Raising the minimum wage for fast-food employees to $20 per hour in California isn’t a wise move. Even before April 1, some employees were laid off to avoid the impending wage hike, signaling potential negative repercussions for businesses and employment opportunities in the sector.

— Harry Wang, Fontana

Minimum wage

I can understand a minimum wage for someone 20 years old and over. But the attitude and presentation of how the food arrives is usually haphazard. Nothing like you see in the commercials. Plus the economics of the wage is insane. Minimum wages to our politicians.

— Brad Vaughnl, Rancho Cucamonga

The fast-food wage increase is a good thing

For too long, fast-food workers have worked for too little money. There are many fast-food workers who work long shifts that take up a majority of their time to try and make ends meet. This is not fair as so much of their time and efforts are spent for unequivalent pay. Teens that don’t need the money are not the only people working these jobs. Not to mention, fast-food working can be just as grueling as any other job, so an increase in money is deserved. Franchise owners should not find loopholes around this because it’s not right, and there should be rules to prevent such sly tricks. That way, it’ll be fair to the workers, and allow them the boost they’ve needed. Fast-food workers should rightfully be paid for their long and hard work.

— Jessica Nguyen, Montclair

This is a $20 wage for unskilled labor

This is another “feel-good-about-ourselves” act by our lawmakers who only live to spend money that isn’t theirs. Burger flipping was and is never meant to be a head-of-household occupation. This law will only lead to the loss of these jobs to robots that will turn burgers, fill soda cups and sweep the floors. But the even bigger sin of this new law is that it also creates another unelected, faceless, accountable-to-no-one board of highly paid bureaucrats who have never built or managed anything other than their own featherbeds.

— John Tyner, Murrieta

Kenneth Schrupp has the right idea in keeping government out of social media by-laws, but the fear over age verification is rather overblown. If online alcohol and gun retailers are to be the example, then age verification will be practically meaningless, because minors will certainly lie to defeat it.

The real question is, are social media platforms publishers or not? If they are, then they, being liable for slander or libel, are free to police every message posted. If not, then every user must be held liable.

To be held liable, user accounts either cannot be anonymous, or, if users are free to post anonymously, then accounts must contain personal information, which can be accessed by the social media company and used to sue users in the event that they slander or libel someone. Speech is not without consequence, and it would behoove everyone interested to remember that fact.

— Scott Kelly, Huntington Beach

Fast-food industry challenges at $20

Re “The job-killing fast-food minimum wage of $20” (April 3):

Having read your editorial referencing the employment obstacles at fast-food restaurants today, I could not help but relate my experience last evening at a usually busy chain eatery that is usually packed at that hour, but was virtually empty.

I do not frequent such places except when having late afternoon appointments; the last was the same facility where I always order the same meal.

What was an already rapidly inflated price of $17 for my meal weeks ago, was almost $21 last night! I was startled at the price increase and commented to the server, perhaps unfairly as not his doing, that no wonder there was nobody there.

How could a family, or anyone, afford electively to eat outside the home?

I foresee very hard times for the fast-food and restaurant industry with many going out of business due to over-reaching, non- free market regulations.

— Eric Kurtz, Dana Point

California housing market

Re “Bidding wars lift housing prices” (April 3):

The only way to bring down housing costs is to bring more housing on the market  — not true. A suburban developer who is bringing three phases of housing to market will possibly charge X for Phase 1, X+10% for Phase 2 and X+20% for Phase 3.

Where do you see housing costs going down? Your front-page story on the Sportsmen’s Lodge development (April 4) says there will be 78 units reserved for very-low income out of the 520 total apts.  The eventual owner will have higher rents on 85% (442/520) of future renters to make up for the minimal rents on the 78 units. Higher rents and higher new house prices also raise rents and prices in the surrounding areas.  In real estate lingo it’s called comps. Supply and demand don’t exist in real estate.

— Bob Munson, Newbury Park

Biden helps Baltimore

Kudos to Affectionate Joe for helping Baltimore and their critical trade waterway by sending them $60 million to assist in the recovery. A  minimal but an appreciated amount. I wonder how much he would have sent if the bridge was located in Ukraine.

