‘Shame on them': Salary hikes for Sacramento officials spark criticism
Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty and city council members clearly do not prioritize serving their constituents.
They could have worked within the charter rules to route more money to public safety and less into their own pockets.
Shame on them.
Barbara Stockman
Sacramento
Opinion
'Newsom calls for cities, counties to adopt policies eradicating homeless encampments,' (sacbee.com, May 12)
It boggles the mind that Gov. Gavin Newsom thinks that banning homelessness will make the problem go away. It will take a coordinated, multi-faceted effort — without egos, turf wars or NIMBYism — to solve the problem.
Like when California ignored the Employment Development Department and Department of Motor Vehicles debacles, those problems did not fix themselves. What world does the governor live in?
Daniel W. Christensen
Folsom
'Newsom calls for cities, counties to adopt policies eradicating homeless encampments,' (sacbee.com, May 12)
If Gov. Gavin Newsom is going to advocate for policies beloved by the GOP, including not funding social programs, he should change parties officially.
PJ Evans
Chatsworth
'California has highest estimated Alzheimer's cases in US. These counties have the most,' (sacbee.com, Aug. 3, 2023)
California Alzheimer's Disease Centers are in trouble, with some at risk of closure by July, leaving many with Alzheimer's unserved.
Established 40 years ago at university medical centers, California's 10 Alzheimer's Centers leverage federal research dollars to expand access to diagnosis, treatment and training for primary care providers.
They're critical educational centers for caregivers, medical students and communities of color, who are disproportionately affected and face challenges accessing experts and care.
These centers have been consistently underfunded, while demand for their services grows. If they close, patients will face longer wait times and travel longer distances for appointments. State legislators must increase funding for these centers. Without action, we'll lose critical infrastructure and risk being unprepared to serve an aging population.
Mark White
Sacramento
'340B fails Black Californians and helps corporations profit,' (sacbee.com, May 7)
NAACP California/Hawaii State Conference President Rick Callender's op-ed claims 340B no longer helps low-income Californians. In decades of practicing medicine and leading a health care organization that served millions of low-income patients, I've seen nothing like it.
In California, hospitals used hundreds of millions of dollars in 340B savings in recent years to keep clinics open and medications accessible. UC San Diego and UC Davis alone reported over $560 million combined. That funding supports cancer treatment, prenatal care and prescription access for people who often have nowhere else to turn.
340B isn't perfect, but it is working. If we cut 340B, we won't be fixing a problem. Instead, we'll be cutting off cancer treatment, closing clinics and leaving people without life-saving medicine.
Dr. Mario Molina
Arlington, Va.
'CA must stop using forever chemicals that harm our health,' (sacbee.com, Aug. 11, 2023)
Senate Bill 682 seeks to broadly ban perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, without fully assessing individual risks. It is a costly and premature measure that threatens over 500,000 jobs and nearly $150 billion in gross domestic product.
These substances are essential to sectors like aerospace, semiconductors and air conditioning technology. A sweeping ban would burden small and mid-sized businesses, increasing prices and risking job losses.
Legislators should reject SB 682 and, instead, back targeted, science-driven regulations that protect public health without jeopardizing California's economy and innovation.
Kevin Fay
Executive director, Sustainable PFAS Action Network
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Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Here's how millions of people could lose health insurance if Trump's tax bill becomes law
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The program goes by different names in some states, like Medi-Cal in California, BadgerCare in Wisconsin, or MassHealth in Massachusetts. A look at some of the ways in which people may lose health care coverage under the GOP's plan: Medicaid or Obamacare enrollee? Your income and eligibility will be checked closely and more often. Under the GOP's plan, states will need to verify a person's income to check Medicaid eligibility every six months. People who are homeless or transient may miss notices from the government to fill out paperwork more frequently, said Martha Santana-Chin, the CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan, which provides Medicaid for millions of Los Angelenos. They'll lose their coverage if they don't respond. 'The life experience of these individuals is not necessarily one that allows them the luxury of having to work through onerous paperwork,' Santana-Chin said. 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The Hill
34 minutes ago
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Trump tells Powell to leave
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Yahoo
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If she runs for Senate, Lara Trump would need to move back to NC by this fall
As Republicans now face an open race for their party's nomination for U.S. Senate next year, the one name that has shot to the top of the list is Lara Trump. The president's daughter-in-law co-chaired the Republican National Committee during Donald Trump's successful bid for the White House last year and currently hosts a weekly television show on Fox News. She is 'strongly considering' running for the seat that will be vacated by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, NBC News reported Sunday. Her entry into the race could effectively end the GOP primary before it even begins. Her father-in-law had encouraged her to run for the U.S. Senate seat that opened with the retirement of Richard Burr in 2022, and when he was asked about the 2026 race on Tuesday, he said she would be his 'first choice.' Other prominent Republicans whose names have been floated as potential candidates have either taken themselves out of the running, like U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, or have preemptively endorsed Trump's candidacy, should she decide to enter the race, as first-term congressman Pat Harrigan did. If Trump does move forward with a Senate bid, she'll need to take certain steps to ensure her eligibility, the most important of which would be to move back to North Carolina and register to vote here. A Wilmington native, Trump grew up in Wrightsville Beach and studied communications at N.C. State University before moving to New York, where she met her now-husband, Eric Trump, one of the president's sons. Lara Trump was registered to vote in Wake County while she attended college at N.C. State, and voted in the 2000, 2002 and 2004 general elections in North Carolina, according to the State Board of Elections. She has since been removed from the North Carolina voter list. Later, Trump lived in New York, where she reportedly voted in 2016 the first time her father-in-law won. Since September 2021, Trump has been a registered voter in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to the Florida Department of State. The N.C. State Board of Elections points to only three 'general candidate requirements' for running for U.S. Senate. Per federal law, candidates must be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state they are running from by the date of the general election. State law, however, requires candidates running in a party primary to be 'affiliated with that party for at least 90 days' as of the date that person officially files their notice of candidacy. Candidate filing for the 2026 primary election is currently scheduled to begin at noon on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025 and end at noon on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. That means that if Trump decides to seek the Republican Party's nomination, she would need to move to North Carolina and register to vote here as a Republican by Sept. 20, 2025, at the latest. Other candidates for U.S. Senate who have gone on to win and represent North Carolina in Washington have grown up here, lived here, or have otherwise had ties here, but lived elsewhere at the time they began thinking about a campaign, and had to move back to the state to run. Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, for example, took the first step towards running in the 2002 election when she registered to vote in her native Rowan County the previous August, declaring herself a legal resident of the state based in Salisbury, after spending more than three decades in Washington. At the time, Dole, a Republican, listed her residence as her childhood home on South Fulton Street, where her 100-year-old mother continued to live, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer, and turned in her registration form in person at the Rowan County administrative building.
