Proof

If the residents of Glendale and La Crescenta are serious about keeping bears safe, they must secure their trash by keeping it off the streets until the morning of pick-up and/or purchase bear-proof containers. In many mountain towns residents are given bear-proof containers and the residents are fined if said containers are left unlocked. The people are responsible for keeping wildlife safe. It is up to us to help keep our bears alive. Barbara Blaine Glendale

Expectations can color attitudes. I had so looked forward to "Proof." You know, the limited engagement hype, the trailers that ran months before the movie appeared, the beckoning call of a movie about mathematics which might mean that here -- at last in this year of unmemorable movies -- we are offered something that would leave us with more than 97 minutes of bottom-in-plush-seat. Then there was the enticing call of names that promise greatness -- Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal, and, yes, even the much-touted Gwyneth Paltrow.

This is in response to Thomas L. Feia's letter to the Glendale News-Press: "Brainwashed about secondhand smoke," Mailbag, Saturday. To be fair, near the end of his letter he hit the nail on head with a question to the readers and his response, "What qualifications do I have to make these statements? None." So, I wondered, do I duke it out with an admitted "don't know it all," or let it go? Well, since I'm sure his words resonated with many smokers, I thought it would be best to at least fulfill one of Feia's requests, with regard to the effects of secondhand smoke: "Show me the proof."

Gary Moskowitz GLENDALE -- Registration for children eligible to enter kindergarten for the 2002-03 school year in the Glendale Unified School District begins Tuesday, March 12. To enter kindergarten for the 2002-03 school year, a child must be 5 years old by Dec. 2, 2002. Year-round schools begin on Wednesday, July 8, and schools on a traditional schedule begin Wednesday, Sept. 4. Parents must be present for registration, and must provide the child's proof of age, proof of immunization for polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B and chicken pox. Proof of a tuberculosis skin test and proof of residency must also be provided.

Registration dates announced Kindergarten registration for the 2005-2006 school year begins Feb. 7. Parents can register at their neighborhood school in the La Canada Unified School District. Registration packets are available at schools after Jan 31. Parents of children who already attend a particular elementary school can register their incoming kindergartener at that school beginning 8 a.m. on Feb. 4. Parents will be asked for their child's Social Security number and proof of age, immunization records and proof of residence, which can include closing escrow papers, grant deed, tax bill or lease agreement or utility bills.

In a letter to the editor ("Making a case on El Tovar facts," March 8), Bob Yousefian states: "On the date of the upcoming hearing, it is important to note that it is the responsibility of the applicant (Karjoo) to make the case for the four findings required so the council can grant them the variances." This "fact" is dead wrong. On March 14, the council voted to hear the matter on Tuesday, April 11. City Atty. Scott Howard explained it would be a de novo hearing: Each side would be required to make their case anew -- just as if the council had no previous knowledge of the facts.

Far from an action film Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a writer who lives in Glendale. As an action flick, "Proof Of Life" is a bit of a bore. As a film of substance, it kept me searching for metaphors long after the credits rolled (which, by the way, were a visual wonder). After being annoyed by way too many journeys through the jungle, it occurred to me that screenwriter Tony Gilroy was after something beyond adventure. He explores journeys of another sort, journeys of faith, ethics, self-discovery.

Karen S. Kim Glendale Water and Power is trying to keep some of its low-income residents out of the dark by offering two new public-benefit programs. Approved with a 4-0 vote by the City Council on Tuesday night, the two programs will help some low-income families avoid termination of service by paying off past-due bills and help other families reestablish electric services after their service has been disconnected. "A lot of low-income homes can't come up with the initial deposit to get their service turned on," GWP Public Benefits Programs Coordinator Craig Kuennen said.

Tim Willert GLENDALE -- Representatives from the district offices of state Sen. Jack Scott (D-Glendale) and Assembly membersDario Frommer (D-Glendale) and Carol Liu (D-La Crescenta) will assist with 2001 Homeowner and Renter Assistance forms. The representatives will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at St. Mary's Church, 500 S. Central Ave. The program provides a one-year reimbursement to homeowners and renters who are disabled, blind, over 62, a legal resident of the U.S., earned $35,251 or less in 2000, owned or lived in home since Dec. 31 or paid $50 or more per month in rent.

