David Munro

Federal and local law enforcement authorities say a day rarely goes by in Orange County when an individual or corporation doesn't become a victim of white-collar crime. Southern California is considered the center of financial fraud, home to more con men than any other region of the United States. The perpetrators range from corporate executives pilfering company funds to small-time thieves who steal investors' money simply by promising them sky-high returns.

Federal and local law enforcement authorities say a day rarely goes by in Orange County when an individual or corporation doesn't become a victim of white-collar crime. Southern California is considered the center of financial fraud, home to more con men than any other region of the United States. The perpetrators range from corporate executives pilfering company funds to small-time thieves who steal investors' money simply by promising them sky-high returns.

California has a splitting headache. DAVID ALLEN MUNRO Laguna Beach

Brutal cops: Now we'll hafta either reform the cops or ban the cameras. DAVID ALAN MUNRO Laguna Beach

Human ingenuity has given us two inevitables: 1) that censorship won't work, and 2) that all borders are crossable. So will governments please stop pretending and start accommodating? DAVID ALAN MUNRO Laguna Beach

Have the old-money kings of Wall Street--the Nicholas Brady types--decided to get rid of George Bush in their own sure way, by giving us continued depression until Nov. 3? DAVID ALAN MUNRO, Laguna Beach

Newt on balance: Balancing the budget is the name for a magic trick: How to take crumbs from the poor to make bread for the rich. Trouble is, gents abroad with marks and yen said, "No way." Now look who's off balance. DAVID ALAN MUNRO Laguna Beach

Let's not forget that Bork served as executioner for Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre," an immoral act impossible to any of the ordinarily decent people we know and admire, but that earned him the gratitude of many a miscreant. DAVID ALAN MUNRO Laguna Beach

I hasten to add my congrats to you for getting "Be Prepared: Posse Out to 'Save' Scouts" safely past every censor and into print. It's long overdue. For too long, we've slipped along thoughtlessly letting total irresponsibles make up our media and our minds on matters having to do with religion. Simple rational fact goes out the window as irrelevant in this special case. Now if that lawyer who defends kids from refusing to mumble "God" in the Pledge is looking for the next challenge, I suggest "In God We Trust" on our money.

Mexican cement giant Cemex said Monday that it planned to purchase England-based RMC Group, the world's biggest supplier of ready-mixed concrete. The deal calls for Cemex to pay $4.15 billion and assume $1.7 billion of RMC's debt. Cemex said the addition would make it the world's largest concrete company, with revenue of more than $15 billion. RMC directors have agreed to the acquisition, which is subject to approval by shareholders and regulators.

Perhaps the publication of the book "Holy Anorexia" by Rudolph Bell (Book Review, Jan. 19) will knock sense into people's heads by adding a dash of medieval witchcraft--but I doubt it. Reviewer Joan Jacobs Brumberg is reportedly writing a book about anorexia nervosa, but I fear she too will miss the point. I've come to the matter in a current chapter on the "virginity deprivation" in my book on the psychology of women. Anorexia, I say, is a pseudo-pregnancy triggered by a psychosomatic mechanism I don't pretend to understand.