The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 282

08 THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1997 LOS ANGELES TIMES LETTERS TO THE TIMES LOS ANGELES TIMES EDITORIALS Ac Riordan Crosses Lines for Sake of Kids' Health His city panel seeks to help where state and county fail Enforcement of Lobbying Law Consumers Union has been battling numerous industry lobbyists in our effort to continue consumer protections for students of the state's trade schools. In the course of that' work, we discovered that laws governing the lobbying practices of former gubernatorial aides were being blurred beyond recognition. We blew the whistle in the case of former Gov. Pete Wilson staffer Kevin Sloat, whose firm began lobbying the governor's office to weaken trade school consumer protections less than six months after Sloat left his position with the governor. According to." 'Revolving Door' Law Impact Questioned" (June 22), the governor's spokesmen have characterized our actions as a major effort to discredit Sloat and "not a sincere attempt to monitor the revolving door law." We are not targeting any individual lobbyist.

We are targeting practices that are contrary to the state's laws and the intention of the state's voters, who want cleaner, less cozy relationships between lobbyists and the governor and his staff. The Fair Political Practices Commission should be monitoring the revolving door law. But that's part of the problem Politics Panel: A Fox May Be Guarding Hen House," editorial, June 25). HARRY M. SNYDER Senior Advocate West Coast Regional Office Consumers Union, San Francisco immigrant rhetoric that led to passage of Proposition 187.

The panel could counteract the rhetoric and work with community organizations in locating eligible children. Identify existing programs that have proven their ability to reach out to underserved children. A good model is California Kids, which uses public school nurses to help identify children from families with too much income to qualify for Medi-Cal but too little to afford insurance. Then, using $25 Medi-Cal and other providers of health care for poor children are under the control of state and county agencies. So what was Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan doing Tuesday when he established a city commission to improve delivery of health care to children? The answer to that question, asked by some regional officials, is: exactly the right thing.

The mayor's Commission on Healthy Kids is intended to circumvent, and Tobacco Settlement I was appalled by your June 22 editorial on the "tobacco deal." You failed to inform your readers of the obvious flaws that make this deal a great victory for the tobacco industry. The numbers aren't quite so staggering when spread over 25 years. Most of the dollars spent by the industry will be tax deductible, i.e., paid by us, not the tobacco executives. The deal is a boon for thousands of lawyers who will share the pie to the detriment of suing plaintiffs. The deal allows the industry to cripple the FDA's ability to effectively regulate nicotine.

The tobacco industry will be free to enslave emerging markets and more than make up for the "paper losses" at home. One must be naive or simple-minded to think the tobacco industry would have agreed so readily to a deal that would have effectively safeguarded consumers' interests. I urge readers to write to their representatives to disallow this biased arrangement. MAURIZIO BONACINI MD Huntington Beach After reading the June 26 letters regarding the tobacco settlement, I felt an important angle on the set-tlement was missing. The settlement and the opinions about it confirm a dangerous and increasing trend in American culture toward a complete lack of personal responsibility.

Everyone has a choice of whether to smoke or not. Cigarettes are unhealthy and addictive. When individuals choose to smoke, they are risking their health, but that is their choice. The settlement, in essence, is saying the smoker did not have a choice and that the cigarette manufacturer is responsible for a person's lack of self-control. As with alcohol, marijuana and almost all other substances, cigarettes used in moderation pose a minimal health risk.

This settlement sets a dangerous precedent. What's next? A settlement for alcoholics against brewers. We cannot continue to reward people's lack of self-control. ROBERT SOMERS Newport Beach unclog, the existing official channels. For the sad fact is that in recent years the county and state have not so much been planning for the region's future health care needs as doing damage control after health care problems escalated into crises.

For instance, as many as 700,000 children in Los Angeles As many as 700,000 children in LA. County now lack medical insurance, even though about 300,000 of them are eligible for coverage under Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for the poor. million in philanthropic contributions, it has managed to provide comprehensive health care to 10,000 who would otherwise have gone without it. Ensure that the $16 billion to $24 billion that Congress is expected to send the states for children's health care reaches those who need it most. While Washington JULIA SUITS, Minneapolis Timothy McVeigh Alexander Cockburn's June 29 Column Left Do We Bury is remarkable.

