Foot and mouth disease may be on its way, but E. coli bacteria is already here – and it’s everywhere, from fast food restaurants and supermarket shelves to petting zoos and “barnyard exhibits.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that exposure to “barnyard exhibits” increases one’s chances of contracting E. coli infections, particularly for children, who commonly put their hands near their mouths after petting the animals. The CDC suggests that organizers of animal exhibits “provide more adequate hand-washing facilities and ban hand-to-mouth contact close to the animals.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) thinks that suggestion is all washed up! If you want to avoid E. coli, avoid the animals-dead or alive. Whether on your plate, or in the barn, cows, chickens, goats and other farm animals can be harmful to your health.

As more and more people adopt a vegetarian diet, our need for “farm” animals will diminish, as well as exhibits where we can gawk at them, therefore lessening the threat of E. coli contamination. Contact PETA at 1-888-VEG-FOOD for a free vegetarian starter kit.

Heather Moore

At last, a glimmer of reason has appeared in the Malibu Times. This well written and cogent article has put the blame where it belongs, on the environmentalists and their political lackeys who have literally run unchecked throughout this state for decades. This started with the hysteria over nuclear power plants and Governor Moonbeam and his “less is more” mentality. The economic costs of their meddling through coercive, unreasonable and unrealistic laws, contradictory and costly regulations and lawsuits are finally coming into the consciousness of the public. The economic crisis that we are having now is painfully instructing people that there is a cost benefit ratio that has to be considered for not only environmental protection but also for the welfare of the citizens. This cost in the form of endless lawsuits, idiotic government regulations, bureaucratic stupidity, decreased productivity and wasted resources has not been counted until now. The steep rise in gasoline, natural gas and the concomitant costs in electricity is finally making a long overdue impression on citizens. It is long past time for the radicals to admit that people are important too.

It is also long past time that politicians admit their culpability in this travesty also.

The blockage by environmentalists and their political allies of new or expanded power plants, oil exploration, refineries and gas production has certainly not improved the economic situation and this summer the fruits of environmental radical policies and the politicians genuflecting to this special interest group will be borne by the ordinary citizen. The abject failure of our dimbulb governor to acknowledge the causes of the problem and actually do something constructive should be obvious by now to everyone including this newspaper.

The pathetic best that our governor can do is threaten producers with confiscation or propose unsound buyout proposals. As if that will make entrepreneurs and developers of power flock to this state to invest their money in power plants. Like a typical Democrat Davis believes that all you have to do is appear tough, threaten the big bad corporations, or pass a badly written and incredibly stupid law and these kinds of economic and modern necessities will magically appear, cheaply and to be had in abundance by all. For example, the light bulb police checking to make sure businesses have their lights out at certain times. Or worse yet, the politicians will threaten that the government will take over the entire system. Well, folks, if you think the DMV is bad wait until a similar bureaucracy starts managing power plants or the electrical grid system. So this summer when you are at home, in the dark, stuck in traffic due to no traffic lights or, even worse, stuck in an elevator when a blackout hits remember that it was the Democratic politicians and the econuts that got you there.

Charles T. Black

Libertarian Party

Included in letters to the editor this week is one from a member of the Libertarian party congratulating us on a guest editorial that ran last week. Thank you for the kudos, but the editorial was not written by me. An attorney wrote it for the Pacific Legal Foundation and, in the main, I didn’t agree with his premise or the Foundation’s premise that the problem with our world is government.

I don’t share this almost child-like belief that if government would just leave the environmental problems and energy supply problems alone, the free market would work them out. It seems to me to be sort of Pollyannaish.

Being a very empirical person, I look at the energy crisis, and at a bunch of free enterprise utilities running to the government and whining about how they were forced into deregulation and about how they, therefore, should be bailed out, and I wonder whatever happened to the free enterprise system. If they made a dumb decision, should we just be saying “Tough”?

Now having said all this, and having spoken up to defend government, you might well wonder why it is that I truly believe the bad reputation enjoyed by government is frequently well-deserved and often the result of self-inflicted wounds.

I believe that people dislike government because governments consistently do some of the dumbest things imaginable. And just so you don’t think this is some philosophic discourse, I’m going to give you two very local examples that are happening as we speak.

Example # 1

This past weekend, the Malibu Farmers’ Market reopened in the City Hall parking lot after a winter hiatus. It’s no great secret that they’re struggling and they desperately need community support if they’re going to stay in business. To make it a more inviting event, they have food booths and fun things that will attract families with children, to try and create a comfortable friendly atmosphere. To make it work the city gives the space, and has given money directly to the Farmers’ Market.

So what happens? A sheriff’s department ticket giver, who drives around in a little white sheriffs car with a decal that says “community service officer,” which one could argue is a bit of a misnomer, decides to start ticketing cars that are parked at an angle alongside the Chili Cook-Off site.

I must admit that he got me, along with a bunch of others. The reason we parked at an angle was because the others before us parked that way. There was no sign that said you couldn’t, and it made space for more cars. It was apparent that whoever gives out tickets–and by the way these are frequently part-time, low-paid and minimally trained individuals, sometimes not even old enough to drink–is running around exercising some very poor governmental judgment.

