Much -- might we say perhaps too much? -- has been made of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment, especialy by the Senate Judiciary Committee considering her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today's Op-Ed page gives voice to four Latinas to interpret the meaning of that phrase through their own experiences. Antonia Hernandez writes, for example:

Many years ago, one of the first times I went to court, the bailiff stopped me and said, "Excuse me, you belong on the other side with the interpreters." At least he didn't think I was the defendant. You learn survival skills from this kind of experience. You learn how to bridge; you learn how to be entrepreneurial. It's a cliche, but we are framed by our experiences.

Also on the Op-Ed page, the author of a book on plague -- the literal disease -- argues that threats of bioterrorism (Need we say more than "anthrax"?) have been overblown and that too much money and fear is being wasted on biothreats.

On the other side of the fold, the editorial board chastizes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for wasting time instead of resolving the budget crisis and then saying that the wasted time actually accomplished something. The board also faults the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department for failing to test its rape kits, collections of evidence on each rape case that have been found in other jurisdictions to dramatically increase arrest rates. The LAPD found the money to start clearing its backlog of untested kits, the board notes, and so can the sheriff.

And the board says thanks, but no thanks, to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who has offered to investigate the execution-style killing of a human rights worker who was documenting Chechnya's political murders and kidnappings. Kadyrov is the same man who earlier threatened the worker:

U.S. and European officials must keep a spotlight on these cases and demand that the murderers be brought to justice. Only then is there any hope of reducing the violence in Chechnya. Only then will they quit killing the messengers.

* Photo of Sonia Sotomayor by J. Scott Applewhite / AP

South Pasadenans say "tax me." In the latest in a string of mail-only votes in relatively well-to-do school districts in the Los Angeles area, voters in South Pas apparently have adopted a parcel tax to pay for schools. The ballot deadline was yesterday; votes were counted almost immediately and the finally tally gave Measure S just over the 2/3 supermajority it needed to pass.

The Pasadena Star-News reports that there are still a few absentee ballots to be counted, so the results aren't final. I'm waiting to hear back from the usually responsive L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's Office on this; seems to me that if it was a mail-only election, all ballots are absentee and would have been counted at the same time. I'll update you when they update me.

*UPDATE: The Registrar-Recorder's Office explains that these figures do not include ballots received yesterday, either by mail or dropped off in person. There are enough of those that they could make a difference in the outcome. A fuller tally is expected after 5 p.m. on Friday.

This is a property tax, sort of. Instead of an assessment based on the value of the property, a parcel tax generally bills the owner of each piece of property the same amount. In this case, that's $288 for most parcels, residential and commercial alike, except for multi-unit parcels, which are $95 per unit.

Here are the still-unofficial results: Yes, 3,991, or 67.26%; No, 1,943, or 32.74%.

See our June 2 post on school parcel taxes here. See Times staff writer Seema Mehta's comprehensive June 15 story here.

San Marino approved its school parcel tax proposal last month. Ballots are due Tuesday in the Palos Verdes school district and the following Tuesday in school districts in La Cañada Flintridge and Rowland, which covers all or parts of the cities of Rowland Heights, West Covina, City of Industry and Walnut.

Obviously, some California public services will have to be cut, the editorial board observes, but what sense does it make to eliminate CalWorks, a program funded mostly by the federal dollars that enables people to get jobs and pay the rent? The board also notes that this is the big day for switching to digital TV, and it calls on the Federal Communications Commission to define the broadcasters' public-service obligations for digital channels.

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta might be right in saying that he can't possibly make public a single paragraph within 65 documents describing his agency's interrogation techniques, the board says, but that doesn't mean the federal judge in the case should take his word for it. The judge should review the documents personally before making a decision, the board advises.

