FREE - The Coast News

NOV. 12, 2010
by CHUCK
ODD
SHEPHERD
FILES
LEAD STORY
About 20 percent of
Japan’s adult-video market
is now “elder porn” with
each production featuring
one or more studly seniors
and Shigeo Tokuda, 76,
among the most popular.
He told Toronto’s Globe and
Mail in October that he still
“performs” physically
“without Viagra,” in at least
one role a month opposite
much younger women. His
wife and adult daughter
learned only two years ago,
by accident, of his lateonset
career (which began
at age 60 when a filmmaker
hired him for his “pervert’s
face”). Tokuda figures the
“elder porn” genre will
grow with Japan’s increasing
senior population.
Cultural Diversity
• In Afghanistan, as in
many less-developed countries,
boy babies are much
preferred to girls for economic
reasons and social
status, but some thusunlucky
Afghan parents
have developed a
workaround for “excess”
girls: simply designate one
a boy. All references to her
are male, and she dresses as
a boy, plays “boy” games
and does “boy” chores, at
least until puberty, when
many parents of the “bocha
posh” convert her back. In
some tribal areas, according
to a September New
York Times dispatch, superstition
holds that creation
of a bocha posh even
enhances prospects of the
next child’s being a boy.
• Although India has
forbidden discrimination
against lower-caste “Dalits”
(so-called “untouchables”),
rampant oppression still
exists, especially in rural
areas. In October, police
were investigating reports
that a higher-caste woman
had disowned her dog after
it had been touched by an
“untouchable” woman. A
village council in the
Morena district of Madhya
Pradesh state had reportedly
awarded the higher-caste
woman the equivalent of
$340 compensation after
she witnessed the dog
being given food scraps by
the Dalit woman.
Latest Religious
Messages
• Symbols: (1) Although
the dress code at Clayton
(N.C.) High School prohibits
it, freshman Ariana Iacono
demanded in September
that she be allowed her nose
ring, which she said is
“essential” to her practice
of religion. Her Church of
Body Modification, she said,
teaches that “the mind,
body and soul are all one
entity and that modifying
the body can bring the mind
and soul into harmony.” (2)
Some Ultra-Orthodox Israeli
Jews came under criticism
in September during the
pre-Yom Kippur Day of
Atonement because, unlike
most Jews, they shunned
the euphemistic twirling of
TURN TO ODD FILES ON A10
THE COAST NEWS
READY, SET, RETROFIT Mayor Richard Earnest gives a thumbs up after starting a tractor to signify the beginning of the North Torrey Pines
Bridge retrofit. Logistics prevented him and fellow council members, from left, Don Mosier, Mark Filanc and Crystal Crawford from donning hard
hats and digging the first shovel of dirt. Photo by Bianca Kaplanek
Torrey Pines Bridge retrofit gets under way
■ City’s ‘iconic
entryway’ was
built 77 years ago
By Bianca Kaplanek
DEL MAR — Using a
Sharpie and tractor key
rather than traditional hard
hats and shovels, Del Mar
City Council members held a
groundbreaking ceremony
Nov. 9 to retrofit and rehabilitate
the North Torrey Pines
Bridge.
Mayor Richard Earnest
called the 77-year-old structure
“an iconic entryway”
into the city. “It is, indeed, a
local treasure,” he said.
The 49-foot-wide bridge,
which is nearly six stories tall
and the length of about two
football fields, was completed
in 1933. During its con-
By Alyx Sariol
CARLSBAD — Several
City Council members echoed
concerns voiced by Carlsbad
residents about Caltrans’ proposed
I-5 widening project following
a presentation at the
Nov. 9 council meeting.
Caltrans representatives
Alan Kosup and Arturo
Jacobo attended Tuesday’s
meeting to review the project
and how it could affect
Carlsbad, as well as to take
questions.
If approved, the widening
project would add managed
lanes, sound walls and
improved rapid transit options
along a 27-mile stretch of I-5
from La Jolla to Oceanside,
Kosup said.
Four alternative designs
and one no-build option are
included in the project proposal,
ranging from four additional
lanes to more than six
added to I-5.
“We all recognize I-5 as an
important regional asset for
us,” Kosup said, of the highway’s
many uses. “It’s this real
struction, Earnest said, legendary
racing horse
Seabiscuit was born, the
Hoover Dam was completed,
construction began on the
Golden Gate Bridge and
Balboa Park was designated.
“Clearly, at that time,
things were built to last,”
Earnest said.
In the 1980s, the bridge
was deemed one of the worst
in the state as far as its ability
to withstand an earthquake.
“This bridge has been
neglected for so long,”
Councilwoman Crystal
Crawford said. “But it stands
here today sturdy as ever.”
Crawford said there
were many skeptics who
thought the bridge should be
torn down.
“This is going to look
better than ever when it’s
done,” she said. “We should
all be proud of the effort that
tension of doing what’s right
for transportation and also
respecting the corridor.”
Council members took
public comments and asked
questions of their own. Many
of the statements were consis-
tent with those made by residents
at recent open house
forums and town hall meetings
on the subject held
around North County.
