LOCAL NEWS WEATHER EDITORIAL PAGES 11 ion SATURDAY APRIL 21, 1990 CCtt Hoe Atifletes Sftmes METRO HIGHLIGHTS L.A. Braces for Harbor Freeway Decking Transportation: A compromise with the city allows the work to be done during the day, despite traffic problems. Caltrans had wanted to close the vital roadway. By RONALD B. TAYLOR TIMES STAFF WRITER Trying to build a $55-million second deck over the crowded Harbor Freeway is not easy under any circ*mstances, but when state engineers last week suggested that the vital roadway would have to be closed periodically during rush hour over the next two years, the forces of convenience, economics and safety collided.
The result was a political SigAlert, as Los Angeles city officials told California Department of Transportation engineers that they would not agree to shut down any part of the Harbor Freeway during daylight hours. On Thursday, the standoff was resolved. In a compromise worked out in Mayor Tom Bradley's office, city officials said they will allow the work to go on during the day, while Caltrans agreed to scrap plans to close lanes during the day. Night lane closures are still expected at various times, traffic. This plan was clearly unacceptable." Protests from city transportation officials, the mayor's office and state Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) persuaded Caltrans to delay the road work and lane closings for a week.
Caltrans had scheduled the periodic closings during the day, the agency's Los Angeles district officials said, because foundation work for the upper level of the freeway is more inefficient and dangerous at night. Highway traffic at night moves faster and drivers can be blinded by lights used during construction, Caltrans Deputy District Director Jack Hallin said. Construction crews working on higher night-shift wage scales also must move slower and under more adverse conditions, he said. "We feel the daytime operations are much safer, it is easier to handle the job than at night. It is also less expensive this way.
It's a balancing act," Hallin said. But in a strongly worded memo sent to Caltrans officials April 9, agency engineers working on the Harbor Freeway project warned that the daytime construction work could cause safety hazards and "create havoc with freeway traffic." In the memo, obtained by The Times, the engineers said "a major incident" would result if one of the big steel casings or steel Please see FREEWAY, B4 HARBOR FREEWAY: The city and Caltrans reached a compromise on a construction project for the Harbor Freeway. Work may proceed during daylight, but Caltrans will not close the freeway during the day. Bl ST. JOHN ACQUITTED: Juanita St.
John was acquitted of failing to honor a subpoena for records that city auditors believe would show how she spent $180,000 in African trade task force funds. Bl THAT IS THE QUESTION: Researchers at Claremont McKenna College using computer analysis say they have come close to figuring out who is the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Bl SUMMIT ENDS: Mayor Tom Bradley will call for creation of a fund to underwrite environmental protection programs in the city and Third World. The announcement came at the end of a two-day "International Local Governments Summit on the Environment" in Los Angeles. Bl DUMP TO EXPAND: A Superior Court judge allowed the expansion of an Azusa garbage dump, even though it sits atop a vulnerable water supply for much of the San Gabriel Valley.
B3 LARRY BESSEL Los Angeles Times Construction equipment for the decking project is in place on the Harbor Freeway. officials said. Work is scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. Monday. City officials said they first learned about Caltrans' plans to close the Harbor Freeway last week, the day before work on the Harbor Transitway Project, a double-decked bus and van roadway to be built over 2.6 miles of the existing freeway, was set to begin.
The city protested that the lane closings, even for brief periods, could cause accidents and divert thousands of commuters onto surface streets. Mayor Bradley said he was "alarmed when I first learned about the plan to stop St. John Acquitted in Refusal to Give Records for Audit By DEAN MURPHY TIMES STAFF WRITER Juanita St. John, a former business partner of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley accused of stealing $180,000 from a city-funded African trade task force, was acquitted Friday of failing to honor a subpoena for records that city auditors believe would show how she spent the money. An ebullient St.
John hugged her attorneys after hearing the verdict, but refused to discuss the case outside court. Her daughter, Kathy Mendenhall, who works for Bradley, swept her 58-year-old mother out of the courtroom and down a nearby staircase to avoid reporters. "That's the first one," a smiling St. John said over her daughter's objections. "I have good attorneys." The four-day Los Angeles Municipal Court trial, which was held across the street from City Hall, was the lesser of i-.
4 (4, JOSHUA TREE DELAY: Palmdale again stalled a plan to require preservation of native Joshua trees, a palm-like desert symbol that gave the city its name. The delay came after complaints that the city had not obtained land where trees saved from building sites could be stored. B3 MIKESERGIEFF For The Times Professors Ward Elliott, left, and Robert Valenza, right, analyze computer study of Shakespeare's writings. two criminal cases against St. John.
The trial grew out of an audit by the city controller's office of the city-funded task force. She faces a preliminary hearing next month on felony grand theft charges in connection with her activities as executive director of the Task Force for AfricaLos Angeies Relations, a pet project of Bradley's. The longtime Bradley al EDITORIALS To He or Not to He Computer Narrows Down Claimants to Bard's Throne ly allegedly used some of the task force's money to JOE KENNEDY Los Angeles Tim Juanita St. John HOSTAGE: President Bush's cool stood him in good stead when the Islamic Jihad offered to release a hostage if the President met their demands. B6 ON THE RECORD "That's the first one." A smiling Juanita St.
