TOBACCO FUND FIGHT ESCALATES.Byline: Jennifer Klein Staff Writer VENTURA - The legal battle over the tobacco settlement initiative escalated Friday as opponents and backers of Measure O each filed court challenges to the ballot statements written by the other. The petition filed by the Coalition Against Measure O questions a claim by Community Memorial Hospital, a privately run Ventura hospital and the initiative's sponsor, that private hospitals care for 46 percent of the county's uninsured and poor residents. Spokesman Neal Andrews said the figure is artificially inflated by lumping poor and uninsured patients together because most uninsured residents are not poor. Andrews also challenged CMH's claim that the county has not spent any money on smoking prevention programs. ``The bottom line is that our interest is that voters have the truth in front of them,'' Andrews said. But Mark Barnhill, an executive with the public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most firm hired by CMH CMH Center of Military History CMH Commission on Macroeconomics and Health CMH Chief of Military History CMH Children's Memorial Hospital CMH Ceramic Metal Halide (General Electric light source) CMH Congressional Medal of Honor to run the election campaign, maintained that the Board of Supervisors so far has used tobacco settlement money only to help pay off a $15.3 million Medicare overbilling penalty. The dueling The fighting of two persons, one against the other, at an appointed time and place, due to an earlier quarrel. If death results, the crime is murder. It differs from an affray in this, that the latter occurs on a sudden quarrel, while the former is always the result of design. challenges were filed two days after a proponent One who offers or proposes. A proponent is a person who comes forward with an a item or an idea. A proponent supports an issue or advocates a cause, such as a proponent of a will. PROPONENT, eccl. law. of Measure O filed a petition contesting the impartial analysis, fiscal impact statement and ballot description prepared by Ventura County. A hearing date for the two latest challenges will be set Monday. And a judge has set a hearing on the first petition for Aug. 25 - the deadline for the county clerk The term "county clerk" has been commonly applied, in several English-speaking countries, to an official of a county government. United States Most counties in the U.S. to send the ballots and voter information pamphlet pamphlet, short unbound or paper-bound book of from 64 to 96 pages. The pamphlet gained popularity as an instrument of religious or political controversy, giving the author and reader full benefit of freedom of the press. for the Nov. 7 election to the printer. Measure O was launched in March and seeks to divert roughly $250 million in tobacco settlement money the county would receive over 10 years to local private hospitals. Although sponsors submitted more than 38,000 signatures, the Board of Supervisors refused to put the measure on the ballot. Instead, county supervisors filed a lawsuit, claiming the measure violates the state's constitution and its Budget Act. A judge last month ordered the measure placed on the ballot, although he cited ``grave concerns'' about its legality le·gal·i·ty n. pl. le·gal·i·ties 1. The state or quality of being legal; lawfulness. 2. Adherence to or observance of the law. 3. A requirement enjoined by law. Often used in the plural. . |
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