His premise is that since Timothy McVeigh was trained to kill by the Army, and all McVeigh did in Oklahoma City was simply what the Army trained him to do, how can McVeigh not now be buried in a national cemetery? Cockburn seems to believe that all people who underwent Army training are now social deviates who don't see anything wrong with bombing 168 innocent people. This is a despicable insult to those who have loyally served in America's military services. Cockburn only uses the McVeigh case as a vehicle to vent his real feelings. His problem is a hatred of the military. ROBERT H.

PENOYER Monterey Park Of all the fallacious implications in this article, blaming the actions of McVeigh on his military training is perhaps the most offensive. To equate all the fine men and women in our military service to McVeigh is outrageous. Furthermore, of the millions of veterans of military service, it is my guess that the proportion of people who are lawbreakers is considerably lower than in the public at large. The purpose of military training is not to produce "killers" but to develop people to serve their country. By and large, that training has been successful.

DON JORTNER Rancho Palos Verdes July 4th County now lack medical insurance, even though about 300,000 of them are eligible for coverage under Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for the poor. As in his initiatives on behalf of schools, Riordan is seeking to use his influence despite a lack of official authority. The panel a virtual Who's Who in California health care has the clout to ameliorate some problems and to assure good use of new federal money for children's health care. The commission should: Bring into the fold children who are eligible for but not receiving Medi-Cal. A study by UCLA and the Rand Corp.

indicated that many Latino parents were scared off by the anti- legislators have been celebrating their largess to children, they have been slashing away at other federal health care funding. One proposal would cut more than $1 billion that has gone annually to California hospitals that provide the highest percentage of care for the uninsured. Current plans in Congress would allow governors to use the new children's health care funding to make up for other federal funding shortfalls. The mayor's commission could far-sightedly ensure that these dollars are used in Los Angeles for their originally intended purpose: to extend quality health care to the growing numbers of children who lack it. No apology for slavery (letters, June 27), then cancel the Fourth of July since we are a nation of individuals only responsible for our own actions, as some have said.

One must agree, using the foes of the apology's own reasoning, since "we weren't even born yet," we have no right to celebrate a holiday that commemorates the actions of men 221 years ago. If we can't apologize for past mistakes, why can we celebrate, past accomplishments of which we did nothing to bring about? Grow up, America; take responsibility for past mistakes as well as celebrate our achievements. BRENT SINGLETON Los Angeles Democracy the Ortega Way Sandinista leader, in a snit, is threatening violence in Nicaragua make his argument in the streets, though surely he knows that destroying property and threatening people are not constitutional rights. What was the Sandinistas' goal in defeating the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship? At the time there was talk of democracy. Now the Sandinistas are busying themselves erecting roadway barricades, making some political points but doing damage to the precarious economy upon which Ortega's followers and their families depend.

Listening to Ortega's harangues, one might think his revolutionary fervor is back in full force. Does all this mean he will forsake the comfort of the grand home he expropriated for himself, wine cellar included, when the revolution succeeded? Is he seriously considering soiling his designer white shirts in the Nicaraguan jungles? We don't think so. We believe he's bluffing. But he is certainly sending a troubling message. alk about sore losers.

Having been defeated in the last two presidential elections, Nicara-guan revolutionary leader Daniel Ortega has now sent notice to his nation's Congress that he and his followers will take up arms if the deputies pass an anti-protest law. Obviously the co-mandante has yet to get the hang of what we call democracy, which is what his Sandinista movement said it was fighting for 20 years ago. As leader of Nicaragua's second-largest party and a congressional deputy, Ortega should bring his complaints about the proposed protest ban to Congress. That is where it should be decided, not on some battlefield. Shame on Ortega for running off the democratic rails again.

Under the Nicaraguan constitution, the people have the right to express their opinions and demonstrate. If Congress proposes to deny that right, Ortega should stand in opposition; that's how laws are made for the good of all. But it seems the old revolutionary would prefer to Getty Center The Getty people, with our blessing, spent $1 billion on land and facilities and, in one year, bought three old oil paintings ranging in price from $22.5 million to $26 million (June 21). Down the hill, 10 miles in any direction, children go to bed hungry, live in cars, garages and roach-infested tenements, go to school in hot, overcrowded, rundown buildings, and study worn-out textbooks. Gangs of dropped-out, teenage thugs terrorize whole neighborhoods.

