Bush touts benefit plan in Rancho Cucamonga (CA) [View All]

Bush touts benefit plan in Rancho Cucamonga

05:01 PM PDT on Monday, August 29, 2005

By CLAIRE VITUCCI and LISA B. McPHERON / The Press-Enterprise

President Bush encouraged an invited audience gathered at a Rancho Cucamonga senior center on Monday to learn and hopefully enroll in the new Medicare prescription drug plan... The president also said he would work with Gov. Schwarzenegger and other border-state governors to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. Political leaders have been pleading with Washington for more help to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

(snip)

Hours before Bush arrived, about 200 flag-waving supporters and slogan-chanting protestors lined Milliken Avenue across from the senior center. By the time of the president appeared, the crowd had swelled to nearly 1,000. Several skirmishes broke out after the president's motorcade drove past the crowd following his speech.

Bush supporters walked amid the demonstrators and were quickly mobbed. Placards on both sides were destroyed and it appeared that police made several arrests. About a dozen motorcycle officers drove into the protestors and sounded their sirens for several minutes in a vain effort to disperse the crowd. Before the scuffles erupted, Margaret Lindgren, a 74-year-old Culver City woman, said her opposition to the war compelled her to drive to the Inland region to join demonstrators decrying Bush's domestic and international policies.

"I do have a lot of hope. I haven't seen so many people participate in something since the 1960s," said Lindgren, clutching a pink umbrella as other protestors hoisted placards reading "No war for oil" or accusing the president of lying.

(snip)


Staff writers Michelle DeArmond, Duane Gang and Lisa McPheron contributed to this report.

Online at: http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_D_webbush30.7c2e5a0.html