Wild horses lose protection from slaughter

Contra Costa Times
January 28, 2005, Friday

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Times staff writer

He's the star of this mountain ballet: Mustang No. 04217347, a yearling pinto with one blue eye, one brown.

Graceful, young, charged, oblivious to the frigid temperatures, he gallops in a 5-acre pen with about 20 other wild horses who form a racing collage of rich browns and auburns against a snow-white background.

He was brought to the Litchfield Bureau of Land Management compound outside Susanville, Calif., as part of a regular roundup, designed to keep down the wild horse population on public grazing lands.

In California, the agency brings in "excess" mustangs and sells them at auctions either at Litchfield, Ridgecrest, outside Bakersfield, or through independent "satellite" adoptions, such as annual ones in Brentwood and Livermore.

"How would you like to see that on your dinner plate?" asked a grim Willis Lamm, who trains horses on a ranch outside Oakley.

Far fetched? Not really.

A provision slipped into a federal appropriations bill silently killed a 1971 law that kept feral horses from being sold to slaughterhouses.

Without that protection, horses less attractive than Mustang No. 04217347 could join the lucrative U.S. horse meat export market.

The legislative language, crafted by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Montana, with the help of Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., targets mustangs more than 10 years old -- past the age of likely adoption -- and any young horse that has been to three sales and not adopted.

Burns says his goal was to keep the mustangs from overpopulating then starving to death. But backers, primarily cattle ranchers who hold leases on public lands, say the horses interfere in their operations.

Rachel Buzzetti, executive director of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association, defended the industry's support of the repeal.

"Water, springs, forage -- they pretty much stomp the springs out," she said. "A lot of ranchers are showing 65 percent (less) forage. If you were to turn 50 goats onto somebody's back lawn, you can imagine what would happen."

But activists wanting to protect wild horses from slaughter are having none of it. After a recent strategizing session, they say a million-horse march on Washington, D.C., is not out of the question.

The crux of the whole problem is competition over the last blade of grass on the 200 public herd areas the BLM provides in 10 states, said Karen Sussman, president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros.

"Public land ranching is a welfare program. For every dollar a rancher spends on leasing the land, he gets $3 back in subsidies," she said.

Leases to BLM grazing land are renewed automatically every 10 years and are hard to get, as many leaseholders hold onto them for many year. While private ranch lands go for up to $50 an acre, public lands cost $1.49.

In sparsely populated Montana, oil and gas, livestock, mining and forest products interests carry major influence, combining to donate $400,000 to Burns' campaign in 2002, public records show.

Leases on many public grazing lands are held by corporations, including banking interests and oil companies.

Opponents of Burns' rider complain the action was taken without any public discussion.

Not even Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, which oversees the wild horse program, knew Burns had inserted the language into the appropriations bill.

But it came as no surprise to the cattle industry. In fact, the language is nearly identical to a National Cattlemen's Beef Association policy statement dated November 2003.

It calls for legislation to command the BLM to sell unadopted horses and burros and keep the profits.

"This ends 33 years of protection," said Renee Been, a Richmond, Calif.-area equine sports massage therapist who has owned two mustangs, one of whom she adopted from a BLM facility in Kingman, Ariz.

Contra Costa County is home to about 100 adopted mustangs _ one of the largest concentrations in the state.

"California did pass an anti-slaughter law but that doesn't really help, since the mustangs can be bought here and transported to other states," said Suzi Kicker, a Pittsburg woman who has adopted BLM horses.

Burns' office reacted angrily to the criticism.

"Right now we run the risk of these horses starving to death, or being rounded up and kept in feedlots" due to over-population, said Burn's communications chief, J.P. Pendleton.

"The BLM was not taking the adoption process seriously. Do any of these people who claim to love the wild horse want to see them starve to death?"

BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said the agency actively encourages adoption.

"We have 10 sanctuaries, and the horses receive a high level of care in them," she said. "We're doubling our efforts to find them good homes."

Government round-ups have reduced the wild horse population to less than 37,000, most in California, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming. Boddington said there are another 14,000 in agency facilities.

The Bureau of Land Management is aiming to get the number down to 26,000 by 2006.

