911 Emergency Telephone Service

After a series of problems earlier this year with the city's independent 911 emergency telephone service, the Hermosa Beach City Council has approved a backup system that will reroute calls in case of a system failure. The system, approved unanimously at Tuesday's council meeting, will be shared with the city of Palos Verdes Estates, which also has an independent 911 emergency system.

Residents and volunteers cleared away the wreckage of homes and businesses Saturday in the wake of tornadoes that killed five people in Tennessee and Kentucky. "All I can remember is rolling over and over and people screaming," Jerry Inman said as he picked through the rubble of his used car business. "I don't know how any of us lived through it." Ten people had sought shelter from the storm in a mobile home that served as Inman's office. A tornado left only the trailer's twisted metal chassis.

Police arrested two people Monday on suspicion of operating a telephone scam in which callers posed as police representatives, and threatened "trouble" unless contributions were made, authorities said. "From what we know, lot of calls were made to the Latino community," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jane L. Shade of the consumer protection unit.

In the first of a series of job cuts to help slash costs by $100 million a year, Fluor Daniel Inc. said Monday it will reorganize its Chicago office, laying off or reassigning 100 of the 390 workers there. While Fluor officials won't comment on specifics of their cost-cutting plan, more layoffs are sure to be a part of it. As with most service companies, payroll costs are a big part of Fluor's $1.6 billion in annual operating expenses.

Bowing to objections from Pacific Bell, the staff of the state Public Utilities Commission has decided not to order the company to issue a warning about possible problems with 911 emergency service to the deaf. The decision appears to end a three-year lobbying effort by the family of Mary Bell Shufeldt, a deaf San Diego woman who died in 1986 after her husband, also deaf, tried unsuccessfully for three hours to reach a 911 operator using the teletypewriter service promoted by Pacific Bell.

Many voters who think English already is the common language of California may be surprised to find a measure on the November ballot--Proposition 63--officially declaring this to be so. Supporters of the proposition believe that English must be made the "official language" in order to provide some unity and cohesiveness in a rapidly growing state in which more than 100 languages are spoken.