Volume 10
San Jose's Skip Spence of the '60s rock band Moby Grape is considered by rock historians to be one of the psychedelic era's missing links. ... The 47-year-old Spence disappeared from the ranks of Moby Grape, the band he cofounded, early in their tragic career. The Grape's stunning debut, considered one of the best debut records of all time, was released in June 1967; by the end of 1968, Spence was in Bellevue hospital. ... Moby Grape's saga is one of '60s rock's great tragedies, from their horribly marketed records, to the loss of their royalties and rights for peanuts, to their dissolution in the '70s from drugs, bad business decisions and mental illness. ... Today, Spence dwells in a residential-care facility in downtown San Jose, the most recent in a long line of institutions the guitarist has called home.
--Johnny Angel, "Sour Grape," March 31, 1994
Spence left the residential-care home and now lives with a female friend in Soquel.
Barbie Battleground
Barbie worship isn't just for kids anymore. ... In an effort to usurp mainstream America's claim on the doll, queer activists have even photographed Barbie engaged in lesbian sexual acts. It's enough to make Barbie devotees throw up their hands in despair.
--Gordon Young, "Pop Culture Princess," April 21, 1994
Old Folks' Home
California's population of elderly inmates is certain to explode following the passage of so-called "three strikes and you're out" legislation, designed to put third-time felons in prison for 25 years to life. As these inmates grow old and die in prison, what Gov. Pete Wilson called "a great victory for the people of California" could turn into a financial rout for taxpayers forced to support an unprecedented number of elderly inmates.
The health-care costs alone of incarcerating older inmates are up to four times higher than for younger prisoners. ... Studies are only now under way to determine the additional expense of housing the three-strikes inmates as they grow old.
--Gordon Young, "The Over the Hill Gang," April 28, 1994
Alas, the California Department of Corrections has not yet embarked on that study to figure out the true cost of housing an increased number of senior citizen prisoners. A spokesperson for the CDC said such a study would be premature.
Like a Good Neighbor
Charles "Chuck" Quackenbush, the Cupertino Republican, has funded his campaign for California insurance commissioner primarily with money from the very industry he will regulate if elected in November. A review of campaign disclosure statements on file with the secretary of state reveals that at least 60 percent of Quackenbush's 1994 outside campaign financing has come from insurers. The funding takes the form of monetary contributions, loans and in-kind services, such as printing campaign materials and providing supplies for fundraising events. ...
By June 30, Quackenbush had secured approximately $656,000 in outside contributions and loans, more than $447,000 of which was provided by insurance industry members. ... The close bond between the Quackenbush campaign and the insurance industry troubles some consumer activists. "Candidates simply shouldn't take money from the groups they will be regulating," said Ruth Holton of Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. "It calls into question the regulatory process, and the public has a right to be concerned."
--Gordon Young, "Help from his Friends," Oct. 6, 1994
Since taking office, Quackenbush has made several controversial decisions, many of which directly benefit the insurance industry that was so generous during his campaign. Quackenbush has approved rate hikes for insurance companies, including State Farm, a big contributor to his campaign. He also decided that insurance companies only need pay half of the insurance tab to those whose property was damaged in the Northridge earthquake, according to a spokesperson for the Proposition 103 Enforcement Project.
Doing Laps
When the owners of the Kit Kat Club applied for an adult entertainment license in April 1993, they probably didn't realize that some of their best customers would be Sunnyvale cops.
The same goes for the shapely young women who perform a variety of acts naked on the Kit Kat's brightly lit stages. They almost certainly didn't know that the men who kept coming back and watching them so closely were police officers.
Specifically, the men were on-duty, undercover cops.
During an investigation that lasted five months, members of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety returned to the Kit Kat over and over again. They would pay the cover charge, stroll into the club, take a seat near the stage, and then conduct the demanding business of police work. ... The investigation culminated in the prostitution arrests of seven dancers. Although they were charged with prostitution, the dancers were not accepting money for the types of acts typically associated with the world's oldest profession. Rather, they were busted for lap dancing, a live act wherein male customers pay to have a bikini- and G-string-clad woman squirm around on their laps ... considered a serious enough crime to warrant a costly, five-month investigation.
--Bob Hansen, "Your Tax Dollars at Work," Aug. 11, 1994
Sunnyvale Police Chief Regan Williams says that the prostitution charges against the Kit Kat dancers are still pending despite repeated delays in the prosecution of those cases. Any other problems with the club have been resolved, Williams said.
The Scrapper
What comes out of Kathy Napoli's mouth is neither "nice" nor what most people in San Jose's power structure want to hear. She's like the sister in the fairy tale; every time she speaks, lizards, snakes and toads come popping out of her mouth in the form of highly charged criticisms of the city's civic agenda. ...
Because she has played the role of agitator for the last five years, it would be convenient to pigeonhole Napoli as one of those fringe critics who are fond of railing against the powers that be without offering any answers. But there is no shred of lunacy about Napoli; she is as pragmatic as she is driven. ...
Napoli suffers under no delusions about her chances for forcing Mayor Susan Hammer into a runoff. The woman who has raised only $12,000 and loaned herself another $40,000 in this mayor's race is no fool, she assures her visitor, but she points out that she has confronted impossible odds before and won.
--Lorraine Gengo, "The World According to Kathy," May 26, 1994
Napoli didn't win the mayor's race, garnering only 27 percent of the vote. Since the rout, many council observers note that Napoli's presence around City Hall has waned. She only occasionally shows up to chastise the council over the Redevelopment Agency's miscues. For her part, Napoli says she's still very much involved, and claims she was one of the primary movers in getting an audit of San Jose's Recycle Plus program started. As for any future run for office, Napoli says, "Never say never."
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March 1994-February 1995
Skipping Out
From the October 5-11, 1995 issue of Metro