Opinion

Re "Tech firms begin to see 'delight' in a new light," Column One, May 10 I spent many years consulting to the corporate world, teaching where commas go and how to use semicolons. However, the majority of my work consisted of getting participants to recognize jargon and find straightforward and clear alternatives to that obfuscating form of English. I actually laughed out loud about 15 years ago when, for the first time, I saw the phrase "customer delight" in a corporate document.

Re "Warren upends bankers, tradition," May 11 As the newest member of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is a breath of fresh air. Finally, there's a voice in Washington for the people and a staunch advocate for consumers. Although she's ranked 97th out of 100 in seniority, Warren's intelligence and knowledge of financial regulation have shaken the good-old-boys network to its foundation. Her presence on the committee is one to be reckoned with.

Re "Crucial CO2 gauge hits key level," May 11 Our failure as a nation to address the climate change crisis is heartbreaking. We must transition off fossil fuels, period. And we have at our disposal a simple mechanism to make that happen: a carbon tax. Tax carbon at the mine or port and invest the money in clean energy. It is ridiculous to insist that we can't afford it. We should be putting every resource available into the fight to maintain a habitable planet. Vicki Kirschenbaum Burbank ALSO: Letters: Sen. Warren speaks up Letters: Tax breaks for tea parties?

Jennifer was one of my first patients as a new doctor, and she came to see me about an unintended pregnancy. A single mom to a rambunctious 5-year-old girl, Jennifer was struggling economically and battling depression. We talked about the options available to her: continuing the pregnancy and preparing to parent another child, offering the baby for adoption or having an abortion. She chose to continue with the pregnancy, and I worked with her over the following months as she struggled with the discomforts of pregnancy, excessive weight gain and the anxiety of having to raise two small children on her own. Seven months later, I delivered Jennifer's beautiful baby boy. Six weeks after that, I saw Jennifer, her new baby and her 5-year-old for a joint checkup.

For those who need reminding, I'll state it clearly: Neither the Los Angeles mayor nor the City Council has one lick of voting authority at the Los Angeles Unified School District. They can't set policy at the district, nor can they hire or fire its leaders. And when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tried to challenge that organizational structure, launching an unconstitutional attempt to take over the entire school district, the courts quickly slapped him down. But those facts haven't seemed to stop candidates for city office from grandstanding about district schools, turning them into a political pinata as they attempt to score points with voters.

If you've got your health, the cliche goes, you've got just about everything. If you've got public health duties, you're responsible for just about everything from mosquitoes (West Nile carriers) to hygiene (wash your hands for as long as it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice). Dr. Jonathan Fielding heads L.A. County's Department of Public Health , which is bigger than some states' health departments. A pediatrician by training and the head of the county's health programs since 1998, Fielding is such a believer that he and his wife, Karin, turned savvy investments into a $50-million gift last year to UCLA's School of Public Health.

Re "A posthumous fall from grace," May 12 On the one hand, men like Cardinal Roger Mahony and the late Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes, who was accused posthumously of sex abuse, seemed to be just the men to act in the best interests of the Los Angeles archdiocese at a time of a rapid expansion of the Catholic population. On the other, they were unable to resist profound moral pitfalls while working to meet those needs. Mahony is trying to reinstate himself as a moral leader after having been exposed as a protector of sexual predators.

When Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell was put on trial for murder, activists seized on the case as a symbol of all that is wrong with abortion in America, and used it to call for tighter restrictions and stepped-up oversight. But though Gosnell's behavior was deplorable, macabre and unquestionably illegal, it was aberrational, not symbolic. He has now been convicted, and he will be punished. This does not weaken the case for safe, legal and accessible abortion. Gosnell, a 72-year-old doctor who was neither an obstetrician nor a gynecologist (having failed to complete a residency in those specialties, according to a grand jury report)

Re "A clash over how to address teacher cheating," May 12 As a principal and a superintendent, I had always taken the view that one of the very important roles of a teacher was to model appropriate behavior. It would appear that the state Commission on Professional Competence, which found that a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher improperly helped students on standardized tests but decided that he shouldn't be fired, does not hold such a view. The only conclusion I can draw from its decision is that the commission has taken the position that teacher cheating does not affect the teacher's competence.

In requiring the U.S. Senate to confirm presidential appointments, the Constitution aims to ensure a second level of scrutiny of the qualifications of government officials. But Senate Republicans have hijacked the confirmation process, not only to thwart individual nominees but to undermine laws they don't agree with. If they continue in their obstructionism, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should revisit the possibility of doing away with the filibuster for nominations. The most immediate test case involves the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that moderates disputes between labor and management.