PUBLIC FORUM : GAS GOUGING.The government and gasoline companies are doing it to us again. Last month, while traveling through Indiana and Illinois, I noted the price of regular unleaded gasoline was 87 cents per gallon. The price in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. averaged $1.19 per gallon. Prices were low before the oil countries decided they were not living up to their standards and raised the price of oil. (A month ago, a barrel of oil was a little over $10 a barrel. Now it is over $15 per barrel, a 50 percent increase.) The government (federal, state, local and oil countries) are doing it to us Californians. (As an aside, remember when Clinton wanted to tax gasoline an extra 50 cents per gallon for his programs.) To make it more irritating, the oil companies raised our gasoline prices within days of the announcements of the oil countries' increase. While last year, when the price of oil went down, it took over three months for them to lower the price of gasoline to us, the customers. The oil companies are doing it to us again. As a gray-haired taxpayer, I remember before the ``oil crisis'' in the mid-70s, gasoline cost 20 cents per gallon, taxes were 5 cents per gallon, federal, state and local; and a barrel $1. In many ways the good old days were good. - Charles Dusheck Chatsworth Paying through the hose Re ``High gas prices and what an excuse'': Isn't it a surprise that on the heels of state regulations that require the petroleum companies to replace underground old storage tanks, that an astronomical gas price must be paid by all of us? The replacement costs for these new tanks would have been absorbed over the past 10 years with a slight increase, when the first notices were handed out to the oil companies. But no, we need an excuse, a fire just in time. Why not have the ``good old'' public pay for the new tanks? As a former school principal, I have heard all sorts of excuses. This high price for gas because of the refinery fire must rank with the best excuses. - V. Frendt Sun Valley Boycott junk food junk food n. Any of various prepackaged snack foods high in calories but low in nutritional value. junk food If you want to lower gas prices, do not boycott the gas pumps. Our message will be well heard and gas prices will tumble if we boycott the food, cigarettes, drinks and junk food items. I will guarantee gas prices will drop significantly, as the profit from gas only pays the rent. Boycott the service facilities too. - Jim Frigo La Canada Oil madness A little-known sidelight side·light n. 1. A light coming from the side. 2. Nautical Either of two lights, red to port, green to starboard, shown by ships at night. 3. A piece of incidental or contrasting information. to the BP Amoco takeover of Arco is a further strengthening of the old Rockefeller Standard Oil Trust. The media noted that Exxon and Mobil had once been major Standard Oil components. Exxon started life as Esso (Eastern States Eastern States can refer to several locations:
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ). But BP didn't just buy Amoco. BP entered the U.S. market 11 years ago with its purchase of Sohio (Standard of Ohio). And American Oil has also marketed its product as Standard Indiana. So now we have Arco joining the BP fold. But Atlantic Richfield Co. used to be the Atlantic Refining Co. in Philadelphia and Richfield Oil in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . They combined around the time the Dodgers moved west. It seems that Atlantic had also been a Standard Oil affiliate prior to the breakup of the Rockefeller Trust back in 1911. The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. and ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. merged as well. They used to be one company, too - the Red and Blue networks of the National Broadcasting Company Noun 1. broadcasting company - a company that manages tv or radio stations company - an institution created to conduct business; "he only invests in large well-established companies"; "he started the company in his garage" - and had both been part of GE until GE spun them off to a newly created RCA See RCA connector and video/TV history. , and those two companies merged in 1985 (but ABC had been sold in 1946). This is madness. - Rick Roffman Van Nuys Spread it around As just one of countless Americans, I am outraged by the atrocities taking place in Eastern Europe Eastern Europe The countries of eastern Europe, especially those that were allied with the USSR in the Warsaw Pact, which was established in 1955 and dissolved in 1991. . I am also equally outraged by the slow and disorganized dis·or·gan·ize tr.v. dis·or·gan·ized, dis·or·gan·iz·ing, dis·or·gan·iz·es To destroy the organization, systematic arrangement, or unity of. relief efforts to help these displaced people. The issue of humane treatment should never have any political boundaries as they seem to do here. Doesn't anyone recognize the characteristics of the Holocaust again resurfacing? There are many enjoying lavish lifestyles throughout the world that could contribute a substantial amount, greater than many governments, without any negative economic consequences. One person that comes to mind in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. is Bill Gates (person) Bill Gates - William Henry Gates III, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975 with Paul Allen. In 1994 Gates is a billionaire, worth $9.35b and Microsoft is worth about $27b. . As a consumer of many of his products, I would have much more respect for