If the heart of a bakery is its oven, then Proof Bakery's is ginormous. Really. It's a gas-powered Dalton with double doors and revolving shelves that can fit 18 sheet trays - or 72 pies - at a time. The oven, about the size of a 10-foot U-Haul truck, is 50 years old, inherited with the space, and its quirks provide the cult Atwater bakery its pulse. "When someone first showed me how to light it, you had to fill a basin with gas, light a newspaper and throw it in," says owner Na Young Ma. "It was like 'Backdraft.' "But I have learned to love it. " (She also has since installed a modern igniter.)

If the residents of Glendale and La Crescenta are serious about keeping bears safe, they must secure their trash by keeping it off the streets until the morning of pick-up and/or purchase bear-proof containers. In many mountain towns residents are given bear-proof containers and the residents are fined if said containers are left unlocked. The people are responsible for keeping wildlife safe. It is up to us to help keep our bears alive. Barbara Blaine Glendale

After reading Gary Huerta's column on healing and "energy work" ("A Balcony View: Mental healing without the guilt trips," Oct. 26), I sent him an e-mail asking a simple question: What kind of energy is he talking about? Is it thermal? Potential? Gravitational? Kinetic? Light? Sound? Electromagnetic? In a sense, my simple question about energy was rhetorical, and I got the answer I was expecting: Huerta doesn't know. Through the tools of science, we know a lot about many different kinds of energies.

BURBANK — As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other toxic chemicals, stories of ill health from the plaintiffs are beginning to emerge. In the latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Sacramento-based firm Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP on behalf of 16 people with strong ties to the Rancho District, the plaintiffs claim Disney dumped wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the so-called Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel near the studio’s Imagineering facilities.

Business not nuisance so leave them alone Your article in the Wednesday edition, "Neighbors claim illegal businesses at home," pretty clearly confirms that the complaints are the work of meddlesome neighbors. The fact they had to go to a website to find out that a business was being conducted at the residence is proof that the alleged new business is not a neighborhood nuisance. The complaining neighbor(s) should just shut up and mind their own affairs. As long as a business does not cause excessive noise, foot or vehicle traffic, it should be free to operate in any neighborhood, notwithstanding zoning.

This is in response to Thomas L. Feia's letter to the Glendale News-Press: "Brainwashed about secondhand smoke," Mailbag, Saturday. To be fair, near the end of his letter he hit the nail on head with a question to the readers and his response, "What qualifications do I have to make these statements? None." So, I wondered, do I duke it out with an admitted "don't know it all," or let it go? Well, since I'm sure his words resonated with many smokers, I thought it would be best to at least fulfill one of Feia's requests, with regard to the effects of secondhand smoke: "Show me the proof."

When Kurt Kreugermann escaped communist-controlled East Germany and relocated to Glendale with his wife, Helga, in 1961, he brought with him three generations of experience in the pickle and sauerkraut business. "My husband, Kurt, he knows about pickles," Helga Kruegermann said. Kurt Kruegermann's grandparents founded Kruegermann's Pickles & Sauerkraut in 1896. His parents took over from there and by the time Kurt Kruegermann and his brother were offered the operation, they had little choice but to accept.

When Kurt Kreugermann escaped communist-controlled East Germany and relocated to Glendale with his wife, Helga, in 1961, he brought with him three generations of experience in the pickle and sauerkraut business. “My husband, Kurt, he knows about pickles,” Helga Kruegermann said. Kurt Kruegermann’s grandparents founded Kruegermann’s Pickles & Sauerkraut in 1896. His parents took over from there and by the time Kurt Kruegermann and his brother were offered the operation, they had little choice but to accept.

Expectations can color attitudes. I had so looked forward to "Proof." You know, the limited engagement hype, the trailers that ran months before the movie appeared, the beckoning call of a movie about mathematics which might mean that here -- at last in this year of unmemorable movies -- we are offered something that would leave us with more than 97 minutes of bottom-in-plush-seat. Then there was the enticing call of names that promise greatness -- Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal, and, yes, even the much-touted Gwyneth Paltrow.