Imelda Marcos launches fashion line /29
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2006

New TNW play debuts tonight /13

Longtime 60 Minutes correspondent mourned /25
$1.25 (HOME DELIVERED: 61 CENTS A DAY)

Student test results praised
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff The Foundation Skills Assessment test results are cause for celebration for Prince George school district officials, in spite of some downward numbers. "We are looking to see a difference in our reading results in particular, and we are a bit disappointed there," said director of school services Bonnie Chappell. "But even though we have a downturn there over last year, we closed the gap quite significantly on the provincial average." Chappell said in almost all categories, the district is closer to the provincial average than in many recent years. Last year the gap was as wide as 12 per cent in some categories. School District 57 school board chair Bill Christie agreed that the Grade 4 reading and writing was an area of concern, but because the trend over the last few years has been upward, even with some small slips this year, he expressed confidence that the district's course was well charted. "Closing that gap on the provincial average is a really positive sign," Christie said. "We are significantly improved on previous years and that is the big news story here. There is the proof that what the district is doing is benefiting the academic achievement of our students." Chappell said there are more tests being conducted by local students than just the FSAs. A special reading assessment is being aimed at students in Grades 3, 6 and 9 to go along with the Grade 4 and 7 FSA tests. She contended that the FSAs do a good job of showing district trends, but the District Assessment of Reading program will get results for individual classrooms, so teachers can respond to precise needs. Chappell also warned that districts generally consider the FSA's writing category with more than a grain of salt "because they use a narrow marking scale that doesn't differentiate very well, so all over the province the results fluctuate a lot." -- See IMPROVEMENT on page 3

Group won't push for total smoking ban
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff The Prince George Clean Air Coalition will not ask city council to prevent smokers from lighting up on outdoor patios in the city's bars and pubs once the province's ban on smoking indoors comes into effect in 2008. After a failed and controversial effort in 2003 to convince council to ban smoking completely from such establishments -- including those with designated smoking rooms -- PGCAC is stressing education over confrontation, said chair Bob D'Auray. "I don't think we'll be doing that again," he said. "We haven't pulled our horns in exactly, but we've changed our tactics. "If we can persuade people to see the need to change, rather than hitting them over the head with a hammer, which obviously hasn't worked." However, he said PGCAC is no supporter of smoking on patios. "People are still affected by second-hand smoke," he said. "If I'm sitting at a table next to you and you're smoking, even if it's outside, I can still get some poison." Coun. Murry Krause, who championed the proposal when it came before council, agrees with the PGCAC approach. He also applauded the provincial government's decision, announced Sunday by Premier Gordon Campbell, because it will end situations where one municipality has tougher rules than another. "I know we're going to probably hear the same hue and cry," he said. "The pub owners have some logical and valid issues in terms of their livelihoods, but I think this really comes down to being a health issue." Krause said he was in Dublin, Ireland three weeks ago, where smoking has been completely banned from pubs and restaurants for about 10 years. "Trust me, they had no shortage of customers," he said.

Citizen photo by David Mah

TOEING THE LINE -- Terasen Gas welder Richard Harders Jr., right, and Fred Berg from Central Interior Piping work on a new gas line at Sixth Avenue and Quebec Street, the site of the new gaming centre.

LIVE ree!
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Hospital food earns `excellent' rating
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff An independent audit on the quality of food served in B.C. hospitals and long-term care homes has found all six health authorities, including Northern Health, scored within the "excellent" range. Northern Health came in with an average score of 89.1 per cent among its 29 care institutions audited. Anything below 70 per cent is considered a "poor" rating. NH had the lowest average score among the authorities, coming in about three percentage points behind Interior and Provincial Health Services authorities and about two percentage points behind Fraser Health, Vancouver Coastal and Vancouver Island authorities. Throughout NH institutions, scores ranged between 70.4 and 98.3 per cent, slightly below the other authorities' score ranges. The survey shows NH needs to make some improvements in the Mackenzie and Queen Charlotte City hospitals in areas like making handwashing facilities easily accessible to workers, said Mark Karjaluoto, NH communications director. "They are the only two of 29 facilities that fall into the `needs improvement' range,'" said Karjaluoto. "Overall, 16 facilities, including Prince George Regional Hospital, are in the excellent range, 11 meet requirements and two need improvements." The audit was designed to look at the handling and preparation of food, nutritional adequacy and gave patients opportunities to report on the satisfaction of food served. The provincial audit, conducted between April and June 2006, is the first in Canada to create an independent audit process for food services. It followed the same approach as taken last year to assess the cleanliness of B.C. facilities. btrick@princegeorgecitizen.com

CONTEST

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New technology targets drivers and car thieves
VICTORIA (CP) -- B.C. has new crime-fighting technology that will target car thieves and prohibited drivers. The automatic licence plate recognition system is a camera and computer database system that reads a licence plate and compares it against data in the onboard computer. Solicitor General John Les describes the results of a pilot project using the technology as amazing. LES He says in one hour a police car captured images of 600 plates and got an average of one hit for every 60 plates. Les says nine per cent of those hits were associated with a stolen vehicle, seven per cent to a prohibited driver, 25 per cent to an unlicensed or uninsured vehicle and 59 per cent to an unlicensed driver. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gary Bass says the operational stage of the pilot study begins this week with units deployed throughout the Vancouver area.

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . 30 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Business . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-24 City, B.C. . . .3,5,13,38,39,41 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 16-21 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Coming Events . . . . . . . . . .40 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Entertainment . . . . . . . 25-27 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,15

Citizen photo by David Mah

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GAS LEAK -- Prince George firefighters and Terasen Gas crews were called to Webber Crescent Thursday afternoon when a gas line was ruptured. Terasen spokesperson Joan Hess said the leak occurred when someone digging in a vacant lot in the area struck a service line.

Powers & Gloria Keith Roulston
by An embittered industrialist and a single parent become unlikely allies.
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