Contras

So President Reagan wants more money for the contras in Nicaragua? Well, if he wants my support, there's one thing he's got to do: ship the contras where they're really needed, to South Africa. WILLIAM SLATTERY Venice

A 34-year-old man died in Switzerland this summer from rabies contracted from a bat in Contra Costa County - the first such death traced to the county in nearly 20 years, officials announced Friday. The man, whose name has not been released, became ill before leaving the United States to work overseas. He died in a hospital in July, according to Contra Costa Health Services. Tests confirmed rabies as the cause of death. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified of the death in late August and launched an investigation.

Your series on the Nicaraguan contras cites (Dec. 14) Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs Elliott Abrams as referring to the "tough question" of how to measure popular support. It is perhaps understandable that this might be a difficult problem to resolve in Washington, D.C. But it would not be so difficult to accomplish with an extensive and intensive open-ended inquiry inside Nicaragua. Since the Administration attests to its support of the Contadora process, why not invite the Contadora nations to conduct such an inquiry, perhaps as a sort of Latin Gallup or Times poll?

SACRAMENTO - A jury found Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) not guilty of drunk driving Monday, five months after police arrested him for what they described as erratic driving of a state car in Concord. But the Contra Costa County Superior Court jury deadlocked on a second count of driving with an illegal blood alcohol level of 0.08, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Bruce Flynn. He said a decision about whether to refile the second charge will be made by Sept. 17. Hernandez issued a statement saying he looks forward to getting back to work.

The "policy went astray" but the hubris remains. G.H. CALLAWAY El Cajon

The contras of Nicaragua represent only the vestigial remains of the thoroughly reprehensible Somoza regime. They apotheosize rape, pillage and murder. They are supported not by the people of Nicaragua, but only by U.S. overt and covert funding. When funding for the contras finally dries up, they will go away and tiny Nicaragua will have a government of the people. The Reagan Administration's policy of aid to the contras is monstrous, inhuman, and should be punishable as a war crime.

Contra Costa County pier Point Pinole Pier Overview: The allure is the walk through the grassy parklands of the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline to get to the 1,250-foot concrete pier. The views are not impressive — San Francisco isn't visible from this vantage point — but the solitude makes it special. Background: Beginning in the 1880s, several companies used the spot for manufacturing gunpowder and dynamite. The original pier (its pilings can be seen at the foot of the current pier, which was built in 1977)

MEXICO CITY — Adolfo Calero, a former Coca-Cola executive who led the largest anti-Sandinista Contra rebel force in 1980s Nicaragua and served as one of its most articulate lobbyists in Washington, has died. He was 80. Calero died Saturday night in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, of complications from lung disease, an aide told local media. Calero's career mirrored the tumultuous history of Nicaragua as it emerged from a sleepy Central American backwater to the center of the Cold War struggle.

A Contra Costa County sex crimes prosecutor accused of raping a colleague during their lunch hour will not be recharged with the crime, a spokeswoman for Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris said Tuesday. A judge in October dismissed sexual assault charges against Contra Costa Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Gressett after determining that county and state prosecutors failed to inform a grand jury of potentially exculpatory evidence. The spokeswoman declined to comment on the decision. A junior prosecutor who worked with Gressett said he raped her in May 2008 in an assault that involved an ice pick, ice and handcuffs.

David Dutcher met Sharon on Match.com in late 2008, a few months after separating from his wife. "We had a lot in common," he recalled. Sharon loved four-wheel-drive trucks and sports. They met for coffee, then dinner. Sharon was tall, slender, blond and beautiful. She moaned that she had not had sex in a long time. She told him he had large, strong hands and wondered if that portended other things. She described his kisses as "yummy. " "It felt a lot like Christmas," said Dutcher, 49, a tall, burly engineer with wavy red hair.

Clair E. George, a former CIA covert operations chief who received a presidential pardon in 1992 after being convicted of two counts of lying to Congress in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, has died. He was 81. George, a 32-year veteran of the CIA who lived in Chevy Chase, Md., died of cardiac arrest Aug. 11 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., said his daughter Leslie George. George's career in espionage took him to agency stations around the globe and culminated with his becoming the CIA's third-highest-ranking official.

Al Schwimmer, a former aircraft engineer who smuggled American planes to Israel for its 1948 war of independence, founded its aerospace industry and later became a figure in the Iran-Contra affair, died in Tel Aviv on Friday, his 94th birthday. The cause was complications of pneumonia, according to a spokesperson for Israel Aerospace Industries, the company Schwimmer developed and led for more than 25 years. Schwimmer was a 2006 recipient of the Israel Prize, considered the state's highest honor.

When filmmaker Doug Liman was growing up in New York, he was fascinated by the mythic world of spies like James Bond. Yet, he also was tantalized by glimpses of the real world of espionage offered by his late father, Arthur L. Liman, the famed litigator who grilled Oliver North on behalf of Congress during the Iran-Contra investigation of the Reagan administration. "It was a top secret investigation into the National Security Agency," Liman recalls. "[I was] seeing all the mechanics of how classified information worked.

At long last, you can talk about: Vampire Weekend's "Contra" You've heard -- and loved -- "Cousins" by now. And if you did that, you've probably already listened to the Ivy Leaguers' entire second album on their MySpace page. So I'm guessing you already know that the "Horchata" rhyming (horchata and balaclava!) is superb, "Run" rocks rock-meets-reggaeton and "White Sky" and "California English" are just plain awesome. It's worth repeating either way. (Tuesday) Speaking of things nerdtastic, it's also time to talk about: "Chuck" If you bought a Subway sandwich to help keep this show on the air last year, you'll be glad you did. At the outset of Season 3, our once hapless hero is now a willing, kung fu-fighting spy pumped with more mojo than ever.