Complete Failure

"We lost a lot of games, but we can't say it was a complete failure. A lot of young guys, including myself, have gotten a lot of experience." Jeremy Bonderman, Detroit rookie pitcher, whose Tigers have lost 118 games.

Re "U.S. Deficit Follows Bush on Trip" and "Bush's Colombian Connection," editorial, Nov. 23: Writer Peter Wallsten fails to mention an aggravating factor in President Bush's call for continued multibillion-dollar funding for Colombia as he commits to cut the budget deficit; this U.S. investment has produced little of its promised return, despite The Times editorial's claims to the contrary. Nearly 4,000 civilians were murdered last year, down slightly from 2002 but up a dramatic 34% since 1999, despite U.S. security assistance.

Hooray! The news that Jerry Buss is selling part of his share of the Kings is the best news that I've heard in weeks. His lack of hockey acumen is exceeded solely by his failure to hire experienced and knowledgeable personnel. It's about time that this inept millionaire admitted to the hockey world that his attempt to turn the Kings' fortunes around has been a complete failure. When is he going to sell the remaining 51% he controls? ANDREW D. JAMNER Los Angeles

"We lost a lot of games, but we can't say it was a complete failure. A lot of young guys, including myself, have gotten a lot of experience." Jeremy Bonderman, Detroit rookie pitcher, whose Tigers have lost 118 games.

Is the purpose of a more internationally sensitive education to improve business relations, as Meisler seems to indicate? Wouldn't we be better served by analyzing our own industrial and economic organization, which makes us uncompetitive with other nations regardless of our knowledge of customs and practices in China? Wouldn't it be better to clarify our own interests in the world? Our difficulty in doing so was amply evident during the Persian Gulf crisis. It is not at all clear that American interests are best served through internationalism.

Before NBC's Warren Littlefield and Paramount's Kerry McCluggage anoint David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee as the saviors of TV, let's look at the facts ("Post-'Frasier' Cheers," by Steve Weinstein, Oct. 22). Using "Cheers" as the hammer, Paramount compelled NBC to give the trio's "Wings" the time slot following "Cheers," a guarantee of success. When "Wings" ran in non-protected time slots, its ratings were terrible. And their "Frasier" has a built-in sampling appeal to the millions of "Cheers" lovers, giving it a major leg up on other new programs.

Re "U.S. Deficit Follows Bush on Trip" and "Bush's Colombian Connection," editorial, Nov. 23: Writer Peter Wallsten fails to mention an aggravating factor in President Bush's call for continued multibillion-dollar funding for Colombia as he commits to cut the budget deficit; this U.S. investment has produced little of its promised return, despite The Times editorial's claims to the contrary. Nearly 4,000 civilians were murdered last year, down slightly from 2002 but up a dramatic 34% since 1999, despite U.S. security assistance.

Through the squalls and storms of the past few months, no one has been more doggedly upbeat about President Clinton's ambitious plan for national health care reform than senior adviser Ira Magaziner and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Magaziner, chief architect of Clinton's health care plan, took great delight in calling attention to his office bookshelves.

Prohibition — America's notoriously "failed social experiment" to rid the country of alcohol — took center stage this week as PBS broadcast Ken Burns' highly acclaimed series on the subject. And already, it has been seized on by drug legalization advocates, who say it proves that drug prohibition should be abandoned. But a closer look at what resulted from alcohol prohibition and its relevance to today's anti-drug effort reveals a far more nuanced picture than the legalization lobby might like to admit.

Deploying a long-promised tool to track high school dropouts, the state released numbers Wednesday estimating that 1 in 4 California students -- and 1 in 3 in Los Angeles -- quit school. The rates are considerably higher than previously acknowledged but lower than some independent estimates. The figures are based on a new statewide tracking system that relies on identification numbers that were issued to California public school students beginning in fall 2006.

Before NBC's Warren Littlefield and Paramount's Kerry McCluggage anoint David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee as the saviors of TV, let's look at the facts ("Post-'Frasier' Cheers," by Steve Weinstein, Oct. 22). Using "Cheers" as the hammer, Paramount compelled NBC to give the trio's "Wings" the time slot following "Cheers," a guarantee of success. When "Wings" ran in non-protected time slots, its ratings were terrible. And their "Frasier" has a built-in sampling appeal to the millions of "Cheers" lovers, giving it a major leg up on other new programs.

Is the purpose of a more internationally sensitive education to improve business relations, as Meisler seems to indicate? Wouldn't we be better served by analyzing our own industrial and economic organization, which makes us uncompetitive with other nations regardless of our knowledge of customs and practices in China? Wouldn't it be better to clarify our own interests in the world? Our difficulty in doing so was amply evident during the Persian Gulf crisis. It is not at all clear that American interests are best served through internationalism.

Hooray! The news that Jerry Buss is selling part of his share of the Kings is the best news that I've heard in weeks. His lack of hockey acumen is exceeded solely by his failure to hire experienced and knowledgeable personnel. It's about time that this inept millionaire admitted to the hockey world that his attempt to turn the Kings' fortunes around has been a complete failure. When is he going to sell the remaining 51% he controls? ANDREW D. JAMNER Los Angeles

The convictions of four men in a multimillion-dollar scheme to cash in on stolen winning tickets in McDonald's Corp. games such as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" were voided by a federal appeals court in Florida. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found "a complete failure of proof" on the conspiracy charge each man faced.

A Van-Nuys based coalition to recall Mayor Tom Bradley said Thursday that it has not gathered enough signatures on petitions to meet today's deadline to put the issue before voters. Businessman Robert Colaco, who heads the coalition, said he did not know how many signatures volunteers had collected, but he estimated they had gathered fewer than half of the185,000 needed.