Handicapped

The Schwarzenegger administration plans to close one of California's last large institutional care centers for people with profound developmental disabilities. The 82-year old Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona, which houses 398 people with severe autism, cerebral palsy and other lifelong disabilities, could shut its doors within two years, said Terri Delgadillo, director of the state Department of Developmental Services. The population of the 302-acre campus has dwindled from a peak of nearly 3,000 in the late 1960s, when a change in state law discouraged housing the developmentally disabled in large institutions.

Recent history has been fairly kind to Derby starters who move forward to the Preakness. Some may go even further to call it a two-horse race. However, the way the Derby pace played out points to other possible outcomes. For one, Bodemeister ran blistering fractions for the first half mile and first six furlongs. His ability to go so fast so early and still hit the board was impressive, and in fact had never been done before. But he has raced only four times and has never been brought back so quickly after a race.

The term "disabled" may evoke images of wheelchairs or crutches, but it is a far broader category -- particularly when it comes to getting disabled parking placards. More than one in 10 California motorists are disabled, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. At the start of this year, the agency had issued about 2 million permanent placards, 158,000 temporary placards, 345,000 disabled person license plates and 17,500 disabled veteran license plates. In total, about 2.

The computer program came up with Hansen as the winner of Saturday's Kentucky Derby, and he certainly has a shot. However, Hansen's last prep race was very telling, and not in ways that suggest he can win. Many observers felt that his Breeders' Cup Juvenile victory last fall demonstrated some distance limitations, and those concerns seem to have been validated in the Blue Grass Stakes, where he gave up the lead in the stretch. Additionally, his owner suggested that he would not go to the lead in the Blue Grass, but he surged to the lead and carved out fairly solid fractions.

Following appeals from dozens of disabled children, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to set aside two acres of Griffith Park for creation of the state's first playground designed for both disabled and able-bodied children. The council's action paves the way for Shane's Inspiration, a playground where children in wheelchairs can roll onto large platform swings or play at waist-high sand tables.

There's no denying Sanford Diamond can be excitable. High blood pressure can do that to you, he says. So can the frustration of trying to communicate with a world you cannot hear. But even after the deaf and diabetic 72-year-old was handcuffed, brought to the ground, allegedly roughed up and finally cut loose by Los Angeles police, all he really wanted from the city was an apology and $5,850 for a new set of teeth, he says.

Andrew Tasker never saw the drop-off. He remembers cruising about 40 m.p.h. on his Honda CR 500 dirt bike in the open desert, just south of Salton Sea. It was a gorgeous Sunday morning, and Tasker was taking one last ride before packing it up and heading home. But his carefree cruise ended in a split-second of terror as the ground vanished beneath his bike, the heavy vibration of earth giving way to the deadly smooth embrace of air. As the bike slammed to earth again, Tasker's spine compacted.

Seeing President Clinton struggling in a wheelchair and on crutches reminds me of a quote attributed to Elenaor Roosevelt when her husband was in office. A reporter tried to ridicule the crippled president and asked, "Don't you think your husband's handicap affects his ability?" After a long pause she replied, "Yes it does. Only a person who has suffered so much can truly empathize with the American people." How ironic that soon Roosevelt's statue will be dedicated in Washington sans crutches or canes or wheelchair.

Thanks so much for printing the article. The pro-life or pro-abortion issue could not be explained better! We need people who speak up for our children, born or unborn, handicapped or not. TITIA VANDER MOLEN Lakewood

Bolte speaks of his "right" to park in handicapped parking spaces and laments the fact that other non-handicapped drivers often steal these spaces. That Bolte has a "right" to park in such spaces is absurd. All of us are handicapped to one extent or another (I myself am so poor I do not have a car to park in any space) but people who believe in personal freedom and responsibility do not pressure the government to pass laws at the expense of others to help themselves--they make do with what they have or improve themselves in the marketplace.

The longest graded stakes race in North America ended Sunday at Santa Anita with a furious two-horse charge down the stretch that was so close at the finish line it took six minutes to decide whose nose crossed the line first. Bourbon Bay and jockey Joel Rosario were determined the winners of the 13/4-mile $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap by a nose over Eagle Poise and jockey Alex Solis. "That's a heart attack horse," a Bourbon Bay supporter quipped in the winner's circle after his No. 2 was posted on the tote board in the first-place position.

South Regional I picked Kentucky to win the South shortly after picking up a bucket with biscuits from KFC. This choice has mostly to do with freshman center Anthony Davis' enormous wing span and a feeling this might finally be Coach John Calipari's year. Kentucky's path is paved with bluegrass as the Wildcats need only two wins to get from Louisville to Atlanta. Wichita State is coached by Gregg "two Gs" Marshall, which is good this year for two tournament wins before a bow-out against Kentucky.

Apparently, it takes a village for a lot of things. Case in point: the 75th running of the Santa Anita Handicap, won by Ron The Greek on Saturday. This 5-year-old, with 16 lifetime starts before going to the gate in Santa Anita's prestigious $750,000 test, was on his fourth trainer and his ninth jockey. He is also jointly owned by three people. His most recent trainer is veteran Bill Mott, the man who trained Cigar to world fame. Mott trains mostly in the East and in Florida and, in keeping with the team approach, sent assistant trainer Rudolf Basset to handle things when they flew the horse in Wednesday.

The inevitable finally arrived, and it was bad for basketball fans, even worse for the NBA and atrocious news for the Lakers. Or was it? The last we saw of the ex-defending champs, they were getting pummeled in Dallas while Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom committed stupid flagrant fouls. Phil Jackson looked at the devastation in front of him, pulled his cowboy hat low over his eyes, and slowly turned his horse toward Montana. The Lakers might be itching for the NBA lockout to end so they can prove themselves, but that's a cliche better reserved for the Miami Heat, who actually made the Finals and own a stunningly young nucleus of players.

"They're a bunch of rockers. They love women. They love whiskey. They love weed. They play amazing music. " Renaud Barret could be talking about the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin in their hedonistic prime. Or maybe N.W.A., when he adds that the musicians in question also had lives as "thugs" and "gangsters. " There is one other thing. "And oh yes, they're disabled. " Indeed they are, they being Staff Benda Bilili, which hails not from London or Compton, but from the Democratic Republic of the Congo capital Kinshasa.

The richest day of the prestigious annual Del Mar thoroughbred meeting will take place Sunday, and it will feature three races totaling $1.45 million in purses, led by the $1-million TVG Pacific Classic. The Classic will go off as the ninth race on an 11-race card. It will be preceded by the $200,000 Del Mar Handicap, the third race of the day, and the $250,000 Pat O'Brien Stakes, the fifth race of the day. The Classic is run over 11/4 miles on the main synthetic track; the Handicap 13/8 miles on the turf and the Pat O'Brien seven furlongs on the main track.

His conscience is paralyzed. His sense of entitlement is blinding. So, no, actually, I wasn't surprised to see this week's photos of Andrew Bynum leaving his convertible sitting across two handicapped parking spaces while he shopped at an upscale grocery store in Westchester. If there's one Laker who suffers from a disability of maturity, it's him. The sight of this strong, able-bodied basketball star exploiting a benefit belonging to the physically challenged would have been only sad, if it weren't also so expected.