Letters: What the Yosemite reservation system tells us about our dependency on cars and traffic
Regarding 'Here's how it went on the first day of Yosemite's controversial reservation system' (Outdoors, SFChronicle.com, May 24): The Yosemite reservation system should be a nonstory but, unfortunately, it has become one.
I am an annual-ish visitor to Yosemite National Park and have visited multiple times during the COVID-era reservation system. I've been before and after that iteration of the reservation system. It was significantly easier to enjoy the park without having to deal with delays and traffic. Going back to the reservation system seems like a no-brainer.
I hoped that the reservation system and the ease of transport in Yosemite Valley could have translated into some moving opinions about our over-reliance on automobiles in San Francisco and elsewhere.
With BART, Muni and other public transportation agencies facing financial uncertainty, a system that is already over-reliant on private automobiles will face the traffic and lack of parking that Yosemite had without reservations.
We must rethink the place cars have in our society.
Brian Hoang, San Francisco
Photos too graphic
But the pictures of a tattooed shirtless male kneeling over a depressed woman on the street and a tent with a woman surrounded by three San Francisco police officers are troubling.
Other photos are of two guys smoking fentanyl and a couple out of a Dickens novel on the street.
This hardly invites sympathetic appreciation.
The story talks about a woman defecating at a bus stop and rendering it unusable. Another woman is quoted as saying she wished she had never started fentanyl and details how she spends most of her days trying to score the drug with her husband.
How is the average reader to see these individuals as worthy of care and treatment?
Treatment is available, and I commend Mayor Daniel Lurie for his focus on the problem. These are real and needy people.
Mel Blaustein, San Francisco
Bill discriminates
Regarding 'California anti-discrimination bill faces blowback' (Politics, SFChronicle.com, May 21): The story underrepresents the opposition to AB715 and fails to recognize the fallacies in the arguments about antisemitism in our schools.
At the Assembly's Education Committee's hearing, over 140 people opposed the bill to 70 in support. Many organizations not listed also filed letters in opposition.
AB715 was rushed, requiring a waiver of legislative rules — an abrogation of the democratic process. The voices of BIPOC communities were never included in the process, and that constitutes racism.
The bill would allow for anonymous complaints against teachers accused of antisemitism. It is important to allow time for teachers and the California Teachers Union to discuss the bill.
Studying Palestine and the politics of Israel has led to the censorship and reprimanding of teachers. This creates an environment of fear and silencing. Criticism of Israel, studying and critiquing the genocide against Palestinians — as it has been named by several human rights organizations — should not be conflated with antisemitism.
If AB715 passes, it will set a dangerous precedent for attacking teachers for curriculum that only a small and specific group of parents don't like.
Carla Schick, Oakland
No free lunch
But I have to respond to her comment, 'Everyone in this country deserves to live a life of ease, and so do we.'
Sorry, Carolyn, but no one deserves a life of ease. Here in the U.S., you have to earn it. Give the people of East Oakland the opportunity of education, good jobs and affordable housing, and your mission will succeed.
Kevin Hangman, Yountville
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Chicago Tribune
14 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
President Donald Trump tax bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit and leave 10.9 million more uninsured, CBO says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's big bill making its way through Congress will cut taxes by $3.75 trillion but also increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO also estimates an increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under the bill by 2034, including 1.4 million who are in the United States without legal status in state-funded programs. The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by nearly $1.3 trillion over that period, the budget office said. What is the CBO? A look at the small office inflaming debate over Trump's tax bill'In the words of Elon Musk, this bill is a 'disgusting abomination,'' said Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, reviving the billionaire former Trump aide's criticism of the package. 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Now in its 50th year, the CBO was established by law after Congress sought to assert its control, as outlined in the Constitution, over the budget process, in part by setting up the new office as an alternative to the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Staffed by some 275 economists, analysts and other employees, the CBO says it seeks to provide Congress with objective, impartial information about budgetary and economic issues. Its current director, Phillip Swagel, a former Treasury official in Republican President George W. Bush's administration, was reappointed to a four-year term in 2023.
18 minutes ago
Cuomo, Mamdani vie for top spot in NYC Democratic mayoral primary
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Cuomo's governorship was derailed after several women accused him of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct. He resigned as governor in 2021, saying that the controversy would cause undue turmoil for the state, but has consistently denied the allegations and recently told the New York Times he regrets resigning. A New York state prosecutor dropped criminal forcible touching charges against Cuomo in 2022. Cuomo also faced scrutiny for the state's tracking of deaths from COVID-19 in nursing homes during his tenure after reports that Cuomo and his team withheld from state legislators the true number of COVID-19 deaths at New York nursing homes. Cuomo has defended his performance and the count, and an independent investigation in 2024 found that Cuomo's nursing home response policy was based on "the best available data at the time." 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Boston Globe
22 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
What is the Congressional Budget Office? And why is it a target of Trump?
The budget office also projected that by 2034, 10.9 million more people would be uninsured, due to proposed spending cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Related : The bill now Advertisement In the weeks ahead of the CBO's analysis, the White House and Republican leaders have criticized the budget office in an effort to sow doubt in its findings. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Here's what to know about the nonpartisan agency and what the Trump administration has said about it: What is the CBO? The CBO is a nonpartisan agency that helps lawmakers estimate the cost of proposed legislation and provides reports on federal spending. It's led by a director appointed by Congress to a four-year term, with the selection alternating between the House and Senate Budget Committee chairs. The CBO emphasizes that political affiliation plays no role in its hiring process, stating it selects candidates 'solely on the basis of his or her fitness to perform the duties of the position.' Advertisement Is the CBO partisan? CBO hires analysts based on their expertise, not political affiliation. Staff is expected to maintain objectivity and avoid political influence. In evaluating potential employees, the CBO says that for most positions it looks at whether that person would be perceived to be free from political bias. Like other federal employees, the CBO's staff is also prohibited from making political contributions to members of Congress. The CBO's director, Phillip Swagel, served in former Republican President George W. Bush's administration as an economic adviser and as an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department. What has the CBO said in the past about Trump policy? The budget office said in April 2018, during Trump's first term, that tax receipts would reach $27 trillion from fiscal years 2018 to 2024. However, receipts came in about $1.5 trillion higher than the CBO projected and Republican lawmakers have seized on that discrepancy since then. The CBO later reported that revenues were higher than expected because of the 'burst of inflation' during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. There was also an increase in economic activity in 'the later years of the period' adding $700 billion. Also, new tariffs added about $250 billion, with other legislation partially offsetting those factors. What Trump and his allies have said about the agency Ahead of the CBO's analysis, Trump slammed the agency in a 'The Democrat inspired and 'controlled' Congressional Budget Office (CBO) purposefully gave us an EXTREMELY LOW level of Growth, 1.8% over 10 years,' Trump wrote. 'I predict we will do 3, 4, or even 5 times the amount they purposefully 'allotted' to us (1.8 percent) and, with just our minimum expected 3 percent growth, we will more than offset our tax cuts (which will, in actuality, cost us no money!),' Trump added. Advertisement In an 'The CBO sometimes gets projections correct, but they're always off every single time when they project economic growth,' Johnson told NBC News. '[The CBO] always underestimate the growth that will be brought about by tax cuts and reduction in regulations,' Johnson added. At a Alyssa Vega can be reached at
