Letters To The Editor

Job discrimination against senior citizens is a real problem in California (“An age-old question,” Sept. 22). It should be illegal for employers to require a birthdate on the job application forms that are most common. What reason is there for such a request other than judging based on age? It is easy to look at […]

PG&E recipients of million-dollar bonuses, stock options, and other excessive executive compensations, over the years when funds were diverted, neglecting underground gas pipelines, now must help pay the costs of injury, death, and destruction. Republican and Tea Party leaders, those wanting to mix church and state, those wanting to privatize Social Security, as well as […]

Whether you believe Diablo Canyon should be relicensed, or that evacuation plans are workable, or that the spent fuel in pools and casks is safe, one fact remains: Thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste have accumulated on our Central Coast, and more will pile up during the remaining license and possible relicensing period. The […]

I live on Nipomo Mesa. Like many other mesa residents, I have terrible lung congestion. Vehicles on Oceano Beach and Dunes disrupt the crust, releasing tiny (10 microns) particles, which are blown eastward. Rather than the Air Pollution Control District studying this for another four years, stop the dune “vehicle recreation” right now.

Just visited Santa Maria for the first time tonight. My God, what happened there? The whole city looks like a hospital ward in a horror film after dark. Whatever you’re trying to save with the Alien Microwave Orange —the environment, money, whatever—it isn’t worth it. It makes Newark, N.J., seem downright homey by comparison. So […]

Where is the Obama I voted for? Where is the Obama I campaigned for? Where is the Obama who brought tears of relief to the eyes of my 82-year-old father on election night, 2008? This latest decision to disregard the EPA’s air quality rules leaves Bush’s smog standards in place. His false rhetoric that safeguarding […]

We residents of Oceano and Nipomo attended the public hearing the Air Pollution Control District (APCD) and State Parks held about the particulate matter (PM10) emission from Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (ODSVRA). We clearly heard the State Parks’ expert announce that the PM10 emission from the area on which driving is allowed is […]

I think I got the point (“Our voices mattered on the worst bill ever,” Sept. 8). The bill (H.R. 2584 or Worst. Bill. Ever.) is bad. It should not pass. Please tell your representative. In fact, I agree that it’s a bad bill, and I’m glad to hear it’s gone away. However, no bill is […]

An interesting fact I’ve noticed about each of the Republicans vying to be president is that all talk about the excessive spending going on in Washington and that each in his or her way will end it all. Please note that all but one of them is from a Red State. Red being the fact […]

In his letter (“Cut the propaganda,” Sept. 1), it’s clear that Ian Tanner missed the point of our Aug. 18 commentary, “Worst. Bill. Ever.”—namely that a Congressional spending bill freighted with non-budgetary anti-environmental amendments has nothing to do with spending and everything to do with corporate kowtowing, making Mr. Tanner’s retort (“the USA can’t afford […]

I disagree. H.R. 2584 is not the worst bill ever (“Worst. Bill. Ever.” Aug. 18). There are much worse, like H.J. Res. 114 of 2002, and H.R. 3162 of 2001. I agree that all of the causes you mention—like endangered species and clean water—are important. But I think you need to refocus your attention. It’s […]

So, the late, great U.S. of A. endured months-long bloviating with a manufactured crisis revolving around “raising the debt ceiling”—a process so formulaic, so perfunctory, that it has been done more than 100 times in our nation’s history with no fanfare whatsoever. Even the idol and hater of government, Ronald Reagan, did it 18 times […]