The Warriors won for the 12th time in their last 15 games and made it seven in a row on the road Tuesday night with a 110-99 win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Now 31-27, the Warriors visit Toronto Friday night with a chance to win their third game on the four-game road trip when they face a team with a 22-37 record.

Stephen Curry, who came into the game in a mini-slump over his last three games, hit eight 3-point baskets and led the Warriors with 31 points, with forward Jonathan Kuminga adding 25.

New York, a shell of itself in recent weeks with the losses of power forward Julius Randle and OG Anunoby to injury, lost for the eighth time in their last 11 games and fell to 35-25. Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 27 points.

Should the Warriors take care of business against Toronto, all that remains on the road trip is a Sunday afternoon date in Boston against the Celtics, the top team in the Eastern Conference with a 46-12 record and 27-3 at home.

The Warriors never trailed in the game, taking charge at the outset with stout defense even if the offensive performance was uneven throughout. Much of their damage was done in the paint, while other than Curry, the 3-point shooting was a problem.

Curry was 8-for-18 on 3-pointers, with the rest of the roster going 6-for-27.

New York shot just 36.8 percent from the floor (35-for-95) and was 12 of 39 from 3-point land.

The Warriors’ hot-and-cold tendencies were on display in the third quarter, at one point rebuilding their lead to as much as 17 points before seeing New York close within 73-67 with a 13-2 run. When the quarter ended, the Warriors took an 80-70 lead into the fourth quarter.

Curry, who had six made field goals in the win over Washington to start the road trip, had six in the first half against the Knicks including 4-for-8 from 3-point range for 17 points. He also had 10 rebounds, seven of them coming in the game’s first five minutes. Kuminga had 14 points at the half for the Warriors.

The Knicks had to feel good about getting the lead under 10 points at the half after hitting just a third (16 of 48) of their shots from the field. Ex-Warrior Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart led New York with 11 points each with Brunson adding nine in he opening half.

The Warriors led 31-19 after the first quarter and it could have been more. The Knicks were just 6-for-22 shooting and 3-for-11 on 3-point attempts, with Curry getting 11 in the first quarter and nailing his first three 3-pointers.

It wasn’t as though the Warriors were lighting it up, hitting just 12 of their first 27 shots. They missed at least three layup attempts and a number of other shots with good looks that didn’t fall.

The Warriors scored the first 14 points with New York missing its first nine shots, and had leads of 17-2 and 20-4 before the Knicks got anything going.

WHERE’S WIGGINS?: Forward Andrew Wiggins missed his second consecutive game due to undisclosed personal reasons. Talking with reporters before the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr shed no light on the reason for Wiggins’ absence other than to say the absence as excused and that he and director of medicine/performance Rick Celebrini have spoken with him.

“This is a personal issue he’s dealing with and we expect him back, but it will remain private,” Kerr said.

Wiggins missed the final 25 games of the regular season a year ago for undisclosed reasons and returned to play in all 13 playoff games.

Butler sits atop the team’s batting leaders with a .455 average after getting a pair of hits, including a double, in Oakland’s 5-3 loss to San Diego in Mesa, Ariz. on Thursday.

The loss snapped the A’s modest three-game winning streak. Oakland fans may recall the A’s only had one winning streak longer than three games last season.

A year ago, Butler turned heads as a 22-year-old from Single-A in his first big-league camp by leading the team with a robust slash line of .478/.556/.870 in 12 games. The A’s decided to fast-track Butler last season, moving him from Double-A, Triple-A and, finally, on Aug. 11, to the big leagues.

Butler’s numbers in Oakland were pretty pedestrian – he hit .211 with four homers in 42 games – but he made enough of an impression to believe he’s got a shot to break camp with the A’s later this month. Butler is in competition with six others, including All-Star Brent Rooker, Esteury Ruiz, J.J. Bleday, Seth Brown and minor league free-agents Miguel Andujar and Hoy Park, for probably five roster spots.

Should Butler continue hitting, though, it’s a safe bet he’ll spend a lot of time with a club looking to break away from last year’s 112-loss season.

The A’s got another strong outing from hard-throwing starter Joe Boyle, who routinely threw 98 mph Thursday during his 3 1/3 innings. Boyle faced the minimum through three innings without permitting a run before allowing two runs (one earned) in the fourth inning.

A’s second baseman Zack Gelof, who is quickly establishing himself as the team’s best player, homered for a second straight game.

Notable

— Former Giants left-hander Alex Wood will make his spring debut with Oakland Friday when he starts against Kansas City in Surprise. Wood, who signed a one-year, $8.5 million free-agent deal with the A’s, will be opposed by lefty Cole Ragans, the Royals’ breakout star last year.

Each spring, as reliably as the changing of the seasons, Japan releases grim new population data that prompts handwringing in the press and vows by politicians to address the country’s demographic crisis.

It’s “now or never” to tackle declining births and the shrinking population, the country’s leader warned last year – nearly eight years after his predecessor had pledged to “confront the demographic problem head on.”

This year is no exception. The number of new births fell for an eighth consecutive year in 2023, reaching a record low and representing a 5.1% decline from the previous year, according to preliminary data released this week by the government.

The demographic crisis has become one of Japan’s most pressing issues, with multiple governments failing to reverse the double blow of a falling fertility rate and swelling elderly population. More people are dying than being born each year, causing the population to fall rapidly – with far-reaching consequences for Japan’s workforce, economy, welfare systems and social fabric.