Mustangs are technically feral _ there are no native wild horses in the United States _ but some strains have been wild since they escaped Spanish conquistadors in the 16th and 17th centuries and are nearly pure Spanish stock.

For many, the horses are an important vestige of America's past.

In repealing the Wild and Free Ranging Horse and Burro Protection Act of 1971, the provision orders the BLM to sell its captured horses _ and, an irresistible lure to an agency whose costs have been rising at a rate of 45 percent _ to keep the profits.

But critics say the order ensures the slaughter of the equines.

Since hoof and mouth disease surfaced in 2001, demand for U.S. horse meat overseas has risen dramatically, and individual small ranchers with hopes of adopted a horse say they can't compete with slaughterhouses in price.

There are three horse slaughterhouses in America: two in Texas, one in DeKalb, Ill. All are European-owned.

Ray Field, director of the Wild Horse Foundation of Franklin, Texas, is a neighbor. Field's WHF contracts with the BLM to adopt horses. His organization found homes for 880 horses and burros last year alone.

He accused the BLM, which is drowning under its soaring costs, of pushing for the change.

"Their adoption program is a mish-mash and their marketing sucks," he said. "But instead of saying, 'Your marketing sucks. You're fired.' They said, 'Let's kill us some horses.'"

A high-ranking BLM manager agreed that the agency would save hundreds of thousands of dollars on boarding costs by selling the animals to what he called "kill buyers" in lots.

The U.S. Humane Society Web site says 55,776 horses were slaughtered last year in the United States and thousands more transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter there. The meat is exported to Belgium, France, Italy, Japan and Switzerland, where it is considered a delicacy.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Belgium imported nearly $20 million of horse meat in 2001, much of it for distribution to other European nations.

Meanwhile, no one has told the BLM how it is expected to change its practices, said Videll Retterath, who manages the Litchfield ranch.

As snowflakes fell on the green steel dash of her Kawasaki tractor cab, she said, "We're always the last to know."

Inches away, mustangs chomped at "cob" -- a treat that mixes corn, oats and barley together with molasses.

"We don't have any guidance whatsoever."

Cuts by Contra Costa may spur nurse exodus

February 3, 2006, Friday

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Times staff writer

About 60 women a month gave birth at the county medical center when labor and delivery nursing specialist Liz Llewelyn began working there more than 22 years ago.

Today, more than 200 women a month deliver at the hospital, but the nursing staff has not grown with the patient load.

Hospital administrators are struggling to maintain staffing levels in an environment that gives nurses an incentive to leave.

Now, Contra Costa County finds itself forced to bargain for cutbacks that could send the already harried nurses looking for better paying and more promising jobs.

"We run out of nurses," Llewelyn said. "You can't get any backup."

County Jail nurses say they can come in for a regular shift and find themselves assigned to a double shift.

Records show that nurses work long hours to cover staffing gaps. Studies suggest they suffer more injuries than in years past. Some of that is from overwork and some is from lifting obese patients, an increasingly common experience.

Now the county is talking about withdrawing one of the attractions of the public service job.

In contract talks with the nurses' union, Contra Costa negotiators have proposed making them wait 15 years instead of five to begin qualifying for retiree health benefits.

"I call it the bag lady retirement program," Llewelyn said. "For a part-time person, it would take 30 years to become vested."

Under the gun to cut spending, the county is hoping to back away from a generous retirement benefit that cost $ 179 million last year for all retired employees.

Nurses are in high demand across the country. Pay and benefits in the private sector are enticing them out of county hospitals and public health clinics everywhere. Contra Costa County pays about $ 10 an hour less than private Bay Area institutions employers like Sutter Health and Kaiser.

The county pays first-year registered nurses $ 33.89 an hour, lower than the Bay Area prevailing wage of $ 40. Kaiser East Bay pays $ 39.82, Alta Bates/Summit $ 38.47.

"These are one of the employee groups where we are totally at the mercy of the market," said supervisors' chairman John Gioia of Richmond.

"Every single one could go out tomorrow and get another job -- and often, a higher-paying job," he said. "The way it's always been, the private sector offers higher pay and the public has better benefits. Now, the private sector is starting to pay better benefits. We have less leverage."

