For better quality, I'd like to see Ricciardi step down now

I find it surprising that City Council President and senior member Gene Ricciardi has decided to bail out on the city. I find it even more surprising that he might skip out with two years remaining on his term ("Ricciardi Says He'll Run for District Justice," Jan. 18). But most surprising of all is his excuse for running away from a city that has been severely crippled financially during his tenure in office; he is going "to focus on quality-of-life issues." What has he been doing for the past 15 years?

The quality of the city's finances has suffered greatly under Mr. Ricciardi's 15 years in office. The quality of business and life in Downtown Pittsburgh has suffered beyond repair. The no man's land that has become the Fifth-Forbes Downtown corridor speaks volumes of our city's caretakers, including Mayor Tom Murphy and his ally Mr. Ricciardi. Certainly, the mayor called the shots, but where were Mr. Ricciardi and his concern for the "quality-of-life issues" for the last 14 years?

When it became politically expedient and apparent that the city was going to be controlled by not one but two state-run oversight boards, Mr. Ricciardi became a vociferous opponent of the mayor and his failed financial policies and development projects. However, it was too hard to run away from a record that smells like Murphy's, walks like Murphy's and talks like Murphy's. So, Mr. Ricciardi has recreated himself as a law-and-order candidate who's going to clean up Dodge!

My challenge to Mr. Ricciardi is if he's serious about running for district justice in the Oakland/South Side district, then he should step down immediately! Why wait a year? Have a special election now so that someone who is up to the challenges can help clean up the mess Ricciardi helped create. Besides, why should he be able to sit on council and use that office as a bully pulpit for his law-and-order agenda while other judicial candidates have no such platform?

RICH TENNEY
Greenfield

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Unite for clean air

I was not surprised to learn in Don Hopey's Jan. 12 article that southwestern Pennsylvania has some of the dirtiest power plants on the continent ("Pennsylvania's a Leader in Pollution"). The facts are sobering: Hatfield's Ferry (Greene County) and Keystone (Armstrong County) power plants rank No. 2 and No. 3 nationwide for sulphur dioxide emissions. It is no honor to win these rankings. Our region should be ashamed.

What surprises me is the Allegheny Conference's stance on our region's air quality rating. In December the Environmental Protection Agency designated our entire region in nonattainment for fine particulate (PM2.5) ("EPA Orders Pa. to Reduce Soot: 10 Counties in Region Need Plans by 2010," Dec. 18), caused in part by sulphur dioxide emissions.

The Allegheny Conference blames Ohio and West Virginia, diverting attention from our own polluters. True, Ohio and West Virginia are bad, but our power plants out-pollute theirs. The Allegheny Conference claims that cleaning up our air will cost us jobs and economic competitiveness. This is a false dichotomy. We can count our major polluting facilities on one hand. How many jobs would be lost -- if any -- if we cleaned up Hatfield's Ferry and Keystone? As we know from Pittsburgh's first Renaissance, cleaning the air creates quality jobs and makes our region a more desirable place to live and work.

It is ironic that the organization largely responsible for Pittsburgh's first air quality cleanup now ignores the pollution we create for ourselves and others. The Allegheny Conference should go back to its roots and lead us into a clean, bright future, not a dirty one.

KATE ST. JOHN
Board Member
Group Against Smog and Pollution
Greenfield

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Stop dirty energy

It is certainly alarming, but not at all surprising, that Pennsylvania's power plants are among the largest polluters in North America ("Pennsylvania's a Leader in Pollution," Jan. 12). Pennsylvania is home to some of the oldest coal-fired power plants in the nation, plants that have never been required to install modern pollution controls. We need to do what is necessary to reduce this dangerous pollution.

The good news is that there exists a host of easy, cost-effective ways to accomplish this. One is energy efficiency, which by making a smarter use of each megawatt reduces power plant pollution while saving electricity consumers huge sums of money. Another is updating our pollution controls. For example, requiring our state's power plants to install currently available technologies would reduce mercury emissions by a full 90 percent, a huge benefit to our public health and fishing industry at little cost.

