The March 13 story "EPA Doesn't Follow Scientific Smog Advice" prompts me to write. Not only is this government as usual -- ignoring the best scientific advice -- but even at the modest ozone improvement in the ruling, an estimated "900 to 1,100 premature deaths a year" would be saved albeit at a cost of an estimated $8.8 billion a year.

In the same day's paper, I read that secondhand smoke in Pennsylvania alone causes over 2,000 premature deaths a year. By strictly banning smoking in all public places, at essentially no cost, twice as many premature deaths could be prevented. I am hopeful that the state Legislature will act strongly and enact the appropriate legislation banning smoking in public places. Only by making the ban universal will there be a "level playing field" for all taverns, bars, restaurants and others who feel their business "might" suffer if a smoking ban were widespread.

To carry this one step further, it is a known fact that smoking kills more than 400,000 people in the United States each year and costs untold billions in health and other costs. By banning smoking everywhere, hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved each year. Oh, but I forget. With the government and big business, it is always about the money and the mega-dollars that roll in to the political coffers as well as the billions government at many levels gets from taxing the product that would be lost if a ban were enacted.

GERALD DILL
Belle Vernon

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I was lucky enough to be visiting in Pittsburgh (I'm a former Manchester native, living out of state now for almost 30 years) and saw Diana Nelson Jones' well-written article about the restorative justice project the Manchester Citizens Corp. is undertaking ("Manchester Works to Create Neighbor-Based Justice System," March 24).

I am extremely excited about this, as I've been familiar with the restorative justice model for a good many years, and want to agree that it does work. Not only that, but it makes so much sense, is much less expensive than prison and helps both victim and offender so much more than simply punishment. I hope folks realize that this doesn't mean restitution for wrongdoing; paying for one's crime is less important.

Let me illustrate briefly with a true story. A teen vandalized a woman's car. She was willing to meet with him and help mete out the punishment, which was to pay for damages and clean her car weekly for a year. During this time, the two became friends; she actually encouraged him, mentored him so to speak, and it was a win-win situation. She got more than monetary restitution (would she have even gotten that?); he remained away from more-dangerous criminals, gained some self-respect and the last I heard was leading a wonderfully productive life. Would this have been the outcome had he simply spent several years in prison?

You go, Jerome Jackson and the Manchester Corp.! Let's have this in more communities!

MAURA UBINGER
Abingdon, Va.

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In response to George G. Nagle ("Stop Hunting in Parks," March 26 letters): I hope the county continues the removal of nuisance geese from North Park. Excessive feces from these birds are unhealthy and disgusting.

The highly qualified bowhunters within the parks since 1997 have humanely harvested some 4,000 park deer and processed and donated more than 15 tons of meat to county food banks. I've failed to see one report of a wounded deer running around. Could we have missed those 2,000 wounded deer?

What is so commonly misunderstood is there has to be a healthy balance, wherein deer herds need to be thinned so that our county parks can thrive. Safety is not a question since, after 10 years, hunting in the parks has produced not one incident or injury to any park user. All animals need to survive in our parks, and hunters are the only true conservationists.

JOSEPH McCLUSKEY JR.
Cheswick

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Just weeks ago, I returned from a trip to Palestine that left me deeply saddened and yet hopeful for the peoples of that beautiful land. Saddened because I saw the systematic stripping of human dignity through repression, restriction and humiliation -- things that would and should make us shout out loudly to change. And yet hopeful because so many of the people I met are so hopeful. They know that terror, fear and walls will not bring peace but patience, tolerance, communication and hope will.

We in the West need to be educated about the plight of these ordinary peoples forced to live inordinately difficult lives. The media have the opportunity to do just that but focus instead on the extremists on both sides.

People connect with people they can identify with -- people trying to make a better life for themselves and their families, not with fanatics.

SUSAN THOMSON
Shadyside

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The presumptive and somewhat giddy endorsements of Hillary Clinton by Gov. Ed Rendell, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl have done a great disservice to the residents of Pennsylvania and may come back to haunt us in the coming years.

One of the basic rules of politics is to play the game until you get all you can. In the race for a presidential candidate, one should bargain for favors as long as one can. Pennsylvania's sudden ascendancy into the national election process could have been a chance for the leaders of our state to bargain for the moon from both of the current Democratic candidates.

Should Sen. Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination, Pennsylvania's citizens will be at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to funding and favoritism. The endorsement of Sen. Clinton so soon in a tight race can do nothing but harm us. What in heaven caused them to play their cards so quickly? One can understand the political naivete of Mr. Onorato and Mr. Ravenstahl, as they are still quite new to the political scene, but the endorsement of Mrs. Clinton by Mr. Rendell is an embarrassment.

CHARLES SPENCE
Clairton

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