5 LOLs
Richard Stockton’s deep dive into Santa Cruz’s favorite watering holes and their restrooms, “Dives Still Divin’,” was the most entertaining thing I have read in a long time.
I rate it 5 LOLs!
Blaine Neagley | Watsonville
A Misguided Fix
I am a member of the Environmental Working Group of Indivisible, Santa Cruz County, writing to highlight the “Fix Our Forests Act,” a bipartisan bill that passed in the House and was introduced in the Senate by Senator Padilla. While it is supposedly a measure against wildfires, it weakens environmental protections for our forests and will allow the clear-cutting of public lands. It conflicts with the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policies Act. The logging industry will benefit from lack of scientific environmental review. In addition, it makes it harder for legal challenges to be filed by citizens.
As a separate but related issue, the Trump administration is attempting to rescind the long-standing Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which has protected public lands since 2001. The reversal would occur by administrative rule-changing via the US Forest Service. Its aim is transparently economic. Unfortunately, the public comment period was closed as of 9/19. That is why it is so important to focus on H.R. 471 /S. 1462 (“Fix Our Forests”).
If you agree that the affected land belongs to all Americans, not the timber industry, and that hauling public forests to the sawmill when our planet is undeniably in jeopardy from climate change is a bad idea, please call or write Senator Schiff. Urge him to oppose the “Fix Our Forests Act” and to work toward better solutions for wildfire hardening.
The number to the U.S. Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121.
Michelle Holmes, M.D. | Felton
Oversharing Issues
Todd Guild’s article on Flock-contracted ALPR (automatic license plate recognition) cameras currently in place and planned in larger numbers for both Santa Cruz and Watsonville is missing key facts.
Watsonville police statements that local data “is never shared with federal agencies” are beyond the knowledge base of our police, and fly in the face of a torrent of news reporting that California Flock data has been shared with federal agencies by police departments across the state (who our police freely share data with).
“The city owns the data and the city accesses the data,” said Watsonville City Attorney Samantha Zutler, who also said state law prevents data sharing. But the whole problem is that state law has been violated dozens if not hundreds of times already, both by the Flock company—which stores and controls the data on a national level—and by the police departments we share data with.
Because our police share data with agencies like the Sheriff in Riverside—which has shared data with ICE (as have Oakland and San Francisco police departments)—we do not actually know and cannot know if local data has been or is being shared with federal agencies. According to Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante, all it takes for another police or sheriff’s agency to obtain access to our data is a one-time request related to one “case” (no warrant needed), and thereafter, they retain unlimited search access.
Essentially, Flock data is outside of local and state control, and stored with few protective measures by the Flock company in Georgia, which has allowed Customs and Border Protection officers backdoor access to the data, as well as out-of-state sharing in violation of clear California laws. This data is not secure, nor under local control in any meaningful way. This should be clear to residents and visitors.
Ami Chen Mills | Santa Cruz