Almost everyone I talked to thought the tickets were sheer idiocy and were prepared to go to court to fight them. I think if the sheriff’s department is able to squander its manpower in this sort of silliness, perhaps it simply has too much money in its budget and too much manpower.

I, for one, am going to take a much harder look at the department’s budget when it comes up again. I would like to see a public explanation about the entire so-called “community service officers” and who’s hired, how they’re trained, how they’re supervised, and perhaps a public discussion about whether or not we really need them.

Example # 2

The State of California and the California State Department of Parks want to buy the 1,600-plus acres in Lower Topanga Canyon from the Los Angeles Athletic Club holding company. A budget of $40 million has been allocated for the purpose. The goal is to make that land available to California as a public park.

However, State Parks won’t take it unless it is vacant and free of tenants because in past deals the department got burned–it took years to get rid of the tenants. So the state wants to throw out all the tenants, but also it doesn’t want to appear to be the heavy; it looks bad when the state uses its power to muscle citizens and small businesses that don’t have the finances to fight back.

So a deal is cut with an organization called the American Land Conservancy (ALC), which has a contract to buy the land. The ALC is now in the process of throwing everyone off the land and that includes the Malibu Feed Bin, Oasis Furniture, the Reel Inn, the Topanga Motel, the Topanga Ranch Market, Something Fishy Sushi Restaurant, Wylie’s Bait and Tackle Shop, Thai Beach Caf, an assorted group of other businesses and renters, some of whom have been there for 20 or 30 years.

In other words, the state proposes to tear down the only reasonably priced visitor-serving area in Malibu so it can make room for a new visitor-serving area. If a private developer attempted anything this heavy-handed, people would be laying down in front of the bulldozers. Apparently, this little cute deal has the support of the environmental community and our state legislators because they all want the acreage.

It my opinion the deal stinks, and when government goes into the tenant removal business and hides behind some shell environmental wheeler dealers, to me, it’s unconscionable. It can only make you wonder if the Libertarian may be right after all. Maybe government really can’t be trusted.

I have enjoyed the articles written by your reporter Ann Salisbury.

Over the last 50 years I have fished in the Malibu area. I have caught and released many steelhead in the creek. I’ve watched their numbers dwindle to almost zero due to poor water quality upstream, instream and downstream. It’s frightening. By the time decisions are made about what to do with the Rindge Dam, how to control the City of Malibu’s continuous pollution, and how to control the Tapia Water Treatment Plant, there won’t be any steelhead to save.

Realtor Louis Busch claims the fish have never gone above the dam, but others show pictures of braces of steelhead that appear to have been caught way up near Cornell in the early 1900s. I don’t know who is right. But I do know that when I heard Mr. Busch say at a public meeting that he didn’t care about the fish, and why don’t we just buy them in the grocery store, it makes me cringe that such ignorance has anything to do with real estate.

Keep writing those excellent articles Ms. Salisbury.

Michael Hart

I wish to thank the mayor, City Council, and all the citizens of Malibu for allowing me to be of service for the past 35 months.

During my term as your city clerk I’ve prepared and/or supervised the preparation of: 143 council agendas packages, 150 council minutes, 241 council resolutions, 49 ordinances, 4 council reorganizations, 2 city elections, more than 13 FPPC filing deadlines, 3 appreciation of service events, 3 council receptions, an initiative petition, and the tenth anniversary celebration, on top of the daily work routine.

While serving Malibu, I’ve worked with eight councilmembers including four mayors, three city managers, three city attorneys, three planning directors, three Public Works directors, two finance directors, two Parks & Recreation directions, one building official and more than 70 employees.

I’ve endured numerous uncompensated O.T. hours, infrequent however unbecoming treatment, have driven more than 116,500 round-trip miles, received three speeding tickets, been in two car accidents and one rock slide on PCH. I’ve learned a great deal from these experiences and, I’ve made several lifelong friendships along the way.

All in all, I’ve enjoyed the “Malibu way of life” while I was here. Thanks again for allowing me to serve you.

Virginia Bloom

Last week was National Turn Off the TV Week, which is designed to set kids pondering how much of their lives they’re wasting with their eyeballs glued to the tube.

A peripheral repercussion is that the specter of lost ad revenue strikes fear into the hearts of network executives, who launch a counterattack. The “suits” order additional previews of “all new” episodes of our favorite shows to be shown during tube turnoff week. I guess it must work, because nobody I talked to had a clue that TV was busted so children could abandon the couch, play outside, read and drive their parents crazy.

Some teachers ask students to account for how they spent their reclaimed time. Others stress reading and writing programs all week.

