Mayor protests portrayal of city

Many viewers continued to watch CBS Sunday evening after the AFC Championship game.\nBloomington Mayor John Fernandez was one of them.\n60 Minutes,which ran immediately after the postgame show, featured a segment on the Earth Liberation Front, an ecoterrorist group that has committed several acts of vandalism in Bloomington and across the country.\nThe 60 Minutes segment focused mostly on the FBI's investigation of the group. It made brief mention of the Sterling Woods fire in Bloomington.\nAfter watching the program, Fernandez" concerned with public perception of Bloomington" decided to write a letter to the shows producers. \nI think it gave something of an inaccurate perception of the business climate here,he said. We believe in economic development that increases the quality of life and creates more jobs. A small group shouldn't paint the entire community as uncivil and anti-business.\nHe also renewed his public plea that ELF's members be brought to justice.\nI would hope that anybody with information that would lead to arrest and prosecution would step forward, he said.\nAnd he called on local leaders to take a strong stand against the organization.\nThe leadership in our community needs to step up and reject this form of criminal activity,he said.There's room for broad and spirited debate on development. But terrorist attacks that seek to intimidate the community are just not acceptable.\nFernandez sparred with local environmentalists on that subject in July after they extended a speaking engagement to Craig Rosenbraugh, ELF's spokesman. Although the Oregon resident claims not to be a member, Rosenbraugh serves as teh group's media liason.\nAt the time, ELF had taken credit for a January arson that destroyed the home of Vince and Kathy Scott in the Sterling Woods subdivision on the west side of Bloomington. The group also accepted responsibility for the destruction of construction equipment at the lawrence bypass project and the spiking of trees in the Yellowwood state forest that were scheduled for logging.\nLater, it vandalized heavy logging equipment in Shoals and set fire to the Monroe County Republican headquarters.\nThe underground, loosely-knit group, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation said has caused more than $37 million worth of damage, targets those it labels enemies of the environment. Its largest act of vandalism was the $12 million arson of a Vail, Colo., ski resort.\nThe secretive group has been difficult for authorities to track; they haven't uncovered any leads.\nThe ELF is a very difficult group to infiltrate,said David Szady, the Oregon-based FBI special agent who is heading up the national hunt. But people said we couldn't infiltrate the mob or the KGB.\nFernandez said his objection wasn't to the coverage of ELF, but the implication that Bloomington environmentalists share the group's views.\nI thought it gave an accurate portrayal of how destructive the group is,Fernandez said. \nThe group has also taken credit for arsons in New York and Oregon during the past few weeks. Although the group is not believed to have committed any crimes in Monroe County since early September, the local FBI agents are still investigating, said special agent Doug Garrison of the Bloomington branch.