Daily News

Saundra Keyes, a former English professor who currently is deputy managing editor at the Orlando, Fla., Sentinel, has been named managing editor of the Daily News. As managing editor, Keyes will oversee the day-to-day operations of the news, features, business, sports, photo and graphics departments at the Daily News. She will begin May 9. "She's a terrific journalist and will bring a great deal to the Daily News," said Editor Zachary Stalberg, who announced the appointment yesterday.

IN YOUR March 30 editorial about Condi Rice, you said: "Unless Condi Rice plans on taking the Fifth, why shouldn't she testify - under oath - before the 9/11 Commission?" I'm glad the Daily News finally grasps the importance of telling the truth under oath. I just wonder where all this concern was when Bill Clinton lied under oath and the Daily News continually downplayed the severity of that offense. Oh, and the reason that Condi Rice doesn't want to testify under oath is the concept of executive privilege - the separation-of-powers argument that the president should be able to receive unfettered opinions from his advisers without having it revealed at a later time, lest that possibility hinder the advice given.

THERE WAS A time when I couldn't wait to run down to the corner store and get a copy of the Daily News. There was always a great headline on the front page . . . and inside, great columnists, writers and lots of wonderful features - even Stu Bykofsky, who writes damn fine articles. Sadly, it seems as if the paper is slowly sinking. Whether it is the editor of the paper who makes these choices, or the higher ups, whoever they may be, the paper is slowly sinking. Not only is it no longer a Peoples Paper, it is becoming a vehicle for those who love pop singers, naked ladies, sex columns and movie stars.

A co-worker showed me that disgusting, tasteless, tacky photo (March 26) of a murdered woman's legs hanging out of a car trunk. You should be ashamed of such blatant disrespect for your readers and most importantly, for the family of the victim. I no longer buy your paper for this reason. I don't like the sarcastic tone of your poorly and immaturely written articles, and some of the photos are a disgrace. Are you devoid of common decency and respect for human life? LYNETTE TERRELL, Philadelphia Sylvia Abdul-Haqq was a friend of mine.

Lorenzo Muse says he's sorry for taking part in the robbery and near-fatal shooting of a Daily News truck driver in 1994. "I want to apologize for all the trouble I caused," said Muse, 18, of Upland Street near 60th, at his sentencing hearing yesterday before Common Pleas Judge Carolyn E. Temin. Muse said he was hooked on a $50-a-day marijuana habit when he and an accomplice attacked John Paul Jones, 67, after he had dropped off papers at a store on 43rd Street near Lancaster Avenue, on Feb. 8, 1994.

Bloom County is no more. You can search their regular slot at the top of the right-hand comics page of this newspaper, but you won't find them. No more Opus the penguin, he of the huge nose and large heart. No more Bill the Cat, who handled being both rock star and vice presidential contender with equally vapid aplomb. No more Binkley, whose sensitivities spawned the infamous Closet of Anxieties so near and dear to our hearts. Gone, too, are computer whiz Oliver Wendell Jones, newshound Milo and Steve Dallas, chauvinist-at-large.

Ileana A. "Lea" Ranieri, who worked for Philadelphia newspapers for 35 years and was valued in sometimes-callous city rooms as a person who actually meant it when she asked, "How are you?", died Saturday of cancer. She was 62 and lived in Primos, Delaware County. Lea Ranieri retired two years ago after 24 years at the Daily News. She was "Lucky Lea," who offered her lottery picks for the coming day. She was Lea Ranieri the handicapper. Lea edited letters to the editor, worked the phone console on the front desk, and influenced countless other items of interest in the paper.

IPICK up my copy of the Daily Worker - I mean Daily News - and read how the paper calls the GOP the "Ministers of Fear" as if they are overhyping the danger that Islamic terrorists pose to the world. Then I turn on the TV to see that children have been burnt alive by the "peaceful" Chechens who took them hostage. Are we supposed to ignore these terrorist acts and hope we won't be victimized? That policy failed badly under the Clinton administration. These people will kill you just as gladly as they would kill me, despite your appeasement of them?

As a member of the counterculture, brain-dead, MTV-loving, video-game- brainwashed, politically and newspaper-ignorant Generation X, I take exception to your recent editorial "masterpiece," "Who'll speak for Generation X?" Well, surely not the Daily News! Once again, the press has lumped all Xers together with the label of lazy and worthless. Hey, we're just getting started on the "real world. " Would you give us a chance to prove ourselves? I resent the statement, in reference to a study done at the University of Rochester, that Xers will rarely pick up a newspaper "because it never lists the achievements of the X Generation.