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Direct motion wanted
to avoid wasting abortion rights
Re. “Report: Draft opinion suggests Roe to be overturned,” Web page A1, Might 3:
The concept that Roe v. Wade can and could also be overturned is a chilling one, and troublesome to consider that it's one we face in 2022.
A girl should have the suitable to manage her personal physique. But, someway, the widespread and coordinated assaults towards ladies’s reproductive rights and freedom have introduced us to this terrifying level.
Nevertheless, one thing will be performed, and it have to be performed. Sen. Bernie Sanders has referred to as for the pressing codification of abortion rights into federal regulation.
Girls’s rights can and have to be protected. This isn't a time for empty posturing or helpless hand-wringing. It is a time for direct motion. Senators: do your job and shield abortion rights. Our kids’s future will depend on it.
Liz Value
Palo Alto
Put money into holding
nurse burnout at bay
The pandemic has negatively impacted nurses in the US. Earlier than the pandemic, the nurse burnout charge was 40%, and now, it has risen to 70%. Given these startling statistics, establishments must do extra to help nurses. The article, “Stanford, nurses attain deal that would finish strike subsequent week” (Web page B1, Might 1) highlights the impression of nurse burnout.
Nurses are vital for the success of affected person care supply. Nevertheless, nurses face excessive strain to handle difficult affected person situations and meet demanding schedules. If nurses are mentally and bodily drained, productiveness and affected person security may very well be compromised. It's not sufficient to have public shows of gratitude and say, “well being care employees are heroes.”
As a nursing pupil, I fear that I too will face a scarcity of help at my place of employment. Establishments must do extra to extend paid sick go away, compensation, security safety, and psychological well being companies.
Gladys Partida
San Francisco
PG&E has photo voltaic
conversion backwards
Probably the most cost-effective manner so that you can cut back CO2 emissions is the adoption of photo voltaic vitality. Present installations merely dump your photo voltaic vitality to the grid in your facet of the meter. A few of the vitality goes to the grid and a few to your home. The meter types it out.
However now the utilities have an excessive amount of rooftop photo voltaic, and so need to discourage it. The answer is so as to add a battery. However trying on the battery configurations, all of them use the battery as a backup for grid failure. The soiled grid is the first supply on your dwelling. Grid failure is uncommon. What a waste.
As a substitute, the photo voltaic needs to be the first supply of energy. Charging a battery needs to be an added job for the photo voltaic. The grid needs to be a backup for insufficient photo voltaic. The utilities needs to be comfortable to get nighttime further photo voltaic from the batteries.
Ted Rees
Mountain View
Transparency wanted
on drug pricing
Drug producers declare that value caps on medicine will cut back innovation. In the meantime, costs improve twice as quick as inflation whereas wages throughout the nation largely stagnate. Nonetheless, these insurance policies wouldn't cap costs — so why are producers pushing again towards easy transparency?
The reply: Rising transparency would present how convoluted and exploitative the pricing system is. Producers conform to over-price medicine by greater than 5,000% so insurance coverage firms can artificially negotiate costs again down. Are insurance coverage firms and drug producers saving sufferers cash, or are they exploiting belief to extort most revenue? Producers don't concern transparency. They concern the collective energy of Individuals pushing again towards unfair pricing — one thing held solely at bay by the present lack of transparency.
As drug costs improve with file velocity over the pandemic, transparency round pricing isn't just crucial: It could be each cost-effective and life-saving.
Sanjita Jain
Cupertino
Residents want updates on
what’s subsequent throughout board
Re. “State to probe plastic air pollution,” Web page A1, April 29:
I used to be annoyed to learn the article, “State to probe plastic air pollution.” It follows so many different headlines on investigations, experiences and congressional payments being handed – what occurs subsequent?
As a substitute, I want to see The Mercury Information pay equal consideration to the outcomes this work is meant to generate. Two examples:
1. It has been nearly six months for the reason that $1 trillion infrastructure invoice handed. The place are the articles describing the initiatives which have began, how they're progressing, the prices and anticipated advantages?
2. Everybody already is aware of that almost all plastic isn’t getting recycled. Push the waste firms within the Bay Space to set objectives and report annual outcomes concerning the whole plastic-weight processed and the share recycled, burned and landfilled. We might by no means get to 100%, however immediately’s 9% is unacceptable.
The identical is required for the renewable vitality transition. We should see progress.
Tom Calderwood
Los Gatos
Justice system wants
repair earlier than innocents die
“Melissa Lucio’s execution delayed by appeals courtroom,” Web page A3, April 26:
What's being performed within the case of Melissa Lucio is lengthy overdue.
Her interview course of was unjust. Forcing her to finally go together with the narrative the officers pushed onto her ought to have by no means been admissible in a courtroom. What occurred to Melissa, a mom of 12 who by no means had a historical past of violence, must be corrected. She ought to have by no means gone to jail, not to mention acquired the loss of life penalty.
Our justice system must be fully redone to stop these terrible sentences from taking place to harmless folks. If it was not for organizations just like the Innocence Venture, there could be many extra victims of our justice system unaccounted for. A system that has not been improved in a whole lot of years cannot be trusted to assist the folks of immediately. A change must be made.
Samantha Carlos
Redwood Metropolis