamber of Commerce in support of the street/sidewalk maintenance program in the Village. The Chamber launched the program in February 2003 to give a fresh, clean look to the Village. As the Village has become busier this year, the program is even more important, said Edlen, an agent at the Coldwell Banker West office on Sunset. ‘I feel that since we’re in the middle of the Village, it’s an opportunity to give back to the community in a tangible way,’ said Edlen. ‘I know that everyone appreciates that the Village looks so much more appealing with the maintenance program ongoing. ‘Last year I asked Scott Gibson, president of Coldwell Banker Southern California, to match me dollar for dollar, and he did,’ Edlen said. ‘This year, his successor Betty Graham agreed to again match the $6,500 donation.’ The Chamber has contracted with Chrysalis’ Street Works, a nonprofit back-to-work program to conduct the twice-weekly street cleaning and maintenance. ‘I think that the Chrysalis program is a win-win,’ Edlen said. ‘It gives their employees an opportunity to have a job that otherwise would not be available, and it gives Chrysalis more visibility in the Palisades.’ The Street Works maintenance workers come to town on Mondays to clean up the Village area, including the gutters and alleyways; on Friday, they pick up trash. Once a month, they steam-clean the sidewalks, rotating between the various business districts in town, including Swarthmore and Marquez. ‘It’s been very successful because of people like Michael and people from the community who’ve donated everything from $5 to $1,000,’ said Chamber president David Williams. ‘Without the residential support, this wouldn’t be possible.’ Williams said that the city provides cleaning maintenace to the business district about once a month, and trash pickup on Wednesdays. ‘We can’t get anything more from the city, their budget is strapped,’ Williams said. ‘We supplement when the city doesn’t pick up trash.’ The annual cost for the Street Works cleaning services is just over $31,000, and about $29,000 has been raised so far. ‘I encourage all Village businesses to contact the Chamber and see in what way, small and large, they can help improve the visual appearance of our small village,’ Edlen said. ‘There are other opportunities where funds can be put to good use.’ Donations to the program can be made out to Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, earmarked to Street Maintenance, and mailed to 15330 Antioch St., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. Palisadian Adlai Wertman is president and CEO of Chrysalis. In addition to Street Works, the professional cleaning business which helps formerly homeless men get work, the company also runs Labor Connection, a full-service staffing company.

Interview by ALYSON SENA Palisadian-Post Staff Writer Palisadian and retired Lt. Col. Colleen Turner recently completed research sponsored by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Turner’s project was inspired by an INSS research question posed by the Pentagon’s Middle East Planning Office for Department of Defense personnel: ‘How should the U.S. attempt to shape regional perceptions through strategic information and other efforts?’ Interest in this issue had increased in response to polls indicating that anti-American sentiment had increased significantly in the Middle East and around the globe since the U.S. invasion of Iraq; concern for casualties, cost and exit strategies were also mounting on the home front. Turner submitted a final proposal, ‘Best Practices for Inspiring Pro-American Sentiment’Exploring Methods of American Masters for Winning Hearts and Minds Around the Globe,’ to the INSS on January 20, 2004. Her recommendations for American image enhancement include using language in more constructive ways and seeing ourselves as others see us. Turner earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. from UCLA in social welfare, as well as an M.A. in human relations from Webster University. Q: Why did yo pick this question to research? A: I felt there were so many ways we could be influencing our allies, and enemies even, that weren’t being used; there was a toolbox of tactics and strategies being completely neglected in preference of military might [reflected by ‘either preemptive strikes or UN inspections’]. Q: What processes did you see were not working? A: We were communicating that we were right and they were wrong; we were good and they were bad; we didn’t need the rest of the world to back us, we could do it on our own and if they weren’t with us they were against us. Even people who originally felt sorry for us about September 11 started getting upset with us; they went the other way. Q: How did you begin your research for reshaping America’s image? A: My international sports experiences as a player for the USA volleyball team, in the military, as a social worker, and in the business world had helped me appreciate how common problem-solving approaches in one discipline might be completely unknown