PUBLIC FORUM BONUSES?

Re "Bonuses swell pay for police, firefighters" (March 21):

I am always amazed when City Council members make it sound that police and fire uniform/equipment allowances are some kind of a "vacation bonus." Interesting how this seems to happen at the same time police labor contract negotiations are beginning.

Police officer uniform pants are $90, shirts $50 and boots can run up to $200. That's not counting leather gear for their gun belts and other expense (dry cleaning, shoe polishing, ammo for practicing). This will be a great recruitment tool. While other departments give their officers up to $1,500 for a uniform allowance, we can say, "Join the LAPD, we can offer you nothing!"

- Andrew Garcia

Simi Valley

Wrong target

Re "Say anything" (Editorial, March 20):

You state: "The council ought to explore the larger cost of using overpaid Water and Power workers." For your information, Water and Power only supplies power to traffic signals; we don't maintain them. As far as overtime goes, sometimes I'm asked to work and sometimes I'm told to work, always due to problems (severe weather, earthquake, etc.) or for someone on vacation or sick. The lights don't stay on by themselves. I guess those of us who get called at 2 a.m. in the morning to come work because 10,000-plus people are without power should just say "no."

- Chuck Fowler

Van Nuys

Cut them slack

"Overtime abuse" (Editorial, March 21):

How can you be so hard on those poor overworked people at the DWP? After all, the operation of their plants is 99 percent automated so they have to fill their days with intraoffice rap, having coffee, having lunch, having siestas, visiting the water fountains and restrooms and telling jokes about those stupid taxpayers.

You can't really expect them to get all that done in regular time. Won't you please cut them some slack?

- Ralph Smathers

Newhall

Shouldn't shock

Re "Comet samples shock scientists" (March 14):

Why the shock at discovering materials made with heat in the returned sample from a comet? Wasn't the material subjected to heat upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere? Were precautions taken to keep the sample cold during that phase of the trip?

- Irving Leemon

Northridge

Keep the law

Re "What would Jesus do for immigrants?" (Viewpoint, March 19):

Many Catholics are incensed at the behavior of Cardinal Roger Mahony. Writers such as Domenico Maceri are not able to conceal his wrongdoing behind a trendy expression of "What Would Jesus Do?" Apart from the immigration issue, he is protecting the "rights" of so-called priests under the guise of separation of church and state. It is significant that the Daily News' editorial of Oct. 13, 2005 urged the obstinate cardinal to "come clean" with the public.

In the passing of Proposition 187, Maceri does not delineate that the majority of taxpayers chose to withhold benefits from undocumented workers in the entire state, not just in Los Angeles County. This strong voice came from rational people who practice the keeping of the law, not defying it.

- Kenneth Grissom

La Crescenta

High achieving

Re "Balboa's tops in LAUSD" (March 16):

While not wishing to detract from the outstanding accomplishments by Balboa Gifted Magnet School in achieving an API score of 978, please understand that 100 percent of the student body represents a "select" group of students who have tested gifted/advanced academically before they were granted acceptance into the school.

If you are ever again looking to recognize a high-performing school, visit Castlebay Lane Elementary School. Our school consists of a cross section of students found in most neighborhood schools, complete with English-language learners, resource and special education students. Our dedicated and passionate team of teachers, support staff, administrators and parents, along with our hard-working student body, generated an elite API score of 904.

- Sandy Dorfman

Porter Ranch

Bull by the horns

Re "The teen who snuffed out smoking in Calabasas" (March 17):

The city leaders of Calabasas took the bull by the horns and threw him off the cliff! A smoker is a drug addict who cares nothing about the rights or needs of others, let alone his own.

- Gary Beane

Longmont, CO

Bravo Calabasas

Re "The teen who snuffed out smoking in Calabasas" (March 17):When this city passed their sensible smoking ordinance, they gave their citizens a most precious gift - additional years of life. California has always led the nation in "the good life;" now if only the rest of the U.S. will follow before the smokers kill us all.

- Yvonne Grant

Houston, Texas

Big difference

Re "Smoking ban" (Your Opinions, March 15):

Dante Rochetti likens the Calabasas smoking ban to the Gestapo. He wonders if next the city will ban, among other things, brown eggs. There is a big difference. Rochetti can eat three dozen of them a day if he wants - it won't give me a heart attack. But secondhand smoke kills people besides the smoker.

Smokers don't have a right to pollute my life in a public place. If they try, they deserve to be arrested.

- Mike Kirwan

Venice

Our best interests

Re "Sophomoric" and "Smoking ban" (Your Opinions, March 19):

It's funny how silly individuals frequently lament the loss of a freedom to do something stupid. Society will continue to place restrictions on personal freedoms when in its best interest. We have speeding rules, drug rules, drinking rules, etc. Your right to drink stops when you get behind the wheel drunk, as it should be with smoking and my health.

As to the carcinogenic 101 Freeway, do you really think we should all walk? Cars have some of the most restrictive rules around. They require tune-ups and smog tests, annually. Where's my right to drive a smoke-belching clunker? Just don't drive behind me. So, who's being sophomoric, your irrational bad habit, or society's collective desire to increase everyone else's safety and well being?

- Peter A. Bodner

Thousand Oaks

Horsey cartoon

My late husband was fond of saying, "There are those that God uses and those that use God." In the case of David Horsey, it's obvious he is the latter. In his political cartoon "A Brief History of Religion" (Portfolio, March 20), he puts his negative spin on religion itself without noting that there are billions of people who have allowed God to use them for the good of humanity. I laughed in his face when he tried to liken the U.S. with Iran over the birth control issue. Now, all I have to say about this cartoon is Horsey manure.

- Maureen C. Wiggins

Lake View Terrace

It evolved

Re "Bigger question" (Your Opinions, March 16):

Regarding the question of evolution vs. intelligent design, Wilma Bennett asks, "If an intelligent designer created everything, what created the intelligent designer?" Well, with tongue in cheek, I'd like to respond. In a nutshell, no, Wilma, it did not just pop up out of nowhere: it evolved from a lesser intelligent designer.

- Anita Work

Sylmar

Divine revelation

Finally, I have been convinced. I have changed my mind and have decided to believe in the idea of an intelligent designer. The true benefit of my new belief is that I can now think of most politicians as planned obsolescence.

- Michael Smith

Tarzana