Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

State must rethink
its disaster response

Re: “Insurance angst soaring in state” (Page A1, July 24).

Whether you believe in climate change or not, natural disasters like floods, hurricanes and tornadoes will happen if you live near the warm waters of the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico.

Related Articles

Letters: Voters can give El Cerrito the library it deserves

Letters: Trump’s right on eliminating capital gains tax on home sales

Letters: We must learn to co-exist with mountain lions

Letters: Voters have the power to lift nation’s veil of fear

Letters: Copying Texas GOP’s power grab will cost Democrats voters’ trust

If you live in the Western part of the U.S., where drought is common and there is an abundance of trees surrounding homes and other structures, fires are most likely to cause expensive damage.

Who pays for all this damage and loss? This will be the question that will be asked more as climate disasters happen more frequently and more people endure losses. Our leaders have to come up with a way to mitigate these losses without bankrupting taxpayers, homeowners and insurers.

Patricia Marquez Rutt
Redwood City

Don’t soften Maxwell’s
role in Epstein’s crimes

Re: “Justice Dept. official meets with Epstein’s ex-girlfriend” (Page A4, July 25).

The paper on July 25 appears to be part of the campaign to soften the image of Ghislaine Maxwell.

Your teaser at the top of the front page states, “DOJ, Epstein accomplice meet.” Maxwell is a lot more than a mere “accomplice” or “ex-girlfriend.” She is a sexual predator and pedophile who actively participated in the abuse of young girls. She was also twice charged with perjury.

A monster and a liar better describe her, and any deal to reduce her sentence would be a travesty.

Michael Malter
Saratoga

State leaders must
act to halt exodus

Re: “In-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder addresses ‘In-N-Outta California’ backlash” (July 23).

Lynsi Snyder’s explanation for In-N-Out’s opening of a second headquarters in Franklin, Tenn., and her own family’s move illustrate how “California Dreamin’” has become “California Night-Maring.” It’s not about disloyalty — it’s about escaping a quality-of-life squeeze that’s become impossible to ignore.

Bankrate’s cost-of-living calculator shows that someone earning $150,000 in San Jose would need only about $81,464 in Franklin to live similarly. That gap shapes decisions about family, housing and the future. Snyder’s love for California is obvious. But so is her honesty. The state’s promise is being undermined by unsustainable costs and political inertia.

If leaders keep ignoring this crisis, more families and businesses will follow, not out of rebellion, but necessity.

Greg McMorrow
Franklin, Tenn. (former Californian)

Economy would be fine
if Trump left it alone

I don’t understand why the Donald Trump trade deal with Japan will be good for our economy.

If products from Japan face a 15% tariff, that will only add the same amount to prices charged for them. The same is true with tariffs on products from China and other countries.

Interest rates aren’t going down, either; Trump appointed Jerome Powell to run the Federal Reserve, which keeps them up. The economy would be booming right now if Trump just stopped trying to repair it. Like they say, if it’s not broken, it doesn’t need fixing.

Bill Graham
Salinas

If you don’t understand
it, it deserves a no vote

Re: “Borenstein: Democrats try to undermine election integrity” (Page A6, July 24).

Regarding transparency in ballot wording and AB 698, would you buy a house, or even bother going to the open house, if you didn’t know the price or had to wade through pro forma closing documents to understand the cost? Would you buy a car if you had to page through an owner’s manual to find the price?

If someone isn’t willing to easily show me what a bond measure is going to cost and why it’s worth that price, I’m not going to be voting for it.

Lisa Eckstrom
San Jose

The time for words
has passed in Gaza

I write with a heavy heart and unwavering moral conviction to condemn the ongoing genocide being committed by Israel. What we are witnessing is not a conflict — it is a one-sided slaughter, a humanitarian catastrophe on a historic scale.

Entire families have been wiped out, hospitals bombed, food and water denied and more than 60,000 killed, most of them women and children. And yet we hear a little more than hollow statements from world leaders and especially the United States — a nation that continues to supply arms, indirectly helping Israel to commit genocide.

The time for words has passed. The time for action is now. I call on the United States and the international community to immediately impose sanctions and to furnish no more weapons.

Esmail Essabhoy
Palo Alto