Regarding the story "Newman's Exit Still a Sore Point Among Wine Lovers" (Jan. 28) in the series "Monopoly Money: The Control of Wine and Spirits in Pennsylvania" (Jan. 27-30): It never ceases to amaze me how this state manages from day to day, let alone year to year.

Harrisburg continues to maintain its provincial approach to everything. Why, one might be led to think that someone's pockets were being lined by all the good ol' boys. The state motto should read, "If it works, it's not for us."

The Chairman's Selection appeared to me one day on a rare visit to a state liquor store. As a result of the chance discovery, I began to show up at least three times a month.

I never knew much about wines and the Chairman's Selection made so much sense for me. I began to trust this faceless chairman and always looked forward to what he would recommend next week, next month.

Friends began complimenting me on wine choices, and I actually began learning a thing or two about the beverage itself.

But then the inevitable occurred. Someone in Harrisburg started to notice that something was working, and working well. What we need to do, they thought, is to exile this chairman to the forbidden zone and assume the responsibility for this great achievement; when the quality begins to falter, the simple peasants will never notice.

Thank you, legislators, for doing what you do best: turning a silk purse into a sow's ear.

BOB POROPATICH
Stanton Heights

I read with a little snicker Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Chairman Patrick J. Stapleton's comment that people have "the perception that our prices are high" ("Wine Lovers Call Offerings a Mixed Bag," Jan. 27).

I came across a wine in North Carolina this fall that retailed for $14.99. We truly enjoyed it while on vacation there. I inquired about it at a Pennsylvania Wine & Spirits Shoppe and was told that it was available as a "special order" for $28.99 per bottle, in case lots only. I generally have a dozen or more bottles of moderately priced wines on the shelf, but I don't buy particular vintages by the case.

Also, Liquor Control Board CEO Joe Conti has apparently never shopped at McHenry Beverage at nearby Deep Creek, Md., where you can buy wines well below Pennsylvania prices. We have a favorite California chardonnay that retails in Maryland at $12 and South Carolina for $14, but we can't even get it on special order in Pennsylvania. And if the LCB really wants to be set back, its members should stop by Green's Liquor Warehouse near Columbia, S.C., where by Pennsylvania standards, they're giving it away. (I'm sure there are hundreds of other examples as well.) The "fine wine" collectors have their own issues, but the ordinary Joe who wants a nice wine for a special dinner faces a problem, too.

Chairman Stapleton is an old friend, and by any measure, a good, moral and honorable person, but I'm afraid his perception of his agency is a bit skewed.

JIM WILEY
Indiana, Pa.

I can't decide if a federal prosecution for sending an employee to buy hot dogs at the Giant Eagle means that Western Pennsylvania is the safest place to live because we don't have any real crime, or the scariest place to live because an outstanding pathologist is prosecuted for a hot dog run ("Wecht Details' Described to Jury," Jan. 29).

Either way, this exercise of prosecutorial discretion strikes me as poor judgment.

JoANN F. DEMPLER
Squirrel Hill

Ruth Ann Dailey rightly highlights two recent Guttmacher reports -- one noting that abortion rates worldwide are similar regardless of whether abortion is legal or not, and the other showing that the U.S. abortion rate is at its lowest since 1976 ("What Makes Abortion Decline?" Jan. 21 column).

She'd like to dispute what the studies show: that it's access to contraception that decreases the abortion rate, not laws making criminals of women and doctors.

The evidence, however, is clear. Eastern Europe -- the former Soviet bloc -- saw the abortion rate cut in half from 1995 to 2003 as women gained greater access to effective contraception.

Meanwhile, in places where abortion is a criminal act, women still manage to obtain one, making the rate in Africa -- where abortion is mostly illegal -- higher than the rate in the United States, where it is legal.

The good news is that the abortion rates continue to go down in the United States, but not because of the laws restricting abortion. California, with the country's most liberal abortion laws, saw a decline in the abortion rate. Colorado, with extremely restrictive laws, showed an increase in the abortion rate.

Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania we're noticing a disturbing trend. Not only did the teen birth rate increase in 2006, but the Department of Health showed that the abortion rate also increased in Pennsylvania. The "abstinence-only" generation is learning about sex, but not how to protect themselves. And it turns out that it's not laws that reduce the abortion rate, but education and contraception. That's why one Planned Parenthood health center does more to reduce the number of abortions than any number of people in Washington, D.C., marching against reproductive freedom.

ERIKA FRICKE
Vice President for Public Affairs

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania
Downtown

I commend the council members and borough residents of Ellwood City for their support of Richard McDonald ("Is Ellwood City Standoff About Power, Race or Both?" Jan. 27). They have put their support behind a very fine, honest and upstanding individual.

Richard is bright and hard-working, and Ellwood City can only benefit from having him head their police department. The McDonalds were my neighbors for years, and I truly miss them here in the city. Our loss is Ellwood City's gain!

JANICE DeCARLO
Friendship

West Jefferson Hills School District, Mars Area School District and others recently dealt with threats of weapons and other violence. The sad truth is that there are weapons in most schools every day.

The American public must realize that our schools are not the safe havens we remember from our youth. Since returning to school after the holiday break, Pennsylvania schools have seen these incidents as well as attacks on students and teachers that never made the news due to the ability of school districts to cover up the violence.

Administrators have told me that they have been asked not to report criminal acts that would ruin the reputation of their schools. School employees who are victims of assaults are encouraged not to report violent incidents to law officials.

Every parent should demand the following of their schools:

A professional threat assessment should be conducted every year for buildings, grounds and district practices. Schools should be staffed with an armed student resource officer. Every student should pass through a metal detector and have all bags and purses checked. The campus should be closed and every visitor should pass through a metal detector and surrender a driver's license or other identification upon entering a school building. Cameras should be in place and monitored to assess any emergency situation. Finally, teachers should receive training to deal with weapons and assaults.

Teachers meet with fights, assaults and adult intruders, and the truth is that the situation is getting more serious every year. I paid hundreds of dollars to receive assault and weapons training that I felt was necessary to perform my job as a teacher in a public school. (I'm now retired.) Ask yourself, "Why should our courts and airports be more secure than our schools?" Wake up, America, the worst is yet to come!

LOU CALGARO
Scott

Last week we observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. King was known as a nonviolent advocate of civil rights. Later that week, the PG had several stories that dealt with an unhealthy and violent approach to handling conflict, including two items about threats at school districts (Jan. 24).

While Dr. King was pressured to take the violent way, he never gave into that pressure. Jesus gave us the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!" The Apostle Paul talked about a more excellent way -- the way of love. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Let us, as Dr. King did, take the high road -- the nonviolent way of handling conflict.

PASTOR MEL McROBERTS
Rochester