— Patrick Flaherty, Beaumont

Assembly Bill 2419

Re “Bill takes aim at underage sex work” (March 30):

The article about child sex trafficking does not address the root problem of child exploitation; it’s the wide open southern border.

The mere idea of the children and drugs streaming across our border facilitated by gangs is not mentioned at all in the article.

This invasion will soon overwhelm police agencies and social workers and another Sacramento bill funded by the taxpayers which will do nothing but enrich some NGO.

Immigration laws have been on the books for years.

Just use common sense, which is in short supply in Sacramento, and enforce them.

— Victor Curti, El Segundo

Nice to hear that the artificial reef near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is doing its job and marine life is returning.

Meanwhile, the extraordinarily dangerous nuclear waste remains stored at the San Onofre site. Should some event, natural or man-made, occur, the devastation to the population of Orange County, and beyond, would be incalculable. Removing this material away from any populated area should be the highest priority of the county, state and federal governments. The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has been closed for 10 years. Where is the urgency?

— Bob Long, Laguna Niguel

U.S. military assistance to Ukraine and due process

Re “Johnson outlines plan for Ukraine support; House could act within weeks” (April 2):

Let me make sure I understand this: our government can, has and will seize and spend the assets of its private citizens without due process (civil asset forfeiture).  Meanwhile, our leadership is wringing their hands over the REPO Act to seize Russian sovereign assets frozen in the U.S. and transfer them to Ukraine for its reconstruction as well as directing the president to work with other partners and allies to take similar action. So it’s OK to seize U.S. citizens’ assets without due process but not a foreign government’s assets that is conducting an illegal and brutal war on its neighbor? Where is the justice in that?

NBC News and McDaniel

A letter writer on March 31 can’t quite understand why NBC News refused to sully itself and jettisoned someone like Ronna McDaniel so quickly. Someone who isn’t even remotely close to being a journalist. And someone who repeatedly and innumerably pedaled the Big Lie at every turn. It wasn’t until NBC offered Ronna McDaniel a job that she admitted to lying, that the 2020 election wasn’t “rigged.” The subject and question ignored is why would any news organization, and Fox does not qualify, give a partisan hack a propagandist platform from which to spew her partisan lies and misinformation? It’s no coincidence that every time Fox is sued for defamation or slander their defense is “We’re not a news organization, we’re an entertainment organization.”

— Ted J. Stulz, Anaheim

— Chas Leon, Hemet

U.S. census data

Re “U.S. changes categorization of people by race, ethnicity” (March 29):

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of the U.S. government trying to “define” people by race and ethnicity. Tallying up the mixing of races in a melting pot as diverse as America is a total fool’s errand. My guess is that by all these arbitrary and capricious designations, the majority of Americans are mulatto, meaning some combination of mixed heritage. And then, so what of anything does that prove, clarify or enlighten, other than to say that we are all God’s children.

— William David Stone, Irvine

The recent Transgender Day of Visibility

President Biden, who professes to be a “devout Catholic,“ marked Easter Sunday as a day to honor transgenderism. The White House has admonished those who criticize Biden’s decision. They state they are trying to divide the country. This decision to celebrate what Christians believe is a sin on the same day that defines Christianity is absurd. Regardless of how a minority chooses to live their lives, this celebration should not be on Easter Sunday. It is a direct insult to Christians. President Biden, in my opinion is a complete hypocrite regarding his Catholic faith, and it appears to me to be his way to garner votes from this minority.

— Kenneth M. Bezich, Rolling Hills

Proposition 1

After California approved the $6.38 billion bond to help with the homeless situation now we have $114 million threat of foreclosures on a project aimed at helping the homeless with the Home Key program. Why aren’t these people vetted? Why isn’t someone auditing what they’re doing? Ultimately, we the taxpayers once again end up paying the price.

— Terri Glaser, Simi Valley

Yes, if the conflict is perceived as just another thousands of years of history of Old Testament tribal raids and counter-raids between Philistines and Israelites. No, if perceived as existential war until one side surrenders, e.g. WWII Nazi Germany and Japan.