Gates if he stepped to the forefront of this situation by personally financing an organized relief plan to help resolve the hardships of these people. Taking the initiative would reap rewards of personal accomplishment for him while most certainly exponentially increasing his business. Maybe someone might read this and agree and write too. And then the suggestion might reach Gates. Then the decision will be completely his. Sometimes a suggestion leads to greater things. - Jeff Malgren Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. To coin a phrase When my Dad used to say, ``You better get off the dime,'' though I had no idea how I got on the dime, I'd do what needed doing until I was off. Pretty simple. The other day, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, referring to airport expansion, said they were now ``off the first dime.'' Well, ain't that a fine kettle of fish kettle of fish n. pl. kettles of fish 1. A troublesomely awkward or embarrassing situation. 2. A matter to be reckoned with: . Additional dimes to get off, when we ought to be learning how not to get on. This multiple dime business has me fit to be tied. It has put the bolix on the whole shebang, and made it very catch-as-catch-can. Things should stay as is, straight from the horse's mouth Straight from the horse's mouth is an idiomatic saying which means (inter alia) "the original source." External link
- Robert K. Wilson La Crescenta Secession and renters Re Valley secession support. The voters polled must all have owned their own homes, as I have spoken to many people like me who rent, and every one of them that signed the petition said, had they known they would be giving up their rights under rent control by leaving Los Angeles, they would not have signed it. I, and many people like me, have rented the same place since rent control began and can't afford the increase that will surely come. Also, the landlords will only need a notice to make you move if you are month to month, as most people are. This seems to be a well-kept secret, and I hope the people against secession will start talking about it, because many of us can't afford to move and don't want to leave where we live now. - John Roy O'Donnell Van Nuys Closer look at TB Re ``County tops state in death by slaying'' (Briefly, April 7). Along with the report about the homicides in the county of Los Angeles, the article also states, ``The county is also the hardest hit by firearm-related deaths, tuberculosis, syphilis and low infant birth weight, the report found.'' ``The report, Status Health Status Profiles 1999, was prepared by the state Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
The people of Los Angeles County should be aware that Long Beach and Pasadena are excluded in the conclusion of the tuberculosis findings in the county. Both cities have their own health departments and, for some reason, the final tallies are not pooled together. Would the communicable disease communicable disease n. A disease that is transmitted through direct contact with an infected individual or indirectly through a vector. Also called contagious disease. situation in the county look a lot worse if Long Beach and Pasadena were included? It is time that the county supervisors appointed an oversight committee to check out the spending of tuberculosis. The most important thing on the agenda should be a ``healthy community.'' Without health, we have nothing. - Mort Diamond Canoga Park No easy cure During my childhood in the early '60s, I remember standing in a long line, with my anxious and concerned parents, to take the Sabine oral vaccine to prevent the crippling childhood disease infantile paralysis infantile paralysis: see poliomyelitis. polio. Today, we seem to be having a more difficult time eliminating another crippling disease, another form of infantile paralysis, bilingual education. It is unfortunate, that although we developed a cure to the crippling disease of bilingual education, Proposition 227, children are still being infected. - Steve Gabel North Hills Do they need guns? With all the new gun laws, and the drastic reduction in crime due to these laws (Brady, etc.) why are the probation officers crying to carry guns? What is the threat to them? According to liberal data, the Brady law and all the other assault gun laws are a huge success; therefore the probation officers do not need to carry a gun. Putting guns in the hands of the probation officers will only cause more problems. Recently, off-duty police playing baseball pulled out a gun during a little melee at the old ballpark. Police should not have the right to carry concealed weapons off-duty. I hear the police favor anti-gun laws, and again the success of all the gun laws should prevent the police from even having a gun. They do not need to carry a weapon now. We just need more gun laws. Probation officers begging to arm themselves is not another admittance Admittance The ratio of the current to the voltage in an alternating-current circuit. In terms of complex current I and voltage V, the admittance of a circuit is given by Eq. (1), and is related to the impedance of the circuit Z by Eq. (2). that gun laws do not work, is it? - Leo Leo, in astronomy Leo [Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Vaughn Santa Clarita CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Drawn by low prices in contrast to higher costs elsewhere, drivers swarm a Van Nuys gas station. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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