Fiscally

Re "Hospital Bond Fuels Projects," Nov. 9: I am not surprised that Californians approved the fiscally irresponsible hospital bond issue for children's hospitals. Their approach to state finance reflects their approach to personal finance. The average family carries a credit card debt of $8,562, with half of them paying only the minimum each month, with consumers collectively paying $50 billion in credit card finance charges annually, and with 1.3 million of them declaring bankruptcy last year.

Bell's finances have worsened considerably since its infamous corruption scandal, leaving the city unable to refund millions of dollars in taxes illegally levied on residents and businesses, an audit released Wednesday shows. The report by the state controller paints a troubling picture of the small southeast Los Angeles County city's efforts to recover from the 2010 scandal, which resulted in felony convictions against five former City Council members. The city's longtime city manager, Robert Rizzo, faces trial on corruption charges later this year.

When is the Republican Congress going to get any credit for this country's strong economy? Right now, President Clinton seems to be the sole beneficiary. Without a Republican Congress there would be no balanced budget amendment, no welfare reform and certainly far fewer spending cuts. And this Congress must continue down this fiscally responsible road, because it looks as though the president is making a sharp turn to the left, returning to his tax-and-spend liberal roots. PEGGY MINERO Upland

WASHINGTON - Europe's recession stretched into the first three months of the year, making it the single-currency region's longest downturn and raising concerns about its effect on the U.S. recovery. The 17-nation Eurozone economy contracted 0.2% in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to data released Wednesday by Eurostat, the region's statistical office. It was the sixth straight quarter of contraction, exceeding the five-quarter recession from 2008-09.

I read with shock in the paper ("FEMA Makes Its Point in Spanish," Jan. 28) that the government is giving aid to illegal immigrants left homeless by the quakes. This is so outrageous I refuse to believe it's true. Not only do illegal immigrants clog our courts, our hospitals and our schools, they can now get a check for a place to live that also originated from our tax dollar. The federal government financed and developed the welfare system in America, and now, in most parts of the country instead of looking for a job, they are looking for a federal handout.

Your editorial, "Balanced-Budget Plan: Looks, 10; Workability, 0" (Jan. 31), describes the balanced budget amendment as "irresponsible governance" and "fiscally reckless." Actually, your description applies perfectly to our federal government's budget policies of the past 35 years. Does anyone feel that a government that has accumulated a debt of some $4 trillion has been fiscally responsible? The argument that the amendment will "straitjacket" the government in times of recession is false.

As English Department chair at Agoura High School, I have been privileged to work with both Judy Jordan and Barbara Bowman-Fegelson for many years in their tenures on the Las Virgenes school board. Their compassion and intelligence, coupled with their balanced moral sense of what is right for children, makes them skilled advocates for our local schools. We have not always agreed; nevertheless, I have come to respect their courage and their caution in fiscally uncertain times.

A backlash of conservatism is building in the United States to counter the extravagance caused by the unrealistic policies of the idealistic but naive liberals of the past and present. Views such as those expressed by Mark Petracca of Irvine (Letters, June 5), clearly demonstrate the lack of logical thinking by adherents of the liberal philosophy. Mr. Petracca needs to take a primer course in economics. The largest costs to communities in Orange County are those directly attributed to congressionally mandated welfare and immigration programs.

I am alarmed to see the deceptive materials developed by some of my colleagues in the Saddleback Community College District--specifically, a recent document from the Orange County Citizens for Quality Education, composed primarily of a few union faculty members, soliciting large donations to support candidates challenging our current Board of Trustees. Recently, this organization disseminated a Fact Sheet outlining the need to unseat incumbents. The mailer strongly implied that a cash contribution and a vote for union-backed candidates would guarantee each instructor a "pay back" generated by a 5% raise.

Suspension training -- simple, dumbbell-free bodyweight exercises done while pulling on a rope or nylon strap attached to an overhead point -- makes every exercise a total body workout. By adding instability to all strength movements, it blasts the core and other stabilizing muscles, not just the prime movers. This all-body effectiveness makes suspension training popular with sports teams, gym classes and homebodies of all ages and fitness abilities. Adjusting the resistance is easy: Just stand on one foot or change your body angle by moving closer to or farther from the anchor point.

