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Keep Pinole police
fully funded
I have lived in Pinole for 20 years and have always been impressed with the police force and the excellent work they do on a daily basis.
Lately, there have been discussions by the City Council of possible funding cuts to the Police Department in order to balance the budget. There are other areas and services that can be cut. Public safety must remain the top concern of the City Council.
I and the majority of Pinole residents do not want to see any cuts to the police. In fact, the four vacant positions must be filled immediately.
After spending 29 years in law enforcement I know the importance of staffing and the difference it makes in serving the needs of the community. Keep Pinole safe and fully fund the police department.
Stephen Tilton
Pinole
Fire risk should be
spread among insurers
Homeowners insurance protects against the risk of uncertain loss. Insurers should be equally mindful of risk, but it appears some aren’t.
State Farm has reportedly insured nearly 50% of Orinda’s homes, an area at high risk for major fires. Good risk management strategies would spread this risk among many insurers so that none experience outsized losses in a disaster.
Insurance Commissioner Lara has endorsed catastrophe modeling, which will allow increases in homeowner premiums. While it may seem counterintuitive, it would make sense for the insurance commissioner to spread insurers’ risk by limiting the proportion of policies any one insurer can sell in areas more likely to experience catastrophic fires and require other insurers to write their share of policies in those areas.
Aram Hodess
Orinda
Court sacrifices rights
to the gun lobby
Re: “Ban on gun bump stocks rejected” (Page A1, June 15).
Why are we willing to erode everyone’s freedom and liberty to favor a gun cult? We have come to accept active-shooter drills for kindergarteners, metal detectors at schools and entertainment venues, banned purses and bags at stadiums and, of course, hundreds of mass shootings each year.
This July Fourth, read the Declaration of Independence and think about how many freedoms the founders envisioned that we have let erode over time. We are now effectively held hostage by a bunch of people who have been manipulated by an illogical reading of the Constitution, a bankrupt lobbying group, money-grubbing politicians, and a vast right-wing media empire into being terrified for no reason.
These same people are always complaining about different groups being given special rights, when it is the gun cult that has stripped freedoms from the rest of us.
Michael Moore
Walnut Creek
Headline misleads
on immigration policy
Re: “Why Biden is right to curb immigration” (Page A7, June 12).
The headline for a recent column about those coming to our southern border was misleading and incorrect.
The column talked mainly about asylum seekers at the border, not about those who seek to immigrate via regular channels. President Biden is not altering that system, as was implied by the headline for the column. That system, which normally processes about 250,000 people a year for family unification and such, remains in place.
What is new, of course, are the hordes of asylum seekers at the border from a large number of countries, including Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela and others. And yes, Biden is trying to limit the daily number of such who enter under asylum rules. He is not trying to curb those who enter via the formal immigration system.
George Fulmore
Emeryville
There is a backup plan
for imprisoned president
Re: “Running for president from prison? Debs did in 1920” (Page A4, June 1).
The Deepti Hajela article informs us that Eugene V. Debs was an imprisoned felon while a presidential candidate in 1920.
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No person is above the law. Winning an election does not remove a court sentence. Felons cannot be voted out of prison. Otherwise, every prisoner would run for some elective office.
The U.S. Constitution tells us what must happen if a convicted felon serving a prison term is elected to the presidency. There is a contingency plan. A person serving a prison term is not able to discharge the powers and duties of the office of the presidency.
Amendment XXV (ratified 1967) Section 4, Paragraph 1, states, “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress … transmit … their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Edward McCaskey
Dublin
