Roberts

San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts, saying he has lost some of his confidence in the agency selecting a vendor for a lucrative city telephone contract, persuaded the council Tuesday to place the evaluation of bidders entirely in the hands of outside experts. Roberts aired his suspicions after listening to a tape recording of the May 25 meeting of the San Diego Data Processing Corp., the agency given authority by the council to select vendors for the $12- to $18-million city government phone contract.

The Rev. Keenan Roberts looked surprisingly calm for a playwright on opening night -- especially one who had traveled from Denver to see how Hollywood had hijacked his work. "What they're doing is not my material," he said, standing in the parking lot of the Steve Allen Theater on Saturday. He smiled, though he was not exactly amused.

Our infrastructure crumbles, our public buildings echo only long-gone civic pride, and our school system is a total disgrace. Gov. Gray Davis, please forget about my $150 income tax refund and reduced DMV fees. I'd rather live in a California that takes pride in creating opportunities for everyone: good education, parks, libraries, museums. I do not understand an outlook founded on scarcity at a time of great wealth. What is needed is leadership, not pandering; investment, not meaningless consumption.

Re "A judicious salary," editorial, Jan. 7 Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is apoplectic over judicial salaries, saying pay raises are long overdue. He gripes to Congress that federal judges are paid a fraction of what top private-practice attorneys make and about half of what top law school deans and professors earn. A handful of judges have walked away from their lifetime appointments -- 17 over the last two years, or about 2% of the judiciary. The private sector would cherish such low turnover.

If you conspire to commit a crime and the police kill your accomplice, you are guilty of murder, not the police. Granted Alan Roberts is not the police, but the same doctrine should still apply here ("Mauled Boy's Dad Acquitted in O.C. Dog Beating," Oct. 17). Roberts acted in protection of his child and others who may encounter the animal. We do not need to make Roberts an example. Humans beating dogs is not a prevalent problem. Dogs attacking people is. DERYL ROBINSON Huntington Beach Re: The acquittal of the individual accused of beating a dog to death in front of its terrified owner.

A year ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court finished its second term under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the court was criticized -- including on this page -- for giving the lie to Roberts' paeans at his confirmation hearings to consensus and respect for precedent. Twenty-four cases were resolved by 5-4 votes, and on some key issues there was no majority at all. Far from respecting precedent, the Roberts court in its 2006-07 term executed unseemly U-turns on two issues, approving a federal ban on "partial-birth" abortions and overriding school districts that sought to achieve a modicum of racial integration in the classroom.

Alfred Hitchcock has finally usurped Orson Welles. Hitchcock's"Vertigo"took the top spot in the 10 greatest-movies-ever list compiled by Sight & Sound, ending the 50-year run for Welles'"Citizen Kane. "The magazine, published by the British Film Institute, surveys international film critics every decade. "Citizen Kane" slid to second, making way for Hitchcock's 1958 psychological drama starring James Stewart and Kim Novak. "Vertigo" edged "Citizen Kane" by 34 votes in the poll, which gathered lists from 846 critics, programmers, academics and distributors.

-- Supervisor District 2 -- -- 100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Paul Biane 24,654 100 -- -- District 4 -- -- 100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Gary C. Ovitt 14,606 73 Kenneth M. White 5,517 27 -- -- Assessor -- -- 100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Bill Postmus 64,487 46 Donald E. Williamson 47,018 34 Michael Willhite 14,751 11 Alfred Palazzo 12,992 9 -- -- Auditor/ Controller-Recorder ...

In 1967, John Roberts and a friend placed this ad in the New York Times: "Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting and legitimate business enterprises." More than 5,000 proposals poured in, including one about a bicycle with skis and one about an edible golf ball. The winning idea? Something called Woodstock. Roberts, a businessman who used inheritance money to produce the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, the mammoth rock festival that attracted nearly half a million of the nation's youth to a tiny, sodden upstate New York farm for three days in 1969, died Oct. 27 in New York.