Jennifer Ann Moores busted for speeding, father, John Moores, fights punishment

San Diego — Last February, Jennifer Ann Moores, 29-year-old daughter of Padres owner John Moores, was busted by a Glendale, Arizona, cop for going 67 mph in a 45 mph zone, apparently while on the way to a ball game. According to an account in last week's Arizona Republic, officer Dan Goforth made the stop with a $3000 laser gun and promptly ticketed Moores, who was driving a late-model Mercedes. But that, it turns out, was only the beginning of the story. Jennifer's daddy John has gone to court to fight his daughter's citation, claiming that she is unfairly being denied the privilege of being allowed to attend traffic school rather than the harsher punishment of a $500 fine and possible 30 days in jail. The city's position is that since Jennifer was doing more than 20 mph over the limit, she doesn't qualify for traffic school. The paper reports it's unlikely that Jennifer would ever go to jail and notes that $500 "would be pocket change for John Moores, 54, a self-made computer-software tycoon, investor, and philanthropist." So why would John Moores care so much? His lawyer told the Republic that Moores "can't stand a bully. He doesn't think that somebody who gets a speeding ticket in Glendale should be treated harsher than motorists who get them in other parts of the Valley." Moores is also said to be mad that Glendale uses traffic fines rather than local taxes to fund a $187,000 "It's Our Town, Please Slow Down" sign program that warns motorists to take it easy ... At least one part of the complicated case between Hideo Nomo and Alicia Gwynn, wife of Padre superstar Tony, and her San Diego-based A.G. Sport, Inc., has been settled. According to documents filed in U.S. District Court here, Gwynn has agreed to pay Nomo $250,000. The fight was over Alicia's allegedly unlicensed use of Nomo's photo on collectors' items.

Cash factory

La Jolla's Science Applications International, the big government contractor, lost a bit of face in U.S. District Court in Dallas, Texas, last week when a judge ruled that Peter J. Thornton, an ex-SAIC employee, was entitled to $230,000 for blowing the whistle on the company's substandard work at a federal currency-printing plant. SAIC fired Thornton in April 1992 after he repeatedly reported substandard work at the Western Currency Production Facility. In 1994 Thornton sued SAIC and two subcontractors for $10 million under the federal whistle-blowing law. The companies denied culpability and later settled with the feds for $230,000, but last week the judge said that Thornton's evidence showed "widespread negligence and substandard contract performance" and awarded him the entire settlement collected by the government ... La Jolla's Western Water, the successor company to Dick Silberman's Yuba Natural Resources, has announced it just sold 30,000 acre feet of water to the city of Inglewood.

Howard's last words

It's campaign season and slate mailers can't be far behind. Those are the political advertising pieces that arrive in mailboxes just before each election, touting a list of unrelated candidates and issues, all of which have paid the slate mailer sponsor big bucks to appear. Each year brings several new enterprising pitches. Take the "Howard Jarvis/Save Proposition 13" mailer. Prop 13 was passed 20 years ago, and the issue won't be on the November ballot, but that never stopped a good slate mailer. Promoter Jim Lacy recently wrote a letter to political consultants, noting that "the exclusive use of the image of Howard Jarvis is approved by Mrs. Howard Jarvis." Besides, Lacy says, "Polls indicate that Proposition 13 enjoys a favorable response from 78 percent of voters over 45 years old, and we have captured this important voting block in our list selection." Lacy also includes a mock-up of the slate mailer, under the headline "Don't Miss Your Opportunity to Tell High-Propensity, Long-Term Voters that You Support the Proposition 13 Tax Cut." Then there's the San Diego County Family Values Coalition slate. Sponsor Gary Kreep, an Escondido attorney, writes, "As our county has grown, so too has the length of our ballots. Identifying the good, pro-family candidates is getting harder and harder for the large block of pro-family, pro-life, pro-free enterprise voters that determine the outcome of our elections."

Contributor: Matt Potter