Planned

Appreciation is the word that I am feeling after seeing the "Donahue" series on Russia. Each program, which was planned so well, included the issues about which most Americans are concerned. Joan G. Anderson, San Pedro

What does Woody Stephens have planned for the filly in the Belmont, another purse snatching? LEAH WILSON San Pedro

The leader of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California strongly denied allegations contained in a whistle-blower lawsuit unsealed last week that the group overcharged the state and federal government by at least $180 million for birth-control pills. In a statement released Tuesday, Kathy Kneer, the group's president and chief executive, called the allegations contained in the federal lawsuit "completely false." P. Victor Gonzalez alleges that he was fired in March 2004 as vice president of finance and administration of the Los Angeles affiliate after raising concerns about the "illegal accounting, billing and donations practices of Planned Parenthood."

To invite Planned Parenthood and the homosexual claque, AIDS Care, to propagandize sex education courses in the Ventura County public schools is like inviting the Mafia to control teen-age violence. Anyone of any intelligence who can approve the devious, subversive thrust of Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care is obviously not concerned with the health and welfare of our children. That person should not be part of the public education system. GEORGE M. JOHNSON Oxnard

A grand jury that investigated a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park has declined to issue an indictment on allegations that the facility violated abortion restrictions. Abortion foes, through a petition, had compelled Johnson County to convene the panel. The clinic denied any wrongdoing. "It gives me great faith in the justice system and the people of Kansas," said Planned Parenthood attorney Pedro Irigonegaray.

According to the Oxnard High School PTSA "Beeline," 41% of 11th-graders admit to drinking and driving. And the teen pregnancy rate remains too high. Our only hope for correction is knowledge, not bits and pieces but total knowledge. Absolute abstinence is the best answer, but like true communism, it won't work. ALDEN L. McMURTRY Oxnard Planned Parenthood, the self-proclaimed defender of "choice," is upset. Three Ventura County school board members exercised their freedom of choice and chose to use organizations other than Planned Parenthood to teach the county's teachers sex education.

Circuit City Stores Inc.'s assets may be bought by companies that would sell off remaining merchandise and shut down the second-largest U.S. consumer-electronics chain, according to two people familiar with the planned bids. Hilco Merchant Resources, Great American Group and Hudson Capital Partners are part of two separate groups of liquidators that planned to submit offers for the retailer, said the people, who declined to be identified because the auction process isn't public.

An 18-year-old student accused of planning to bomb his high school was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and could face life in prison if convicted. Authorities allege that Ryan Schallenberger planned to detonate explosives in a suicide attack on his school in the small town of Chesterfield.