Joint Venture Program

Irish drug maker Elan Corp. said it agreed to pay $15 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges it misled investors about revenue from a joint venture program. The Dublin-based company settled without admitting to or denying the SEC's allegations, contained in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The $15-million penalty is intended to be distributed to investors harmed by the company's alleged wrongdoing.

Irish drug maker Elan Corp. said it agreed to pay $15 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges it misled investors about revenue from a joint venture program. The Dublin-based company settled without admitting to or denying the SEC's allegations, contained in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The $15-million penalty is intended to be distributed to investors harmed by the company's alleged wrongdoing.

The California Department of Corrections began planning its own prison labor program, called Joint Venture, immediately after approval of Proposition 139 in November, 1991. Many of the procedures of Redwood Outdoors--an independent Washington contractor that hires inmates behind prison walls--will eventually be used in California as well.

In a darkened conference room here one recent afternoon, more than 80 Silicon Valley business executives and politicians sat pushing buttons on hand-held electronic terminals, registering their opinions on an array of proposals for improving the region's economy. What did they think was the best way to assure a skilled work force? How might the regulatory process be made less burdensome? What should be done to promote new business formation?

In a darkened conference room here one recent afternoon, more than 80 Silicon Valley business executives and politicians sat pushing buttons on hand-held electronic terminals, registering their opinions on an array of proposals for improving the region's economy. What did they think was the best way to assure a skilled work force? How might the regulatory process be made less burdensome? What should be done to promote new business formation?

David Dobos, a Rancho Santiago College instructor and administrator for the last 14 years, has been appointed the community college's new dean of student and community services. A resident of Irvine, Dobos has served as assistant dean for physical education and athletics since 1982. He has been a sociology and psychology instructor at Rancho Santiago and taught sociology at Coastline Community College and at San Diego State University.

A Tustin-based company that grinds up used automobile and truck tires and transforms them into tiles for playgrounds and basketball courts is taking its business to prison. The Quantum Group Inc. has built a 10,000-square-foot recycling process plant in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in San Diego County, that will be staffed by up to 40 inmates.

In 1990, when California voters approved the Joint Venture Program to allow businesses to hire inmates to work while they were in prison, the intention was not to create an undeserved employment benefit. This March, voters will have a chance to close the loophole in the law by voting yes on Proposition 194. When the initial proposition was passed, it seemed a good idea to allow hiring in prisons because it meant keeping inmates busy and productive and it taught them a skill.

Students from La Verne Heights Elementary School looked high and low for a visual almanac for their computer software, and they found it in Burbank on Wednesday. "Everybody wants this," said Kenya Cox, a fifth-grader who headed the La Verne school's KidsCan campaign. Holding the software package the school won, Kenya said, "We couldn't find it anywhere, and now we got it."

The Phoenix Group International said Thursday that it has received confirmation of an initial order to supply 770 personal computers to the Soviet Union as part of a U.S.-Soviet joint venture announced last September. Phoenix, a technology investment company headed by former Western Digital Chairman Charles Missler, said it will ship the PCs to the Soviet trade organization Electronorgtechnica in February. The Irvine company said it will receive more than $1 million for the order.

The California Department of Corrections began planning its own prison labor program, called Joint Venture, immediately after approval of Proposition 139 in November, 1991. Many of the procedures of Redwood Outdoors--an independent Washington contractor that hires inmates behind prison walls--will eventually be used in California as well.

Key to Election Tables * An asterisk (*) denotes an incumbent candidate; a dagger (**) denotes an appointed incumbent. * A double dagger (***) indicates a race where a runoff election will be held between the top two candidates if no one receives more than half of the vote. * Elected candidates and approved measures--or those leading with 99% of precincts reporting--are in bold type. Runoff elections may be required in nonpartisan races where no candidate receives over 50% of the vote.

Fourteen years ago, California voters put convicts to work for private companies behind prison walls. Businesses were granted cheap rent and other perks, while inmate workers earned real-world wages and shared them with victims. Created by a statewide ballot measure, the program took off and became a national model. Its director traveled the country, touting her winning formula, and graduates of the program seldom returned to prison. But now, as Gov.