My grandson’s school celebrated something called “Young Authors Day” for which I was pressed into service as a reader. I chose “Coyote,” Gerald McDermott’s tale based on a Native American fable about how Blue Coyote had a nose for trouble and always found it. How he wanted to fly with the crows and how he became rude and boastful and the crows took back their feathers and let him fall back to earth. Three groups of first-, second- and third-graders listened wide-eyed and gape-mouthed, then offered their takes on how coyote got into so much trouble and if he learned anything. The consensus was he didn’t. Most of these kids have seen lots of coyotes and crows and saw the fine line between fact and fiction. That was fun.

My personal experience with Turn Off the TV Week was mixed. Certainly it was less traumatic than the news fast I attempted in honor of Andrew Weil’s “8 Weeks to Optimum Health,” but that’s another story.

One can turn off the TV and still get plenty of news, most of it more enlightening than the pap smeared across TV screens with “film at 11.”

News on National Public Radio is superb, in depth, serious, at times humorous and generally delivered by someone who knows what it is they’re saying instead of perky young news readers mispronouncing the names of world leaders. “All Things Considered,” “The California Report,” “The Washington Report,” “Our Ocean World” couldn’t be better. Fair and balanced coverage of stuff we care about sans car chases.

So in case my teacher wants to know how I spent my found time, here it goes.

Monday without the tube was easy. Monday TV is pretty lame, at least until you get to Charlie Rose, whose intelligent and funny interviews shine on KCET at about 11 p.m. and again at 3:30 p.m. the following day.

Instead of watching Jim Lehrer on KCET’s “News Hour,” I listened to NPR while I began cleaning the room where I push words around. My computer was at the Mac Doctor’s place all week, so I cleaned behind and beneath the desk where wires breed and computer gremlins unplug the telephone connection when no one’s looking. I was still hoovering up dust bunnies when “Jeopardy” asked its answers and responded its questions without me. Guess I’ll have to do more crossword puzzles to keep my brain cells from atrophying.

Tuesday was tougher because “NYPD Blue” was “all new,” but who knew? So I started filing clips and stuff. This led to a major reshuffling of file boxes and a minor repositioning of furniture. The result is serene order. I’m so inspired I hang up the new mirror and shelf that’s been leaning on the couch, half unwrapped, since Christmas.

Wednesday I was going to cheat and watch “West Wing” and “Law and Order,” but since I hadn’t seen “NYPD Blue” the night before, I forgot it was Wednesday, and besides, I was deeply engrossed in Al Martinez’s book, “The Last City Room.”

By Thursday, I was slipping out of TV mode. The network suits had cause to worry. Their ratings were falling like dot-com stock prices. I never even missed Sally Fields’ return to “E.R.”

Friday was the real test. “Washington Week in Review,” by far, the best of the talking heads in my view. Oh well, instead I caught “Jazz From Lincoln Center” with Billy Taylor on NPR. Then I finished listening to my latest P.D. James mystery on tape while I filed and pushed the furniture around some more.

Saturday TV is as lame as Monday, so I caught a book show on NPR: Joanne Woodward reading a short story, recollections by the mother of a retarded girl who marries a retarded young man. Powerful, poignant and fiercely funny.

Sunday morning came and went without Charles Osgood’s “Sunday Morning,” Wolf Blitzer, Tim Russert, Sam and Cokie, the Capital Gang and all the political pontificators. Blah, blah, blah. I listened to the opera instead: same intrigue, drama, whining and crying but set to glorious music.

By this time I’m so inspired I get out my Real Goods, Gardeners’ Supply and Alston’s catalogs and order a ton of stuff that will keep me outdoors and away from the tube.

Score at week’s end: books read – 3; books on tape – 2, unabridged; newspapers scanned and partially read – 14; crossword puzzles completed – 21, 2 crumpled in the dust bin; file boxes – 4, emptied and contents resorted; minor repairs, picture hanging and miscellaneous chores – 15; articles and columns clipped and put in string books – 146 (I’m up to June, 1994); photos and negatives filed – just begun when TV Turn-Off Week ended. The fact is I’m on a roll. Feeling a bit smug, like Blue Coyote. I don’t think I’ll go back to the TV routine just yet, except possibly just for “Jeopardy.” Got to keep nudging those brain cells.

We, the board of directors of Friends of the Arson Watch and Disaster Services, Inc. (F.A.W.D.S.) have voted and passed a motion to solicit funding for the purchase of a four-wheel drive vehicle to be used as an arson watch command vehicle. This vehicle will replace “Old Betsy,” your arson watch coordinator Allen Emerson’s command van.

From 1982 to 1995, Emerson has paid for all maintenance and repairs and has logged over 200,000 miles. Since 1995,.F.A.W.D.S. has paid for all the repairs. Over the past two years, repairs have become more frequent, and “Old Betsy” is on her last legs. Therefore, we have decided it would be financially wiser to purchase a new or late model vehicle.

Recently, many of you have contributed to F.A.W.D.S., Inc., and we greatly appreciate your support. We would not be asking for your help again were it not vitally important and necessary.

Thank you for taking time to read this special appeal. Please make your tax deductible check payable to F.A.W.D.S., Inc. and mail at your earliest convenience to P.O. Box 197, Topanga, CA 90290.

Allen Emerson