The Californian from Salinas, California • 3

Californian Monday, April 10, 2006 FROM PAGE ONE PROTEST Bill stalled From Page 1A 100,000 protesters gathered in Dallas. Legislation 'scares us' Daniel Dodge, political director for the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, one of the organizers for today's events in Salinas, said the purpose is to increase awareness of the immigration issue. Today's actions were originally planned to celebrate a victory in the Senate that has so far failed to occur. "I was disappointed that the bill in the Senate was tabled that the Senate decided instead of coming to a resolution (to go) on vacation," Dodge said. "We would have liked to have seen a resolution." Supporters are worried that the two-week Senate recess will hamper their efforts to pass a pro-immigration bill and are worried the House bill will gain steam, he said "That scares us because that legislation is so anti-immigrant and racist," Dodge said "We believed they (Senate) were working on the right path because they were addressing the residency issue.

People come to this country because they want to work hard" A national boycott, "Day Without an Immigrant" is scheduled for May 1. The boycott is asking immigration supporters to stay home from work and school and refrain from buying U.S.-made products. GANNETT NEWS SERVICE contributed to this report. Contact Christopher Ortiz at chrisortizWecalrfornian.com. Lara said the latest round of demonstrations became necessary after the Senate recessed Thursday for two weeks without agreeing on an immigration reform bill "We did have a compromise bill being worked on Thursday night that didn't finish out," Lara said "Momentum was there but it didn't follow through.

We are urging the Senate to go back and work on the bilL" Amnesty sought Legislation in the Senate would give illegal immigrants an opportunity to stay in the United States, provided that they offer proof that they have lived here at least two years. The Senate version of the bill is less draconian than the version passed by the House known as HR 4437 which makes illegal immigration a felony, rather than a civil offense, and calls for construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. More than 12 million illegal immigrants are believed to be in the United States now. "(The Senate bill) had provisions that cut the teeth out of HR 4437, including things like amnesty," Lara said Rallies are planned today in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, D.C, Houston and elsewhere. The coordinated day of marches comes after weeks of protests in the United States.

On Sunday, about SCOTT MACDONALDTHE SALINAS CALIFORNIAN Survivors of the Bataan Death March gather for a group photo Saturday during the dedication ceremony of a memorial at the Monterey County Historical Society in Salinas. From left are Harold Vick, August Gillis, Leon Elliot Eliopoulos, Norman Rose, Roy Diaz and Frank Muther. MEMORIAL Their story must 'never be forgo tteri From Page 1A NETWORKS Battle brews From Page 1A Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, sees network neutrality as the most contentious issue in Congress' overall effort to amend federal communications laws. There are so few people left who understand what they went Bart Topham, San Luis Obispo resident who perished, six died in combat and the other 50 died on the march or in the camps, said Eugene Ferris, a Salinas real estate agent who helped the surviving veterans raise the money for the memorial "Their story must never be forgotten," Ferris said, speak- ing at the dedication. Waving goodbye Tethered to an oxygen canister, Bataan veteran Frank Muther, 86, of Salinas spoke of his comrades in arms.

"The courage of these men was stronger than the metal of their tanks," Muther said. He recalled living on a cup of rice a day during his 3fi years in a slave-labor camp in Japan. "On the death march, didn't know what food was," he said. He and other prison-camp inmates learned of the Allied victory in the war when a plane flew over and dropped a single carton of cigarettes into their midst, Muther said. Inside the carton was a note: "War's over boys.

We're coming to get you." "There are so few people left who understand what they went through," said Bart Topham of San Luis Obispo, who accompanied his mother-in-law, Patricia Smith Reynolds, to the ceremony. Reynolds' father, Earl Smith, was one of the men of Company who never came home. Fighting back tears, Reynolds, who was 3 years old when her father shipped 1 out, said she could recall sitting in his lap just before he left, and waving goodbye to him at the Salinas train station. Her mother later told her that her father had said as he left, "I'll never see either of you again." "He knew," Reynolds said. She said the memorial was long overdue.

"Salinas really needed this," Reynolds said. Contact Katharine Ball at kballthecalifornian.com. series of bronze plaques describing what befell Company and listing its members. Seven of the 11 surviving veterans, all of them in their 80s or 90s now, attended the ceremony and, under sunny skies, accepted heartfelt tributes paid to their courage and sacrifices. "None of us will ever understand what it was like in 1941 as the first armored unit to engage the enemy in World War II, and we can only hope that we never allow our country to let our soldiers again dwindle in a far-off land with the promise of help that is never to come," said Leonard Formosa, a retired Army master sergeant who gave a speech at the event.

A fluke of history placed Company in the Philippines just before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, plunging the United States into World War II. The company, composed nearly entirely of Salinas-area men, joined other Allied troops battling the Japanese in the Philippines the next day. Some 10,000 Allied troops who weren't killed in action, about it," said analyst Blair Levin at investment banking firm StifeL Nicolaus Co. Inc.

"Everyone is implicated, and billions of dollars are at stake." Right now, data on the Internet is generally treated equally, like cars on a freeway. But like a freeway, the Internet can get congested particularly as data-heavy applications like movies and music gain popularity. You see that congestion when streaming video stops streaming or when the download bar on your computer slows down. So phone companies, which have limited capacity on copper lines, are proposing special tolls on Internet companies that would in effect, set aside a special lane of fast-moving traffic. SCOn MAC00NALLVTHE SALINAS CALIFORNIAN Bataan veteran Frank Muther.

86, addresses the crowd at Saturday's dedication ceremonies. including most of Company were captured and forced-marched to a prison camp 85 miles distant. The captives were allowed little food or water and stragglers were executed along the way. Once at the prison camp, they were routinely tortured. Later, many of them were shipped to Japanese slave-labor camps, where they subsisted on starvation rations.

Of the 56 men of Company ESTABLISHED IN 1871 Californian SERVING THE SAUNAS VALLEY AND MONTEREY COUNTY The Salinas Californian (478-120) is published Monday-Saturday morning by Salinas Newspapers, 123 W. Alisal P.O. Box 81091, Salinas, CA 93901-2644 Phone (831) 424-2221 or 649-6626 754-4296 A Gannett Newspaper Periodicals postage paid at Salinas. CA, postmaster. Send address changes to The Salinas Californian, P.O.

Box 81091, Salinas. CA 93912-1091. CLASSIC Final day full of action The Hunt Is Over! From Page 1A ni ii ii ii JEWELERS race. Salinas resident Tor team. Erik Ebberoth of Sea-Roberts won the sport side won the men's single-Clydesdale division, and speed division and Brian But-Steven Gile, also of Salinas, ler of Monterey won the was on the winning tandem sport 25-29 age division.

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Benefits exceed Medicare requirements event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca saw a dominating performance from women's professional rider Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja in the cross-country race, which earned her the women's pro omnium championship. There was plenty of other action as well The finals of the dirt jump contest showcased daredevil stunts from some of the top professionals in the world and the finals of mountain cross featured bikers pedaling at breakneck speed down the obstacle dirt course. The final day of the Classic, which is sponsored in part by The Salinas Californian, kicked off the popular amateur cross country races. Riders with wide varieties of experience tried to conquer a 19-mile cross county loop, which began at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and looped around hills and valleys on soggy Fort Ord trails. Several Monterey County riders found success in their respective divisions of the Wong, AID, FAAP Mm Jam, AID, FAA? "We care ferym chiUren liie they were tur turn.

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