Michael Case

I'd like to thank Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) for voting to repeal the marriage tax and to override President Clinton's veto. My wife and I are tired of paying more than our fair share of taxes, and we're glad our congressman is on our side. It's too bad the liberals believe only they know how to help people and that the working families of our nation shouldn't be allowed to keep more of their hard-earned money. When so many religions and cultures venerate the institution of marriage, which is so important to the raising of solid adults and citizens for the future, the fact that our governmental institutions seem determined to punish rather than reward marriage in our tax code is disappointing.

Michael Jackson's personal physician declared himself "innocent" in the singer's death Tuesday during a Los Angeles County Superior Court appearance in which he also demanded that his trial begin quickly. Asked how he pleaded to a charge of involuntary manslaughter, the sole count to be decided at the trial now set for March 28, Dr. Conrad Murray paused and then said, "Your honor, I am an innocent man ? " "What's your plea?" Judge Michael Pastor interrupted. "Therefore, I plead not guilty," Murray said.

Albert Goldberg decided to run for Congress a day before the deadline in December. "It was just the events of the news," he explained. "The need to pass a national hate-crimes law and spread the view of love, peace and understanding through all of mankind. "Also,' he added, "I didn't want to do it without checking with my wife. And I was kind of scared to ask her."

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office will file a criminal case against Dr. Conrad Murray on Monday, authorities said, capping an eight-month police investigation into Michael Jackson's death and ending days of intense speculation about when the singer's personal physician would be charged. Official confirmation of an impending criminal prosecution in the Jackson matter came Friday in a press release in which the district attorney's office took the unusual step of announcing charges in advance.

Re "Affordable, Available, Voluntary Drug Coverage Is Goal" (June 18) and "Medicare Needs a Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit" (June 25), Ventura County Perspective. I read with great interest these columns written by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) and his Democratic challenger, Michael Case, on the issue of prescription drug coverage for seniors. There is quite a difference between these two candidates for Congress. I agree with Michael Case on this issue, but even if I didn't, I would be impressed that he actually takes stands on issues instead of playing political games as Gallegly has done on so many occasions over the years.

We who have lived in Simi Valley for our entire lives have watched a lot of change, from orchards and farmlands to houses and businesses. When Elton Gallegly was our city councilman, and then our mayor, he was protective of our environment. He signed legislation to protect our hillsides and to designate the Tierra Rejada greenbelt that separates Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark. In Congress, he negotiated for funding to study the watersheds of Calleguas Creek and Santa Clara River to make sure that the water runs clean for people and wildlife.

Re "Case, Gallegly Both Lay Claim to 'Moderate' Label," Oct. 1. Your bias is painfully apparent in this article about the 23rd Congressional District race. It describes Michael Case as "the tall, gentlemanly candidate in a dark blue suit." Later in the article, Rep. Elton Gallegly is described as "dressed in tan shoes and pants and a striped brown shirt tucked around his belly." Belly? I can almost see Gallegly hitching his thumbs in his overalls and spitting some tobacco juice on my shoes.

With potentially millions of dollars at stake, some Ventura County growers joined Democratic challenger Michael Case in condemning Rep. Elton Gallegly for failing to state how he will vote today on whether to normalize U.S. trade relations with China. Some farmers criticized Gallegly, a Simi Valley Republican, for remaining undecided on such watershed legislation that could result in an economic boon for the county.

With $400,000 in the bank and increasing attention from Democratic Party leaders, supporters of Oak View attorney Michael Case believe they have a real chance of upsetting 14-year-incumbent Rep. Elton Gallegly this fall. "The last three candidates against Elton Gallegly were good people but none spent more than the low $30,000s," said Jonathan Brown, Case's campaign manager. "Gallegly outspent them 10 to 1." Already, however, Case's campaign is getting attention from the Washington, D.C.

Congressional incumbents are comfortably ahead of their rivals in the money stakes this year with local lawmakers Elton Gallegly and Brad Sherman packing fat wallets as the November elections draw closer. Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has more than $1.04 million on hand in his fight against Democratic challenger Michael Case of Oak View, who reported $261,204 at the reporting period ending today.

If Michael Jackson died from lethal levels of the powerful anesthetic propofol, then he must have been injected with much more of the drug than his personal physician reportedly told police he gave the pop star, medical experts said. According to court records unsealed in Houston on Monday, Dr. Conrad Murray told police that he had been giving Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol each night over a six-week period. In a three-hour interview with police two days after Jackson's death, Murray said he had been trying to wean the singer off the powerful anesthetic and, on the night of his death, gave him a combination of other sedatives before succumbing to Jackson's repeated demands for propofol.

Michael Jackson's death is unlikely to result in murder charges against any of the performer's doctors, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the evidence being assembled by a multiagency investigation. "There's nothing I have been told that would suggest a murder charge. It's just so remote and so unsupported by the facts as they've been gathered," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the probe is continuing.

They listened to the government's secretly recorded tapes over and over. They heard what the prosecution's star witness had to say and didn't believe him. Yet in the end, the jurors who acquitted former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona of five of six felonies Friday were most swayed by U.S. Dist. Judge Andrew Guilford's instruction that they must keep an eye on the calendar.

Former Roman Catholic priest Michael Stephen Baker, who authorities say ranks among the Los Angeles Archdiocese's most prolific child molesters, pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing two boys and was sentenced to 10 years and four months in prison. The 59-year-old defrocked priest, who was wearing a jail-issued orange jumpsuit, sat impassively as some of his accusers and their supporters testified about how he had ruined the lives of innocent children.

A pedophile priest whom Cardinal Roger M. Mahony returned to the ministry after learning of his interest in children was sentenced to three years in prison Friday, bringing to a close Los Angeles' first high-profile trial since the church's abuse scandal exploded four years ago. Father Michael Edwin Wempe, 66, was led into court in handcuffs and sat expressionless in his brown county jail jumpsuit as Judge Curtis B.

A day before prosecutors planned to start picking members of a secret grand jury in entertainer Michael Jackson's child-molestation case, a judge issued an order Wednesday threatening contempt charges if prospective jurors or witnesses were interviewed or photographed outside the courthouse. The "decorum order" by Judge Clifford R.

Voters in the 23rd Congressional District of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties have a candidate worthy of the title "Mr. Congressman." Michael Case is a native Californian and comes with the background and professional education to represent all the people of his district. He was raised on a small farm in Fresno, attended Cal State Fresno and is a graduate of San Francisco's Hastings College of Law. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force and earned the Air Force Commendation Medal.

We who have lived in Simi Valley for our entire lives have watched a lot of change, from orchards and farmlands to houses and businesses. When Elton Gallegly was our city councilman, and then our mayor, he was protective of our environment. He signed legislation to protect our hillsides and to designate the Tierra Rejada greenbelt that separates Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark. In Congress, he negotiated for funding to study the watersheds of Calleguas Creek and Santa Clara River to make sure that the water runs clean for people and wildlife.

For me, Rep. Elton Gallegly's July 31 letter to constituents became an exercise in futility. I was moved to respond but discovered he does not have a [direct] e-mail address and still doesn't. His unwillingness now to debate his opponent before the voters is consistent. Recently, our Ventura County district attorney chose to "support Gallegly as most committed to keeping our neighborhoods safe." Besides the normal good support we should expect of any officeholder, no reasons are given for making that claim.