 On the other side of the fold. a teacher of history and education says the use of the term "Hispanic" to denote an ethnic group is a relatively recent phenomenon in the nation's history, and one that has served to make those of Latin American descent feel more "other" than they used to. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor should be seen as the first person of Puerto Rican descent who might be appointed to the high court, Jonathan Zimmerman argues, rather than as Hispanic. And Bill Maher has had enough with the puppies and the hamburgers; he wishes President Obama were less visible and barking more orders over the phone. The man is in serious danger of cute media overexposure, Maher huffs:

We like you, we really like you! You're skinny and in a hurry and in love with a nice lady. But so's Lindsay Lohan. And like Lohan, we see your name in the paper a lot, but we're kind of wondering when you're actually going to do something.

Illustration: Pedro X. Molina

And you thought you were through with elections for a while. No such luck, at least for voters in several fairly wealthy Los Angeles County communities. School districts in South Pasadena, Palos Verdes, La Cañada, West Covina and adjacent areas are going to the ballot this month with parcel taxes to make up for deep state cuts to education.

They are following in the wake of tiny and tony San Marino, which conducted a mail-only vote that began in April and concluded May 5. Voters there agreed overwhelmingly to a whopping $795 tax on each parcel of property. Measure E needed two-thirds of votes cast to pass; it got more than 71%.

South Pasadena voters have already begun sending in their ballots on Measure S, which would impose a $288 tax on parcels, or $95 a unit on multi-unit parcels. Deadline for returning ballots is June 16.

Voters in the four cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula that make up the school district there face a parcel tax of $165 (for four years only); deadline for Measure V ballots is June 23. In La Cañada, it's Measure LC, $150 per parcel for five years, with a deadline of June 30. Same deadline for the Rowland Unified School District's Measure E, a five-year, $120 parcel tax covering property in West Covina, Rowland Heights, La Puente and City of Industry.

In each of these communities, Republican registration is high (for Los Angeles County) and anti-tax sentiment is strong. But they also have some of the best public schools in the state, and residents like it that way. It's a good bet that they will follow the lead of their San Marino counterparts and tax themselves to ensure that state cuts don't undermine their educational achievements. Note the restrictions on most of the ballot measures -- there is a citizen oversight panel,  the money may not be used for administration and the tax comes up for review periodically (in Palos Verdes, this would be a third tax renewal).

Expect to see this model repeated across California, especially in communities where trust in state government is low but regard for high-quality education is high. The problem is that, as rich districts support themselves, poor ones are left with their diminished state funding. Now, layered on top of the complex and bizarre school finance structure is the prospect of a widening education and achievement gap.

Could this be the coming model for other city services as well? More local control, more local decision-making on taxing and spending? And, perhaps, more segregation of wealth and poverty?

Photo: David McNew / Getty Images

In Tuesday's letters, The Times features more on the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips from pirates off the coast of Africa and thoughts on immigration, taxes and police pursuits, too. 

Readers also react to this story about older job-seekers, wondering if The Times isn't itself perhaps a little ageist in its approach to the topic.  Writes Ventura's Anthony Lewis:

I enjoyed reading the article regarding the difficulties in obtaining meaningful work for those of us over 50. However, the piece reinforced many of the stereotypes that the younger generation holds regarding baby boomers.

We older workers too could write an article stereotyping the younger generation workforce, with generalizations regarding their lack of social and interviewing skills (unless they are on a cellphone), their inability to write a coherent memo using fully constructed sentences (not texting), and their loyalty to a workplace seldom lasting longer than two years. However, I would refrain from such over-generalizations....

I started using a computer 25 years ago. I don't consider myself "technologically challenged."

Mark O'Connell, of Irvine, makes a similar point:

Your "helpful hints" counsel older job seekers to be coy about their age. Where is there any mention of our wonderful age-discrimination laws that protect older workers so they don't have to obfuscate to apply for a job?

How about The Times showing a little leadership in pushing for enforcement of discrimination laws or beefing up existing laws so they actually are enforceable?

Photo: A boomer job hunt at Kinko's.  Credit: Los Angeles Times.

Whaddya know? Shame works.

