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Missed grant deadline
requires change at top
Re: “Oakland misses deadline for state crime aid” (Page A1, Sept. 16).
The news that Oakland’s Economic & Workforce Development department failed to submit the state grant application on time is extremely disappointing. However, please don’t throw special hires or consultants at the problem. Instead, use the people who are already benefiting from the citizens’ tax dollars to get the EWDD’s house in order.
According to the city’s website, the EWDD has a staff of about 28 people, plus the department head. If you hire an additional person for grant applications, you need to fire those who are already supposed to be doing that job. Consider a change in leadership, also.
Oakland is my hometown, and in my lifetime, crime has never been this bad. I am saddened to see how Oakland has changed.
Ultimately the buck stops with Mayor Sheng Thao. Please handle this judiciously.
Peggy Simmons
Hercules
Calling out NAACP on
crime stance is racist
Progressive Blacks in Oakland are mad at the local NAACP for supporting “tough on crime” policies even when crime in Oakland is now completely out of control. Are they serious?
To be against crime is not racism, and wanting accountability for criminal behavior cannot be shouted down just because a certain percentage of the suspects involved are people of color.
To excuse or ignore such conduct because of race is actually racism at its worst since this thinking will only further destroy the Black community from within by encouraging ever more lawlessness.
Nick Yale
Oakland
PG&E’s call for rate hikes
on top of hikes was buried
Re: “PG&E customers facing big bill increases” (Page B1, Sept. 15).
This time PG&E is asking for two raises in rates on top of previous rate hikes.
It would be great if they put their stockholders on a dividend diet and put more money into the work that needs to be done first. Or if not stockholders then perhaps reduce the pay and perks of upper management. Of course, the PUC will go along with PG&E. Maybe they will make them reduce the requested raises by some minor amount.
My question for this newspaper is why this article wasn’t on the front page above the fold instead of the feel-good articles that were there instead.
Dorothy Miller
Pittsburg
Bills advancing Alzheimer’s
research need support
While volunteering at a day center for people with Alzheimer’s, I met Dave, a 38-year-old recently diagnosed with the disease. Dave was facing physical and cognitive challenges that seemed unusual and shocking for someone his age. As I learned more about early-onset Alzheimer’s, I realized that many clinical trials did not adequately represent the diversity of people affected by Alzheimer’s, including younger patients as well as women and ethnic minorities.
The NAPA Reauthorization Act and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act (AAIA) are critical steps in advocating for diverse Alzheimer’s patient populations in both care and research. The NAPA Reauthorization Act addresses disparities among underrepresented populations and AAIA ensures funding for research aimed at effectively treating Alzheimer’s.
I am grateful to Rep. Ro Khanna for co-sponsoring these important bills. It is essential that we continue to advocate for individuals like Dave, underrepresented in their conditions, and support inclusive Alzheimer’s research.
Namrata Vedagarbha
Fremont
State should sue itself
for its failed policies
Re: “State sues oil giants over shifts in climate” (Page A1, Sept. 17).
We are all alarmed by climate change and see it as a call to action now. Suing oil companies and claiming we were deceived is at least disingenuous and at its worst denies any personal responsibility as consumers of fossil fuels and the government’s role in encouraging their use by creating automobile-oriented transportation and land use patterns and then lavishly taxing them.
Big Oil, as Gov. Gavin Newsom calls it, has always been Big Government’s favorite cash cow. Now, Attorney General Rob Bonta at Newsom’s direction would have us believe that for decades we as consumers, government as regulators, environmentalists as watchdogs, and scientists and industry as producers of petroleum byproducts all collectively went about our way with cheerful and callous indifference to fossil fuels effect on the environment because of Big Oil’s deception is ludicrous.
California should be suing itself.
Bruce Rank
Discovery Bay
U.S. should put price
controls on gasoline
Is it not time for price controls on gasoline in the United States?
We now know that increased gasoline prices can cause all kinds of goods and services to cost more, as a direct result of price increases at the pumps. This can affect our whole economy, which it should not.
Oil companies have historically felt free to raise gas prices when and because they can. And we know that gigantic company profits can result from this.
Yes, prices at the pumps can be affected by worldwide costs of crude oil. But we also know that there are other factors involved.
I say that the government should get into the business of controlling gasoline prices, based on ensuring that oil companies and retail outlets receive a decent profit, but not an excess one, and based on other factors that can determine the cost of a gallon of gasoline.
George Fulmore
Emeryville
Source: www.mercurynews.com