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‘Finest Falcons’ column
My wife Cindy and I are parents to Grace Tuttle, one of the “Finest Falcons” Jeremy Walsh wrote about this past week when publishing her obituary.
We were so moved when reading your column we wanted to write and thank you for taking the time to specifically acknowledge Grace. Your personal pause relating to your brother was especially meaningful; it is heartwarming to know that Grace’s story touched your life as she did so many others.
We continue to be amazed and so very grateful each day as we receive cards, emails and kind messages letting us know how much people loved Grace, how she inspired or touched them and how much she is missed.
Thanks for being yet another light in our lives.
— Tim and Cindy Tuttle
Girls’ high school wrestling
I hope this message finds you well. As a devoted reader, I’d like to offer a suggestion that could further enhance your already fantastic coverage.
The local high school girls wrestling scene in our area truly deserves more attention. We are home to some of the most talented young wrestlers in Northern California, possibly even the state, and yet they often remain under-recognized. These athletes are not only excelling in their sport but also displaying remarkable resilience, determination, and skill.
It would be fantastic to see greater coverage showcasing these outstanding young women — through feature stories, event highlights or spotlights on individual achievements. There are countless inspiring stories within the wrestling community that deserve to be told. For instance, the lack of mention of the girls’ performances in the recent East Bay Athletic League results over the weekend is an example of the missed opportunities to recognize their hard work.
Thank you for considering this, and for your continued dedication to bringing us the best local news. I look forward to seeing more coverage of our area’s rising high school girls wrestling stars!
— Kevin Monaghan
Athletic fields fees
The plan to introduce fees for use of athletic fields is ill advised. Older established persons in the community can often afford fees such as these. This burden is on young families whose economics are developing.
The amenities are of benefit to the entire community. Those like me, a 40-year resident, who reared our family using these types of facilities, I would gladly pay to maintain the parks and sports fields throughout the city.
Or think out of the box! How about solar panels over parking lots? Would easily generate more money than fees.
— Bob Sanchez
President Trump’s productive first five weeks
During President Trump’s first five weeks in office he has secured the border, deported thousands of the worst illegal alien criminals, stopped the wasteful USAID spending, and reduced the federal wasteful spending in other departments putting an end to the fraud, waste and abuse and saving the American taxpayers billions of dollars.
He has created the most qualified cabinet in history. He has started the negotiations to stop the Russia-Ukraine war and to bring peace to Europe, something Biden and the Europe nations were incapable of doing.
He is renegotiating new trade deals with countries that have been taking advantage of the U.S. for years. A very busy first five weeks. And once his policies take effect, America will be rid of the Biden inflation that is still impacting us all.
I can’t wait to see what his administration accomplishes next.
— David Ott
It’s the economy, stupid
It’s the economy, stupid, and it’s not even on his radar or part of the broader MAGA conversation. Inflation is increasing, and Trump’s response? Let’s take over and own Gaza and tell 2 million people to find a new home.
The price at the pump is up, and a MAGA, Trump sycophant member of Congress out of Georgia introduces a bill to rename Greenland as “Red, White, and Blueland”. I’m not kidding!
The cost of eggs has ballooned 15%. Sure, it can be blamed on bird flu, but has anyone in this administration mentioned bird flu? Nope. Instead, we get Elon Musk with a MAGA hat throwing darts at the next federal agency he wants to eliminate so he can get more government contracts for his own companies.
A recent poll showed that almost two-thirds of respondents say Trump isn’t focused enough on lowering costs, as he said he would do on the campaign trail, and that includes 48% of Republicans. And what does Trump do? Something called “reciprocal tariffs”. Out of one side of his mouth, he said he wants to implement these for, “purposes of fairness…” and out of the other side of his mouth, he said, “It will inevitably mean higher tariffs and thus higher taxes for American consumers and manufacturers.”
Maybe I misspoke. The economy is on his radar. Only he’s not lowering costs. He’s raising them. He’s just using other words like “tariffs” and “taxes”.
So it turns out that Project 2025, which Trump claims he never heard of during his campaign, really is his game plan. Helping working-class Americans to get by? Not so much.
Wanna fight back and use your constituent power? Join us at Indivisible Tri-Valley.
— Ward Kanowsky
United States Postal (Abysmal) Service
The USPS mail system is an absolute failure. Mail carriers cannot read and understand numbered addresses on envelopes and are incapable of delivering those envelopes to residential homes with the same address numbers. Third graders and postal carriers have different areas of expertise regarding numbers.
Residents in this neighborhood are registered with “Informed Delivery”, in that they receive an email from the postal service with a photo of the first-class mail that will be delivered to their mailboxes that day.
So, when we did not receive the 1099s as the “Informed Delivery” indicated, I went around the neighborhood asking if they were misdelivered to their mailboxes. They were not. Those 1099s were misdelivered somewhere, lost, destroyed or maybe stolen. The carrier had them under his control when he drove away from the post office to deliver them.
I receive mail in my mailbox addressed to my neighbors, or addressed to residents in nearby neighborhoods up to one mile away. I hand-delivered that misdelivered mail to the correct residential address. Years earlier I wrote two $300 checks to two different charity organizations. Those checks were never presented for payment, apparently lost or destroyed.
The problem behind this is that many government employees are chronic political party hangers-on, incapable of holding down a job in private industry. They are given responsibility for delivering confidential mail and fail to follow through in fulfilling that responsibility. The U.S. postal system is a bloated, expensive, inefficient government bureaucracy that fails to deliver.
— Michael Austin
Never seen an attack on our democracy like this
I am 65 years old and I’ve lived through many political crises in this country — but I have never seen an attack on our democracy like this. In the past, there was bipartisan opposition to lawlessness. United, we stood for our greatest ideals. Today, the guardrails are being dismantled before our eyes. It’s time to sound the alarm.
Today, our Social Security and Medicare information is compromised, our tax returns in the hands of young, inexperienced “tech bros” and Musk, there’s an attempt to make COVID vaccines illegal, federal workers have been fired, and funding to critical agencies like the USAID have been frozen or eliminated altogether. In short, our neighbors and allies are not just in harm’s way, they will suffer. We all will.
It’s time to take a stand. Please call Congress and demand that they protect the American people and safeguard the separation of powers. It really is up to us.
— Barbara Comstock
Releasing city’s general ledger is step too far
Intimidation and bullying is rearing its ugly head in Pleasanton again. This time the focus is on city staff and the best accounting practices maintained by our financial department. I have seen talk on social media about a need for the city manager to make Pleasanton’s general ledger publicly available.
Make no mistake, this would only open a political issue out of every single line item of the city’s spending. Pleasanton does not need this. This would be a step taken too far in the name of transparency.
And should the general ledger be made publicly available it would be an act akin to handing the arsonists in the community gasoline and matches. To my knowledge the city is not under a legal obligation to make its confidential ledger available to the public. In no way would the community be served by this.
The battles surrounding the budget are ripping our city apart. Rather than doing the hard work of building a smarter budget that works for all of Pleasanton, certain elected officials are choosing to spend their valuable time looking backwards at previous spending items in an effort to pin blame on dedicated city employees.
They seek to distract the community from the budget catastrophe they put us in. They tantalize the public with promises of a better future for our city while simultaneously whipping up a malevolent few in our community who truly wish to break the city organization starting from the top down. Self-interested, scheming leadership is holding Pleasanton back while residents are forced to suffer the consequences.
Division, along with discord, do not align with the virtues that make Pleasanton a great community. As friends and neighbors let us hold our elected leaders accountable by expecting service to the community before anything else.
— Matthew Gray
