- Quite A Gig
- Not About The Students
- Tax Electric Vehicle Drivers
- We Pay For What The Rich Can Afford
- Gobbi Street ‘Hump’ A Joke
- One Party State
- Fair Play For Cuba
- Fulton County Election Seizure
- Tax Vehicles By Weight
- Don't Vote For This One
- Sad Scene At Olympics
- Raise Corporate Taxes
- AI Can't Do It
- Tipping
- Climate Science Denial
QUITE A GIG
Letter to the editor,
Now let me see if I got this right.
Due to D.A. David Eyster’s inability or unwillingness to press charges against Matt LeFever, former Ukiah High School teacher and former editor of MendoFever, who posted, what appears to be, an inappropriate photo of himself clad only in black boxer shorts on social media and was identified by a parent as having made inappropriate sexual comments to her daughter, the former teacher is now on PAID administrative leave from UUSD. This means that my tax dollars are paying for his annual salary of about $100,000, or more, plus benefits, to not teach – unsupervised, free to do as he pleases—with no rehabilitation services for his sexual disorder.
Wow, what a gig.
Karen Rifkin
Ukiah
PS. Correction. Matt LeFever is a half time teacher so his annual salary is ONLY about $50,000.
NOT ABOUT THE STUDENTS
Editor,
The United Educators of San Francisco union talks about putting students first, but that’s not the case. I say that as a parent whose children have only had amazing teachers — true public servants. Unfortunately, that can’t be said about the union’s leadership.
When including pensions, teachers in the San Francisco Unified School District make as much as teachers in nearby districts. I recognize teachers can’t pay rent with a pension that’s 20 years away, but the union can’t ignore those real costs to the district.
The district has largely offered what’s been asked of it, and the union has shown no interest.
This is the same union that insisted on keeping schools closed during COVID after they could be reopened safely. This is the same union that opposed school closures, which would right-size the district for fewer students and alleviate some of the budget issues now making this negotiation so difficult.
The union has shown that its only priority is teachers, and that it is willing to use students as negotiating leverage. It hopes to make parents angry and gaslight them into directing that anger at the district. That is going to backfire, and it’s time to end the strike.
Allan LeBlanc
San Francisco
TAX ELECTRIC VEHICLE DRIVERS
Editor,
I drive an electric vehicle, and I believe that I should help pay for the maintenance of roads. If not a tax based on distance driven, then what would be the fairest way to pay for roads?
The uproar about studying a mileage tax appears to be based on the assumption that this (possible) new tax would be additive to the existing gas tax. But perhaps the rational thing to do is to study what the funding needs are and the various methods that could be used to procure those funds.
The study may find that a mileage tax should replace the gas tax. Or it may propose lowering the gas tax and adding a mileage tax. Or some other taxing method.
Whatever a study recommends, I suspect that politicians will be careful not impose costs on households that would appreciably increase their expenses. After all, most elected officials probably want to keep their jobs.
Gary Farber
Walnut Creek
WE PAY FOR WHAT THE RICH CAN AFFORD
Editor:
To Americans, profits are not everything; they are the only thing. The United States’ obsession with money is both a strength and a curse. If confronted with a choice between cash, prudence and morality, money wins. Money tops health care, public safety, resource management and foreign policy. But if solutions were U.S. politicians’ primary concern, they would abandon capitalism across several sectors of the U.S. economy.
Canadian Premier Mark Carney and Donald Trump defined that difference in their addresses to the World Economic Forum. Carney urged middle-power nations to abandon their alliances with the U.S. and to seek what is best for their nations. Trump harped that NATO never did anything for us. We, he complained, put more money in the alliance than others. He neglected to mention that NATO nations aided us in the Middle East wars and that NATO buys U.S. weapons.
Trump wants less populous nations with smaller economies to kowtow to us. It doesn’t matter if they can afford to please him or not. To me, Trump’s foreign policy replicates his Big Beautiful Bill. He wants the less privileged to pay for what the rich can easily afford. The Trump administration wants other nations to treat us like royalty, even though we don’t deserve it.
Tom Fantulin
Fort Bragg
GOBBI STREET ‘HUMP’ A JOKE
To the Editor:
“Take out the Gobbi Street hump!” It seems that there has now been adequate time to assess the Gobbi Street Hump “experiment.”
(1) Inadequate warning. The original poorly chosen white stripes were never enough to warn of the totally unexpected height of the hump. (Now worn off in six months.) The changing of the warning sign from “bump” to “hump” was a joke. I doubt that “Street Hump” is mentioned in the DMV manual.
