A continuing
   problem

   To the editor:
   “Humiliated and Hurt” (letter to the editor) expresses a problem I’ve run into before at that 7/11 store. One morning around 4 a.m., I set my bag down inside the store, made a purchase and noted the cashier was dozing. When I paid for my item, he became defensive, then accused me of stealing a paper I brought in with me. When I had a few minutes free, I called the manager and asked her to run the surveillance tape they run at all times. My suspicion is the tape also caught him dozing off as well as my putting the bags and paper down by the door.
   However, don’t expect cops to straighten things out. They regularly get free coffee at that store.
   Julien Thompson
   Santa Monica

   Bad
   beef

   To the editor:
   The December 12, 2001, decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals weakens the authority of the United States Department of Agriculture to enforce newly introduced mircrobial testing standards for salmonella in beef. Supermarkets and fast food chains continue to maintain their own rigid standards (probably to avoid lawsuits).
   The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control estimate that 1.4 million illnesses and 600 deaths per year are caused by salmonella poisoning. In spite of these statistics, the USDA will now permit the sale of contaminated beef to schools, hospitals and nursing homes on the completely irresponsible premise that proper cooking and handling will destroy this bacteria…as if we could guarantee this.    Unfortunately, children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to food poisoning.
   Congress can change this deplorable state of affairs by tightening the standards for testing. Let’s all write to our legislators to inform them that the safety of meat for consumers is more important than profits for the beef industry.
   Esther J. Kaplinksy
   Los Angeles

   Braking
   the buses

   To the editor,
   With the near-completion of the Transit Mall, now is the time for the Big Blue Bus management to focus on some basic things — such as preventing the buses from running through red lights.
   I have the good fortune of walking to my office in the heart of downtown Santa Monica, passing through some of the largest intersections in the downtown area. Not a single day goes by that I don’t see buses rushing through red lights with impunity. Normally, this happens when the light begins to turn yellow and bus driver tries to rush through the intersection in time. Almost inevitably the driver fails in this endeavour.
   This behavior is highly dangerous, and places at risk not only the hapless passengers on board those vehicles, but members of the public at large.
   Several times a week I find myself jumping out of the way of a speeding bus running the light. I often see buses stuck inside an intersection after going through a red light, blocking traffic in all directions. Besides the physical hazards, this presents an extremely poor picture of our city, suggesting that city employees need not obey traffic laws, and that traffic laws, in any case, are not enforced.
   Here are my suggestions:
   1. Management needs to review whether the bus schedules are too tight, forcing drivers to speed through red lights.
   2. Management needs to issue clear and explicit warnings to drivers outlining the consequences of running red lights.
   3. The Santa Monica Police Department needs to get into the act, by enforcing the traffic laws — yes, even on staffers of the Big Blue Bus. In the hundreds of light-running cases I have witnessed, not once have I seen a police officer stop a bus and issue a ticket.
   If Santa Monica is to be the pedestrian-friendly, transportation-conscious city it intends, the traffic laws must be obeyed — and enforced — by city employees. There can only be a single standard where it comes to traffic safety, with no exceptions.
   Daniel Jansenson, Architect
   Santa Monica

   Free the
   ponies

   To the editor:
   Do we really need hot, tired, smelly miniature horses going in circles every week for the pleasure of dazed and scared two-year-olds? Many regular attendees at the Main Street Farmers’ Market each Sunday believe we don’t. It only takes a minute to witness the meaninglessness of this local weekly cruelty to wonder why we allow this nonsense in an otherwise forward thinking community.
   The ponies themselves are hauled into a dark, metal transport to Main Street each and every Sunday morning from who-knows-where. They are promptly tied up to a merry-go-round harness that allows almost no movement other than the eternal circling. Some dried hay is thrown on the ground to give the “barnyard” effect, it is a “Farmers’” market after all. Then the well-intentioned parents start lining up to sit their little ones upon this obviously tired and bored animal. Of course the ponies must be yelled at and hit with the occasional stick to get them going for the five-minute ride. Let me reiterate; they must constantly be hit to keep moving. I guess going in circles, six inches from the tail of another, doesn’t come naturally to these gentle animals. Often the animal handlers don’t bring a tent for the animals so they subjected to intermittent to direct sun from 9 a.m. to past 1 p.m. Rarely are they offered water, just the occasional oat bucket for inspiration.
   Let’s stop this antiquated form of animal cruelty taking place in our own backyard. I believe parents can entertain their children with the excellent music, food, face-painting and people watching and not teach their children that is okay to treat animals as slaves for entertainment. Besides, the dancing kiddies look a heck of a lot happier playing with their peers.
   Richard Kaylor
   Venice

   What a
   surprise

   To the editor:
   In your Volume III, Issue 31, January 16-22, the Santa Monica’s Week in Business Column reported: “The Trader Joe’s store planned for Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica is in trouble. A lot of politicking will have to be resolved before the store wins permission to build out next to a residential neighborhood.”
   Imagine that! A food market next to a residential neighborhood!
   M. J. Friedenthal
   Pacific Palisades