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State must stop
wasting rainwater
Professor Andrew Fisher’s article on increasing groundwater storage (“How California can save water from the atmospheric river,” Page A9, Jan. 8) may be feasible in the Pajaro Valley but not in the Central Valley due to the hardpan and salt buildup in the soils there.
It would be far better to build the Sites Reservoir south of Sacramento to store winter rains from the Sacramento River. But despite voters approving Proposition 1 in 2014 to build more water storage, Sacramento politicians seem to prefer sending years of excess rainwater down the Sacramento River to the ocean.
Ed Kahl
Woodside
Don’t reward migrants
for breaking the law
If you don’t own a car and steal one, the law will not let you keep the car. If you embezzle, even if you are needy, you must repay the money. Similarly, if you break immigration laws, you should not be provided with food, housing, medical care or travel. Our justice system is based on the idea that you cannot benefit from breaking the law.
When people know that by crossing a border they can immediately improve their lives because of the foolish generosity of Americans, they will come in droves, as they have been. We need to stop giving away our wealth to lawbreakers; there is enough need here. Work on changing immigration laws, but don’t open the border and welcome lawbreakers with our taxes.
Denise Kalm
Walnut Creek
Letter ignores
critical COVID stats
Bob Wheeler would have us believe blue states with sustained lockdowns saved lives compared to red states that minimized lockdowns (“Plenty of reasons to vote for Democrats,” Page A6 Jan. 3). As evidence, he correctly states COVID deaths were higher in Florida (3,919 per million) than in California, (2,504 per million).
He conveniently ignores COVID deaths in New York, the poster child of lockdowns, which were almost the same as Florida — 3,897 per million according to the website Worldometer.
He also needs to take into consideration that about 75% of COVID deaths occur in people 65 and older, and Florida has a much higher percentage of seniors than either California or New York.
He also believes school closure learning loss is no big deal. In an affluent city like Walnut Creek with an abundance of resources, the learning gap in math and science can be closed. In Hayward, not so much.
Martin Wilmington
Hayward
Paper should update
the comics page
I am really tired of seeing political commentary on the comic pages: “Doonesbury,” which is outdated; “Mallard Fillmore,” which is out of touch; and “Dilbert,” which is just bad.
If you quit publishing dead white guys (Charles Schulz — and I love “Peanuts,” don’t get me wrong), please make room for new voices, especially women and people of color. The comics pages are still largely white, heterosexual, male, patriarchal standard fare.
Please update your comics pages. (And I’m sorry, “Cathy” doesn’t count.)
Karinne Gordon
Pacific Grove
Source: www.mercurynews.com