John commenting Friday after she was acquitted of violating a city subpoena. St. John, the former business partner of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, faces felony grand theft charges in connection with the alleged misuse of funds from an African trade task force. Bl cover payments to Bradley and others who were partners with her in a Riverside County real estate partnership. Prosecutors have said they found no evidence Bradley was aware he had received task force funds.
A spokeswoman for Bradley said Friday that the mayor "does not want to comment" on her acquittal. Attorney Richard G. Hirsch, who represented St. John on the misdemeanor charge, predicted Friday's verdict will help his client fight the more serious felony charges. "I think the facts of this case show the audit, which I assume is the basis of the criminal charges in that case, was Please see ST.
JOHN, B4 By EDMUND NEWTON TIMES STAFF WRITER After centuries of debate among scholars, gadflies and would-be experts, researchers at Claremont McKenna College say it has taken just three years of computer analysis to come close to figuring out the true author of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. It wasn't Christopher Marlowe or Francis Bacon or the Earl of Oxford, the researchers say. To their surprise, it could have been Queen Elizabeth Sir Walter Raleigh, the obscure poet Fulke Greville or even the glover's son from Stratford-on-Avon, the man who has been known as "The Bard" for 400 years. "Just about everybody in sight has flunked enough tests to be no longer a plausible claimant," said Ward E.Y. Elliott, the political science professor who heads the project.
Using computers to compare such things as often-used words, punctuation and spelling in scores of texts, the researchers say they have eliminated most of the 58 PLAYING LOTTO 649 Did the man from Stratford really write the works credited to Shakespeare, or did someone else? claimants proposed at one time or another as the authors of such masterpieces as "Hamlet," "King Lear" and "The Tempest." Elliott and his colleagues will present their results at Please see SHAKESPEARE, B4 Tonight's Jackpot $10 million Times: Sales close at 7:40 p.m. Tonight's winning numbers broadcast at 7:58 p.m. on KTTV, Channel 1 1 KGTV, Channel 10 and KFI-AM 640. Last Wednesday's Jackpot $4.8 million Wednesday Winners Per Category No. Prizes Winners Each 6 of 6 0 $4.8 million 5 of 6 plus bonus 3 $440,056 5 of 6 251 $2,709 4 of 6 12,376 $49 3 of 6 231,022 $5 DECCO Friday's Winning Cards: Hearts: 4 A Clubs: King Diamonds: 5 Spades: 8 1 Killed, 4 Injured in Hollywood Street Fight Bradley Urges Fund to Battle Pollution in L.A, Third World By LARRY B.
STAMMER TIMES ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley said Friday that he will urge the City Council to create a new fund to underwrite the costs of environmental protection programs in the city and subsidize similar programs in Third World communities. The mayor's announcement came at the conclusion of a two-day "International Local Governments Summit on the Environment" in Los Angeles, which attracted municipal officials from 28 nations. Bradley said budget savings resulting from energy conservation measures could be earmarked for the fund. He did not give further details. A spokesman for Bradley said later that it was too early to say how large the fund would be or what environmental programs would be financed.
But the plan generally would follow a 12-point resolution adopted Friday by delegates at the conclusion of the conference at the Biltmore Hotel. The resolution calls on cities to take immediate steps to curb global warming and other environmental problems. It asks cities to establish environmental protection funds and recommends that "industrialized cities" in developed countries, such as the United States, "devote resources to Please see SUMMIT, B4 immediately identified. Two were said to be in their 30s and two in their mid-20s. The age of the fifth man was unknown.
LAPD Officer Roy Rogers said that when he arrived at the scene, he found one man lying on the sidewalk outside of the bar. That man had been shot at least once. The fight apparently continued west on Yucca, to the corner of Yucca and Cahuenga Boulevard, where a second man was found. Police found one more victim near a 7-Eleven store and the fourth outside the Hollywood 8 Motel in the 1800 block of Cahuenga. As police moved in with helicopters and dogs, two suspects were at one point said to be holed up in a nearby hotel shortly before 11 p.m.
Friday. That report proved to be false. In addition to the man who dripped a trail of blood, police were looking for at least three other men involved in the incident. Please see FIGHT, B8 By NANCY WRIDE TIMES STAFF WRITER Police followed a trail of blood late Friday in the Hollywood area searching for suspects in a "good old street fight" in which one man was killed and at least four others were wounded. Three of the men were shot, one was stabbed and a fifth man possibly a suspect was also wounded.
Police believe a fifth man was involved because they saw a trail of blood leading away from the scene. Police followed the trail but were unable to find him. Police say the incident began about 9:45 p.m. with a fight inside the La Iguerita bar, a pool hall and sports bar in the 6300 block of Yucca Street. The fight apparently spilled out into the street.
It was not immediately clear what led to the fight, but by the time police had arrived, bodies were strewn along a block-long stretch. None of the men, all Latino, was INDEX Digest B2 Only in L.A. FJ2 Air Quality, Weather B5.
