Letters

Death Not Prosecuted

There is not one shred of defense for officer Thue’s negligent killing of his K-9 by leaving him in a car to suffocate from heatstroke. Officer Thue is obliged to uphold the same laws for his own actions as for the public: Felony Animal Abuse PC 597A&B as well as separate felony for any animals left in a car that leads to injury or mortality. This is not acceptable. This is police and the DA passing the buck and corruption.

Whitney Smith

If the past 12 months have shown us anything it’s this: There are no laws protecting people, animals or property that the City of Long Beach is bound to respect.

Carlos Ovalle

In a time when the badge has become a target, when enforcing the law and protecting lives and property could result in being blinded, burned, bloodied or dead, law enforcement officers are now facing an even greater danger: being asked to cover for a fellow officer who lies, covers up for his own criminal negligence, homicide/wrongful death of his own partner. The majority of officers who value and live their oath daily now have to carry the weight of this poor example of the slackers who climb the ladder letting others put their lives on the line with no thanks or gratitude required.

I am sorry you men and women who proudly serve behind the badge of honor as [you] have to take the abuse you willingly endure each day and multiplied by worthless excuses of humanity who would better serve the world as a boat anchor! RIP Ozzy well done good and faithful servant...you deserved better, at least you are at peace.

Tom Stanovich

The true hypocrisy of prosecution under the “law.” Kill a police dog and you’ve killed an officer. An officer kills a police dog and it’s okay.

Doug Murrell

How is it that you have “insufficient evidence?” What evidence do you need when the poor dog was inside the police car. The cop needs to pay for murdering this poor animal.

Veronica Pearce

‘This Badge’

Sins of the few? [Aug. 14 commentatary] How can you say that when fellow officers virtually never step in to stop illegal police misconduct they witness? When an officer turns his head to ignore the illegal misconduct of fellow officers, he joins the majority, not the “few.”

Mike Ruehle

You forgot “This badge has” has committed crimes, has lied, has stolen, has killed has hurt people, has set up innocent people, has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars and has never been held accountable. That’s just to name a few. I will remind you they don’t do the job for free.

S.M.H.

4 Homes Per Lot

This is outrageous and should be stopped from succeeding. People need to contact their representatives today. Why is Senator Lena Gonzales not supporting the desire of Long Beach residents and respecting established residential neighborhoods and single-family ownerships?

Rae Gabelich

All the problems are caused by California’s one-party super majority takeover of the legislature. There is no balance or pushback of the liberal agenda, regardless of your party identification, these liberal, far-eft socialism thinkers want to change and ruin your life.

They believe they know what’s best for you, your neighborhood, your taxes and your health. So fight back or open wide!

Wade Rowland

Support AB 323

It’s a rare privilege to be the publisher of 11 daily local newspapers serving cities across Southern California. My job enables me to connect with people in a unique and personal way.

What’s the mood in Los Angeles County? What topics do people care about? That’s easy; I go through my “in” box and read scores of letters I receive from readers each day.

Our readers don’t hold back their opinions. Nor do I want them to. That’s the value of a free, independent press, guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

I share many of your letters with our news and editorial teams. Your opinions, perspectives and story ideas help us shape the day’s news and focus our investigative reporting efforts. That’s the way it should work: Credible local news organizations exist in the public’s service.

Because if we don’t cover these stories, who else will?

For the past five months, COVID-19 has dominated the headlines and many businesses – including media organizations like ours – have suffered dramatic declines in revenue.

Now there is another serious issue ready to crush the very heart of our news operations.

Assembly Bill 5, called AB 5 or the “gig law,” was enacted in 2019 to define which California workers should be categorized as contractors and which should be classified as employees.

AB 5 says that your independent newspaper carrier should be reclassified as an employee. If newspaper owners are forced to recategorize carriers from contractors to employees, our largest cost expenditure would increase by an unsustainable 60 percent to 80 percent.

If AB 5 stands as written, routes will be consolidated. Carriers will lose jobs.

And the impact of AB 5 will be far-reaching, affecting folks beyond our hard-working delivery carriers.

AB 5 will have disastrous consequences for the readers and communities we serve.

Eliminating print editions on one or more days a week, closing our community weekly papers, curtailing coverage of cities and stopping delivery entirely in certain outlying markets are real possibilities. Changes like these will be considered in nearly every local newspaper throughout the State.

Before the Legislature adjourns at the end of August, it’s imperative that our elected officials give newspapers a lifeline so we can stabilize in the post-COVID economy and allow us time to identify and implement alternative delivery options that will not impact our readers.

That’s why we are respectfully urging the California Legislature to pass AB 323, the Save Local Journalism Act, which was unanimously passed by the Senate Labor Committee last week.

AB 323 allows media companies an additional two years to adapt our business model to comply with AB 5.

AB 323 also establishes a pathway for the State’s ethnic and community news outlets to position themselves to better compete for advertising contracts awarded by the state – that’s a lifeline of revenue that would normally go to larger outlets or digital platforms. At a time when steps to improve racial equality are being debated, ethnic and minority owned companies should have their voices heard loudly – not muzzled by a pandemic and legislative overregulation.

If the Legislature fails to pass AB 323, they are failing their community newspapers – and more importantly, failing readers like you.

Legislators must act by Aug. 31; time is running out.

That’s why I’m writing to you today. We urgently need your help to ask the Legislature to vote in favor of AB 323.

Please go online to savemypaper.com and add your name to the growing list of concerned citizens and business alliances that have committed to support local newspapers. You can also write your local representative directly by finding their name at findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.

When you write, or call your elected official’s office, let them know you value the Press-Telegram and support AB 323, the Save Local Journalism Act.

Your voice, your support, will give us the time we need and a chance to recover.

We are honored to have earned your trust as an essential source for local news. Thank you for supporting our mission.

Ron Hasse, Publisher,
Press-Telegram

[Editor Note: This was an email sent to online subscribers]

Post-COVID Predictions

I have to disagree with some of your assessments in the Aug. 14 Beachcombing. Unfortunately, you’re thinking of the old days when teachers had a say and now it’s all public unions driven. They don’t even want competition from Charter Schools that could improve education country wide. Public unions for teachers have emboldened higher costs and driven less than adequate teachers to not leave but move to schools in poorer or minority schools.

As long as public unions are allowed to exist and grant favors to the political party that they support there will be no better schooling and possibly no school until after Nov. 3. There will certainly be no small classes unless the districts can dig up a very large number of qualified teachers to take on the burden of extra classes needed when class size is reduced. That and cost to districts would be massive.

Transportation has been falling drastically since California started giving license to illegals. They were the main ones who were using the mass transit. Those are facts borne out by data. It’s easy to see the amount of traffic is returning to “normal” as weeks and months progress. The only way to help transportation gridlock is to have better roads and freeways.

The amount of revenue taken in from gas taxes and car registration alone should help if not for the bureaucracy of Caltrans and other government agencies. The amount of waste in the state, city and county bureaucracy could build infrastructure for years but we are crushed by one massive group of waste producers after another in government. Hope you reflect on the position I’ve taken and I would love to discuss it more at any time.

Vance Frederick