PUBLIC FORUM STUDENT DEBT.Re ``Most grads' debt high'' (June 1): I am a college student who is receiving loans, so I must disagree with Verb 1. disagree with - not be very easily digestible; "Spicy food disagrees with some people" hurt - give trouble or pain to; "This exercise will hurt your back" statements made. A computer is not a luxury item; it is a requirement. A cell phone is not a luxury either; it is a safety issue. Loan amounts are determined by financial need. If a student's income is considered low, then that individual is awarded a grant. So that might explain why some students have lower loan debt - not grade point average or maturity. Obviously, if a student can get grants, they will have either low loan debt or not need a loan at all. - Caroline Malloy Reseda Excellent example Re ``Alarcon's flurry of activity raises speculation'' (June 2): The statement made by Sen. Richard Alarcon, ``The one thing I really don't like about Sacramento is the partisanship,'' is an excellent example of why most politicians of either party are considered self-serving hypocrites by the electorate. - Everett P. Harrington Glendale Back-room silence The June 1 letter by Susan Mueller concerning the moving of the elephant from the L.A. Zoo to another city was on the mark. The appeals to our mayor to prevent the move were this animal's last hope and one could conclude that these pleas never made it to the back room at City Hall since the elephant vanished faster than honor and integrity in elected officials. Lets put it in such a way that the mayor can understand: What if, after all these years, you were separated from Eli Broad Eli Broad (born June 6, 1933) a native of Detroit, Michigan is a Jewish American billionaire who lives in Los Angeles, California. His last name is pronounced as rhyming with road. Broad is well known for his philanthropy and extensive art collection. , the City Council, the so-called union leaders and the lobbyists that feed on the city like hyenas on a fallen carcass carcass, carcase 1. the body of an animal killed for meat. The head, the legs below the knees and hocks, the tail, the skin and most of the viscera are removed. The kidneys are left in and in most instances the body is split down the middle through the sternum and the vertebral - wouldn't you be traumatized? (I mean no insult or disrespect to hyenas.) - Michael Gilchrist Lancaster Cops pay their way I received a $100 ticket for a seat-belt violation. Add $221 for assessments, $29 court fees for traffic school, and $25 to the traffic school. This $100 ticket cost me $375, which went into the city's coffers. Hire more cops - they pay their way. Make cuts in other departments and get rid of featherbedding featherbedding Labour union practices that require the employer to pay for the performance of unnecessary work or to employ workers who are not needed. Featherbedding provisions in labour contracts may result from the continuation of work rules that were once efficient but . - Eric Smith Notable people named Eric Smith have included:
Woodland Hills Changing Prop. 13 We need to change Prop. 13 now. There needs to be a break in the tax for those of us over 65 who have lived in our homes for 10 years or more. I have lived in my house since August 1988 and plan to live here for the rest of my life. I pay $2,900 per year in real estate taxes. My neighbors who have been here since before 1977 pay only $600. That is a big difference. I don't want to raise theirs, but there should be some help for us long-term homeowners over 65. How about an amendment that allows for age and longevity? - Betty Jenkins Chatsworth He gets it As both a 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. Community Redevelopment Agency commissioner and member of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art, I read Kimit Muston's ``The bird's OK, but what's with the chair?'' (Viewpoint, June 1) regarding the new piece of sculpture at NoHo with considerable joy and delight. It is not often that journalists so fully grasp one of the important purposes of public art: to engage the public in thinking about what is art. I understand, as I'm sure he does, that we could have chosen a general riding on a horse, or a movie director speaking through a megaphone, either of which would have ceased to be noticed almost as quickly as they were installed. Instead, a piece of art was chosen which requires some thinking. Your columnist proves that it has succeeded in doing that. - Doug Ring Douglas Thomas Ring (October 14, 1918—June 23, 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played in 13 Tests from 1948 to 1953. He was born in Hobart. He played schoolboy cricket in Melbourne and in the 1935/36 season played the final matches of the season with the first Los Angeles Strategic golf plan Re ``Use of city workers is a bad bet, say critics'' (June 1): Golfers have little problem paying the negligible additional increment To add a number to another number. Incrementing a counter means adding 1 to its current value. necessary to protect the dignity of the city's work force. It's the inefficient management structure, unintelligible UNINTELLIGIBLE. That which cannot be understood. 