The county's conundrum: It must cut back on spending, including benefits, but it has to keep a minimum number of skilled nurses.

Public acute-care hospitals and small private hospitals are scrambling to meet the state's minimum nurse-patient ratios of 5-to-1.

A UC San Francisco study last year predicted a statewide shortage of more than 20,000 nurses by 2012.

Beyond the immediate problem of cutting an attractive benefit, many of the county's health care employees are approaching retirement, another drain on the difficult-to-replace staff members. Hospital administrators nervously note that county-employed nurses average 51 years in age.

The stakes are higher now that voters have rebuked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to dispense with minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

Few large county hospitals are able to meet the 5-to-1 requirement, said Barbara Patton, vice president of the Camden Group, a Southern California consulting firm specializing in hospital operations.

"We're at a critical juncture," said hospital administrator Jeff Smith. "I'd venture to say there are crises at every turn. The biggest we have is the nursing and departure at a time when the patient population is increasing. We push our nurses to the limit."

Some 100 of Health Services' 450 nurses will retire in the coming three to five years, Smith said.

Other hospitals attract nurses by spending more money. The county does it by promoting itself as a gratifying mission for those who care.

"Attracting people is difficult to do," Smith said. "It requires careful, strategic planning. It requires management expertise. We can't pretend the labor market isn't what it is."

The county employs 2,000 people in its hospitals and clinics and 3,000 in all of health care services.

Those who seek county care are increasingly needy. Yet resources are diminishing, Smith said. Bariatric, or morbidly obese, patients are becoming more common.

"This is the new generation of kids you're hearing about, Llewelyn said. "They have heart disease, they have diabetes, they're on all kinds of drugs to manage it."

In addition to indigent patients, the county hospital is treating more people who had insurance but lost it, Llewelyn said.

Sonia, who is forbidden by the Sheriff's Office policy to reveal her last name, has seen the staffing sink from six night-duty nurses two years ago to three today at the County Jail in Martinez. Double shifts help stretch the staff.

"It's horrible on my shift," she said. "We've totally trimmed to the bone."

They still have to react to the people under their care. Drunken driving checkpoints and warrant sweeps can bring an influx of inmates, some with serious medical conditions, who have pacemakers or are on kidney dialysis or are clinically depressed.

Hospital critical care nurse and union negotiator Kip Norwood calls "a doozy" the weekend that brought in a woman with a severe leg infection and multiple organ failure. Both she and a patient in cardiac crisis "are doing quite well now," partly due to the expertise of a seasoned, specialized nursing staff, the nurse union negotiator said.

The county is willing to bump up the entry salaries by about 10 percent to attract new staff members but nothing to retain midcareer specialists, Norwood said.

The trend away from retirement benefits and toward benefits more appealing to young nurses is common throughout the industry, Patton said.

"The newer nurses -- a 25-year-old-- is looking at other things," she said. "Salary. And they are going to be starting families, so they're interested in flexibility in hours."

The county's most recent offer includes the retirement health benefit change and a two-year wage freeze, with a 2 percent cost-of-living wage in the third year.

The union is seeking more time off, better staffing ratios and better pay.

"We could say, 'Pay us what they pay at Kaiser,' but we know that's not going to happen," Norwood said.

"What we're looking for is the things that make it easier to be at the bedside."

Contra Costa drug shift troubles some patients

May 30, 2006 Tuesday

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Times staff writer

It was expected to be only an inconvenience to patients, nothing more, when Contra Costa County decided to close its three outpatient pharmacies.

But among the first wave of patients sent to commercial pharmacies are those who say they are being turned away, charged more than they can afford, and forced to endure numerous trips while desperately ill.

The public facilities are scheduled to close in July and the county is now sending patients with new prescriptions to drug stores, said Stephanie Bailey, director of ancillary services at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.

The closures are part of a $20 million cost-cutting package aimed at balancing the budget. The shutdowns could be risky for county patients, county pharmacists had warned in recent budget hearings. The county workers filled a total of some 21,000 prescriptions a month at sites in Martinez, Pittsburg and Richmond.

Some patients say they have already experienced the consequences.