in another. In my literature review I discovered many brilliant and important ideas being recommended that were falling on deaf ears. Even recommendations from our defense fellows at Harvard University…nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them. But I needed to consider my audience. I wanted to make sure that it would be user-friendly to a more general population, not just researchers. And I also wanted to do something that a neo-conservative and a progressive liberal could agree on and go forward with. I settled on an exploratory methodology studying a sample of very successful Americans in distinctively different fields. I narrowed it down to six people and one institution: Lance Armstrong, the international cycling champion; Father Greg Boyle, a Los Angeles-based [Jesuit] priest renowned for success with reducing gang violence; Herb Cohen, a world-class business negotiator; Bill, an esteemed anonymous member of the high-IQ society Mensa; Al Scates, the top NCAA champion volleyball coach, and William McDonough, an internationally acclaimed green design architect. They were all indisputably successful. I also included the Air Force Academy because they were showing promise at turning around their tarnished image after the sexual assault scandal. Q: Why Lance Armstrong? A: He’s an American, he’s a hero, he’s done the impossible and, when you read his story, you realize that he was so hated in the early biking days; the Italians used to throw tacks on the street to pop his tires. He had a terrible reputation and he even considered himself arrogant. He started turning things around when he began to appreciate the culture of the environments where he was working, and when he started becoming a team player, he started winning more. I just thought this was exactly the kind of situation we’re in internationally, where they’re putting tacks in our tires because they don’t want to see us win. Q: Why did you choose Father Greg Boyle? A: Father Boyle had established a solid reputation for success in transforming individuals from gangs that were essentially at war with one another on our city streets. Granted it was a long way from Iraq, but my thinking was that perhaps someone capable of dealing with the Crips, Bloods, or Snakes could shed some light on how the U.S. might better approach the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. He agreed to meet with me for an interview in East L.A. at Homeboy Industries/Jobs For A Future, the organization he founded and directs, serving approximately 1,000 gang members every month. I arrived in my Air Force dress blues, no doubt creating speculation a recruiter had arrived. The place was filled with mostly young Latino men. Father Boyle shared his valuable lessons learned, primarily focusing on how to be smart vs. tough on crime. I then endeavored to make the links with how the U.S. might more effectively deal with international terrorism more smartly. I came away from the interview thinking how his approach might not only improve international relations efforts while reducing terror but that if more people would champion his efforts locally, Los Angeles would be safer. Q: Why did you feel you needed to go to Washington, D.C. as part of your project? A: To meet with State Department, Department of Defense and congressional personnel to get feedback. Q: How did your daughter Kim help you navigate Washington? [Kim, who is 24, currently works in D.C. as a research assistant for the National League of Cities.] A: The big help Kim gave me was the week before Memorial Day weekend [2004]…I said, ‘I need to go to the leadership offices on Capitol Hill to introduce them to this project and request feedback.’ Kim said something like, ‘Yeah, right, Mom, you’re just going to parachute right into the Capitol building; I’m sure there won’t be any problem with that.’ And we laughed. She had been Senate staffer and had worked her way up from the mailroom to a press assistant position, and she’d also been a White House intern, so she was pretty clued in… Q: What are a couple of the tips she suggested? A: Well, she told me to call the day before; be sure to use the right terminology, ask for the ‘military liaisons’ and ‘legislative analysts’; arrive with a concise memo explaining what is needed and why; and make sure you get the name of someone to follow up with or you’ll never get a response. Q: What was the response from these legislative analysts and military liaisons you met? A: They overwhelmingly supported the recommendations’State, Defense, both Republicans and Democrats in all the key areas. I wondered what would keep the recommendations from being implemented. I think for the most part, it’s because you can’t turn them into some form of legislation. And yet, if you can at least start realizing these ideas are available and…through the media or whatever way you do it, if you can help Americans understand they have alternatives in ways of thinking about things, then that’s a lot. Q: After you submitted [the research] last October, what happened? A: My paper went to the Pentagon. My personal goal is to have my fellow Americans think more creatively about how to solve problems in ways that will be less damaging to us and help enhance our security and safety. Requests for a copy of the report can be e-mailed to Turner at catalyst@ix.netcom.com