(2) Totally unexpected height. Nowhere in the 50 states would you find a Hump of this height on a major city corridor. In a residential neighborhood, yes; but never on a city street expected to move major traffic smoothly. Gobbi is one of the only two streets with signage and exit ramps from Highway 101 into Ukiah. Certainly, that makes Gobbi a major city corridor.
The Hump is, of course, nothing but someone’s memorial to the Great Redwood Rail Trail.
As the warning signs of the “Hump” deteriorate and traffic congestion increases, will the city do anything to improve the situation? As I write this, I’m reminded that “You can’t fight city hall”. (“Regulations”.)
Has anyone on the City Council driven Gobbi and experienced the hump? I think this issue deserves to be put on the Council agenda.
Jon E. Telschow
Ukiah
ONE PARTY STATE
Editor:
As a third generation Californian and independent centrist, I’ve backed pragmatic policies across party lines, but our state’s record under single-party rule screams for scrutiny before the midterms. It’s a glaring red flag about the perils of unchecked dominance.
Our state languishes dead last in housing affordability. In Los Angeles and the Bay Area, six-figure earners qualify as low-income under crushing costs. Cost-adjusted, California’s poverty rate ties Louisiana’s, trapping 1 in 6 residents. We host nearly half the nation’s chronically homeless, and since 2020, over 1.3 million have bolted. Worse yet: The high-speed rail debacle tops $128 billion with endless delays, squandering $4 billion in federal funds. A year after the Los Angeles wildfires, only 14% of homes have rebuilding permits. Rampant fraud bleeds taxpayer dollars — $20 billion-$32 billion from pandemic unemployment, $23 million from homelessness grants, $16 million in sham hospice schemes and $10 billion in federal child care funds frozen over misuse concerns.
This isn’t partisan sniping; it’s fiscal folly handing opponents ammunition. Insist on reforms: Diversify taxes, cap spending, deliver outcomes. Centrists demand competence that unites us all. Isn’t this rooted in single-party rule dominating our state?
Gary Jones
Santa Rosa
FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA
Editor:
A Jan. 31 article described a recent set of measures directed at Cuba by the Trump administration. I had the opportunity to visit the island recently as part of a tour sanctioned by the U.S. and Cuban governments. Based on that visit and my interactions with people on the ground, the notion that this tiny island poses a threat to the U.S. is frankly comical.
Instead, the measures represent an abjectly cruel political attempt to starve the Cuban people. This is nothing more than a continuation and, worse, an expansion of U.S. policies over the past 65 years aimed at toppling what would otherwise be a successful socialist government with broad support among Cubans. It has become increasingly difficult to justify these policies, except as a means of satisfying a diminishing political constituency that seems stuck in a pre-1959 mindset.
As journalist Liz Oliva Fernandez said in the recent documentary “The War On Cuba”: “Just leave us alone.” I couldn’t agree more. It’s time to open up U.S.-Cuban relations, prevent a deepening humanitarian crisis and allow the Cuban people to manage their own affairs without heavy-handed interference.
Greg Carr
Sonoma
FULTON COUNTY ELECTION SEIZURE
Editor:
The FBI’s seizuer of ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, on Jan. 29, potentially represents one of the most significant events in our country’s history. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be getting the attention it deserves, particularly from local press. This is an alarming development. Accounts indicate that President Donald Trump is heavily involved in the seizure, having actually spoken via Tulsi Gabbard’s phone to FBI agents conducting the seizure. And he has subsequently said there are “interesting” findings regarding the seized ballots. He has positioned the seizure as a fraud review of the 2020 election that he lost (Fulton County has performed numerous recounts and investigations showing this to be so).
However, the implications are much more serious. Trump is planting the seed for seizing ballots from the 2026 midterm election under the guise that there is fraudulent activity. Remember that numerous.
Republican officials in Georgia refuted his 2020 claims, as did Bill Barr and Chris Klebs within his own administration. Steve Bannon just stated that ICE agents should be posted at election polls. Local news media: Please dedicate more coverage to this very serious situation.
Chris Carpenter
Petaluma
TAX VEHICLES BY WEIGHT
Editor,
The weight and speed of vehicles are what destroy our roads. We should consider what the Netherlands has done and tax vehicles by weight annually. Seems like a more equitable option than a mileage tax when you have two vehicles driving the same distances.
