Intercede

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, starting a European tour, said in Paris that he wants Europe to help his country normalize its ties with the United States. During lunch with Francois Mitterrand, Ortega asked the French president to intercede for Nicaragua when he meets President Bush next month in Washington. Later, in Brussels, Ortega asked President Jacques Delors of the European Community for a substantial increase in European aid to his country.

Regarding Susan Salter Reynolds' piece on Richard Dawkins ("Evolving Argument," Oct. 11), I find the best book to know about the relationship between God and man is still the Bible. It amazes me how he has allowed man to create the environment where we find ourselves today. He did not have to intercede but minimally because he has allowed us to make our mistakes, and we have by the bucketfuls. If this is not the most valuable lesson we can ever learn about human nature and man's propensity to go his own way, we will never learn.

We have indeed reached a low point in our war on violence in the United States when we reward a would-be killer of an innocent woman by appointing him executive director of the congressional Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. Is Congress that much out of the control of its constituents that it dares to arrogate to itself the power to intercede on behalf of criminals and then reward them? It is well past the time to take back the power that these 435 so-called representatives think is their exclusive club.

The new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and an influential Republican congressman asked Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales on Thursday to withdraw grand jury subpoenas to two San Francisco Chronicle reporters facing 18 months in federal prison for refusing to disclose their confidential sources of information about steroid use in professional sports.

Your article regarding Department 95 ("Where the Mind Is on Trial," Aug. 24), failed to recognize the needless suffering mentally ill citizens experience as a result of the convoluted legalism surrounding issues of involuntary treatment. By the very nature of their neurobiological disorder, victims of major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia frequently cannot recognize their need for medical treatment. Rather than acknowledging society's moral obligation to intercede when they cannot, we instead grant the victims the civil right to wander to their detriment, untreated.

Regarding Susan Salter Reynolds' piece on Richard Dawkins ("Evolving Argument," Oct. 11), I find the best book to know about the relationship between God and man is still the Bible. It amazes me how he has allowed man to create the environment where we find ourselves today. He did not have to intercede but minimally because he has allowed us to make our mistakes, and we have by the bucketfuls. If this is not the most valuable lesson we can ever learn about human nature and man's propensity to go his own way, we will never learn.

Regarding the Sept. 21 commentary by Isabelle R. Gunning on the Sherrice Iverson case, shouldn't a law school professor know better? Many of us may have laughed along with the Seinfeld series closer, in which the main characters got convicted of "criminal indifference" because they failed to assist a robbery victim. In the real world, however, bystanders cannot be expected to intercede against pistol-packing thugs. In the Iverson case, David Cash's situation is decidedly more ambiguous, but how can we know for sure what his intentions were?

Shawn Robbins, psychic, author and mail-order entrepreneur, has turned her big hazel eyes toward Wall Street since the stock market has become so volatile. A shaky market is good for people in her line of work, she says. "For psychics," she says, "the market is boring when it's good, but now is the chance to really shine with psychic abilities. This is a good time to go to a 'reputable psychic.' "Be careful, though. This is not the time to go to Madame Ripoff on the corner with your portfolio.

An Aug. 15 article ("Jet Air Owner Faces 17-Count Indictment") states that Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-San Diego) reportedly interceded on Jet Air's behalf with federal officials in Washington. The reporter states that Congressman Hunter could not be reached for comment. As Congressman Hunter's district administrator, I would like to set the record straight. When Jet Air President Jim Mills contacted Congressman Hunter, the congressman did not intercede on Jet Air's behalf. What he did was suggest that the Navy contact NASA and inquire as to Jet Air's status with the space agency.

I had a routine physical exam a couple of weeks ago and paid a $40 co-pay. I thought it was strange, so I called my insurance company. They said I should not have had to pay a co-pay for a routine physical exam. I called the doctor's office and they referred me to their billing department, who refused to refund me the co-pay until my insurer reimburses them for the full amount of the physical. This doesn't sound correct to me. They collected a co-pay that they should not have collected.

President Bush does not plan to block a threatened strike by mechanics at Northwest Airlines Corp. that could come as early as Saturday, the White House said Monday. The disclosure came as the No. 4 airline and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. resumed talks in Washington on proposed givebacks that are part of the company's plans to cut costs and avert bankruptcy. The negotiations have been bitter, with the union accusing the company of bargaining in bad faith.

The chairman of the Sept. 11 commission urged Sunday that President Bush intervene to break the congressional deadlock over the panel's intelligence and domestic security recommendations, warning that failure to pass the measure soon would risk American lives. "He should call in whoever he thinks is necessary and do whatever he can to get this bill through," said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H.

Overriding the opposition of the U.S. Forest Service and New Mexico state officials, a White House energy task force has interceded on behalf of Houston-based El Paso Corp. in its two-year effort to explore for natural gas in a remote part of a national forest next door to America's largest Boy Scout camp.

Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships battled militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, continuing the biggest offensive there during more than 3 1/2 years of conflict. At least 20 Palestinians were reported dead and 40 wounded in the daylong fighting. Israeli officials said the incursion was an attempt to confront militants and staunch weapons smuggling along Gaza's border with Egypt.

Among the estimated 500,000 people in the United States who struggle each year to recover from brain injuries, Ryan Corbin might be the most famous. Eighteen months ago, the eldest grandson of singer Pat Boone accidentally crashed through his Brentwood apartment building's skylight and plunged 40 feet to the concrete floor. He fractured his skull, broke his jaw, and ruptured his spleen. As paramedics arrived, Corbin, then 25, stopped breathing.

Regarding the Sept. 21 commentary by Isabelle R. Gunning on the Sherrice Iverson case, shouldn't a law school professor know better? Many of us may have laughed along with the Seinfeld series closer, in which the main characters got convicted of "criminal indifference" because they failed to assist a robbery victim. In the real world, however, bystanders cannot be expected to intercede against pistol-packing thugs. In the Iverson case, David Cash's situation is decidedly more ambiguous, but how can we know for sure what his intentions were?

Attorneys for Democrat Arlo Smith made an 11th-hour bid to the state Supreme Court Monday to invalidate more than 1 million absentee ballots and prevent Republican Dan Lungren from taking office as state attorney general. In one of the closest races in California history, Lungren edged Smith by just 28,906 votes--a bare 0.2% margin--in the Nov. 6 election. Smith led Lungren in votes cast at the polls on election day but Lungren pulled ahead on the strength of absentee balloting.

Hoping to sort out differences between management and merchants who believe they are being forced out of the shopping center, Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski and other Thousand Oaks city leaders are set to meet today with the operators of the Janss Marketplace. But for Joe Ehret of Nicki's Coffee Espressions, the small business owner who originally brought the merchants' complaints to the City Council, the meeting will be too little, too late.

For Nigeria's 100-million-plus people, just when life over the past five years appeared to be getting better, it's suddenly bad again. When there was a glimmer of hope about the future, an unforeseen tragedy sends the nation backward. Nigeria's main problem is bad governance, imposed on a hapless people by a thieving military oligarchy that has ruled the country for 28 years out of its 38 years of independence.

Senate investigators intend to present evidence today that former Democratic Chairman Donald L. Fowler flouted an internal Democratic National Committee policy when he repeatedly lobbied federal agencies on behalf of major contributors. The roster of donors represented by Fowler includes Native American tribes, a controversial oil financier and a Southern California businessman who was dismissed by a White House aide as "a hustler."