Youngsters promote democracy

Young people can make a difference, which has been proven every election at the polls for the last five years in the Student Pollworker Program.

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore plans to expand its pool of poll workers this year, putting six workers at each of its 721 polls. There should be ample opportunity for students to participate.

It's easy. You need to be at least 16 years old and a U.S. citizen on Election Day, be a student at a public or private secondary school with at least a 2.5 grade-point average and provide a nomination from a teacher and administrator.

Selected students take a training class, earn $90 and learn a lot about the democratic process.

For details, visit www.voteinfo.net or call (951) 486-7341.

Signs of wastefulness

You would think that those who want to represent their neighbors would have the good sense to learn and follow the rules of placing campaign signs, and save the city the cost of enforcing those rules. However, rules are being violated all over the Coachella Valley this election season.

In La Quinta, Community Service Manager Debra Conrad reported that her code enforcement officers set a record last week, confiscating 98 illegally placed political signs in one day.

La Quinta's rules aren't complicated:

No sign can be placed with 5 feet of a paved public street.

No sign can be mounted on municipal signs or signals.

No sign can be placed within 200 feet of an identical sign.

Candidate Richard Sylk — who had only one sign in violation this week — said he has been cited for signs placed in medians, but didn't place them there himself. Campaign workers as well as candidates should be educated on the simple rules.

Candidates who violate the ordinance are not fined. Maybe they should be.

Heavy metal rules

The theft of metal — from manhole covers, copper wire, pumps, freeway barriers to metal of practically every variety, even if it is bolted down — has been a chronic and vexing problem for years.

It is good to see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sign three bills into law designed to combat the sale of stolen metal. Steps include:

Requiring scrap dealers to pay most sellers by check and to keep extensive records of purchased scrap and its seller, including a thumbprint.

Delaying cash payments to metal sellers for three days after date of sale. Imagine a junkie's reaction.

Requiring dealers and recycling companies to report to police daily on the scrap metal they buy and who's selling it.

And increasing fines on scrap dealers for failing to comply with the law.

We hope the new laws make a dent in the problem.

Disappearing act

It's a shame to see the CopyKatz Showroom, a high-profile nightclub in the heart Palm Springs, close.

Despondent owner Elyse Del Francia said high rent and the weak economy forced her to bring down the curtain.

There's a lot of finger-pointing going on downtown. We can't really blame the landlord, Ralph and Ann Lewin of ARL Holdings. Del Francia was four months behind on the rent.

And it's probably not fair to blame the city, although that's what Del Francia did in a lawsuit filed against the Bureau of Tourism last year for allegedly not doing enough to promote downtown.

Nevertheless, it's disappointing to see the deterioration continue. There are now 78 empty store fronts and just as many broken hearts.