PUBLIC FORUM.

Don't encourage them

Re ``Mayor resurrects office to assist immigrants regardless of status'' (May 24):

As I understand it, this program (Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs) is being revived because it is ``needed to inform immigrants about city laws and how City Hall works.'' Please explain the law that, if these people are here illegally, they have already broken.

And please, don't encourage them by telling them that there is a chance that they, like other illegals, might get good-paying jobs with our Department of Water and Power. Instead, close this office being funded by federal (that's us) money, and ask that it be spent on controlling our borders.

-- Anita Work

Sylmar

Start with mayor

Re ``Mayor resurrects office to assist immigrants regardless of status'' (May 24):

We vote in a mayor whose only goal, it seems, is to protect the illegal population with funding from the legal citizens. Our mayor is pressing to resurrect the Office of Immigrant Affairs to assist new illegal arrivals to L.A. If they are not here legally, the office should not be available to them.

What is our mayor doing for the legal citizen? I'm tired of seeing him abuse his office to turn our city into a mess. He participates, aids and encourages illegals' groups and gatherings. Why isn't he working on citizens' needs? I think it's time to get rid of all these bad influences -- let's start with our mayor.

-- Myra Lazar

Woodland Hills

Exit exams are back

Re ``Court reinstates exit exams'' (May 25):

At last, some sanity from the California Supreme Court to reinstate the exit exams. Some disappointed students, no doubt, who will not be eligible to graduate and receive a diploma, which they did not deserve in the first place.

These exams can be taken again and they do not appear to be that difficult. We should not be giving a pass to students who do not make the grade for fear of hurting their self-esteem. This only undermines their competitiveness in the workplace and gives a feeling of entitlement that they cannot live up to.

-- Pamela Franklin

Granada Hills

Employment verifying

Re ``Senate OKs creation of vast employment verification system'' (May 24):

The Senate voted Tuesday to create a system which would require employers to send the government information on newly hired employees. The government would then notify the employer if the employee is not authorized to work in the U.S. and require that he be fired. Wonderful! A productively employed illegal alien becomes an unemployed illegal alien whose whereabouts will be unknown. Does he now go on welfare, become a beggar or a thief?

Instead of notifying the employer about his illegal worker, why not notify the INS? The INS can then find him and do whatever is legally required. No, I don't support deportation or making someone a felon for a phony crime. I just don't like stupid laws.

-- Ernst F. Ghermann

Winnetka

A Democratic thing

Re ``Capturing the center'' (Editorial endorsement, May 24):

So the Daily News is anti-Angelides because the treasurer is ``unapologetically'' a Democrat. Funny, we Democrats consider that a plus.

-- Damian Carroll

Van Nuys

Evil ruler into clown

Re ``Trial turns evil ruler into clown'' (Their Opinions, May 24):

Richard Cohen wants to know why the crimes of Saddam Hussein did not figure into the thinking of those condemning the war in Iraq as morally wrong. His reference to Darfur answers his own question.

America is not the world's police force, using some trumped-up justification to invade a country of prejudiced choice. What gives us that right? It's a big world out there with numerous murderous dictators practicing crimes based on discrimination, including genocide. It appears that Bush and his warlords thought they had a pushover in Iraq and a good source of oil.

-- David Pine

Northridge

Rent control

Re ``Communism, capitalism meet in L.A.'' (Viewpoint, May 21):

Walter Moore, real estate broker and attorney, writes: ``Tying up the old (rent-controlled apartment) units guarantees the rents for all the new units will be much higher than otherwise ... '' Really! So if rent controls are eliminated, it will result in the decline of currently astronomical rents on newer apartments to a more ``reasonable'' level?

I rather think the opposite: Eliminate rent controls in the city and watch all rents skyrocket. To reduce inflated home prices, does Moore also favor the elimination of the 1978 rent-control equivalent for California homeowners, Proposition 13?

-- Valerie Yaros

Studio City

Yard sales

Re ``What a deal'' (Valley News, May 24):

I'd like to remind your staff writer and Barbara Morse and Mark Caplan, along with everyone else who does the same thing, that there is a responsibility not to violate the city's municipal codes. These violations are a misdemeanor offense punishable by a fine of $1,000 per offense and/or six months in jail. Posting of signs on public utility poles, trees, etc., LAMC 28.04(a) and Obstructions of Sidewalks & Streets, LAMC 56.08 (a).

It would have been a better story if Mark Kellam would have taken down the ``Huge Yard Sale'' sign and removed the nails or staples or tacks.

-- Marilyn White-Sedel

Studio City

His word

Re ``Duh! Vinci?'' (Your Opinions, May 23):

Despite expressed concern about ``facts,'' Dick Denne's diatribe is short on them. He says that ``every word found in written form was written down many centuries after the so-called fact.'' In fact, though, we have parts of the Gospels from 125 A.D. and full copies from about 200 A.D. -- hardly ``many centuries'' later.

Furthermore, those of us foolish enough to trust a text which has more than 300 fulfilled prophecies (with none missed) and ignorant enough to believe in God, know that such a God could see to it that reliable copies of his word are passed down through the ages.

-- Gregg Frazer

Castaic

Reject the message

Re ``Duh! Vinci?'' (Your Opinions, May 23):

Some research on "fact" is in order. The only disclaimer Dick Denne is entitled to is that there are no complete original Gospel manuscripts. When it comes to the writings from antiquity, that is common and not unique to Scripture. What is unique to the New Testament is that there are 24,000 manuscript copies in existence.

The time gap from the original to the first copy is less than 100 years, not centuries, as you stated. Secular writing such as Homer's ``Iliad'' has a 1,000-year gap from his writing and the first preserved copy. You don't have to believe what Scripture says -- God gave you that free choice -- but you cannot state as fact that Gospels are fiction, only that you personally refuse to believe and reject the message, as I do the Gnostic writings.

-- Lisa Hahn

Newhall

Above board

How can it be that in other parts of the U.S. where there are very few illegal immigrants, ditches still get dug, houses reroofed, hotel rooms cleaned and lawns mowed?

I checked with my relatives in the upper Midwest to see if it cost 40 bucks an hour to get these services done, and guess what -- the pay scale back there is about the same as it is here. At least it is for hiring American citizens and paying them ``above the table.''

-- Eric Olson 

Chatsworth

Nuclear commitment

The president is pushing for construction of nuclear power plants. The general reaction has been ``not in my backyard.'' I have a suggestion that would aid his approval rating and show that he's not in fact all oil: build one at the Crawford Ranch.

-- Hal Rothberg

Calabasas