Sun City Clubs

Pinochle

Taking the high score of 618 in morning pinochle Aug. 27 was Ron Diehl. Low scorer was Joe DeMay at 399. Double pinochles went to Joan Dunmead, Barb Hoppensteadt and Mavis Shurson. Playing all-trick hands were Frank Hehn, Phil LoMonaco, Erna Quathamer and Bernie Rodeo.

Playing in the afternoon session, Melba Knust took the high score of 597. John Kerechek had the low score of 407. Rosemary Haskins, Carol Love, Bea Lunkley, Anna Peldiak, Bernie Rodeo, Ed Serafin, Dick Wagner and Arlene Wille each had a double pinochle.

Duplicate bridge

Winning in duplicate bridge Aug. 31 in Section A were Jan Clark and Barb White playing north south and Yvonne and Dave Petty for east-west. Playing north-south, Dave Germaine and Ed Kain placed second. Enid and Don Busch tied with Chander Aiyar and Bob Westrich for third place. For east-west, Roger Clausen and John Petras were second, Fred Perschke and Loren Price placed third, and Rhoda and Fred Kagan came in fourth.

In section B, Mary Ann Harju and Bill Macomber placed first for north-south. Olivine Groves and Charlotte Irvine were first for east-west. North-south runners-up were Ann Durgin and Irma Lee, in second place; Sandy Johnson and Fran Logan, third, and Jay Kadakia and Ron Schwarz, fourth. For east-west. Doris Kopp and Kay Schuckert took second place; Janice Apel and Carol Smith, third, and Alice Crumley and Joan Iwinski, fourth.

Winning duplicate bridge Aug. 27 were Bill Macomber and Ron Tenggren. Kay Burda and Naomi Cartwright placed second. Heike and Bill Kingery took third place. Janet Clark and Arvind Shah came in fourth. Ann Durgin and Karen Richardson were fifth.

Contract bridge

Winners in contract bridge pairs play for Aug. 28 were Geri and Larry Dale with 6,230 points. Chere and Tom Anderson scored 6,060 to take second place. Dan Bressler and Stewart Ellis placed third with 4,900. Mary Ann Harju and Jan Koerner came in fourth with 4,720. Fifth place went to Lottie and Sig Konarski with 4,400 points.

Playing contract bridge Aug. 29, Larry Dale captured first place with 5,280. John Papaleo was second with 4,830. Jean Huismann took third place with 4,300. Also in the top seven were Lois Kilian, fourth, 4,140; Chuck Zunker, fifth, 3,980; Janice Apel, sixth, 3,720, and Jan Trede, seventh, 3,700.

Euchre

Don Ferrari scored 65 to capture first place in euchre Aug. 30. Sharon Elder came in second with 61. Marsha Carter and Pearl Heaps scored 60 to tie for third place. Scoring 58 points to tie for fourth place were Bob Brown, Ken Welter and Nancy Morbeck.

Cribbage

Harry Anderle took first place in cribbage Aug. 29 with a perfect score of 484. Mary Lou Chiodo placed second with 483. High individual hands of 24 were posted by Ed Dunn, Jerry Jarvis and Tom Fleming who also had a hand of 21. Carol Charpentier had two hands of 20, while Terry Burkhardt, Jean Cecil, and Bob Ferraris each had one. There were two skunks.

Current events

At the previous meeting, Mack Titus, chairman of SunCPac, received warm praise for the efforts of his group to make property tax assessments more transparent to Sun City residents. At the Aug. 28 Current Events meeting, he introduced most council's members and mentioned those unable to attend. Mack also pointed out that the Rutland Township assessor's Web site cannot permit searches by model anymore. On the other hand, SunCPac's Web site on the Sun City Web portal will present the 2007 assessments by model after they become available.

Virginia Tech's gunman's disability: Matt Meyer gave a specific account of how extremely strict rules protecting patients' privacy can cause problems. Seung Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, had mental health issues. The Fairfax County Public Schools he had attended knew of his disability and devised a plan to help him, according to sources familiar with his history. But the high school was not allowed to pass information on to the university, either voluntarily or in response to a request.

An investigation revealed that quite a few people knew of Cho's problem, and sharing this information might have prevented the massacre, but they remained silent. A member suggested that an application form should include a line to ask that an institution or employer be given permission to access a candidate's mental health history after he is accepted. Current law prohibits such information being used as a criterion for acceptance or rejection.

New citizenship code: Among other objectives, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed to ensure citizenship to freed slaves. Its first sentence reads "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside." Because of this broad coverage, children of immigrants and others whose mother happens to be here at birth are born as citizens. In fact, the Supreme Court has specifically ruled so by reasoning that immigrants, even if illegal, are subject to U.S. jurisdiction. Many recent news items are witness to the conflicts caused by this situation.

Mannie Tucker and Herm Faubl have discussed this issue over several months.

Out of these discussions came the following proposal:

• You become a U.S. citizen if you are born in the U.S.A. or one of its possessions and at least one of your parents is a U.S. citizen.

• Whether born in a foreign country or in the U.S.A. or one of its possessions, but do not meet the requirements fully for (1), you become a citizen when (a) you pass the legal requirements to become naturalized, or (b) you are still a minor when at least one of your parents becomes a naturalized citizen.

• You are born a U.S. citizen if born outside the U.S.A. or one of its possessions, if one of your parents is a U.S. citizen, and your parents are outside the U.S.A. because of travel, study, temporary work assignment or military assignment. The birth must be recorded at a U.S. consulate or domestically within six months.

• Even if born in the U.S.A or one of its possessions, you are not a U.S. citizen if (a) your parents are here illegally, (b) your parents are here on a visitor, worker or student visa, (c) your legal-resident but non-citizen parents permanently leave the U.S.A. before your 18th birthday.

• If born outside the U.S.A, you are not born a U.S. citizen, even if one of your parents had been a U.S. citizen, if your U.S.-citizen parent(s) (a) emigrated permanently or (b) have taken a foreign citizenship

• You lose your U.S. citizenship if you claim dual citizenship with another country."

It is understood that a constitutional amendment would be required to implement these proposals. The proposal will be sent to legislators.

Current Events members supported the proposal but several had issues with the point about dual citizenship. Although a patriotic American might feel that dual citizenship leads to divided loyalties, that provision could be dropped if it gets in the way of the more critical points 1-5.

Triple play

A score of 99,930 points gave Jane Costa and Janet Schumacher first place in triple play canasta Aug. 30. Triple play now starts play at 8:45 a.m. Thursdays in the Prairie Lodge multi-purpose room.

-- Garry Winter