Something is very wrong with our value and priority systems. Quoting Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." JIM BABBITT Manhattan Beach Fuel Vapors The spectacle in the evening sky June 23 was a beautiful but chilling reminder of an ugly fact. The United States continues to burn up economic resources in its pursuit of war games technology. As a side "benefit," precious natural resources are jettisoned into the ocean, and polluting fuel vapors sully our atmosphere. The Air Force applauds another successful Meanwhile, 1 question the future of a society that so blatantly pillages its land, air, water and economic resources for tools of destruction.

VICTORIA TENBRINK Pomona Whitewater Your June 26 editorial on the Whitewater inquiry takes a troubling detour to become part of a growing problem: "Nor do we believe that the Clintons have been as forthcoming as circumstances demand." Does anyone remember what this investigation was to uncover? It was about a land deal which the Clintons acknowledged and answered. Nothing has been found after three years and multimillions of our dollars to change or challenge the Clintons' statements on what the Whitewater deal was. JOHNBUCCHERI Thousand Oaks ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE Roswell UFO Report, Crash Test Dummies Carmony Retrial Is Warranted dummies," which became a staple in the development of auto safety systems: For each life of a child or small adult lost because of present air bag systems, 30 other lives are saved. It would take several years of crash statistics to know whether the speed of deployment is optimum or not. Such decisions should not be made because biomechanically ignorant people appeal for cooperation between opposing advocates.

SAMUEL W.ALDERSON Beverly Hills knowledge of irregularities. Flint refused to testify at the Carmony trial but has said he did nothing illegal. Baugh, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of misreporting campaign contributions during his campaign, has been especially critical of Dist. Atty. Michael R.

Capizzi for his investigations. So has Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Carmony's fiance. Some Baugh supporters have claimed that any violations were minor or technical, or that similar occurrences are common in political campaigns. Even if true, those are not persuasive arguments against prosecution.

Election law violations are harmful, deepening public cynicism about politics and government. Candidates need to abide by the law when they seek office and insist that their supporters do so as well. One way or the other, the Carmony case merits further clarification and resolution. There have been enough guilty pleas connected to the 1995 special election that put Scott Baugh in the Assembly to present a clear picture of wrongdoing. So the inability of a jury last week to reach a verdict in the trial of campaign worker Rhonda Carmony in connection with that election was unfortunate.

Given the 10-2 vote in favor of conviction on two of the three election law felony charges and the 9-3 vote on the third, a new trial is warranted. If she is not guilty, Carmony deserves to be cleared. If she is guilty, the public has the right to know. Carmony's lawyer argued during the trial that the scheme to get a "spoiler" Democrat on the ballot and thus make it easier for Baugh to win was orchestrated by Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) and his chief of staff, Jeff Flint. Two Pringle aides and one Baugh campaign aide pleaded guilty to single misdemeanors in the case.

Pringle has denied handed my cameras and an automatic pistol in a holster. "What do I need that for?" I asked. The pilot responded, "My orders were to see that you were armed." "Against what?" I asked. He looked at me, smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "We don't know," he said.

I got into a Jeep with a driver and off we went into the sunbaked desert on this mysterious search that is now known as the Roswell incident. Of course we never found the "meteor" and I have often wondered if I had arrived too early or too late. Or, perhaps I was landed in the wrong place. ALLAN GRANT Los Angeles I developed an anthropomorphic dummy in my company, then in New York, while a rival company in California developed another. This is not about who was the first, it is about the fact that neither of us had sufficient talent to place dummies, which we developed in 1953, into balloons to carry them aloft in 1947, as stated by Col.

John Haynes of the Air Force. On the subject of "crash test Cob Ancles (tecs Richard T. Schlosberg III Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Re "Roswell Report Doesn't Fly," editorial, June 26: I am a British ex-RAF pilot with service before and during World War II. I also was a POW in Germany three years. In 1947 1 was in La Jolla and was a guest at the U.S.

naval officers club in San Diego. One night I was asked to dine with an officer and his wife at their home in Coronado. That night her husband was on night operations, flying off the carrier. About 8 p.m. his wife remarked her husband was awfully late.

