El Cajon

Re "A town against the wall," Column One, Dec. 17 Fifty years from now, schoolchildren will be brought to see what remains of the border fence as an example, like Manzanar, of the prejudices of an era. Roderick Gates El Cajon

Two bodies were recovered Sunday from the wreckage of a small private plane in San Diego County, authorities said. The bodies were found at the crash site in a rural area near El Capitan Reservoir, said Sheriff's Lt. Sherri Sarro. The victims were both in the Navy, the county coroner's office said. A sheriff's helicopter crew on routine patrol spotted the wreckage about noon Saturday, about 19 miles northeast of El Cajon.

Duncan Hunter had already spent an hour serving scrambled eggs at a Rotary Club pancake breakfast and walked a mile in the nearby Amherst Fourth of July parade, and was now more than halfway through another parade in this old farm town on the west bank of the Merrimack River. Hunter, a 14-term congressman from El Cajon in San Diego County, strode from one side of the road to the other, waving, shaking hands and introducing himself. It's a polite crowd; most wave back or take the proffered hand.

The photograph of Sylvia Sidney by Edward Steichen knocked me off my chair ("Sylvia Sidney, Hollywood," Photo Synthesis, by Colin Westerbeck, Jan. 7). It is easy to see why cinematographer John Bailey chose this as a favorite. Ms. Sidney is pretty, but there is so much more to this picture. I have never been struck this hard by a photo and I don't know why. Richard Tomkiel El Cajon

Only two races left in NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup, and Jimmie Johnson again is exactly where he hoped to be at exactly the right time. After four frustrating years of nearly winning his first championship, the El Cajon native is within reach of the Cup once more, leading this year's Chase by a slim 17-point margin over Matt Kenseth.

A Loma Linda nursing home for children has been fined $25,000 and issued the state's most severe citation after machines failed to alert staff that a patient had stopped breathing, officials said Tuesday. The patient was pale and cold when a staffer at Mountain View Child Care Circlebrook walked in to change his diaper early on the morning of Aug. 23, 2004, according to a state Department of Health Services report.

SOMETIMES Tiki rises up entirely apart from style trends. And it's not just a coastal thing, either. In the dry-brush lands of inland El Cajon, disaster gave birth to the tropical Tiki dreams of Sam Kuoha. His property was in the path of the 2003 fires that raged around San Diego. His yard was burned over and his rancher-style house damaged. Hawaiian-born, Kuoha kicked through the ashes and decided he was homesick. "People would come over and say, 'You're Hawaiian.'

Re "The Correct Way to Fix Mistakes," Opinion, Feb. 13: Patrick Frey is just another run-of-the-mill right-wing blogger who enjoys hunting squirrels while 500-pound gorillas bounce about the forest. His credibility will increase a hundredfold when he directs his "let's tell the truth column" toward President Bush and his neocon brigade. They told us day after day that a war of choice against Iraq was necessary because Iraq was (a) in possession of weapons of mass destruction, (b)

Re "Maybe Anyone Can Be President," Column One, Feb. 2: So Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) thinks it's OK for Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger to be allowed to run for president because for more than 20 years Schwarzenegger has been "totally dedicated to this country as an American"? Wrong. Although Schwarzenegger has been a U.S. citizen for a bit over 20 years, he's been an Austrian citizen his whole life. He's still an Austrian citizen today. Accordingly, there is no way that sane persons could imagine that he is "totally" dedicated to this country.