NATION AND WORLD
San Francisco officials credit building codes
Page 12
By United Press International
University Daily Kansan, April 26, 1984
SAN FRANCISCO — Engineers and scientists said yesterday that stringing building codes prevented catastrophic damage in one of the most powerful earthquakes to strike California in decades.
"We expect magnitudes of this size and we've built for them," said James Berkland, the senior engineering biologist for Santa Clara County.
The earthquake which struck 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, registered 6.2 on the Richter scale and was felt as far away as Reno, Nev.
It shook skyscrapers in San Francisco for nearly 30 seconds, knocked homes in one suburb off their foundations and damaged hundreds of others, cracked highways and cracked one dam.
But no deaths were reported and about 30 injuries occurred, although damage was estimated in the millions of dollars.
Hardest hit was the small community of Morgan Hill, 60 miles south of San
Francisco, where many homes were jarred loose from their foundations.
Berkland declared that the damage
in homes in Morgan Hill should have been
minimal.
In addition, a dam above Morgan Hill developed a crack and an old bridge over a one-lane road was nearly buried by a landslide.
Some San Franciscans shrugged off the tremor, the most potent to hit the Bay Area since the great quake of 1906.
It was the strongest quake to hit California since a 6.5 earthquake struck and demolished most of Coalinga last May 2.
Berkland said he had predicted a major quake for 1984 because they normally follow the wettest years, and before that were the wettest on record in California.
The quake was on the Calaveras Fault near a point where it merges with the San Andreas Fault, the crack in the earth that devastated San Francisco 78 years ago with a quake estimated to measure 8.3 on the Richter Scale.
The quake's epicenter was 12 miles southeast of San Jose in open farmland.
Court excludes race from custody disputes
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — Racial prejudice can play no part in settling child custody disputes, the Supreme Court declared yesterday in a unanimous ruling returning a child to her white mother and black stephen.
Reaffirming that the Constitution does not tolerate bigotry, the justices ruled 9-0 that race may not be a factor in determining a parent's right to custody of a child.
Sidiot won custody of his 6-year-old daughter, Melanie Lynn, after the child's mother married a black man. A Florida domestic abuse lawyer said she would be socially stigmatized if allowed to remain in a biracial home.
The decision came in a custody battle between Linda Sidiot Palmore for Seffner, Fla., and her former Anthony Sidiot, of Bryan, Texas.
Palmore challenged the ruling, saying it was unconstitutional to
consider interracial marriage in custody decisions.
The Supreme Court justices, noting that they rarely get involved in custody cases, agreed with Justice Burger written by Chief Justice Warren Burger.
"The effects of racial prejudice, however real, cannot justify a racial classification removing an infant child from the custody of its natural mother found to be an appropriate person to have such custody." Burger said in a 5-page opinion.
"The Constitution cannot control such preductions but neither can it tolerate them," he wrote. "Private biases may be outside the reach of the law, but the law cannot, directly or indirectly, give them effect."
Lawyers for both Palmure and Sidoti had no immediate comment on the ruling. But Sidoti said there was a good chance he would be willing to give up his daughter.
"I was disappointed, but we'll just have to see what happens.
Rhode Island mayor quits after conviction
By United Press International
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The mayor of New England's third largest city resigned yesterday, about 48 hours after he was sentenced in Superior Court on charges that he assaulted a man he thought was having an affair with his estranged wife.
Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. made his resignation official with an emotional farewell speech which was broadcast live from City Hall on radio and by all three Rhode Island commercial television stations.
The resignation of the 42 year-old mayor ended a decade of tumultuous years in office punctuated by frequent battles for his political life.
"Open government has been a hallmark of my administration," Ciancio said after briefly tracing what he said had been significant economic and political developments in the city during his tenure.
further strides with the next mayoral administration. He did not immediately indicate whether he intended to run for re-election.
Cianci, who said his resignation would become effective at 7.59 p.m., expressed hope that the city would take
Clanci's downfall was brought on to his assault on an old friend he thought was having an affair with his estranged wife. Although Clanci received a suspended jail sentence, city charter forbids convictions from holding office.
Clanci submitted his resignation at 6 p.m. EST. At an evening council meeting, City Council President Joseph R. Paolino — a democrat who turns 29 Thursday — became acting mayor pending a summer special election.
Clanci vowed to put political differences aside and work with Palino for a smooth transition. But it was anything but smooth.
Public Safety Commissioner Sanford H. Gorodetsky, a Ciancis supporter, Monday tried to fire Police Chief Anthony J. Mancuso, argued he had undermined his authority by bypassing his office in discussing ongoing federal state and local investigations into alleged widespread corruption.
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