Secession

Re "County dinosaur," editorial, Feb. 25 Your editorial brings up some valid points about the unwieldiness of the structure that governs L.A. County. Unfortunately, more than a little of that is mandated by the state Constitution. Meaningful change would take a fair amount of heaven-and-earth moving by the Legislature and governor, or a state ballot initiative. Other aspects of the county's dysfunction can be laid at the feet of the city of Los Angeles. I hope that the editorial revives talk of secession, but not of the Valley.

Georgia's South Ossetia region overwhelmingly endorsed a split with the government in Tbilisi, with 99% of about 50,000 voters voting "yes" in a referendum, election officials reported. Before the vote, the hawkish Georgian defense minister was removed in the strongest sign yet that Tbilisi wants to ease a bitter standoff with the separatists and their Russian backers.

On a recent Sunday morning, the Rt. Rev. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Los Angeles Diocese of the Episcopal Church, stood before a congregation in Ventura County with his hands clasped, the fingers tightly interlaced, as two boys summoned from the pews tried to pull them apart. It was not an easy task. Bruno stands 6 feet 5 and weighs 285 pounds, and his hands are in proportion to the rest of him.

This is prime country-fair season, when villages roll out moon-sized pumpkins, maple-flavored everything and, here at Heritage Days, a manifesto on why Vermont should secede from the United States. At a card table outside the tavern where Vermont first declared its independence in 1777, delegates from the Second Vermont Republic -- a.k.a. the secessionists -- looked just as comfortable one recent Sunday as the vendors selling goat's milk soap.

LOS ANGELES owes much to Raphael J. Sonenshein, a pioneering scholar of this city whose serious study has spurred interest in its dense, subtle politics and government. More important, Sonenshein is that rare being -- the civically engaged intellectual. He is honestly dispassionate yet utterly committed.

Parliament declared independence for the tiny Balkan republic of Montenegro, forming a new European state and dissolving what was left of the former Yugoslavia. The assembly adopted a declaration of independence, verifying the results of a May 21 referendum in which Montenegrins supported a split from Serbia by a slim margin. The document envisages Montenegro as a "multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious society ... based on the rule of law and market economy."

Montenegrins turned out in force Sunday to vote on independence from Serbia, and early today the prime minister, who led the separatist drive, declared victory. But the vote was so close that the opposition refused to concede, and pollsters withheld predictions. Under rules agreed to with the European Union, 55% of eligible Montenegrin voters who cast ballots must approve separation.

More than a century after the Ralphs brothers bought a cattle ranch in wind-swept northern Los Angeles County, descendants of the grocery store clan are as divided as the rest of the tiny mountain community of Gorman on whether to secede from the Southland and become part of Kern County. A branch of the Ralphs family has joined a group of newly arrived Mennonite home builders from Pennsylvania in a full-fledged revolt against what they see as anti-growth Los Angeles County.

Six thousand Taiwanese troops practiced repelling a possible Chinese invasion Thursday, while the island's leader emphasized the importance of reserve forces in fending off any attack. The drill was part of Taiwan's annual maneuvers called Han Kuang, or Chinese Glory -- a series of naval, air and land exercises that last several months.

Red-and-blue Taiwanese flags were still fluttering in the most prominent places in Chinatown on Sunday, but a crowd of people loyal to the People's Republic of China raised split-finger victory signs as their one red-and-gold flag found a home on a small lane. "I feel real proud," said David Lee, 85, who owns the office building on Bamboo Lane where the flag now flies. "We're doing it nicely, quietly. We'll be in the center [of Chinatown], in time."