About 20 minutes later the phone and she excused herself to answer it in the bedroom. I heard a sort of wail and she came into the living room totally distraught. Her husband had crashed at sea and was presumed lost. In the last radio report from him he said he was chasing a UFO! GEORGE PELLING Laguna Hills Some 50 years ago, as a staff photographer for Life magazine, I was sent to Roswell, N.M., to photograph what the Life called a "meteor hunt." All we knew at the time was that a "huge meteor" had crashed somewhere in the New Mexico desert and the Air Force was searching for it. I was assigned an Air Force pilot who would put me on the ground in the vicinity of the sighting.

Landing somewhere in the desert on a makeshift runway, I was Hidden Danger at the Beach Sacramento should mandate health standards for the waters Shelby Coffey in Editor and Executive Vice President Michael Parks Managing Editor and Senior Vice President NARDAZACCHINO Associate Editor and Vice President CAROL STOGSDILL Senior Editor and Vice President TERRY SCHWADRON Deputy Managing Editor Karen Wada Deputy Managing Editor FRANK DEL OLMO Assistant to the Editor Janet Clayton Editor of the Editorial Pages and Vke President Robert N. brisco Senior Vke President, Marketing and New Business Development JANIS HEAPHY Senior Vke President, Advertising William r. Isinger Senior Vke President, Einance Jeffrey S. Klein Senior Vice President, Consumer Marketing WILLIAM A. NlESE Senior Vke President, law and Human Resources Keating Riioads Senior Vke President, Operations and Technology Mark h.

kurtich Vice President, Production R. Marilyn Lee Vice President, Public Affairs Robert C. Magnuson Vice President, President, C. Union Julia C.Wilson Vice President, President, Vahevand Ventura County Editions Nor do six other coastal California counties: Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino and Sonoma. This situation would be corrected by AB 411, authored by state Assemblyman Howard Wayne (D-San Diego).

The legislation would establish uniform state health standards for beach waters and require regular monitoring. Another measure that merits legislative approval is SB 499, aimed at the more basic problem of pollution such as street and highway grime that reaches the ocean through storm drains. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), would direct state agencies to develop a plan to control this runoff in coastal areas. California's swimming, surfing and diving waters are a vital recreational and economic resource.

The state has a compelling interest in assuring their safety and taking prompt action whenever there is a health threat. When you go to the ocean shore, it's easy to tell whether the beach sand is clean and free of junk or hazards. The same cannot be said for the water. The water may seem clean, but it in fact may be polluted by a variety of organisms that can cause a range of health problems, from sore throats to dysentery. The key to safe beaches is to have clear standards of water purity and to advise bathers promptly when those standards are exceeded, or to close the beaches altogether when there is a threat.

But first, the water must be tested. Amazingly, California has no comprehensive statewide standard for water safety and no requirement that waters be regularly monitored. Fortunately for Southern Californians, the major counties do a good job in this regard. Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties have such programs. But Ventura County still has no regular monitoring program, the Natural Resources Defense Council reported this week.

Orange County Edition Robert G. Magnuson President William Nottingham Editor Stephen Burgard Editorial Page Editor How to Write to Us Letters are subject to condensation and must include address and telephone. OC Issues: Letters to the Editor; The Times, Orange County; 1375 Sunflower Ave. Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Other Issues: Letters to the Editor; Los Angeles Times; Times Mirror Square; Los Angeles, CA 90053 By Fax: On the Internet: OC: (714) 966-7711 ocletterslatimes.com IA (213) 237-7679 letterslatimes.com Harrison Gray Otis, Publisher, 1882-1917 HARRY CHANDLER, Publisher, 1917-1944 Norman Chandler, Publisher, 1944-1960 0ns CHANDLER, Publisher. 1960-1980 Airport Thieves When caught, LAX thieves (June 30) should be given the stiffest sentence known: a middle seat on a long, crowded flight, and be forced to eat all of the airplane food from their plates! ROBERT KALIN Los Angeles Published by The Times Mirror Company Mark H.

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