The United Nations is putting a Band-Aid on the conflict by calling for a conditional cease-fire.

It should exhort both sides to enter the 21st century where there is only one human race by factual DNA 99.9% identical genomes, and as in the case of Islam and Judaism, prayers to the same God (neither Muslim nor Jew). In our Civil War,  Lincoln strived to preserve the union “with charity for all and malice toward none.” So the world should strive to bring about a ground-breaking union, a one-state merger, of Israel and Palestine, with justice and political equality for both sides. Impossible?

Not at all in this world of  critical-thinking AI, internet and hydrogen bombs.

— George Chung, Redlands

Gaza cease-fire

The previous UN vote on a Gaza cease-fire had the U.S., China and Russia voting against. Then the U.S. representative changed his position by abstaining from voting on the latest position.

That gave Russia and China an opportunity to change their position and vote for the cease-fire mandate. Meanwhile, the U.S. allowed this latest meddling in a Mideast conflict by not voting and angered Israel (our only ally in the Mideast) with this affront. Thank you Biden and his handlers for another miscue.

— Hayden Lening,  Claremont

A cease-fire should not happen without the release of prisoners

I hate war but don’t think a cease-fire should happen without the release of prisoners held by Hamas. The Jewish people are the ones who have to consider something like another Oct. 7 invasion on their people. This war could just start all over if Netanyahu ends the war or steps down. Outsiders should stop with their resolutions. This war is between Israel and Hamas. Hamas probably has to be annihilated to bring peace to the region.

— Palma Espinosa, Highland

Whew! That was a close call. Whatever possessed the NBC news executives to think their left-leaning “fans” and “leading stars” would be open-minded enough to actually want “to hear a perspective from conservatives.” Why would a network which employs a liberal biased flamethrower (ex-Biden press secretary Jen Psaki) or allows on-air personalities like Rachel Maddow dictate whether or not they will allow presidential candidate Donald Trump’s speeches to be carried (she won’t) even think exposing viewers to anything other than progressive viewpoints ever work?

To add insult to injury, the spineless chair of NBC’s News Group, Cesar Conde, shamelessly groveled to his “team members,” issuing an apology for them feeling “we let them down.” Conservative commentators need not apply. At least NBC proved what has been common knowledge for some time now — that they gave up being a legitimate and respected source for news long, long ago.

— Jim Ellis, Coto de Caza

Women’s sports

Often short shrift is paid to women’s sports stories, when here we are more than 50 years past the groundbreaking Title IX legislation. But it’s been a thrill to see women’s basketball stories splashed all over the sports pages, including (gasp!) on the front page (March 24). Even my local sports bar is playing the women’s highlights along with the men’s. It helps to see phenoms like Caitlin Clark, Juju Watkins and Kiki Rice absolutely tearing it up on the court. Kudos to the newspaper’s sports editors for giving these stories the oxygen they have always deserved, and showcasing such amazing talents.

— Lara Duke, Redondo Beach

Long Beach youth adult shelter and interim housing for homeless

Your Jan. 31 article reported that Long Beach is spending $4.1 million to provide 12 youth shelter beds, in a barracks-style arrangement, along with a voluntary storage area for possessions of the unhoused. That’s $341,667 per barracks bed.  Today, (March 28) we learned that Long Beach is spending about $20 million to purchase and renovate a 78-room motel for “interim housing.” That’s $256,000 per motel room.

Ongoing operating costs, such as three meals a day at the motel, will be additional. Does not the investigative reporter’s eyebrows rise when considering the cost-benefit relationship?

— Steve Baker, Long Beach

California nursing programs at colleges

Re “Use community colleges for BSN degrees” (March 22):

Yes! Finally something that makes sense and is desperately needed comes out of Sacramento. Along with this, they need to fund more openings in all of the state schools to get more students into the nursing programs. This too is controlled by the unions so the market doesn’t get “flooded.” But we need a bit of a flood to catch up and keep ahead of the losses to other states and retirement. And yes, fixing the cost of housing, among other things, would be a good way to keep them from leaving this state too. Won’t hold my breath on that though.