Some commercial pharmacies were not ready for the wave of new patients -- and won't be until July, when the county submits patient information via computer.

In a few cases, private pharmacies have not recognized the Contra Costa Health Plan, which covers 63,000 people including county employees and people without other insurance.

And, while the county pharmacy employees are accustomed to tracking down doctors at work or at home to fill in missing information, patients have found staffers at private pharmacies too busy, said Raphael Peck, chief of Contra Costa Regional Medical Center outpatient pharmacies.

"I've ... seen a couple come back as predicted when the form was not completed and the doctor was not available," Peck said.

Other patients can't afford the steep fees commercial pharmacies charge certain Medi-Cal patients.

Those who earn more than the minimum income the state uses to calculate benefits must pay a share of cost.

Medi-Cal has not updated its income figures since 1989: The monthly income limit is $600 for an individual and $934 for a couple.

For those who qualify for a specialized program aimed at the elderly and disabled poor, the base income rises to $1,047 a month. But if patients earn even a dollar more than that, they must pay between $400 and $500 a month, said Jeanne Finberg, directing attorney at the National Senior Citizens Law Center.

Payment wasn't an issue at the county pharmacies. Patients were not asked to pay the monthly deductible up front -- and often the county absorbed the cost, said hospital administrator Jeff Smith.

But commercial pharmacies demand the full amount before filling a prescription.

Kathy, who requested her last name not be used so she may keep her chronic health disability private, must now pay $300 a month before her medications are covered, although she brings in $1,100 a month and spends $600 on rent.

"I don't have $300," the 51-year-old woman said. "I'm sick and angry."

In recent days, Peck said he encountered the following problems:

-- Three pharmacies rejected a man with advanced AIDS and a prescription for morphine. His partner wheeled him back to the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and pleaded with Peck for help.

-- A man taking a blood thinner to prevent strokes and clots -- "a life and death kind of thing," Peck said -- learned that the necessary insurance authorization was not in the private pharmacy's computer.

County staffers would have given the man a minimal supply until the authorization arrived, Peck said.

-- A patient with a prescription for Thalidomide, now used to treat certain cancers, went to eight pharmacies before he found one that would fill it.

Major drug store chains say they have seen a wave of new patients, but that most get prescriptions filled without problems.

"If the plan states there is a co-pay, that is the patient's responsibility," said Michael Polzin, spokesman for Walgreens. "That's partly how we cover our expenses."

A spokeswoman for Rite Aid scoffed at the suggestion that its pharmacists would not take whatever steps are necessary to locate doctors when a prescription is illegible or missing information.

"The only thing that would cause a bump is patients who are medically indigent," said Jody Cook. "That is something for the county to address, and we are asking the county for answers."

It's the county's responsibility to let Medi-Cal patients know private pharmacies will not absorb the cost of deductibles, she said.

Picking up the cost of a monthly deductible "is something the for-profits are never going to agree to unless the county pays them more money," said Michael Keys, staff attorney with Bay Area Legal Aid. "In which case, why would the county have cut their pharmacies?"

While state law requires counties to provide health care, including medications, to the indigent, counties are increasingly contracting with private providers to meet their obligation, said

Often, it's a move that winds up costing as much as it saved, Keys said.

San Francisco General Hospital radically cut back its pharmacy about three years ago, but has reinstated it.

"The savings never happened," Keys said.

No patients should be falling through the cracks, said Bailey and the chief of the county's health plan.

The health plan already has a relationship with some 100 private pharmacies, said CEO Rich Harrison.

Despite the complaints from patients and the doubts of the county's pharmacists, Harrison said he has heard no complaints.

As part of the transition, emergency room patients are leaving with a starter pack of medication, and a prescription, to cover the period after their release.

The county can't afford any longer to provide care and charge for it later, Bailey said.

"That's how we ended up in the position we're in," she said.

Rebecca Rosen Lum covers county government. Reach her at 925-977-8506 or rrosenlum@cctimes.com.

WHERE TO FIND HELP

People with problems getting prescriptions filled at commercial pharmacies can call:

-- Protection and Advocacy, 800-776-5746. Can help with Medi-Cal share of cost and other problems

-- Contra Costa Health Plan Member Services, 877-661-6230 option 2. Can steer members to local participating pharmacies

-- Contra Costa Health Plan or Basic Health Care Financial, 800-771-4270. Counseling.

-- Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program HICAP, 800-434-0222. Assists families and individuals with Medicare and other health insurance.

Jails' drug machines costing the county

Contra Costa Times (California)
June 2, 2006 Friday

Automated system was supposed to streamline the dispensing process, but devices still don't work


By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Times staff writer

A new automated system was supposed to streamline the process for getting medications to inmates in Contra Costa County's jails -- and save more than $240,000 a year.

Instead, two computerized dispensers, called ROBOT, are gathering dust -- and leaking tens of thousands of dollars in unanticipated labor costs, according to a new report by the Contra Costa grand jury.

The county spent nearly $1 million on a five-year lease for three dispensers: one for County Jail in Martinez, one for the West County Detention Facility and a third for Juvenile Hall. Two have proved too problematic to get rolling, and a third was never delivered.

Though both the Contra Costa Sheriff and County Health Services departments jointly oversee the new system, it is no one person's responsibility, which the report says it part of the problem.

"No one is minding the store," the report says.

The report also faults the county for failing to thoroughly investigate the system -- and its estimated savings -- before laying the money down.

Before February 2005, when the county changed its tack, a doctor wrote a prescription, a pharmacist filled it, and a nurse dispensed up to a 30-day supply to the inmate.

As part of the shift to the new system, the county replaced the pharmacist with a pharmacy technician, saving more than $89,000 a year. Cutting down the inventory to include fewer brands of medications, then buying in greater bulk, saved another $100,000.

The third leg of the new plan called for the technician to type the prescription into a computer and for ROBOT to dispense only a single day's supply. That was expected to save another $60,000 to $120,000 a year on full prescriptions that must be thrown away

But the county did not reckon on the cost of overtime pay as technology staffers from the health and sheriff's departments struggled to get ROBOT -- which actually looks more like a vending machine -- working.

The bill comes to $60,000 already, and the system still does not function.

A savings analysis that was intended to justify the lease was seriously flawed, the report says. The county achieved three-fourths of its savings without ROBOT.

The county's chief of health services was not reachable for comment Thursday, and Jeff Smith, administrator of the Contra Costa County Regional Medical Center, did not return calls. A spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff said the report, while "righteously motivated," wrongly discredits the department.

"We have absolutely and scrupulously done whatever we can do to make this work," said Undersheriff Obie Anderson. "The sheriff isn't in the business of handing out medication. Deputies are in the business of creating a safe environment for that to happen."

Not entirely true, said grand jury foreman Bob Kennedy.

"The equipment is installed in detention facilities and dispenses drugs to inmates -- so yes, the sheriff is involved," he said. "Both departments have an interest in this."

The report recommends that:

The Contra Cost Sheriff and county Health Services get all three dispensers in place and running by September 30.

The county administrator scrutinize costs, savings and challenges in all projects as costly as this.

The county administrator appoint a project manager for this and other projects that involve multiple departments.

The system allows the jails to keep smaller quantities of drugs on site. But from a pure cost savings standpoint, the system is a drain, Kennedy said.

"I'm not sure (backing out) is an option," he said. "They've signed a five-year lease."

Amid protest, board cuts services

May 3, 2006 Wednesday
Pharmacies, Summit Center among programs sacrificed in bid to cover $43 million shortfall; 20 people also face layoffs

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Times staff writer

Over the impassioned and sometimes tearful protests of therapists, parents and advocates for mentally ill children, Contra Costa supervisors Tuesday passed a $1.25 billion budget that carves more than $20 million from health and social services.

"If we funded (programs) the way we have been, we'd be out of reserves in 11/2 years," said Supervisor John Gioia of Richmond, the panel chairman. "This board has found it very difficult to make these cuts" in years past.

County Administrator John Cullen attacked a $43 million deficit in two ways: by identifying $23 million in additional revenues and making cuts that added up to $20 million -- primarily in health and social services.

The county will close its Summit Center home for troubled youths and reduce mental health services and crisis intervention at Orin Allen Boys Ranch and Juvenile Hall.

