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Homeless camp ban
is cruel, misguided
Re: “Homeless camp ban is among state’s toughest” (Page B1, Feb. 13).
The Fremont City Council’s recent policies and actions are nothing short of cruel. Essentially the city is criminalizing homelessness and poverty.
What is criminal is allowing people to sleep on sidewalks, in vacant lots and in parks in the wealthiest nation in the world. Solving the homeless problem requires complex solutions that include homes and jobs, and some people need rehabilitation and counseling. But mostly, people need compassion and support.
Oversimplified solutions only make things worse while ignoring solving homelessness and poverty problems.
Joe Navarro
Hayward
Collaboration a must
on insurance issues
As wildfires and other natural disasters become more frequent and severe, the financial burden on homeowners continues to escalate with exorbitant insurance premiums.
Several factors contribute to this predicament:
Regulatory challenges: The government in Sacramento has struggled to implement effective policies that balance consumer protection with the financial realities faced by insurance companies.
Legislative priorities: Legislators are distracted by vote bank issues, leaving the insurance market reforms inadequately addressed.
Insurance industry dynamics: Driven by profit motives, they’ve increasingly withdrawn from high-risk areas or raised premiums to unsustainable levels.
This confluence of regulatory inefficacy, legislative oversight and industry practices has left California homeowners in a precarious position. The FAIR Plan, intended as a last resort for those unable to secure traditional insurance, is now overwhelmed and insufficient to meet the growing demand.
It’s imperative for stakeholders to collaborate on comprehensive solutions that ensure both the availability and affordability of homeowners insurance.
Sanjay Kalra
Fremont
Trump’s autocracy
must be stopped
Donald Trump is creating a one-man show; autocracy. But, then he told us he was going to be a dictator.
He is eliminating too many government agencies and firing career workers, people who may have longevity in their positions. There is no way the Trump administration could have looked at each employee to determine who should be let go in just three weeks. Trump needs to be held accountable.
Evidently, guardrails have been eliminated, and he is doing his usual of pushing all boundaries. He needs to be stopped, now.
Gae Mora
Concord
Media should boycott
dictatorial Trump
Re: “AP barred from Oval Office over Gulf name” (Page A2, Feb. 12).
It’s time for the media to bite the bullet and refuse to cover Donald Trump. When he shows up in the Oval Office and there are no cameras, mics or floodlights, he’ll realize that the press coverage he has always courted was the “wind beneath his wings.” No reporters in the press room every day with pens poised over pads will give Karoline Leavitt pause, as well.
It will be hard for a few days, undoubtedly, but it won’t be long before Trump feels the lack of attention making it hard to breathe. I’m pretty sure that a large portion of the populace will find it refreshing not to have to see his picture everywhere or listen to his inane rants. The embargo should also cover Elon Musk for all the same reasons.
N. L. Morris
Walnut Creek
Trump, Defense keeping
campaign promises
I was so pleased to read how the Trump administration is following through on promises made during the campaign. Our new, clear-sighted Secretary of Defense has been rooting out the misguided “woke” policies of the previous administration. His latest target was one of our largest military institutions in the nation, Fort Liberty in North Carolina.
It had been known as Fort Bragg for many years until Congress took exception to the naming of military institutions after Confederate slave-owning officers. Congress passed a law making it illegal to name a fort after a slave-owning Confederate officer. So President Donald Trump’s new head of the Defense Department somehow managed to find a soldier who served in World War II named Private Roland Bragg and so Fort Liberty’s name was changed to honor him. What a fortuitous coincidence.
Joseph Sklar
Castro Valley
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