Daily News

I was delighted to read "The Ink-Stained Memoirs" (by Rip Rense, May 4). It brought back wonderful memories of growing up as a daughter of Sparky Saldana, the night city editor at the Los Angeles Daily News. My dad loved his job at the paper, and he loved all of the characters he worked with. He never ran out of fascinating stories about his years there. Rense told the story of the Daily News exactly as I remember it--but he left out that dangerous old elevator at Pico Boulevard and Los Angeles Street.

Who says no one remembers the Los Angeles Daily News ("The Ink-Stained Memoirs," by Rip Rense, May 4)? From its first issue we were loyal readers, as were most of our friends, recent UCLA graduates beginning to live and work in the "real world." One of our favorite Daily News exposes was a study of sanitary conditions in local restaurants. Several of the most famous were found to have filthy kitchens (there were photos of rat droppings in the flour bins), and the winner of the cleanest place in town was, as we recall, a humble hot dog diner downtown.

The old newspaper folk climbed the swaybacked stairs to the third floor. Reaching the top, they pushed open a pair of creaky swinging doors and stepped into a broad, rectangular room. There were rows of desks, as there had been 50 years ago, and plenty of bustle. But the bustle was no longer from a cocky crew of young reporters, editors and photographers.

Channel surfing is about to take on a whole new meaning. Fox Sports Net is set to launch today the first daily news program devoted to action sports, hoisting the visibility of thrill-seeking athletes such as surfers, skateboarders, snowboarders and motocross riders, while offering fresh marketing opportunities for the companies that make their clothes.

Breaking with recent tradition, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has declined to officiate at weddings in New York City, rejecting dozens of invitations since taking office. Spokesman Ed Skyler told the Daily News that the mayor "doesn't want to offend people by picking and choosing" which ceremonies to conduct.

Edward Kirkman, 75, a former New York Daily News reporter who scooped the competition on the prison release of legendary bank robber Willie Sutton, died of cancer Sunday at his home in Medford on Long Island.

KCAL and KTTV led the pack at the 54th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, presented Saturday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the Leonard Goldenson Theatre. But KTLA, KCBS and Spanish-language KMEX scored three of the major prizes in the local news categories. KTLA's "First Edition" won for best daily newscast under 35 minutes, CBS 2 "News at 5" won for best daily newscast over 35 minutes, and KMEX took home the award for best regularly scheduled daily newscast.

Ron Kaye, managing editor of the Daily News, was a journalistic "watchdog" long before there ever was a Valley secession movement ("Daily News Becomes a Herald of Secession," May 30). How about a few words--in this story, not the next one--about The Times' financial stake in opposing secession? As a former Daily News reporter, I would like to note for the record that the paper's editing style has changed little in the last decade, with the exception of today's more sensational headlines.

First of two parts. Mayor James K. Hahn says it would be "a disaster of biblical proportions" and "the greatest change in urban architecture in the history of the United States." Other local political and civic leaders call it the most important question the city of Los Angeles has ever faced. But the proposed secession of the San Fernando Valley, which would split up the nation's second-largest city, attracted relatively little attention from most of the local news media until very recently.

Buddy, Bill Clinton's chocolate Labrador retriever, died Wednesday when he was hit by a car near the former president's Chappaqua home in upstate New York. The 4-year-old dog "ran from the Clinton residence, playfully chasing a contractor who had just left," said Lt. Charles Ferry of the New Castle Police Department. A car struck the dog as he ran across the road at the end of Clinton's cul-de-sac. Buddy was taken to Chappaqua Animal Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Neither Sen.