UNION-TRIBUNE

7:20 a.m. June 20, 2008

Caltrans has stopped taking applications for its Adopt-A-Highway cleanup program until it can conduct a review of program guidelines.


The state transportation agency is involved in litigation with the San Diego Minutemen, an anti-illegal-immigration activist group, over the group's reassignment in January from a spot on northbound Interstate 5, near the Border Patrol's San Clemente checkpoint, to state Route 52 near Santee.
Last week, the activists again butted heads with Caltrans, this time over an application for a different stretch of I-5 that was assigned to a business instead. The business had been displaced from the checkpoint area; Caltrans officials said the Minutemen weren't officially displaced because they had been given another spot. The agency stopped taking new applications earlier this week.

Caltrans cited safety concerns when it moved the activists from I-5, after complaints from Latino groups and others about the location of their Adopt-A-Highway sign right next to the immigration checkpoint. The Minutemen have refused the Route 52 spot and are suing to have the I-5 spot restored.

Caltrans spokesman Steve Saville said yesterday that while the agency isn't accepting new applications for now, it's “business as usualâ€