The supervisors of Los Angeles County had been paying an intern nearly $10 an hour for tasks that included peeling the labels off bottled water and printing out and slapping on new labels with the county seal. This was reportedly to ensure that, during the board's televised meetings, no one would think that their H2O habits amounted to an endorsement. As I wrote, this is ethically scrupulous, but suggests that the board can't drink out of the fountain like everyone else (now that the county has taken bottled water out of other departments' budgets), and that it perhaps believes itself to have a large and pliable TV audience that will run out and buy the water drunk by the Board of Supervisors.

Taxpayers were understandably miffed, as were, again understandably, people working at county offices and hospitals, where the bottled water supply had been cut in order to save money, and where people were told to use the drinking fountains -- which in one reported case weren't even working.

Now the board has decided to give up the labels and the bottles. In the paper-versus-plastic quandary, it has opted in favor of paper. It will henceforth, as The Times' follow-up reports, pour iced tap water from plain carafes into unmarked paper cups. 

Can we all drink to that?

Why does government sometimes have to confirm every single stereotype about itself?

My colleague Garrett Therolf's story today is about a college student who earns $9.92 an hour working for Los Angeles County on duties that extend to peeling the labels off bottles of water, printing out computerized labels bearing the county seal, and slapping them on the water bottles.

The county supervisors do not want anyone to think that they are endorsing any particular brand of bottled water, not the members of the public there in the room with them, nor that audience out there watching in TV-land. No product placement here -- no, sirree.

So let me get there before Jay Leno does. One, although their ethical scruples are admirable, the five supervisors are by no stretch of the imagination tastemakers and trendsetters. The public does not rush to copy their hair, imitate their clothes, buy the pens they use. I am not even altogether sure that the maker of this water -- rumored to be Arrowhead -- would hurry to mount an ad campaign showing the sipping supes and promoting "'the water drunk by the leaders of the most populous county in the United States."

Two, what is with going to the trouble of peeling off the original label? Why bother? Just slap the new label over it.

Three, why are these people drinking bottled water at all? It's expensive, the plastic is horrible for the environment, and even worse if it isn't recycled. City and county governments are casting about desperately to cut costs anywhere. A doctor at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center told The Times today that all bottled water, for staff and patients, has been yanked in order to save money.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that voters may not be able to comprehend the magnitude of multi-billion-dollar budgets. But paying someone on a government payroll $9.92 an hour to peel the labels off bottled water? That, they understand.

So, supervisors, take your coffee cup -- the one that says "World's Best Dad," or in the case of Supervisor Gloria Molina, "World's Best Mom" --  and fill it from your own personal bottled water stash in your office, the one you paid for yourself. Or fill it at the drinking fountain before the meeting. And how's this for a perk? You get to cut in line at the fountain.             

In Wednesday's Letters to the editor, readers express concern -- and some tough love -- for today's kids.

Martine Singer of Los Angeles, executive director of Hollygrove, a nonprofit focused on child welfare, defends a computer system Los Angeles County uses to help determine when children should be removed from their homes:

By portraying Structured Decision Making, or SDM, as a Big Brother-ish computer that dehumanizes social work, The Times' article fails to place this tool in the context of enlightened child-welfare practice.

Far from replacing human judgment, SDM enhances it -- because social workers no longer rely on instinct or bias when deciding whether to put kids in foster care. Across the county, everyone uses the same methods and plays by the same rules.

Beyond guiding crucial decisions about whether to detain children, SDM also prompts workers to find community-based mental health and family-supportive services to treat drug abuse, domestic violence and other serious issues that often lead to child abuse.

SDM ensures consistency and transparency. That's good news for L.A.'s kids and families.

But Thomas H. Wolfe, of Anaheim, shows little empathy for young adults facing a difficult job market:

Only a bunch of hand-wringers would let this recession "define" them. I lived through bad times in the '70s and '80s -- but they did not define my life or my generation.

Stop feeling sorry for yourselves. Go out and buy some lunch or dinner or fix up your house -- that will speed up the end of this problem. This too will pass.

