Lippard.Multics 1986-04-04 17:29:23 mst Fri
Subject:  Open-and-Shut Case Against Reagan's Command Plane
Date: 4 Apr 1986 11:47-PST
From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow <Geoff@SRI-CSL.ARPA>
To: Risks@SRI-CSL.ARPA
Cc: Info-Cobol@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU
Message-ID: <[SRI-CSL.ARPA] 4-Apr-86 11:47:00.GEOFF>


    SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.  (AP) - When President Reagan comes to California
for vacation, thousands of homeowners lose their automatic garage door openers
to the interests of national security, a businessman says.
    Larry Murdock, owner of Genie Garage Doors in San Bernardino, says he's
certain that high-powered radio transmissions from the president's airborne
command post jam the signals of the remote-control switches that open and
close garage doors.
    Murdock said Thursday he'd had 800 or 900 calls since Reagan arrived
Sunday for a vacation at his Santa Barbara ranch.  The E-4B plane is parked
about 10 miles south of here at March Air Force Base.
    Press officers for the Air Force and Secret Service would neither confirm
nor deny knowledge of garage-door problems.
    ''We are concerned the president is in a safe and secure environment, and
that plane is just that,'' Secret Service spokesman Bill Corbett told the San
Bernardino Sun.