— Carol Enriquez, Rancho Cucamonga

Terrorist attack on the Moscow concert hall

The headline in the story about Putin claiming that Ukraine had a connection to the terrorist attack on the Moscow opera audience was misleading. In saying “Putin ties Ukraine to attack on venue” (March 24) the inference is likely to be that there actually is a connection which he discovered.

The story goes to clarify that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility, and that Russia had been warned by U.S. intelligence of such a possible attack, a warning which Putin rejected as an attempt to intimidate civilians.

However, the headline itself could have said “claims an Ukraine tie.” or any other number of wordings that would still fit the space, without implying (intentionally or otherwise) that there was actually a tie.

— Elise Power, Garden Grove

Don’t let Democrats like Rep. Mike Levin gaslight you. Joe Biden and the Democrats who support him are 100% responsible for the disaster at the border. Joe Biden campaigned on reversing every border rule that Donald Trump had installed (which proved very effective), and on his first day in office that’s exactly what he did. Every year since then has been a new record high for the invasion of illegal aliens, which now stands at over 8 million on Biden’s watch. Included in that number are a high percentage of military age men (from over 100 countries), criminals and even terrorists. The director of the FBI has testified that the risk is now extremely high for a major terrorist attack. The so-called “compromise” that Mr. Levin touts would have made things even worse by, among other things, tying the hands of the next president from cleaning up the mess that Joe Biden has created.

— Jeff Thomas, Irvine

Trump-Biden and liberty

I am not a big Trump fan and I have also been a registered Democrat for over 50 years. However, after reading the opinion piece by Joshua Reed Eakle on March 24, I think an equally strong opinion piece (maybe stronger) can be written that says “Biden is an enemy of liberty.” In addition, I found several factually inaccurate statements and quotes in the writing that gave me the feeling the writer didn’t take time to prepare a cogent argument.

Unfortunately, I have reached a point in the last four years that I think I would rather vote for a MAGA Republican than a Marxist Democrat.

— Robert J. Close, Highland

Costs of EV expansion

Your article of March 21 describes the EPA mandate for expanding and accelerating the conversion to EVs. Amidst these political maneuvers I would like people to be aware of some simply inconvenient yet unavoidable facts of physics.

The F-150 Lightning highlighted in the article weighs 1,500 pounds more than the heaviest of its non-EV Ford counterparts. I am sorry, but this means that this EV consumes 30% more energy for any motion it makes.

These pesky realities of physics do not support the popular narrative,  but it is really important that we decrease energy demand rather than add to our energy deficit.

— Tim Woodington, Glendora

— John Seibert, Laguna Niguel

Trump’s presidency

Joshua R. Eakle’s article March 24 addressing Donald Trump’s presidency was the most compressed and complete assessment of the former president that I have ever read. Every American should have a copy of this outstanding message warning us of things to come if Donald Trump ever again sets foot in the Oval Office. True Republican ideas of small government, balance the budget, law and order are no longer a top Republican priority. Trump has replaced that political philosophy with power, intimidation, revenge, hate and love of Trump, not country. But there are those, knowing the danger that the former president brings to the table, not fully realizing their freedom, the freedom of their children and grandchildren, and democracy is in jeopardy, who will still vote for him.

— Donald Peppars, Pomona

Hating on Trump

I read the hateful opinion comments March 24 and my mind instantly jumped to this question:

Is the paper going to be fair and print an almost full-page article entitled “Biden, the great unifier, has disappointed us again?”

Let’s just see what happens.

— Deborah Otterson, Long Beach

There are strong reasons the House voted 352-65 to ban TikTok or have its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sell it to a U.S. buyer. Corporations in China must by law have a Chinese Communist Party member or committee in its management to make sure the business does not stray from party priorities. Therefore the CCP has access to all information they wish to capture about any user in the U.S. from their keystrokes.