Palisadian Dennis Tito knows how to commandeer an audience. At a recent Rotary breakfast meeting in Mort’s Oak Room, the world’s first space tourist had everyone’s attention as he talked about making history on April 28, 2001, when he served as a crew member on an eight-day Russian Soyuz mission to the International Space Station. ‘This was a life-long dream for me, to travel into space,’ said Tito, CEO of Wilshire Associates, Inc., a leading provider of investment advice and statistics (the Wilshire 5000 Index). Tito said that in 1957 he was galvanized by the launch of the first Sputnik, and then closely followed the ongoing competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to put the first man on the moon. It propelled him ‘to study engineering.’ After receiving a master’s degree in engineering science, Tito began his career at the age of 23 as an aerospace engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was responsible for designing the trajectories for the Mariner spacecraft missions to Mars and Venus. He said he expected that space travel would be available at some point, ‘in my lifetime.’ He just didn’t know when. Then in 1991, after meeting with space officials in the Soviet Union, Tito realized it might be possible to take part in a trip to the Mir Space Station. Those plans were temporarily squashed when shortly after that, ‘the Cold War ended, and the Soviet Union fell apart.’ Then, almost a decade later, Tito found himself in Russia to train. He likened it to ‘joining the army and going to boot camp at age 60. It was cold, dreary. I had to make my own bed. It was probably akin to what Martha Stewart is experiencing,’ which caused some laughter. However, ‘I was a volunteer, so I could leave at any time. But I stayed and worked hard, even though it was not clear if I would actually get to fly. I knew it would be my last chance to try. I did pass the physical. But there were other hurdles.’ Tito found himself with a mission but no place to go, as the Russians were no longer manning Mir. So after much wrangling with NASA, he was finally given the go-ahead to travel to the International Space Station. He felt there was ‘a certain elitism involved. It’s NASA that usually selects the astronauts, who have to have ‘The Right Stuff,’ be a ‘Top Gun’ test pilot,’ and ‘not a senior citizen,’ such as himself. Also, ‘they feared if an accident occurred, it would be controversial,’ said Tito, who took ‘loads’ of photos of his journey, some of which he shared with his Rotary audience during his Power Point presentation. First was a picture of the rocket that transported him, ‘the same kind of rocket, designed in 1954, that once posed a big threat to the U.S. because it could launch nuclear warheads which could destroy our cities,’ Tito said. Next was a news clip of the rocket blasting off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. ‘Imagine 600 pounds of high explosives beneath you. As I looked out the window, I realized that we went from zero to 18,000 miles an hour in nine minutes.’ After two days of circling the earth, the rocket docked successfully at the space station. Tito described the inside of the craft as similar to the interior of ‘a submarine,’ where he got ‘some of the best sleep I had in years. Because I was weightless, I didn’t need a pillow. It took me about a day to get used to it, and once I did, I could have stayed up there for months if they had let me, listening to my favorite operas on CD. I felt like an angel in heaven, floating and looking out the window.’ In space, some 246 miles above the earth, Tito could clearly see the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the African desert in a sandstorm, the breakup of the ice flows in northern Canada. He said that when he landed he felt like he was ‘born again. I was happy to come back in one piece.’ Tito noted that little progress has been made in the last three decades in the U.S. space program, which, ironically enough, has allowed for the private sector to become involved. He sees the recent success of Space Ship One, the privately funded manned rocket ‘as a major breakthrough’ for commercial space travel, in spite of ensuing regulatory hurdles. ‘People want that experience.’ Tito thinks Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will be offering flights within three to five years for about $50,000, well below the $200,000 price tag that has been banded about for the opportunity to go into space’some 62 miles above the earth. Apparently 13,000 people have already signed up. ‘It’s going to be a great new industry,’ Tito said. While he is happy to promote space travel, he said he currently has no financial interest in the development of tourism in space.