KIDNAPPED GIRL, RUNNER MEET BUSH.

Byline: Jim Skeen and Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writers

Assemblyman George Runner and Antelope Valley kidnap victim Tamara Brooks were in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for President George W. Bush's conference on missing children.

More than 600 people attended the conference, at which the president announced that the Justice Department would develop a national standard for the Amber Alert electronic notifications to make sure they are not overused.

``It's important to have national standard,'' said Runner, R-Lancaster, who authored legislation for California's Amber Alert system. ``We can't have all the states doing their own thing.''

Brooks, one of two teenage girls kidnapped in August from a Quartz Hill teen hangout, and her mother got to meet with the president for about 45 minutes along with law enforcement officials and parents involved in other recent kidnapping cases.

``People all across America shared a great feeling of relief when she and her buddy were rescued,'' Bush said of Brooks and Jacqueline Marris, who was kidnapped with her. ``One of the reasons they were is because of the Amber plan. There are gaps in Amber, however. There are gaps in the Amber plan coverage which must be filled.''

The federal government will disburse $10 million to local governments for training and equipment upgrades, the president said.

Runner pushed for more than a year to initiate an Amber Alert system in California, and says it took the Orange County kidnapping and slaying of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion to get Gov. Gray Davis to act.

Davis signed Runner's Assembly Bill 415 on Sept. 13, but put the Amber Alert into effect before that, in time to be used first for the Aug. 1 kidnapping of Brooks and Marris. The system is named for a Texas girl who was kidnapped and murdered.

Brooks and Marris were rescued by Kern County sheriff's deputies alerted by an animal control officer and a Caltrans worker who saw the stolen truck driven by their abductor. The abductor, a Rosamond ex-convict already wanted on a rape charge, was shot to death by deputies.

An idea at the conference that drew the interest of Runner was a Dallas program that sends police to make random checks to make sure registered sex offenders are living where they say they are, and that they are not violating parole regulations.

Runner's wife, Sharon, who is running to succeed him in the 36th Assembly District, will check into the idea to see whether it is warranted in California, he said.

``It doesn't make much sense to have a registry if they are not living where they say they are,'' Runner said.