Edward C Smith

In an emotional gathering, more than 100 friends, fellow police officers, city officials and well-wishers -- many in tears -- packed Anaheim police headquarters Tuesday to pay tribute to Marine Sgt. Edward C. Smith and console his wife and three children. Smith, 39, who died Saturday of wounds suffered the previous day in central Iraq, had intended to retire from active duty earlier this year and make the jump from part-time reserve police officer to full-time special tactics officer in Anaheim.

In an emotional gathering, more than 100 friends, fellow police officers, city officials and well-wishers -- many in tears -- packed Anaheim police headquarters Tuesday to pay tribute to Marine Sgt. Edward C. Smith and console his wife and three children. Smith, 39, who died Saturday of wounds suffered the previous day in central Iraq, had intended to retire from active duty earlier this year and make the jump from part-time reserve police officer to full-time special tactics officer in Anaheim.

Christopher Weil & Co., a Los Angeles-based financial planning and brokerage service firm, named new vice presidents and resident managers for its five new Southern California branch offices. The officers and their locations are: Donald H. Ellis, Newport Beach; Kathleen I. Repetto, Torrance; Robert H. Gardner, Westwood; William J. Gallagher, Pasadena, and Edward C. Smith, Woodland Hills.

Enough! Let's nip the Republicans' red-baiting in the bud right now. Reviving through demagogic excess a shameful period in this nation's history, Bush and Dan Quayle have been attacking political liberals as extremists, far outside the mainstream of American political thought. Not only is this nasty, it is nonsense. As any political scientist can tell you, the overriding political tradition of this country is liberal. In the "Dictionary of American Politics," Edward C. Smith and Arnold J. Zurcher define liberalism as "a form of government and . . . a governmental policy judged most favorable to individual liberty.

Duke Ellington was born into a remarkable community. From 1899, the year of his birth, until 1920, Washington, D.C., had the largest African American population of any U.S. city--nearly as large as the total population of Los Angeles at the time. How important were the experiences of those early years in the development of Ellington's youthful talents?

The story of young men going off to war, where they will lose their innocence if not their lives, is ancient. Yet retelling it never grows old, if only because society so often forgets its lessons. That's the real strength of tonight's "Primetime Thursday" on ABC, which features an hourlong report titled "Brothers in Arms: The Untold Story of One Marine Company in Iraq" at 10 p.m.

More than 1,000 mourners paid their last respects Thursday to Sgt. Edward C. Smith, a part-time reserve Anaheim police officer and full-time Marine who was killed in action outside Baghdad. The memorial service was the Police Department's way of saying goodbye to its fallen hero, Chief Roger Baker said. It was complete with bagpipes, hundreds in a police honor guard, a helicopter fly-over and gun salute.

Flags were flying at half staff in Anaheim on Monday as the city opened its heart for one of its own: Sgt. Edward C. Smith, a part-time reserve Anaheim police officer and full-time Marine was reported killed in action outside Baghdad. "He was a big guy and he looked intimidating," Anaheim Police Officer Darrin Lee said of the 39-year-old Marine. "But he was very soft-spoken and seemed like a gentle guy. We're grieving; it hurts like we've lost one of our own family members.