Ann Long

It's been more than 40 years, but I can still recall the ruckus that was kicked up when I wrote an editorial for Compton High's newspaper, the Chimes, complaining about the school's "staid, hypocritical faculty." Some teachers said I should be fired as editor in chief. Others said I shouldn't be allowed to graduate. But the school's newspaper advisor and journalism teacher, the sainted Viola Bagwell, stood resolutely by me, and the principal, Doris Westcott, refused to discipline me in any way.

It's been more than 40 years, but I can still recall the ruckus that was kicked up when I wrote an editorial for Compton High's newspaper, the Chimes, complaining about the school's "staid, hypocritical faculty." Some teachers said I should be fired as editor in chief. Others said I shouldn't be allowed to graduate. But the school's newspaper advisor and journalism teacher, the sainted Viola Bagwell, stood resolutely by me, and the principal, Doris Westcott, refused to discipline me in any way.

In real life, good things happen to bad people, but Carl Hiaasen, an Old Testament moralist disguised as a comedian, arranges things differently in his novels. Retribution, hilarious but often gruesome, hounds the vacuous celebrities, crooked pols and environmental despoilers who populate his latest satire, "Star Island." It's hard to avoid the suspicion that if Hiaasen weren't a bestselling writer, he would emulate one of his recurring characters, Skink (formerly Florida Gov. Clinton Tyree)

Civil rights lawyers have urged school officials to reverse their decision to punish a student journalist for her article in a campus newspaper. In a strongly worded letter, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized officials at Troy High School for removing Ann Long as editor of the Oracle. Long, 18, was unseated last month after she chronicled the decisions of three students to reveal their homosexuality and bisexuality.

Sheriff's deputies have identified a slain woman whose body was found along a dirt road in a remote area of Malibu last week and now are seeking information that would shed light on the circumstances of her death. The decomposing body of Sherri Ann Long, 26, also known as Peggi Jean Booth, who lived at times in Hollywood, Long Beach and San Diego, was found July 11 along an unpaved track off Corral Canyon Road. She had been strangled, a coroner's spokesman said.

Re "High School Journalist Faces Firing," Jan. 26: Bravo to Troy High School student Ann Long for showing bravery and integrity in writing and standing by her story of three gay students coming out. The backlash from the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, threatening to remove her, is indicative of the Orwellian Big Brother mentality in government, which appears to have surgically removed the spine of much of America's mainstream media....

Re "House Repeals Washington's Weapons Law," Sept. 30: So, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the majority of our representatives in Congress think it's more "important to put people on the record" than to safeguard the good citizens of Washington, D.C. Flying in the face of advice from city leaders and statistics showing that the gun law has cut homicides by more than half since it was enacted, our lawmakers waste their time and our money...

A prison author whose daring bolt from Austria and eventual arrest in Miami drew headlines last year was indicted Monday in the murders of 11 prostitutes, including three in Los Angeles. Jack Unterweger, 43, was indicted in the murders although state prosecutor Heimo Lambauer admitted that there are no witnesses linking Unterweger to any of the killings.

My congratulations to Dan Sullivan for writing something that is all too often overlooked and needs repeating much more frequently: "This reporter's heart doesn't leap up, frankly, to think of yet another culture palace on the Hill, at a time when so many Los Angeles artists are just hacking from job to job--when they can find one" ("Are We Creating Mausoleums Filled With Starving Artists?," May 24). Sullivan's entire article of musings on the support of artists may open a can of worms, but this is the time to address the issue.

Ventura County will receive a $250,000 tourism-related grant to rebuild rail lines between Piru and Rancho Camulos, as well as add bicycle paths and walkways, Supervisor Kathy Long said Monday. Rancho Camulos, which was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior, inspired the fictional site where the heroine and her lover met in the 19th century Helen Hunt Jackson novel "Ramona."

Not that I need to feel any older, but nothing does the trick like hearing from someone you interviewed 12 years ago. Unfortunately, in another reminder of old age, I had to check the archives to see exactly what I'd written in April 1993 about Elizabeth Bangs that prompted her to write last week. Turns out that Bangs, a 1993 Sunny Hills High School graduate and now a lecturer in political science at Princeton, keeps up with her hometown Fullerton news.