Transportation

Kevin T. Byrne, Oceanside Regarding the recent guest commentary by Robbie Hunter of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California: utter nonsense. Instead of dumping good money after funds poorly spent on high-speed rail, let’s explore an alternative. The concept of moving business and technical professionals from afar is counter-intuitive to good planning. […]

Technology exists today to employ faster-speed rail service as soon as the tracks, right of way, and system controls are in place. This would be the most cost-effective approach toward making the Central Valley portion of the high speed rail project fully operational.

Nazario A. Gonzales, Los Gatos Gov. Gavin Newsom keeps baiting the bear, Donald Trump. Now the bear strikes back. Why should the feds subsidize this fantasy high-speed rail which no one will ride? Newsom should back off, do his job and forget the presidency for the next 6 years.

The fight for continues for police misconduct records, a pioneering state gun law is being challenged by red states, and a court ruling is creating tax chaos.

Newsom's State of the State throws the Central Valley a peace offering on the Delta tunnels, creates high speed rail confusion and offers a big social plan.

Self-driving vehicle technology could exacerbate entrenched social and environmental problems, if we don’t make deliberate policy choices, especially for marginalized groups. We can easily imagine a dystopian scenario in which people with money purchase personal self-driving cars, while the rest of us are mired in congested streets, with reduced mobility as public transit gets short-changed due to ridership loss.

Californians rejected Proposition 6 in November, and voted to continue spending billions of dollars each year to rebuild our transportation infrastructure. Not a penny of that money or any other broad-based transportation funding should be diverted to finance risky privatization schemes. When it comes to “public-private partnerships,” those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.

The California law granting a nonbinary gender designation will raise car insurance rates for teen girls and lower them for boys.

In Sacramento, talk is cheap. Politicians say a lot of things to get elected. It’s what they do after they win that shows what their priorities are. But Gov. Gavin Newsom’s swift action on the DMV is a welcome change.