Public health center pharmacies in Richmond, Pittsburg and Martinez will close. Substance abuse services, child therapists and homeless outreach programs are all on the chopping block.

The final draft includes one change from earlier versions: It will restore more than $152,000 taken from STAND! Against Domestic Violence and Community Violence Services, which provides emergency services for rape victims. The cuts, aimed at trimming educational programs, would have hurt the agencies' direct services for women and children in danger, advocates said.

To restore that funding, County Administrator John Cullen must find an equal amount of additional cuts by next week.

The other cuts include elimination of more than 200 jobs, many of which were not filled. Many of the laid off workers have "bumping rights" and can claim other jobs. When all is done, about 20 people will actually be out of work, said County Administrator John Cullen.

Nonetheless, "for me personally, this has been a very, very difficult thing to do," Cullen said.

The payoff comes with the wipeout of a $43 million deficit and the rebuilding of reserves, which have fallen below 5 percent of the general fund. Both actions will provide a hefty boost to the county's anemic credit rating.

This is the first budget in five years that does not dip into the county's reserves to rescue vital programs.

Critics said a proposed cut in therapists would eliminate care for 245 needy children, some suffering from suicidal thoughts and acute depression. Some could lose their lives as a result, said Kathi McLaughlin, chairwoman of the Contra Costa Mental Health Commission children's committee.

"You are destroying the safety net," she said. "How are you going to live with yourselves? I don't think you can."

The supervisors reacted with both sympathy and anger, saying they had gone beyond their mission to pioneer many of the programs to begin with.

"Nobody came to the board when we approved a $500,000 expansion of mental health services into the West County schools," Gioia said. "Sometimes, I have enough."

Gioia cited a new study by the National Center for Youth Law that places Contra Costa County at No. 1 for protecting child abuse victims and children in foster care.

Homeless feel the sting of cold spell

December 1, 2006 Friday

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Times staff writer

As night temperatures plunged into the 30s and high 20s this week, the homeless of Contra Costa are feeling the sting.

Those without shelter and those who advocate for them say services also have plummeted, forcing many to sleep outdoors or in cars.

A fist of cold, dry air punched into the area, coating shrubs and the hard-packed ground, where many huddle in sleeping bags, with frost.

In response to the cold spell, Contra Costa County has made an extra 20 beds available, securing cots from the Red Cross, in addition to 250 beds designated for single adults. But with some 5,000 homeless on Contra Costa's streets, many are left to tough it out in the cold weather.

"Clearly, there are not enough beds to accommodate all the folks," said Lavonna Martin, assistant director of homeless services for Contra Costa County. "We're just making a dent."

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors earlier this year declined to bail out two privately funded family shelters, citing a crippling funding shortfall. The supervisors called on cities to help shoulder the burden.

A 2005 survey by county Health Services showed more than 14,000 in Contra Costa were without a place to stay at some point during the year. Last year, homeless hotlines took about 18,000 calls from people seeking housing, according to Cynthia Belon, county director of homeless programs.

A new, 75-bed family shelter has opened in Richmond. And from November to April the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa runs Winter Nights, a program that beds, feeds and provides services to homeless families with children and ambulatory elders. It rotates among churches and synagogues. Their maximum occupancy is 30 people a night.

The 2005 survey found more than 900 parents and their children have no place to sleep nightly.

"In this kind of weather, people should be able to go inside and be warm and safe," said Susan Prather, director of Fresh Start, a Walnut Creek day program for the homeless. "Things are much worse now than they were when I started doing this work about 25 years ago. The county has willfully cut back on services for the homeless year after year after year."

In fact, the county, through support services, has moved more than 1,500 homeless people into permanent housing, said Public Health Director Wendel Brunner.

"We're not looking at shelters as the way to handle homelessness," he said. "This is not only more humane, it's more cost-effective. We're actually making progress."

But it looks to Desiree Harding that human kindness is in increasingly short supply.

Like many people without shelter who use Fresh Start's services, Harding, 38, works full-time. She also sleeps in her car.

"Maybe it's the war," she mused. Either way, she says, people seem more contemptuous of the homelessness this year than last.

