Rosen honored upon return from international music competition
By Merilynne Cohen
Staff Writer
Upon his recent return to Los Angeles from Moscow after winning a gold medal in the International Tchaikovsky Competition, USC graduate Nathaniel Rosen was honored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday for his musical accomplishments.
A scroll signed by the supervisors was presented to Rosen with the hope that he will follow in the footsteps of Gregor Piatigorsky. the late university professor whom Rosen studied under while at the university.
Rosen will make his first local appearance since his return at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, August 23 in a special concert honoring his Moscow triumph. He will perform three works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of
Michael Tilson Thomas.
Since his return from Moscow. Rosen has been bombarded with requests for press conferences and performances, but the 30-year-old musician has not yet officially announced his plans for the future.
In a press conference Monday. Rosen announced several proposals under negotiation, including his present position as principal cellist with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
"The time right now is one in which to make plans, to make intelligent moves so that my career has a foundation, so I won't have to depend on being known only as a gold medalist," he said.
When asked about his experiences while staying in Moscow for the competition. Rosen said he was basically confined to a schedule of constant prac-(continued on poge 11)
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University of Southern California
Volume LXXIV, Number 16 Los Angeles, California Weanesday, August 16, 1978
Rent relief nowhere in sight as lobbyists battle in Sacramento
WAR?
By Niki Cervantes Sun Writer
SACRAMENTO — A short argument between two longtime lobbyists told the whole story.
It was nearing midnight and the Senate Taxation and Revenue Committee hearing at the state capitol on the Bates-Torres Renter Relief Bill had been going on since about 7 p.m
Inside the crowded hearing room, tenants and landlords delivered emotional speeches for and against the bill which would force landlords to pass on 80^r of their Proposition 13 savings.
Outside, huddled in large groups, were innumerable lobbyists, political strategists, legislators and their aides all locked in an angry shouting match over “appearances.”
“If this bill comes out of committee tonight too watered down I think we should kill it. It will look like a sellout to the renters,” screamed one.
“Who cares what the renters think?” retorted another.
Silence.
“Who doesn’t?” was his reply.
End of argument. These days you don’t argue about what renters think.
In the words of an aide for the Department of Housing, renters are "hot political stuff” right now. “With almost 50^ of the residents in this state renters and with the number of legislators up for re-election, everybody wants to be the tenant’s friend."
The sudden rash of rent increases that began appearing after the passage of Proposition 13 has pumped new life into a long-brewing movement to organize renters.
New renter groups have begun popping up
statewide. REACH and the First District Neighborhood Organization in the Los Angeles area among them. In Northern California they are joined by San Franciscans for Rent Relief, The Davis Peoples Tenant Union and The East Bay Housing Alliance in Oakland and Hayward.
“Historically tenants have not been organized as a political force. We are finally proving that renters can be strong and potent.” said Joan Blackburn, the Northern California head ofthe California Housing Action and Information Network (CHAIN), a statewide umbrella organization for tenant groups.
Renters groups have been organizing tenants like small whirlwinds, whipping up proposals for rent relief in Long Beach, Santa Monica and San Bernardino. In Palo Alto, Menlo Park. Mountain View and San Jose groups are planning rent rebates, rollbacks and freeze ordinances as well.
In El Monte, the City Council recently put the brakes on an earlier vote to enact an ordinance putting a six month freeze on rents. After pressure from landlords, the council voted to put a six month moratorium on forcing landlords to comply. As a measure of just how much weight renters are carrying right now. Gov. Brown was reported “furious” with the council’s moratorium decision.
An aide who was at a private meeting between housing groups and the governor, said, “He (the governor) came into the meeting waving the story around, furious at the council’s action. I believe he’ll probably send one of his aides down there to see what they can do.”
Yet, as feverish as these groups have been and as • keenly aware as the state legislature is of them, the new organizations have met with limited success.
(Continued on page 2)
Lebanese student set to defend family home
By Curt Bormann
Editor	!v
While most student s are just returning from their summer vaca-?: gtions, Khaled A. Take, a senior in business, is getting ready to leave?: gon one of the most important trips of his life, g Khaled is preparing to return to the hotbed of the Middle East,:? ?Beirut, Lebanon, to defend his home from what he believes to be a? ?full-scale war.	g
£ President Carter’s hastily called summit meeting with Egypt’s?: :>:Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin, plus the recent infight-:? ging between the Palestine Liberation Organization which resulted:? gin the latest bombing deaths of 102 persons in Beirut, all support:;:; :?Take’s, and many others, fear that the "no war. no peace" state of*: vthe Middle East is about to be broken.
“If Begin, Carter and Sadat don’t solve it, hang in there for war ini:-: ^October. Full scale, and I mean it,” said Take.
? Take’s mother and brother are about to evacuate from Lebanon,:-:: gand it is now his job to protect their home, which lies on the border?: ^between the Christian and Moslem sections of Beirut. What worries?: STake, a druze, is that when the fighting breaks out, and if there is? Snobody in the house, Palestinian refugees will move in and claim it:? gas their home. Besides the possibility of Palestinians taking the:? :• house, there is also the Christian army to worry about.
? “It is my father’s roots,” Take explained. "Our house goes back?: •: 1200 years. If they take my house, where do I go? I become a refugee.?: •:I would rather die than become a refugee!”
•: To take care of the house. Take has organized 15 of his good:?
friends and cousins to help defend the property They have at their:? ^disposal an army jeep mounted with a large machine gun. various?: jother guns, hand grenades and walkie talkies.
(continued on page 12) ;?
Local voters decide against recall, Farrell retains City Council seat
By Michael Schroeder
AtiiaUnl Editor
A recall election to unseat Robert Farrell as Los Angeles city councilman in the 8th District appeared to have failed Tuesday night, with slightly less than two-thirds of the votes counted going against the recall measure.
At 9 p.m., 64 1% had voted against the recall, while only 35.1'* voted in favor. A total of 62 precincts had been tallied out of a total of 131
Governmental consultant Adam Burton, one of the prime movers behind the recall attempt was one of eight candi-dates'on a slate that was never needed
The recall effort begun in September of 1977 was based on one
issue, according to both the recall supporters and Sylvia Washington, press spokesman for Farrell. This one issue was insensitivity.
Those that favored recall in many cases believed that Farrell was “out of contact” with the community, and neglected to find out what problems existed in the 8th district.
Washington said this view came from Farrell’s “acute underexposure” in the district.
“To be perfectly frank, Farrell is just not a front and center politican. He’s not the 'rah, rah’ type. He’s more of a doer ” she said.
“Farrell would rather see the job done, and if he’s a part of it, that's fine. In some ways, he’s in the avant garde of politicians.”
His opponents in the recall effort, especially Burton, tried to point to a job that wasn’t being done by picturing areas of neglect within the district to show Farrell’s alleged lack of concern.
Washington pointed out that no charges of malfeasance or illegality had been leveled against Farrell by the recall supporters, and that the insensitivity problem was the only issue in the campaign
‘'Farrell’s accomplishments are on record. Most of his opponents had run against him in the last election, and the recall was the easiest way to go against him without a full-blown election," (continued on page 3)
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KHALED A. TAKE	photo by Janet McMinn