Full of what?
I have lived in Long Beach for 38 years and love my city. I have also been a volunteer for many rescues in the So Cal area for 10 years. My wife and I just started volunteering at Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) knowing they did euthanize some animals due to being unhealthy or extremely vicious.
We have unfortunately found this not to be the case. They are killing healthy, young, non-reactive dogs– around 30 a month.
When we return to walk and love our pals, we find out they have been killed, and when we ask why, they say, “We are full.”
Well, I know the definition of “full,” and LBACS is not full. When there are 10-plus empty cages, it is unethical to kill our animals.
Many of us Long Beach residents are asking the mayor and city council to make LBACS a no-kill facility like many other cities have done already. It is certainly possible, as: Austin, Texas has done this; Sacramento has gone no-kill; Reno, Nevada is no-kill; and many others.
We are hoping you might shed some light on this so the public is aware of what is really going on in our Long Beach shelter.
Alex Armstrong
Long Beach
But it’s not a tax… right?
The Long Beach Water Department commissioners will be meeting on Aug. 30 to raise your utility rates yet again. And, sadly, the confused citizens of Long Beach voted to allow this tax when the mayor and council essentially blackmailed them with loss of basic services– as they usually do when they’re asking for more money.
You must send letters of protest regarding this blatant extortion of money. Otherwise, you may as well just sign over your whole paycheck to the City. They will gladly take it.
Long Beach City Hall’s mantra: Tax, tax, tax; spend, spend, spend!
City Hall’s new motto: Working together to serve ourselves at the public’s expense.
Only you can make a difference with your protests, telephone calls and letters. Do it now!
Diana Lejins
Long Beach
Polluters in the driver’s seat?
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has a simple mandate: when our federal agencies make policy and consider proposed projects, they must thoroughly assess how their decisions impact our environment and our public health. Undermining NEPA and the transparency it provides puts our nation at risk of falling further behind in our fight against climate change. Weakening NEPA’s strong standards hinders our work to protect and improve the environment and the health of all Californians, environmental-justice communities in particular. We’re sending President Trump a message: if you roll back the safeguards protecting our nation’s environment and put polluters in the driver’s seat, we will hold you accountable.
Xavier Becerra
Attorney general
California
It would take an act of Congress
Congress has the opportunity and responsibility to pass the Secure Elections Act and make the first major investment in election security and administration in more than 15 years. I am troubled by reports out of Washington suggesting that the Act will be watered down or stalled as a result of partisanship. Election security is a matter of national security and should not be treated as a partisan issue.
Earlier this week, I sent a letter outlining my concerns that the most recent markup of the Act contained no funding for state and local elections officials to further strengthen cybersecurity. The latest markup also misguidedly removes the requirement for a manual tally of paper ballots during post-election audits, instead allowing machine audits of machine tallied results. Given the cyber threats to our voting systems, only audits of physical, paper ballots can provide the security we need and the confidence voters deserve to have in the accuracy and integrity of election results. That policy has served California well for more than a decade, and it should be a national standard.
Ensuring the integrity of our elections is at the very foundation of our democracy. State and local elections officials are doing our part to protect and secure our elections. We need Congress to do theirs.
Alex Padilla
Secretary of State
California
