Last updated: October 14, 1997.

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The Cassini atop its Titan IV booster before the launch was scrubbed on October 13th. (photo of the NASA Channel) CLUB OPPOSES LAUNCH OF CASSINI SPACECRAFT  The Gardena Valley Democratic Club, at its September General Meeting, passed a motion opposing the launch of the Cassini probe and its 72 pounds of plutonium fuel toward Saturn. Radioactive Plutonium is the deadliest material on Earth. An accident would endanger millions of human beings, not only in Florida but around the world. NASA estimates the danger of this happening at one in a million, but one Titan rocket out of twenty blows up! NASA claims that the plutonium is encased in solid pellets which won't disintegrate, but they haven't tested the effects on the pellets of an explosion with the Titan IV's extremely toxic liquid fuel. Nor have they tested the effects of those pellets burning up in the atmosphere if an accident occurs when the Cassini "slingshots" around the Earth in August 1999 at 44,000 miles per hour. One millionth of a gram of plutonium when inhaled will give a person cancer. That translates to enough plutonium to give 32,658,650,640,000 people cancer. That's over 32 TRILLION! That's over 5 1/2 MILLION times the population of the Earth! Why? So that a handful of scientists can have a cushy job for the next seven years watching the Cassini travel to Saturn? So that they will have job security studying the data for the remainder of their careers following a successful mission? -- IF the Cassini is successful? Are those good reasons to endanger every person on Earth? In 25 years, when the next window to Saturn opens, computers will need so little electricity, and solar power will likely be so efficient, that plutonium will not be needed to power that future spacecraft. Can't we all just wait? Is the planet Saturn going somewhere else in the meantime? If this Titan rocket explodes, we'll have to wait 25 years to visit Saturn anyway. And all those scientists would have to find other cushy jobs, anyway. There are lots of other jobs in the aerospace industry that don't require endangering every human -- every living thing -- on our Earth. Sign Ban on Anti-personnel Mines! At our September General Meeting, we voted to ask President Clinton to join the rest of the World in the Ottawa Process and sign the International Treaty banning anti-personnel land mines.

Many Club Members Call for Removal of Gardena City Manager Many Club members who are residents of Gardena have supported Mayor Don Dear's and City Councilman Steve Bradford's move to place City Manager Ken Landau on a leave of absence during an investigation into his travel irregularities. At a September City Council meeting, a motion to that effect failed 2 to 2, with Councilmembers Gwen Duffy and Jim Cragin opposing the motion. Jim Cragin argued that it wouldn't be fair to support the motion in the absence of Councilman Mas Fukai, who was attending a funeral. But if Councilman Cragin had voted for the motion, the motion would have passed regardless of Councilman Fukai's vote. There are now recall petitions being circulated throughout Gardena against Councilwoman Gwen Duffy and Councilman Jim Cragin. Club Calls for One-Year Contract Limit for City Managers At its August General Meeting, our Club passed a motion calling for a new State Law which would limit Contracts for City Managers to one year. This follows a number of scandals in South Bay cities. One City Manager demanded severance pay of several hundred thousand dollars and in Gardena the City Manager has allegedly spent well over a hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money on trips, including first-class air fare, 4-Star hotels and limousine services, among others. We feel that City Managers have too much power to influence Councilmembers already without the added power of binding, long-term contracts. We feel that they should be subject to periodic job review and contract renewal like everyone else. CLUB ENDORSEMENTS for HAWTHORNE & SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS At the September General Meeting, our Club made the following endorsements for the November 4, 1997 election: For Mayor of Hawthorne: Larry Guidi For Hawthorne City Council: Pablo Cataño For Centinella Valley Union High School: District #1:_ Angie Moller District #3:_ Jean DeSimone District #5:_ Maria Calix For Compton Community College: District #1:_ Vernice Dredd

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