"The shelters are all full," she said. "A hotel voucher sure would be nice, just to warm up all the way through."

Another woman said her payroll job went to India and she has not been able to find another. She has found a trick for staying warm: She wraps foil blankets around her legs inside her sleeping bag.

The cold can crush the spirit, said Chris Ericks, 36, who spent eight months on the streets. He has found work and a place to live.

"The truth is you never warm up," he said Thursday.

"Your fingers are always numb. Your nose is always running. You wake up around 4 a.m. with ice on your (sleeping) bag and you just shiver. All you can do is stomp your feet until they get warm and hope the sun comes out."

Jury's 'awesome responsibility'

Petaluma Argus-Courier
Weekend edition July 16-18, 1996

By Rebecca Rosen Lum
Argus-Courier Staff

The jury in the Richard Allen Davis trial have met two children -- equally capable, at some point, of sweetness and sensitivity.
Last week, it was a vibrant girl, who roller skated through her grandparents' house, played piano-violin duets with her grandfather, roughhoused with the family dog and played baseball with her father.
This week, they heard about a boy so tenderhearted he didn't even want to see chickens hurt. They also learned of the abuse, terror and rejection he was subjected to by his parents.
That boy was Davis, now 42. Prosecutors say he abducted that vibrant girl and subjected her to an evening of terror, ending in her death Oct. 1, 1993.
According to one legal expert, "an awesome responsibility" faces the jury in weighing the circumstances of both life and loss in the penalty phase of the trial.
The six men and sic women who convicted Davis June 18 of the murder of Polly Klaas must now decide whether he will spend the rest of his life in prison or perish by lethal injection.
"This has to stay with them the rest of their lives," said Barry Helft, defense attorney and former director of capital cases for the state public defender's office.
And, according to veteran criminal lawyer Mike Adelson, "There are no guidelines other than, if the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, they shall find death. If the opposite is true, they shall find life."
That the jury took several days to return guilty verdicts when Davis' own lawyer conceded his guilt in the murder indicates they may take equal care during the penalty deliberations.
Ascertaining guilt was the easy part, experts say, despite the barrage of unbearably sad and sometimes gruesome testimony that preceded their deliberations.
"During the guilt phase of a trial, jurors must essentially ask, 'Are all the correct boxes checked?'" said Hastings School of Law professor Terry Diggs. "During the penalty phase, the question is, 'Do we want to kill this human being?' The kind of inquiry we're supposed to make in a capital case is to take a secondary step and look at the hard questions."
If the jury's sentiments reflect those of the public, they may be singularly unimpressed by the grim facts of Davis' early life.
"There's been a lot of coverage about the so-called abuse excuse," Diggs said. "There's been a real tendency in American culture lately to distance ourselves from psychological and psychiatric defenses."
But it is the obligation of defense attorneys during this phase of the trial to present "the crime coupled with the life history, so the jury can understand from whence a person came," said Helft.
In other words, for the defense to succeed, the jury does not need to learn to like Davis -- an admittedly tall order.
Yet, defense lawyers must make the jury understand why Davis is there to begin with, Helft said.
Witnesses like Polly's father, Marc Klaas, created an almost palpable image of a lively, warm girl. He made equally vivid the unmendable tear her death created in his own life.
Klaas is "clearly capable of articulating his pain," Helft said. "But Richard Allen Davis can't tell is defense lawyer why he is the way he is.
"Yale- and Harvard-educated people don't stand trial," he said. "The Richard Allen Davises of the world stand trial. You want the jury to understand the inarticulate environment he came from."
Klaas family members and supporters have little truck for comments that allude to a more complex Richard Allen Davis. They sometimes roll their eyes or whisper with obvious exasperation as defense attorneys Barry Collins and Lorena Chandler question witnesses or present arguments.
"They only thing one can actually do is try to address that -- you can't try to pretend it's not happening," said Diggs, a former Alameda deputy public defender. "Put it into the total presentation. The thing society has planned for us is the examination of more, rather than less. A key part of the attorney's function is to assemble all the parts of this complex picture -- and deal with every issue from within that context.
"All you are trying to do is get the jury to stand back and look at the whole picture," she said.