Mayor Pro Tem Ann
Kulchin expressed concerns
about funding for the project,
which could cost as much as
$4.6 billion depending on the
design chosen, and who would
be responsible should the
went into this.”
Built in 1933, the bridge
connects Camino del Mar
with North Torrey Pines
Road and borders the city of
San Diego, which sold the
structure to Del Mar for $1 in
2000 when the two cities
couldn’t agree on whether to
replace or restore it.
“We are preserving a
piece of history,” Councilman
Mark Filanc said. “Many
bridges had to be crossed to
get here.”
Filanc said those bridges
included understanding,
communication, negotiation,
solutions, trust and respect.
“It’s been a long and
challenging road to get
where we are today,” he said.
The retrofit will
strengthen the existing structure,
enhancing its ability to
survive major seismic activity,
and extend its life by
about 50 years.
money run out during construction.
Councilman Keith
Blackburn worried that construction
along the I-5 corridor
would only add to the congestion
that Caltrans has pro-
posed to relieve with the additional
lane options.
“We’re not thinking outside
of the box,” Carlsbad resident
Dan Marks, a retired
physician, said. “Let’s stop
thinking about extra lanes and
let’s start thinking about other
possibilities.”
While other residents
expressed an interest in
improved rapid transit around
Construction should
begin within the next month
or two and take about three
years to complete.
The bridge will be open
to motorists and bicyclists
but closed to pedestrians.
Although most work can be
done during the day, construction
over the railroad
tracks and on the road must
be done at night. The jogging
path under the bridge will
remain open.
About 50 people were on
hand for the event, including
Dave Druker and Jan
McMillan, who were serving
on the City Council when discussions
to retrofit the
bridge began.
Logistics precluded the
traditional “first dig of the
dirt,” so council members
autographed a sign that
announced the project is getting
under way and Earnest
started up a tractor.
Council reviews highway expansion plans
“I
t’s this real tension of
doing what’s right for
transportation and also
respecting the corridor.”
— Alan Kosup
CALTRANS REPRESENTATIVE
North County, Councilman
Mark Packard said the issue
that the area now faces is a
double-edged sword.
“The challenge with mass
transit is that for it to be effective,
you have to have mass,”
Packard, Carlsbad’s representative
on the North County
Transit District’s board, said.
“Carlsbad has deliberately
chosen to have low density.”
Council did not take any
action at Tuesday’s meeting
and will review the project
further at a scheduled council
workshop next week.
City Manager Lisa
Hildabrand said city staff will
deliver their analysis of the
project’s Draft Environmental
Impact Report on Nov. 16 at
the Faraday Administration
Building, 1635 Faraday Ave.,
starting at 11 a.m.
Residents are also encouraged
to provide feedback on
Caltrans’ proposed I-5 widening
project at www.keep
sandiegomoving.com.The public
comment deadline has been
extended until Nov. 22.
A3
County
takes aim at
insurance
fraudsters
By Shelli DeRobertis
COAST CIITES —
“Don’t do it. Don’t tolerate
it. Report it,” is the slogan
used by the San Diego
County District Attorney’s
office in a new movie ad
campaign that aims to prevent
people from committing
insurance fraud, which
costs the state’s consumers
an estimated $15 billion
annually.
That figure amounts to
a hidden tax of about $700
per family each year on the
price of goods and services,
according to San Diego
County District Attorney
Bonnie M. Dumanis.
“During difficult economic
times, insurance
fraud has been shown to
increase,” Dumanis said.
The 15-second ads are
showing on more than 340
movie screens in theaters
across the county, and
began Oct. 22 and are running
through Dec. 3.
Approximately 37,000
people each day are expected
to view the message, she
said.
Sarah Ingersoll, an
artist and sculptor, was at
UltraStar La Costa 6 in
Carlsbad on Nov. 8, and said
she watches movies at the
theater all the time.
She said that she must
have missed seeing the DA’s
fraud warning ad after the
campaign was explained to
her.
She said that seeing a
commercial of a person
actually committing insurance
fraud would be something
that she might have
remembered.
For an automobile
insurance fraud ad,
Ingersoll said that an ad
that shows a person driving,
such as “a face looking into
the rearview mirror like
they’re planning something”
would have more of
an impact than an ad of
someone in a jumpsuit.
“It’s all about visual
when you’re in the theater,”
she said.
But the brief movie ads
are the latest public awareness
campaign in a series of
grant-funded anti-fraud
messages that have made
their way around the county
with the same images
through various media
since the first campaign
launched October 2008.
With the initial campaign,
the DA’s office made
and delivered pamphlets to
local businesses that
defined workers’ compensation
fraud, how to report it
and what the penalties are.
Employees who lie to
get workers’ compensation
benefits are subject to a
felony charge for “applicant
fraud,” and can face up to
five years in prison and a
$150,000 fine, according to
the pamphlet.
Provider fraud, which
is false billing by a medical
service, is also a felony and
another example of what
TURN TO INSURANCE ON A21