PUBLIC FORUM : THANKS FOR MOTHER'S MESSAGE OF LOSS, HOPE.First of all I would like to thank the Daily News for printing the story by Chris Hester (``My son, my hero,'' April 5). This is a story that I'm sure has hit home with too many families. I too have a brother and a sister-in-law who serve the people of our city. Remember, these officers that are on the front line are not pulling down six-figure salaries. They are making a salary that they can get by on and most of the time it's not for the money but like Chris Hester stated, they are trying to make a difference in the communities that they live in or grew up in. Every parent that has a teen-age son or daughter should ask them to read the letter by Chris. I'm sure this would make a difference and if it helps send one police officer or firefighter home safe then, Chris Hester, you have accomplished what you wanted to, and I thank you for that. - Randolph Kirk Sylmar Thank you, Chris Hester, for the painful insight contained in the writing of ``My son, my hero.'' And so eloquently done. Godspeed on your journey. - Ed Allman Burbank Keep Explorers safe Re Explorer program
The Explorer program was the United States's first successful attempt to launch an artificial satellite. under fire, your article, ``LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. sex scandal'' (Daily News, April 8). I regret to hear about the problems with the LAPD Explorer program. My son, who is now in the medical field, was an Explorer for LAPD and was awarded a $500 scholarship and the Explorer of the Year Award in 1987 by the program. I did not trust everybody with my son, but I trusted the LAPD officers because the youngsters were heavily supervised by female and male officers. Discipline was strict but not harmful. I witnessed this at the events where I sometimes served as a chaperon chap·er·on or chap·er·one n. 1. A person, especially an older or married woman, who accompanies a young unmarried woman in public. 2. An older person who attends and supervises a social gathering for young people. and based on reports that my son gave to me. It is hoped that Chief Bernard C. Parks Bernard Parks (born December 7, 1943 in Beaumont, Texas) is a member of the Los Angeles City Council, representing the 8th District in South Los Angeles and former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Parks attended Los Angeles City College, received his B.S. and the community will look at the positive things that the program has done for teen-agers and weed out the corrupt officers who are there to cause the youngsters harm. - Barbara Hobbs El Segundo El Segundo (ĕl sēgŭn`dō), industrial city (1990 pop. 15,223), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1917. Its products include navigation and computer systems, aircraft parts, office machines, telephone apparatus, and Laughs appreciated What a fun start to my day! Hal Dresner's piece (Opinions, April 7) on insurance coverage for the 21st century was thunderously funny, and I thank you for some wonderful laughs. I particularly enjoyed ``name your own calamity'' bit. Especially, ``Baywatch comes back'' and ``Rupert Murdoch buys your Little League team.'' Thanks again for the relief from so much tedium. I also thank the Daily News for its contribution to a fun morning. Still smiling, I remain. - Peter Kirby Peter Kirby (born December 17, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec) was a Canadian bobsledder who competed in the mid-1960s. He won a gold medal in the four-man event at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. Granada Hills Employees deserve more Just a few months ago, Gov. Pete Wilson For others named Pete Wilson, see . Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American Republican politician from California. Wilson served as the thirty-sixth Governor of California (1991–1999), the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that took a $17,000 pay raise that put his salary at the highest for any governor in the nation. It is absolutely outrageous that he accept another pay raise based on recommendations from his own appointees, while the real state workers continue to get nothing. The governor's own salary survey proves that salaries for many state employees lag 25 percent behind their counterparts in the private sector, the university system and many other public agencies in California. Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. is sponsoring Assembly Bill 2462, which if passed, will provide for a 6 percent cost of living adjustment for all state employees. Taxpayers and voters should support our state employees and look forward to Wilson leaving office. - Stephen D. Beck West Hills Bill out of bounds I am almost certain that this is an effort in futility, but I have to express my disbelief and dissatisfaction in some manner. I don't want to just pay my bill and quietly accept what seems to me as gross mismanagement mis·man·age tr.v. mis·man·aged, mis·man·ag·ing, mis·man·ag·es To manage badly or carelessly. mis·man  age·ment n. and public gouging Gouging can be:
I am enclosing a copy of my March 13, 1998, municipal services This article or section deals primarily with the United Kingdom and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. bill. My total water usage is listed at 1,400 cubic feet and billed at $23.21. My sewer service is listed at 1,900 and billed at $42.94. Does this make sense? And, then to compound the insult, the sewer service charge rate has more than doubled in one year. In light of the recent increase in the DWP DWP Department of Work and Pensions (UK) DWP Drinking Water Program DWP Dynamic Weapon Pricing (gamin, Counter-Strike: Source) DWP Department of Water & Power DWP Drinking Water Protection payout for early retirement, and the excessively high upper-management payroll, is it any wonder that I question why my bill looks a little strange? - Doug Healy Chatsworth Congressional pork With reference to the transportation bill recently negotiated in Congress: How do the proponents of a balanced budget Balanced budget A budget in which the income equals expenditure. See: budget. balanced budget A budget in which the expenditures incurred during a given period are matched by revenues. expect to ever get