Mark Proteau
Napa
DON'T VOTE FOR THIS ONE
Editor,
Assembly Bill 1421 would push California toward a mileage-based driving tax, which would punish people who must drive farther for work, medical care or daily needs. Everyone should urge their state senator to vote no on this terrible policy. This would hit rural residents, seniors and working families the hardest, especially those with long commutes and no transit alternatives. A per-mile tax raises serious privacy concerns, since it relies on tracking or reporting how much and where people drive.
Californians already pay some of the highest gas taxes and vehicle fees in the country. We don’t need another tax layered on top. Even though the bill calls for a “study,” it clearly would move the state closer to implementing a new tax without voter approval. We must demand they stop the endless taxation and profligate spending in Sacramento.
Moira Jacobs
Santa Rosa
SAD SCENE AT OLYMPICS
Editor:
It was heartbreaking to hear the American Olympic team booed in Milan, Italy, during the opening ceremony. Our country has regressed dramatically from a world leader and inspiration to a country to be scorned internationally.
I wake up daily hoping Congress will finally say enough division, racism, antagonism, threats and brute force. I hope as well that the Supreme Court will finally rein in reckless and unconstitutional executive power.
The founders would be shocked by our current lack of separation of powers, which they so carefully crafted. Rather than upholding their constitutional oath, it seems the direction many politicians want to take us in, out of fear of midterm power loss, is either nationalizing elections or creating enough misinformation to challenge the credibility of them.
Fascinating that 2020 was supposedly stolen and 2024 not. Silence will end democracy; hopefully, it is not too late.
David Lehman
Petaluma
RAISE CORPORATE TAXES
Editor:
I’m amazed that there is so little conversation about how past state decisions play in current school district financial crises. In 1978, Proposition 13 limited the amount that corporate-owned property taxes could be increased each year. In 1987, the Legislature cut the flat corporate tax rate from 9.6% to 9.3%, and in 1997 from 9.3% to 8.84%.
California corporations currently pay about 4.8% of their profits in state taxes, compared to over 9.5% in 1980. They account for less than 5% of state income tax revenue. On average, corporate taxes represent only about 0.11% of their total expenses.
Twenty-one percent of California public school funding comes from property taxes. There is no readily available breakdown between corporate and individual property tax contributions. The effect of this conflation is we can’t isolate the corporate contribution to public education and see how meager it is.
Our Legislature is socially progressive. At the same time, it can be seen to be fiscally regressive, irresponsible, if not corrupt — legislating the wishes of corporate money.
We need to end Proposition 13 for corporations and raise the flat tax rate so corporations pay at least 9.5% tax on profits again. There are lots of unaddressed needs in California. The most pervasive is public education.
Jeffrey J. Olson
Clearlake Oaks
AI CAN'T DO IT
To the Editor:
Many years ago, I bled into my brain from a malformed blood vessel, an often fatal or disabling event. As I was being rolled into the operating room, the anesthesiologist intercepted what had every possibility of being my last ride.
He stopped the stretcher, sat down on the edge, took my hand in his, looked me in the eye and said: “Herb, I will stay with you until this operation is over. I will not leave you.”
That was the last thing I remember until I woke up many hours later. No computer, no matter how sophisticated, can do that.
Herbert Rakatansky
Providence, Rhode Island
TIPPING
Editor:
Asking customers to tip more isn’t the only response to rising costs. Many businesses raise prices and move to a transparent, tip-free model that directly covers wages. That alternative — central to why many customers were uncomfortable — wasn’t meaningfully explored.
The speculative math in the article also muddied the issue. A 20% increase on an $8 pastry brings it to $9.60. That’s straightforward. Framing it as something more dramatic distracts from a clear discussion about pricing versus tipping.
I was also struck by the lack of labor advocates, worker-rights voices or wage experts. If a story centers on compensation, tipping culture and “living wages,” those perspectives provide essential context beyond one business or one viral post.
When coverage leans primarily toward owners, it feels incomplete. The intensity of the response suggests growing discomfort with how much responsibility for wages has shifted onto customers. Exploring that tension more directly would strengthen future reporting.
Andrew Leonard
Santa Rosa
CLIMATE SCIENCE DENIAL
Editor:
How is it that the most powerful country in the world, with the best science and technology — where countries throughout the world send their best and brightest to be educated at great universities — has denied science. With its caveman mentality, the current administration has erased scientific findings that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating our beloved planet.
While more than 190 countries, originally led by the U.S., are dedicated to the Paris climate accord, we sit on the sidelines ignoring six decades of scientific research. Until we learn the lessons of science, we will suffer the consequences of a country in decline. World history teaches us to follow science to prevent a long-term path to death and destruction.
Don Raimondi
Santa Rosa
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