Of course, state-level efforts can go only so far. Unfortunately, even as these results were released, the Bush administration was preparing to further attack the Clean Air Act. Pennsylvanians should contact their elected officials and tell them that what we need is cleaner air, not more handouts to dirty energy sources.

STEPHEN ROGNESS
Legislative Associate
PennEnvironment
Harrisburg

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Offensive reference

I would like to respond to the Jan. 4 letter "No Comparison" by Greg Malenky of Ross, which was his response to a letter by William Kelly of Collier ("Help Our Own First," Dec. 31).

I don't know Mr. Kelly; however, I take offense to Mr. Malenky calling him a moron. Maybe you don't agree with his thoughts, but that doesn't make him or anyone else who doesn't share your personal views a moron. You should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Malenky. I think you owe Mr. Kelly a public apology. The world is in bad enough shape without your help.

Let's try to be a little more Christian-like and stop the name calling. Remember, each of us has our own views on every issue. Mr. Malenky, maybe your views are not always those of others, but heaven forbid we should think of you as a moron.

KATHRYN FRIZZELL
Richland

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Clinton's solid record

I am answering Barbara Z. Baker's letter ("Dignity Restored," Jan. 5) and the answers to it. Ms. Baker's letter was a litany of personal attacks against former President and Mrs. Clinton. The right-wing attacks him and his family personally because they can't attack his presidential record of achievements.

President Clinton left office with the country in much better shape than when he took office from his predecessor, who is the current president's daddy. I am sure this is why conservatives are on a personal attack of Bill Clinton. To attack his presidential record, which, by the way, is what really matters, would bring criticism down on the former and current Bush administrations. They would be foolish to do so -- especially with the current deficits, war in Iraq and outsourced jobs leaving American workers with low-paying jobs with no benefits and a crisis in health care.

LINDA BEAR
Washington, Pa.

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A larger disaster

I am writing in regard to the Jan. 14 letter "Local Relief." I cannot fathom how letter writer Ann Bihary can consider the Pittsburgh "disasters" as occupying a higher plateau in this world than the tsunami crisis in Asia. Such a dire opinion only demands one to recall that well over 100,000 people have perished as a result of the tsunami. The countries most affected have been consigned to a state in which they can hardly proffer the apposite measures of survival for their citizens.

In a time when America's virtues are being debated around the world, we have a requisite obligation to assist such people. "Faraway places" and their populations are just as important as America, contrary to what the writer might believe, and those affected by the tsunami deserve our support far more than Pittsburgh does.

ANDREW TSOU
O'Hara
Editor's note: The writer is a sophomore at Fox Chapel Area High School.

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The death penalty rids our society of those who could kill again

I completely agree with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to deny clemency to convicted murderer Donald Jay Beardslee ("Schwarzenegger Controversy," Jan. 23). Gov. Schwarzenegger should be commended for having the courage to stand up to the anti-death penalty advocacy groups and religious protesters. Thank you, Gov. Schwarzenegger, for helping to finally rid the world of this human garbage!

Beardslee had been on death row for 20 years and had had numerous appeals. Beardslee killed two women, Patty Geddling and Stacey Benjamin in 1981, while he was out on parole for murdering another woman, Laura Griffin, in 1969. Can you believe this man was actually released on parole for murder in 1978 and given a chance to kill again? Is this not absolutely outrageous?

What is even more outrageous and tragic is how advocacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International always rush to defend a convicted murderer like Beardslee, who cared nothing for the people he killed, even while they begged him for their lives. Do anti-death penalty advocacy groups even care about the pain and suffering that criminals in this country inflict on their victims?

We need to continue to support the use of the death penalty for convicted murderers and stop giving in to their ridiculous demands for clemency.

DUANE MENGO
Wilkins