the job done when the ``good old boys'' keep inserting pork into a bill? Those billions of dollars for special interest projects to benefit a few taxpayers at the expense of a great number of people should never be allowed by Congress. It seems to be ``never were so many screwed by so few.'' - Freddie Steese Lancaster Don't blame Israel Poor Susan Schwartz (``Palestinian plight,'' Public Forum, April 4) can't seem to stomach the fact that modern Israel is celebrating birthday No. 50. And naturally, Israel is responsible for the Palestinians' plight. If Arab oil producers invested one drop of oil per barrel in their ``Palestinian brothers,'' these would be among the most prosperous in the region. Perhaps the Arab states, which pay so much lip service lip service n. Verbal expression of agreement or allegiance, unsupported by real conviction or action; hypocritical respect: to the Palestinian cause, know something that Schwartz, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. or don't wish to know. Why did King Hussein Noun 1. King Hussein - king of Jordan credited with creating stability at home and seeking peace with Israel (1935-1999) ibn Talal Hussein, Husain, Husayn, Hussein kick them out of Jordan? Why did the oil kingdoms kick out the Palestinian workers? Here are people who dance in the streets when their terrorists blow up Israeli women and children but go bonkers when Israel's Mossad dispatches them into the loving arms of Allah? Why should Israel do anything for people who pray every night for Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (born April 28, 1937, Tikrit, Iraq—died Dec. 30, 2006, Baghdad) President of Iraq (1979–2003). He joined the Ba'th Party in 1957. Following participation in a failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres. to bomb Tel Aviv Tel Aviv (tĕl əvēv`), city (1994 pop. 355,200), W central Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea. Oficially named Tel Aviv–Jaffa, it is Israel's commercial, financial, communications, and cultural center and the core of its largest ? - Paul Wasserman Northridge Turn off that TV Re ``Ratings rise as TV gets seamier,'' (Daily News, April 6). What happened to our family morals? Is money the only object in our lives? We use the TV as a baby sitter, not monitoring what our children watch. And then we wonder where they get the idea to murder each other or have seIx in their teens. The public must stand up to this abuse. Avoid buying products advertised on these shows. Turn off the TV. Spend time with family members. Be good examples by not watching the seamy seam·y adj. seam·i·er, seam·i·est 1. Sordid; base: "seamy tales of aberrant sexual practices, messy divorces, drug addiction, mental instability, and suicide attempts" shows. Our lives are not to be run by those producers who only want our money. - Frances Flower Chatsworth Perils of privatization privatization: see nationalization. privatization Transfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned The privatization of Social Security is a dangerous plot. It is predicated on the foolhardy fool·har·dy adj. fool·har·di·er, fool·har·di·est Unwisely bold or venturesome; rash. See Synonyms at reckless. [Middle English folhardi, from Old French fol hardi : hope that stock prices will continue rising. Like any other commodity, stocks increase in price when there is an increase in the number of purchasers, so putting Social Security funds in private hands for investments will, in the short term, run prices up even higher, thus enhancing brokers' commissions and the values of CEOs' stock options. In the long term, stock values are based not on demand for shares, but on the earnings of the firms involved. Earnings are doing well at present, but they are always at the mercy of the business cycle. - Fred Hoffman 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. City attorney responds Re: ``Down the drain?'' (Daily News, April 6): The recent spate of interest in an audit of the city's wastewater program activities seems inappropriately focused on a single recommendation made by this office in 1993 while we were litigating a $100 million lawsuit involving many of the cities and agencies that had their wastewater treated by the city and then refused to pay their bills. As the city administrative officer, chief legislative analyst and City Council are aware, the decision to file the lawsuit in the early '90s against these cities and agencies was made with full knowledge and urging by the council in order to recover the vast sums of money owed to the city by the contract agencies. As city attorney, it was my responsibility to conduct that litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. in such a manner that the city would recover what it was owed. The recommendation I made in 1993 was good for the city and its taxpayers then, and, under those circumstances, I Iwould make that recommendation again. However, the ultimate decision for the direction of the litigation was clearly with the City Council. Our office recommendations are just that; sometimes they are accepted and sometimes they are not. The council makes those decisions. This cannot be better exemplified than by the fact that over three years ago, the City Council removed the wastewater matter from a very successful litigation track and installed its own negotiator, Christopher O'Donnell, then a member of the Chief Legislative Analyst's Office, to negotiate rather than litigate the matter. In essence, the attorneys who were very aggressively and tactically bringing this litigation to a successful close were removed from the matter completely, while negotiations, initially without participants from my office, were conducted. Since that time, the city has been fully able to complete the audit, and the question is, Why hasn't it been done? The City Attorney's Office does not have the power to stop or initiate an audit. The mayor and the council do, and there is nothing stopping them from getting on with it. - James K. Hahn City Attorney Los Angeles CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Chris Hester of Moorpark holds a picture of her slain son, LAPD Officer Steven Gajda. Myung J. Chun/Daily News |
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