PUBLIC FORUM MEASURE A.

Do you remember the lottery money to give the schools new funds to enhance education? Their budget was immediately cut the amount of the increase and then spent on nonschool budget items. Do you recall the cigarette tax? If you do, you are the only one because all the cities and counties don't seem to know where all that money went.

Now we're to believe the 0.5 percent tax will give us more police. Nonsense. That has been the mantra out of downtown for years, but we end up with the same small force. This tax will just be another ``lockbox'' with every politician having the combination. I'd say to our ``leaders'' what Mr. Welch once said to Sen. McCarthy: ``Have you no shame?''

- Bob Driscoll

Woodland Hills

Proposition 64

The Oct. 21 editorial (Oct. 21) recommending a yes vote on Proposition 64 supports a ballot measure that throws out a good law to punish a few bad lawyers. Since 1933, California's Unfair Business Competition Law has been used by government prosecutors and public-interest groups to punish polluters, stop misleading advertising, prevent religious discrimination and put a stop to unscrupulous financing schemes.

Now a group of pro-business interests, many of whom have been sued under the law, have mounted a multimillion-dollar campaign to gut the law, for no good reason. Proposition 64 is not about lawyers, it's about limiting enforcement of laws that protect public health, the environment, seniors and consumers.

- Linda Fermoyle Rice

Woodland Hills

Follow the money

Follow the money. If embryonic stem cell research is such a ``sure thing'' why are the powers that be demanding that my dollars be used? Consider the billions of dollars to be made from cures for the many diseases purported to be found in using the stem cells of embryos. Why isn't private money flowing into the coffers of the 20 Nobel scientists?

According to my research, embryonic stem cells cause tumors and it has been found that adult stem cells are better suited for cures. Private companies are funding adult stem cell research. The oversight board of Proposition 71 will answer to no one and has a financial interest in perpetuating taxpayer funding.

- Carol Milton

Woodland Hills

Financial questions

Proposition 71 not only raises serious ethical questions, but also financial ones. The taxpayers of California are asked to finance the extensive research necessary to produce potential cures for various diseases. The taxpayers of California will have to pay outrageous prices for those same drugs when and if they are finally ready to try them on humans.

We will be barred from buying those same drugs at cheaper prices from other countries. Sounds to me like the drug companies have a good thing going in California.

- Edith Hoffmann

Northridge

Scientific necessity

Shame on Chris Weinkopf's horribly opinionated Viewpoint column regarding the governor's support of stem-cell research. A new low indeed. Stem-cell research is about saving lives and you have the nerve to demean its importance by inferring the researchers are offering unrealistic promises.

Not to continue research for the possibility of cures of many diseases, crippling mentally and physically, would not only be immoral, but be irresponsible and outrageous in this time of scientific necessity. And shame on the Daily News for taking a stand against Proposition 71.

- Susan Cashman

West Hills

Equal representation

Re ``Electoral College'' (Your Opinions, Oct. 26):

The Electoral College is not fair for states such as California. How could this be the intent of the forefathers in bringing a balance to representation based on area and state? Perhaps, we can remedy this problem by not having a threshold of electoral votes needed for a win and opening all polling places across the country at the same time and closing them at the same time. This would help to make the voting truer to the intent.

The real question is, How well are all of the voters being represented in the election? The states already have equal representation in the Senate regardless of the size of their population.

- Samuel Katagi

Calabasas

Proposition 66

In my opinion, anybody who has been caught and punished for two crimes, and then is stupid enough to commit a third, no matter how small, is too stupid to be allowed to run free with decent people.

- Rudi Wallasch

La Crescenta

Expensive shortcut 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is rushing to spend $300 million of our taxpayer dollars on the Orange Line Busway - $300 million to save us five minutes on a ride from North Hollywood to Woodland Hills.

The MTA justifies the cost by claiming the new busway will attract 4,000 new riders. I wonder how many residents in Lake Balboa, (approximately halfway) will park their cars and pay to ride the bus to save 2 1/2 minutes?

- Ron Tremain

Valley Glen

Political candidate

Re ``April 18 news video shows explosives at Al-Qaqaa'' (Oct. 29):

Even after the airing of a date-stamped video showing the post-invasion presence of (now missing) tons of explosives, Republican talking heads chant they were gone prior to the invasion. Interesting. Nothing is there, when you can see that, in fact, it was; but, invisible, nonexistent WMD, etc. triggers a fiasco.

Cue-card-prompted Bush snorts, ``Kerry will say anything. A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief.'' There's a shoe that really fits. And Bush is wearing it in his mouth.

- Bill Pratt

Northridge

There you are

This is, like it or not, a post-9-11 world. Potential crises, the avoidance of and the reaction to, are reality. Thus, we must put the litmus test to the mettle of our candidates. This test measures not what they might do, what they could do, but what they've shown us they've done in their hour of crisis.

What is your snapshot image of George Bush in the aftermath of 9-11? What is your snapshot image of John Kerry in the aftermath of his return from Vietnam? There they are. And there you are. Now, go vote.

- Roger Olsen

Burbank

Better than Saddam

Re ``Iraqi deaths during war at 100,000?'' (Oct. 29):

``A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many as 100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in the 18 months after the U.S. invasion than would be expected based on the death rate before the war.''

So 100,000 Iraqis are dead. Bush did it better than Saddam. The world will learn the truth and God help us after that. What a shame.

- Victoria Iannone

West Hills

Early symptoms

It is more in sorrow than in anger that I contemplate the Daily News' endorsement of John Kerry for president. The early symptoms of a political shift in the Daily News came with the hiring of Patrick O'Connor, the Bush-bashing editorial cartoonist (who does not even draw very well). From there my daily paper has gone all the way to recommending the removal of the commander in chief in time of war.

- Gary Brandner

Northridge