STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
U.S. Customs officials responsible for searching suspicious persons entering this country from Mexico at Calexico shrug off charges of departmental bias against Mexicans and African-Americans, but make one thing clear — they can make anyone strip to be searched.
Fred Bancook, new chief of the inspecting agents at Calexico, and his top aide, Don Quick, said that their right to force people to disrobe “has been upheld in all the courts of the land.”
Their authority not only includes making persons strip to permit exterior rectal examinations but also includes the right to have a Calexico doctor of physicians at the Imperial County Hospital perform deeper body cavity probes as well as having doctors make laboratory tests to learn if persons are under the influence of narcotics.
Regarding the complaint of the young El Centro African-American to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigators in El Centro this week that he was forced repeatedly to take such nude examinations upon re-entering the United States both customs agents said that such continuous examinations “would defeat the purpose of the searches.”
“After one or two such searches of a person’s body,” Quick said, “the suspect would know he was under suspicion by our men and would make it a point not to hide contraband within his body.”
40 years ago
Some 64 Valley teachers who lost summer school teaching positions because of the passage of Proposition 13 had applied by today for unemployment insurance.
They are among as many as 200 to 250 Valley teachers eligible for unemployment insurance benefit for the first time under a provision approved by Gov. Jerry Brown last week, Richard Schuster, director of UniServ, said today.
Until Brown’s action, teachers with contracts for September were not eligible for unemployment.
Although teachers may be happy about their newfound benefits, administrators are worried about the affect it will have on their district operations.
El Centro schools Superintendent Richard Brautigam said, “The total impact is not just the number of teachers involved, it is a philosophical question.
“The state wanted us to cut back by cancelling summer school and now it turns around and pays teachers for not working. It is kind of contradictory.”
30 years ago
The Calexico and Sunbeam Little League All Stars are headed for a showdown Thursday after winning their first-round games Tuesday in the District 22 Little League All Star tournament.
Calexico defeated Imperial 4-0 and Sunbeam beat El Centro 9-2 in their first round games. Brawley defeated Hotlville 8-2 and will play Seaview tonight in Brawley to determine the final member of the winners bracket.
In games tonight, Brawley faces Seaview at Brawley’s Beechey Field and Imperial faces El Centro at Sunbeam Lake.
The winner of tonight’s Brawley-Seaview game will play Friday against the winner of Thursday’s game between Calexico and Sunbeam. The loser of the Brawley-Seaview match will play at Brawley Thursday against Holtville.
The Calexico-Sunbeam contest will be played in Calexico.