The page features letters about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a dispute over water and power in Inyo County, and low-key philanthropist Bruce Lindsay, too.

Photo: Mother must surrender her child to county authorities.  Credit: Los Angeles Times

The part of local and state election campaigns I always look forward to is the arrival of the slate mailers -- like a combination of the annoying holiday "dear friends and family" newsletter and an ever-hopeful chain letter.

This Tuesday's election didn't disappoint. There's a slate mailer called "Your Republican Voter Guide for Los Angeles," and every single candidate on it paid to get his/her name and mug on it. It doesn't list the candidates as Republican themselves -- I don't believe any of them is a Republican, and all of the offices they are running for are nonpartisan. But it tries to make them seem GOP simpatico. The mailer points out, for example, that Democrat Jack Weiss has been endorsed by "former Republican mayor Richard Riordan" -- who also endorsed Barack Obama for president last September.

"Your Republican Voter Guide for Los Angeles" is, says the teeny print, "prepared by Californians for Quality Healthcare, not an official political party organization."

Well, duh. When a "Republican" slate mailer recommends a "yes" vote on Measure B, the city's pro-solar and pro-labor initiative, you figure something is squirrelly. Especially considering that the San Fernando Valley Republican Club's own voter guide says "no" on B, and the Republican Party of Los Angeles County has declared its opposition to the measure.

Another purportedly Republican mailer with an all-starred cast (the asterisk indicates they paid to get on the mailer) also recommends a "yes" vote on B.

This one calls itself the "Los Angeles County Republican Leadership Voter Guide." It's mailed out of Laguna Niguel, which isn't in Los Angeles County. The "Republican Leadership" is apparently the political campaign consulting group Landslide Communications, whose website is illustrated chiefly with conservative and Republican clients.

This mailer, too, recommends a "yes" vote on Measure B. If you look closely, the most Republican thing about the mailer is a box trying to goad recipients to click on a cheesy anti-Obama website. The box shows a picture of a solemn Obama and a smiling Rush Limbaugh and exhorts people to "take the poll" about Limbaugh wanting Obama to fail. Clearly, this is about snagging web traffic and enlisting supporters.

The payoff for me was that the site amusingly compounded its right-wing wackiness by misspelling the name of one of the Obama staff it features prominently and unflatteringly -- White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

There's still one more day's worth of mail before the March 3 election. Still time for anything to happen -- like the postman delivering a "Republican" slate mailer endorsing Antonio Villaraigosa!

The Times endorses candidates today for the four contested seats on the Los Angeles Community College District: Angela J. Reddock, Kelly Candaele, Jozef Essavi and Kurt S. Lowry. The editorial board also offers kudos to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for projecting a "nonconfrontational foreign policy" during her Asia tour, her first official trip overseas.

Over on the Op-Ed Page, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid bemoans the concessions being made in Islamabad toward the Taliban, which is negotiating a deal that might allow the Swat Valley region to impose Islamic law -- a deal that Rashid calls "an unmistakable defeat in the country's losing battle against Islamic extremism."

Also, columnist Jonah Goldberg sees Barack Obama morphing into someone who resembles George W. Bush -- now that he has taken office, Obama is turning out to be a good deal more centrist than liberals or conservatives expected. "It's early yet, but I think we're seeing with Obama what happened with Bush," Goldberg concludes. "The chess master is really just a man who's figuring it out as he goes along. Sometimes he'll be right; other times, horribly wrong. But whether he's right or wrong, left-wing or centrist, liberalism will likely mean whatever Barack Obama says it means."

Finallly, oceanographer William Patzert and water board member Timothy F. Brick point out that higher temperatures are reducing mountain runoff even as other traditional sources of water for Southern California are in severe distress, leading to only one possible outcome: higher water prices and more rationing. That's something Californians are going to have to get used to.

Photo: Residents of Pakistan's Swat valley gathering to listen to an Islamic political party leader. Credit: EPA / Rashid Iqbal