PUBLIC FORUM.

No major meltdown

Re ``Santa Susana meltdown released massive radiation'' (Oct. 6):

I have been a practicing nuclear engineer for almost 50 years, and I worked for Atomics International at Santa Susana from 1962 to 1965. Your recent article gave a grossly inaccurate impression by its scary headline and prominence given to the misinformation from the anti-nuclear activists and their faulty report. The essentially correct statements from Boeing are buried at the end of the article.

In the accident, the steel cladding of 13 of 43 fuel elements melted and released the fuel slugs to the bottom of the core. Some radiation from the fuel was released to the coolant but there was not a major meltdown of the fuel as implied. Any iodine that was released would have been retained in the sodium coolant. Most of the radioactive material remained in the fuel. The most likely health effects were zero. Boeing got it right.

-- Abe Weitzberg

Woodland Hills

Saving face

Re ``Santa Susana cover-up'' (Our Opinions, Oct. 9):

Is saving face more important than saving lives? It is ridiculous that it has taken this long to start uncovering the truth. Is the government really that perverse that they do not want to figure out how large the problem is so they can begin to try to solve it?

Isn't it possible that if they do the proper research, they may have answers to the questions that these innocent, possible victims of a horrible cover-up need? If they know what the repercussions of this contamination are, they may be able to help those people who have been affected by it.

-- Rebecca Orbison

Burbank

Mayoral expedition

Re ``Early for '08 Olympics'' (Oct. 10):

Now that our mayor is in the midst of his Far East expedition, it prompts the question: Who is running the city? This, of course, is the same question that has been asked since the day he took office.

-- Dick Bank

Los Angeles 

How does it feel?

Re ``LAUSD won't let mayor be part of hiring process'' (Oct. 6):

The L.A. school board should rightfully snub Antonio Villaraigosa with respect to choosing the new superintendent. After all, it was Villaraigosa who fired the first salvo by excluding the local voters from the process. He is only getting a dose of his own elixir. How does it feel being left out the process, Mayor?

-- Sam Chaidez

Mission Hills

Saving trees

Mayor Villaraigosa is leading the crusade to plant a million trees throughout Los Angeles County. It's more important to save the existing trees and tree groves and other native plants. Save Oak Savanna is fighting a developer in Mulholland Scenic Corridor to retain the last remaining natural oak grove in Woodland Hills. In another area, a developer bulldozed a hiking trail to a streambed canyon at the end of Topanga Canyon and the 118 Freeway. Trees are being bulldozed all over Los Angeles.

The mayor needs to stop letting the City Council issue permits to destroy centuries-old oak trees and other woodlands that are home to numerous species of wildlife.

-- Carla Laureen Henry

West Hills

One for everyone

Re ``Prop. 90 hammer can't fine-tune law'' (Their Opinions, Oct. 5):

Defending property rights is a libertarian issue, which makes it an American issue. It became everyone's issue last June when the Supreme Court gave eminent-domain abuse the green light. Our state Legislature has not responded to prevent continued injustice. What are they waiting for? Were they giving us a chance at a feel-good moment at the polls by letting us do their job for them?

I signed a petition. That one didn't make it. Prop. 90 did. If you don't want me to vote ``Yes,'' then tell Sacramento to fix the problem and make the ballot arguments academic. Last month, they passed a law for the benefit of one man, Antonio Villaraigosa. Now how about one for everybody?

-- Edward Bowers

Sherman Oaks

Prop. 13 defended

The Daily News Oct. 6 editorial, ``End of the rip-off,'' suggests that the flawed way funding for community colleges was set up was determined by Proposition 13. It did no such thing -- not even close.

All Proposition 13 said was, ``The one percent tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties.'' Note the words ``according to law,'' which refer to existing law. The state Legislature has always had ultimate control over the distribution of the property tax.

Although the editorial was well-intentioned, it perpetuates one of a number of myths about Prop. 13, with which we at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association contend on a daily basis.

-- Kris Vosburgh

Executive director

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

Good for the gander 

Re ``Foley flap consensus needed'' (Their Opinions, Oct. 9):

Rich Lowry claims that ``... much of the Democratic outrage over Foley is opportunistic ...'' Sure, Rich. Let's make the Democrats wrong for doing that and, while you're on your hypocritical high horse, point out how the Republicans were models of restraint and not opportunistic when they went bananas and impeached Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.

-- Richard McCurdy

Burbank

Missing detail

Re ``Classes bursting at the seams'' (Oct. 9):

The ``elephant-in-the-room'' detail missing from this article is that there is a very large number of illegal immigrants and children of illegal immigrants within the LAUSD whose population is allowed to grow, unchecked. The mayor and the school board are not responsible for this situation, but they refuse to even acknowledge that a very large percentage of students that LAUSD must educate comes from families that are not paying the taxes needed to build these new schools.

Why is honesty in even talking about this situation dismissed as racism? LAUSD will never be ``fixed'' until the causes of its brokenness can be openly discussed.

-- Karen Morgenstern

Northridge

What about Tillman?

Re ``Cardenas responds'' (Your Opinions, Oct. 10):

Tony Cardenas may be responsive to Van Nuys Airport noise, but at a neighborhood council meeting I attended where he was present for a question-and-answer session, he'd never heard of the Tillman Plant, and wasn't interested enough to find anything out about the facility on Woodley Avenue. Only the neighbors who live close by know of the sewer odor which frequently emanates from the Tillman Plant. It is discouraging to call and complain when nothing will ever be done to contain these odors.

-- Judy LeGrande

Van Nuys

Columbus Day?

Where have you gone, Christopher Columbus Day? A nation no longer celebrates you. New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington seem to be the last major cities that give students and workers a day off to remember the founder of our country. When I was a schoolteacher in the LAUSD for three years, Columbus was not celebrated; he was vilified as a murderer by most teachers.

Columbus is on figurative and historical life support. Colleges, if the day off is given, call it ``Fall Holiday.'' And while in Berkeley last March, I couldn't help but stare incredulously at a parking meter which denoted Columbus Day as ``Indigenous People's Day.'' Only in Berkeley? Well, maybe not anymore.

-- Ari Kaufman

Marina del Rey