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Support bill to helpfarmers in climate fight

As a high school student from Congressional District 15, I would like to thank Rep. Eric Swalwell for co-sponsoring the Growing Climate Solutions Act. The bill connects farmers to technical assistance providers, who can help them enter the carbon credits market. The benefits are two-fold: The bill provides an incentive for farmers to employ environmentally conscious agricultural practices and an economic opportunity. In addition, the bill would allow Congress to exercise oversight of this unregulated market.

A few active volunteers of District 15 and I lobbied Rep Swalwell on Dec. 1, asking for his support of this bill. The bill has already made it through the Senate with an overwhelming bipartisan majority.

Bills such as this that take immediate action to reduce carbon emissions pave the way to a livable future for my generation.

Shamak GowdaFremont

Ranked choice votingcarries many negatives

Re. “After election error, what comes next for ranked choice voting?,” Page A1, Dec. 30:

The positive for ranked choice voting is that it saves money by preventing runoff elections. The negatives are many.

Now we learn that by changing a previously undisclosed switch election officials can change the results of an election. Then, as the ACLU discovered, by charging the absurdly high $21,000 a day for a recount that could take weeks, election officials have a way to hide their “mistakes.”

Another negative is that the system is so confusing that many voters leave ballots blank or fill them out incorrectly. In the Oakland mayoral election, over 7,000 voters fell into those categories. And voters for a candidate with less than 9% of the vote in the first round eventually decided the winner.

Dennis MockelOakland

Ranked choice balancesour voting system

Re. “Ranked choice voting should move forward,” Page A7, Dec. 30:

I agree with your editorial. Another example in support of your opinion is Antioch City Council District 1 and its three candidates with none close to a majority. Winner Tamisha Torres-Walker received just 34% of the vote. With 4,268 total votes cast in the race, Torres-Walker finished only four votes ahead of Joy Motts and 129 votes ahead of Diane Gibson-Gray.

It is disappointing that the winning candidate does not represent a majority of voters.

Richard StadtlanderAntioch

Disinformation elevatesunprincipled candidate

Mark Z. Barabak’s column of Dec. 29 about the San Ramon Valley School Board election (“Disinformation is a problem in local races, too,” Page A7) describes the smear campaign against candidate Michelle Peterson wherein the “winner” Jesse vanZee “acknowledged that his supporters, a campaign worker and the spouse of his campaign treasurer were among those who actively shared the disinformation.”

This is shameful and if vanZee had any integrity, he would resign. But of course, he won’t, because unprincipled people like him believe the ends justify the means.

Going forward I hope other school board members will bear in mind the sort of person they are working with.

Louise GrayDanville

Board member failsthe leadership test

Thank you for Mark Z. Barabak’s column of Dec. 29, “Disinformation is a problem in local races, too” (Page A7). This is exactly the type of reporting we expect from this paper, and why many people continue to subscribe.

Right-wing candidates claim fake news, dark money and immorality as their opposition while offering little or no concrete proof. Yet all those things were demonstrated to be present in this election. The leading candidate endorsing the unethical behavior of spreading disinformation about a candidate, because when a leader does not speak out against evil he condones it. How does our education system benefit from that? Unethical behavior undermines trust. Every proposition and policy advocated by the “winner” is now tainted, no matter how laudable.

Inspiring trust is a leadership asset. As the opinion concludes, Jesse vanZee has already flunked the leadership test.

Antonio InserniAlamo

Returns reveal Trumpis not patriotic

Re. “Trump’s tax returns released” (Page A1, Dec. 31):

Can you believe the unmitigated gall of Donald Trump, who used every loophole available to him in order to pay the least amount of taxes?

Never mind the loopholes are legal, having been cleverly written into the tax code by our oh-so-clever and eminently virtuous politicians and their staff of many. Clearly, Trump is not as patriotic as he claims to be, and certainly not as patriotic as all the rest of our politicians, both Democrat and Republican alike, who have undoubtedly bypassed using those same loopholes themselves, having instead paid the highest possible amount of their taxes.

I would venture to guess they even paid over and above what was owed, proving themselves to be so much more patriotic than Trump.

Mark BarnesMartinez