2. When a law, a contract, or will, is unintelligible, it has no effect whatever. Vide Construction, and the authorities there referred to. accounting practices, Byzantine purchasing system, antiquated maintenance/repair program, failed project management, and bureaucratic bu·reau·crat n. 1. An official of a bureaucracy. 2. An official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure. bu incomprehensibility that they have difficulty stomaching. Councilman Nick Pacheco Lauro "Nick" Pacheco, Jr. is an American attorney, politician, and a member of the Democratic Party. Pacheco served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council (1999-2003). and the 10 council members who supported his Budget and Finance Committee's alternative plan for golf got it right. Spinning off golf into a semiautonomous sem·i·au·ton·o·mous adj. 1. Partially self-governing. 2. Having the powers of self-government within a larger organization or structure. sem entity that pays for itself without a city subsidy and without siphoning money to other programs is the only way we won't have to confront this situation again. The sooner the city can put together a strategic plan to operate its golf program as some form of enterprise fund, the sooner golfers can begin enjoying more professionally managed courses, and the city can begin realizing increased revenues. - Craig Kessler Executive director Public Links Golf Association of Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Deadly crossings Re ``Elevating the mass-transit argument'' (Their Opinions, May 30): Gerald Plessner is absolutely correct when he says that a standard rail, elevated, with a standard operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. for all trains, each line connected so that you have have through trains and equipment interchange, is the only viable solution. Elevated rail does not block automobile traffic and no deadly accidents at grade crossings as there are no grade crossings. Also no pedestrians walking on the tracks. It may be an old-fashioned system but it works and works very well. Much better than the proposed busways Busways is a company that operates bus services in the western suburbs of Sydney, Central Coast and North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Blacktown services that are not compatible with anything but will have deadly grade crossings. - Raiford L. Langford Sherman Oaks Just like fungus Re ``Easy money'' by Jack McMahon John Joseph (Jack) McMahon (born December 3 1928 – died June 11 1989) was a professional basketball player and coach. A 6'1" guard from St. John's University, McMahon was selected by the Rochester Royals in the 1952 NBA Draft. (Your Opinions, May 27): I hear you, Jack. I have scum trashing my street. They pull up in their shiny black cars, stuff their faces with fast food and beer and when they're finished, out the window it goes. I confronted the scum. This is what happened: I was called every name in the book, threatened and then spit on. The scum drove away, came back around and threw their trash on my front lawn. Scummy people are like fungus. No brains or purpose in life, hard to get rid of, but persistence prevails. - Joanne Albert North Hollywood Tax cuts skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data George Bush's tax cuts really are skewed to the wealthy. Consider two hypothetical taxpayers, a worker earning $40,000 a year and an executive getting $1 million a year. Suppose the worker receives $1,000 in overtime pay and the executive receives $1,000 in stock dividends. The federal tax on the worker's additional income will be $300 (15 percent income tax, 7.5 percent employee Social Security tax, 7.5 percent employer Social Security tax) while the tax on the executive's $1,000 will only be $150 thanks to the new 15 percent rate on dividends. It's as simple as that: The well-off will now pay a smaller percentage of their additional income in taxes than will the middle class. - Stephen Walton Lancaster Bad financial practice Our leaders have run amok Amok (ā`mŏk), in the Bible, post-Exilic Jewish family. and placed our country in a state of financial crisis. Wall Street didn't just crash over 9-11 - it was set to go like dominoes. Our country is running on confidence in our economy. This is bad financial practice - it should be based on sound finances. Our elected officials need to have envelopes filled with the amount of money they are budgeting for yearly expenses. This would teach them how to spend without overspending. Borrowing from tomorrow is foolish. Our representatives need to take Economics 101 and start paying off debt, not taking on more. If we can't manage our own country, how can we manage anyone else's. - Chris Rios Pacoima |
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