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A’s spinning web
in Coliseum saga
I have been an A’s fan since 1989 when I moved here from San Diego so please Dave Kaval and John Fisher, stop insulting me and other fans.
It is not the media that is causing low attendance. You don’t need me to tell you that it is ownership’s carping on how crappy the Coliseum is and how attractive Vegas appears – not to mention slashing payroll, trading star players and increasing ticket prices. All that is counterintuitive to basic marketing strategy on how to sell a product.
I hope that you will change course and be truly “Rooted in Oakland” and stop shouting “Viva Las Vegas!”
Jimmie Sartor
Bay Point
Climate crisis is
a problem of waste
Everybody wants the government to solve the climate change problem. But what really needs to happen is for everybody to stop wasting so much energy, water and raw materials. That is, they need to stop driving huge vehicles, stop keeping their house too hot in the winter and too cool in the summer, stop wasting water, stop wasting plastics and other materials, stop buying stuff that they don’t even need, etc.
People are calling for governments worldwide to fix these problems, but in most cases, governments can only do that if the general public would be willing to elect representatives who would force them to do all these things they do not want to do. And that, of course, is not going to happen.
Jud Hammon
Orinda
Cook-Kallio sat on
board that failed
Cheryl Cook-Kallio touts her eight years on the Pleasanton City Council as credentials for Alameda County School Board, but through there she sat on the defunct Associated Community Action Program.
The ACAP was created to administer aid to low-income families with public funds with a budget of $3 million but was shuttered due to “a result of serious financial concerns and significant non-compliance with laws and regulations” (2011 Alameda County Grand Jury Final Report). The report called it a “Case Study in Lax Oversight” with issues of misuse of taxpayer funds to the tune of $200,000, late financial audits and nonpayment of work stipends.
Susan Munkner
Livermore
Tri-Valley leads in trying
to keep guns off streets
Guns continue to get into the wrong hands. A man is shot in a confrontation about cars doing donuts; a 15-year-old girl dies from a gunshot wound near Las Positas College; gunshots are heard on Highway 580. These events all took place in the Tri-Valley during the last two weeks.
Thankfully, on April 25, the Livermore City Council voted in a Safe Firearms Storage Ordinance, joining Pleasanton and Dublin with similar ordinances. Guns in residences must be stored in a locked container or using a trigger lock.
These ordinances can prevent school shootings, homicides, unintentional gun deaths and suicides, which account for two-thirds of all gun deaths.
Thank you Tri-Valley city leaders.
Own a gun? Lock it up. It is the law. Free trigger locks are available from the police department. Keep guns out of the wrong hands. You might save someone you love.
Laurie and Bill Herbert
Pleasanton
If GOP takes power,
they will never give it up
In response to the Republican argument, specifically, Rand Paul, that Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union and therefore the Vladimir Putin invasion is justified: The United States used to be part of the British empire. Does that give London the right to deploy its navy up the Hudson?
If the Republicans win power in the 2022 midterms, they will never give it up. So far, we have only to vote for democracy to avoid having to fight for it later.
Gale R. Kissin
Sebastopol
Supreme Court has more
to worry about than leak
Noah Feldman wrote in “Abortion case leak shows Supreme Court is broken” (Page A7, May 4), “Whatever the leaker’s motive, the result is very bad.” I disagree. Justice Breyer once wrote, “public acceptance (of the court) is not automatic and cannot be taken for granted.”
The Court has been packed with Justices into a hyper-partisan majority, thanks to a hypocritical Senate leader and a president who never won the popular vote. The spouse of Justice Thomas worked to overturn our election, with no consequences or acknowledgement by the justice. Almost half the court is therefore arguably illegitimate. That their secrecy was breached is the least of their worries.
Public respect for the court has been grossly weakened, for good reason, not because someone leaked a document. If the court wants our respect, it must earn it back. That is a long road, starting with a U-turn.
Doug McKenzie
Berkeley
Source: www.mercurynews.com