This information could be used to manipulate persons or office holders in the future. Perhaps more importantly, through its algorithm it can boost the visibility of messages that can fan the flames of racial, religious or class conflicts in the U.S. to weaken our country.

Further it can affect election outcomes or change public opinion on a variety of matters that further the interests of the CCP to the detriment of the U.S. The House got it right.

— Michael Y. Warder, Sr., Upland

No to any ban on TikTok

There are far more important things going on in the world than a TikTok ban. Politicians should be calling for a ceasefire, not for the deletion of TikTok. China is a rightfully owned Chinese app, and the exposing of the dishonesty inside the world of U.S. politics has nothing to do with China, but with the people around the world waking up and realizing.

The U.S. is scared of TikTok because the truth is being exposed. More and more people are aware of the corruption that goes on inside the government now, or all the issues around the world that the government is trying to silence. To the U.S. government, TikTok is a weapon.

They fear that they will be exposed even more. However everyone is awake now with their eyes open.

Everyone knows the abuse the U.S. has done to other countries now. Instead of banning TikTok, the call for a ceasefire in Gaza, Palestine sounds like a way more reasonable bill to be passed in Congress.

— Rona Mhassen, Montclair

It’s all like a drug for the younger generations

It seems like our younger generations need some kind of nutrient to fill their sorry lifestyles.

Bring back the old way of life. It was so much easier.

— M.E. Garcia, Homeland

— Jackie Hyman, Brea

Abortion

Although I am personally a “pro-lifer,” and believe abortion — terminating a human life — is wrong and definitely is too often the go-to for convenient birth control rather than legitimate health issues, Donald Trump’s support for a federal 15-week ban demonstrates he is philosophically on his own island and is only masquerading as a conservative. The Roe v. Wade reversal by the Supreme Court was correct, not because it resulted in making abortions more difficult to get but because it returned the decision on their legality back to the individual states. A law in my own state making an abortion after 15 weeks illegal would get my support. But a national ban on abortion is just as wrong as is a national right to it.

— Bob Cunningham, Cherry Valley

Prop. 1

Re “Voters approve Proposition 1 in a razor-thin win” (March 21):

If you have a calculator, the $6.38 billion to build 4,350  housing units calculates out at $1.47 million per unit. I will become homeless or an addict if I can be guaranteed to get into one. And Newsom in the accompanying photo is gleefully laughing and clapping at you. How could the voter be so clueless as to vote for this fraud? It’s hard to believe that there are a majority of mentally impaired or addicts as voters in California. But I don’t know who else would vote for this!

— Tom Hersh, Newport Beach

Thanks for the Sunday COVID section

Unlike my fellow reader in Mission Viejo (March 20, Letters), I did read all the “I told you so” opinions on COVID Sunday, March 17. Contrary to her uninformed view, the governmental and bureaucratic overreach did matter because it soon became apparent (to me and many of my friends and Dennis Prager) that the lockdowns and masks mandates were counterproductive, causing unnecessary deaths rather than saving lives; and yet innocent citizens were arrested and fined for standing up for their rights to not be imprisoned in their residences or muzzled. Our elected and unelected leaders were not interested in keeping us safe, but rather used fear of the pandemic to increase their power. I was pleased to see in an almost mainstream media like this that “California’s … mandates led to sharp losses in overall economic activity but had little to no impact in saving lives” (Jim Doti). Disappointingly, the growing evidence of healthy young men dying shortly after being vaccinated and the therapeutic benefits of ivermectin and the hydroxychloroquine cocktail were not discussed. Finally, now that all the lies are coming out, isn’t it time to stop using euphemisms like COVID-19 and call this virus what it is, the Fauci authorized and paid for Chinese Wuhan-lab virus? Oh, and Doug MacIntyre, Jan. 6 was not an insurrection, it was a protest that got out of hand. It pales in comparison to what happened during the 2020 summer of love.

— Warren Scheinin, Redondo Beach

Bullet train

I can not take seriously anything the state of California is spending money on or wants to spend money on as long as the choo-choo train to nowhere continues to move forward.

— Paul J. Ladden, Redondo Beach