In a reminder of the boom years of the late 1990s, California's fiscal picture brightened in the first few months of 2013, leaving the state unexpectedly flush with cash. But when Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his revised budget proposal Tuesday for fiscal 2013-14, he did something much more reminiscent of the "era of limits" in the 1970s: He laid out a cautious and moderate course. Specifically, he called on the Legislature to increase spending by less than 1% while doubling the amount held in reserve.

The 149 air traffic control towers that were scheduled to close this summer because of federal sequestration will remain open until at least September, government officials said Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration said legislation approved by Congress last month allows the agency to transfer funds from other accounts to keep the towers open until the end of the fiscal year. The towers, run by contract workers, operate at small airports such as Brown Field Municipal Airport in San Diego, Riverside Municipal Airport, Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, Oxnard Airport, Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville and Fullerton Municipal Airport.

SACRAMENTO - Speaker John Pérez wants voters to know something: Cash may be cascading into state coffers as it hasn't for years. Democrats may totally control the Assembly with a new supermajority. But they're not going to be drunken sailors. They're going to be disciplined and conservative, at least by Democratic standards. Pérez, 43, a Los Angeles Democrat and former labor leader, invited me into his ornate Capitol office last week to get the word out. "It shouldn't - but it may - surprise folks that Democrats with our supermajority will be looking to build on the fiscal responsibility that we've shown the last couple of years," the speaker said right off. Actually, the Legislature whacked programs for five years because of the recession.

On the fifth day of sequester budget cuts and job furloughs at air traffic control towers, airline executives complained that more flight delays could begin to impact their bottom line. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that it had to delay 863 flights Wednesday because of staff shortages among air traffic controllers. Another 2,132 flights were delayed by severe weather and other factors. The agency began furloughing controllers Sunday to help cut $636 million from its budget.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown is stepping back onto the world stage. After two years largely spent cloistered in California tending to the fiscal crisis, he starts a weeklong visit to China on Tuesday in a bid to reclaim the state's reputation as a global economic powerhouse and innovator. The visit will lack the glitz of Brown's travels as governor decades ago, with rock star companions and international paparazzi replaced by dozens of state bureaucrats and business officials.

Los Angeles mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti on Wednesday sought to highlight what they say are needed reforms in city government, an apparent response to criticism that they have avoided specifics on solving chronic budget problems. Greuel said she would consider raising the retirement age for current city workers, along with other changes to the city's pension systems. But she said she would seek changes only through collective bargaining, not by forcing new rules on workers.

As if on cue, all faces turn alertly toward the front of the classroom where Bridget Brownell has set up a slide show at Taft High School in Woodland Hills. They are about to view diseased sex organs. "First," she said, "let me take attendance, and then I will shock you. " Brownell belongs to a declining breed: She's a certified health instructor leading a one-semester health class in a California public high school. The Los Angeles Unified School District nearly killed health as a required course, to focus more on its new mandate that all students complete college-prep classes.

Look, up in the sky! It's a "fiscal cliff. " It's a slope. It's an obstacle course. The truth is, it doesn't really matter what we call it. It only matters what it is: a lamebrained package of economic depressants bearing down on a lame-duck Congress. This hastily concocted mix of across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases for all was supposed to force Congress to get serious about dealing with our nation's debt and deficit. The question everyone's asking is this: On whose backs should we balance the federal budget?

MOSCOW - Flights from snow-covered Russia to sunny Cyprus may be packed, but these days many of the passengers are bank account owners looking to pull their money out of the financially crippled island, not vacationers. Russians own about a third of the $88 billion in deposits in Cyprus, which on Friday was operating under a European Central Bank warning to come up with $7.5 billion by Monday to qualify for a financial bailout. The financial mess has spooked many Russians - one proposal called for levies of up to 10% on bank deposits - at a time when Cyprus hopes Moscow will come through with financial assistance to help keep the country from falling into default.

The last Big East basketball tournament as we know it hits New York's stage this week at Madison Square Garden. What sportswriter Dan Wetzel recently described as "the most honest event in college sports" is breaking up after a messy divorce that will separate Syracuse from Georgetown and Seton Hall from Rutgers. That's like breaking peanut butter up from jelly. GRAPHIC: Pac-12 Conference Tournament Bracket It's all football's fault, and what a money-grubbing shame.