Letters: San Jose still isn’t engaging on animal welfare at shelter

Submit your letter to the editor via this form Read more Letters to the Editor S J still isn t engaging on animal welfare Even after a scathing -page city audit was disclosed in November that highlighted that the San Jose Animal Care Center wasn t in compliance with basic Association of Shelter Veterinarian guidelines masses works director Matt Loesch has failed to engage the area that the animal shelter serves Related Articles Letters Politicians op-ed dodges state s role in insurance mess Letters The wealthy have a hole in their lives that can t be filled Letters Instead of hysterics let s focus on transients Letters Accountability compassion keys to state s homeless agency Letters Barbara Lee s more of the same won t solve Oakland s homeless obstacle In the city audit Loesch himself recommends that a neighborhood action committee be created to assist shelter staff in evolving solutions for four specific audit recommendations mainly involving increased spay neuter services growing access to low-cost vet services and expanding rescue partnerships Although this committee was to meet on a monthly basis in not only has it yet to meet but Loesch has failed to contact society stakeholders who have expressed interest in participating Also earmarked to seed a nonprofit foundation for SJACC has been sitting in reserve for two years with no plan of action given a lack of engagement with area stakeholders Mike Wagner Morgan Hill Trump policies endanger lives of LGBTQ people Re State to bolster LGBTQ aid Page B July As a mental healthcare professional for more than years with substantial experience and knowledge of the profound challenges facing the LGBTQIA society I read of the Trump administration s decision to no longer provide national suicide and predicament services to LGBTQ youth with horror Their additional mean-spirited decision to omit the T for transgender is equally abhorrent Make no mistake young people will die on Donald Trump s watch To the million Americans who put this abomination in the White House you too are co-conspirators in letting millions of very vulnerable Americans know that they don t count And don t say you voted MAGA for other reasons but disagree with this stance on the gay region Barry Goldman-Hall San Jose Keeping nine justices protects high court To protect the independence of the Supreme Court of the United States is to protect our democracy Newest Supreme Court decisions have angered enough people to call for the expansion of the number of justices But expansion leaves an open door to abuse of power and tit-for-tat politics To paraphrase Bernie Sanders If Democrats expand the Court Republicans will do the same when they are in power Term limits do not address court expansion To truly protect the Supreme Court we must pass the Keep Amendment It is an amendment backed by over members of Congress and totally says The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine justices Eugene Greg Zulueta San Jose CEQA transformation threatens regional butterfly habitat Re Deciphering new CEQA laws Page A July Your July article about the Legislature upending California s environmental and society soundness protections by pushing through CEQA reforms mentions one of SB s majority dangerous features its environmental review exemption for projects in a poorly-defined category called advanced manufacturing This category could include semiconductors and biotech but also battery manufacturing mining and other highly polluting facilities SB s harmful effects are already apparent The night SB passed developers of a massive industrial project that would destroy endangered butterfly habitat on San Bruno Mountain informed that they d changed their plans The project will now be an advanced manufacturing facility meaning that it could potentially escape environmental review My organization Green Foothills is working with a broad coalition of nonprofit organizations to close this enormous loophole in California s most of pivotal environmental law We urge lawmakers to act briskly to fix SB Alice Kaufman Guidelines and advocacy director Green Foothills Palo Alto It s our duty to keep finding good trouble The late U S Rep John Lewis urged us to make good trouble and actively aid pro-democracy causes Armed masked ICE agents are sweeping down not on dangerous criminals but on field and day workers on churches neighborhood grocery stores and elementary schools The new tax law will take from the poorest of us to benefit the richest and will add trillion to our national debt Under the new Healthcare Secretary measles is thriving while science and community vitality are less significant than his pet pseudoscience theories Does this dangerous craziness promotion democracy Donald Trump s Congress is of no help but we have the right and power to dissent Join a rally write letters volunteer donate to good candidates running for state and local office or run for something yourself vote Persist History shows that over time good results come from making good trouble Virginia Carpio Los Gatos