Japan is far from the only country with this problem. Its East Asian neighbors, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea face similar issues, as do several European nations such as Spain and Italy.

A day after Japan released its preliminary data this week, South Korea released its own figures showing its fertility rate – the world’s lowest – dropped yet again in 2023.

Unlike many developed countries with low fertility rates, such as the United States, Japan and other East Asian nations have shied away from using immigration to bolster their population.

But Japan’s crisis is unique in that it’s been decades in the making, experts say – meaning its impact is particularly evident now, with relief unlikely to come anytime soon. So whatever path Japan takes will likely offer a roadmap for other countries facing unchartered territory, and a glimpse into their potential future.

‘Not reversible’

The first thing to understand about Japan’s population crisis is that it’s only partly behavioral, said James Raymo, professor of sociology and demography at Princeton University.

A much bigger part of the problem has to do with Japan’s history and how that has shaped its population structure, he said.

For a population to remain stable, it needs a fertility rate of 2.1, defined as the total number of births a woman has in her lifetime. A higher rate will see a population expand, with a large proportion of children and youth, as seen in India and many African nations.

But in Japan, “that measure of fertility has been below 2.1 for 50 years,” Raymo said. It fell below that level after the 1973 global oil crisis pushed economies into recession, and never climbed back up.

As of last year, Japan’s fertility rate sat at 1.3. It has stayed relatively flat for a while, meaning the average Japanese woman today is having roughly the same number of children as five or 10 years ago.

The real problem is that the fertility rate has been consistently low for so long. A country can recover if that rate only dips for a few years – but when it stays under 2.1 for decades, you get a population with much, much fewer young people than older adults.

Because of that skewed ratio, the total number of babies being born each year will continue to fall – even if women start having more kids – because the pool of women of childbearing age is already so small, and shrinking each year.

“It has to continue – it cannot not continue,” Raymo said. “Even if all of a sudden Japanese married couples started having three children on average … the population would continue to decline. The number of births would, for a while, still continue to decline. It’s not reversible.”

That means even if Japan manages to boost its fertility rate dramatically and immediately – which experts say is unrealistic – its population is bound to keep decreasing for at least several more decades until the skewed ratio balances out, and the babies being born now reach childbearing age themselves.

Official projections echo this prediction. According to models by the government’s Institute of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS), which were most recently revised last year, the population will fall 30% by 2070. At that point, the number of people age 65 and over will account for 40% of the population, it forecast.

What we’re seeing now “is zero surprise … and it will structurally continue for the foreseeable future,” Raymo said.

‘Drifted into singlehood’

There are many reasons for Japan’s low fertility rate – but the main problem is that people aren’t getting married in the first place, Raymo said.

Single parents, or children born to unmarried mothers, are far less common in Japan than many Western countries. Thus, fewer marriages means fewer babies overall.

The number of marriages in Japan declined nearly 6% in 2023 from the previous year – dipping below 500,000 for the first time in 90 years, according to the preliminary data released this week. Divorces also rose 2.6% last year.

Experts have pointed to Japan’s high cost of living, stagnant economy and wages, limited space, and the country’s demanding work culture as reasons fewer people are opting to date or marry.

Japanese people’s “willingness to form a family … has declined considerably,” according to a 2022 survey by the IPSS. Among single adults who have never wed, fewer say they intend to get married compared to previous years – while more say they wouldn’t be lonely even if they continued living alone. About one third said they did not want a relationship.

For women, economic costs are not the only turn off. Japan remains a highly patriarchal society in which married women are often expected to take the caregiver role, despite government efforts to get husbands more involved.

For all these reasons, many people are “ambivalent about marriage,” postponing it for years – “and then they’re 35, they’re 40, and they’ve sort of drifted into singlehood,” Raymo said.

Many of these issues are also plaguing other East Asian nations with their own population woes. Marriage rates have plummeted in China, where women are more educated and financially independent than ever. In South Korea, only one third of young people feel positively about marriage, according to polls, with many saying they don’t have enough money for marriage or feel it’s simply not necessary.

Most East Asian nations have also declined to legalize gay marriage, parenting and adoption rights, making it far harder for LGBTQ citizens to become parents.

What does Japan’s future look like?

The impact of the population crisis is evident.

Industries are feeling labor shortages; jobs are hard to fill, with fewer young adults entering the workforce; some rural communities are dying out, with one village that went 25 years without any new births.

Even in cities, things are changing – with many service jobs occupied by young immigrants, or students from countries such as China or Vietnam, Raymo said.

The government has spent years pushing various initiatives to encourage marriage and childbirth, such as enhancing child care services or offering housing subsidies. Some towns are even paying couples to have kids.

But given the decline is expected to continue for at least several decades, Japan will likely feel the blow to its pension and health care systems, and other social infrastructure that is difficult to maintain with a shrinking workforce.

That’s not to say Japan is doomed, Raymo asserted – the fertility rate will likely even out at some point, and the country will adjust. But that will take time, and Japan needs to prepare itself for “a really bumpy ride to a new equilibrium.”

There are a few ways that ride could play out. We could see a “massive mechanization of society,” meaning human labor being replaced by machines, Raymo said. As the population falls, some problems like the high cost of living, or overcrowding in Toyko could begin to ease. One theory suggests that fewer people means less competition for things like university admission and jobs.

But for now, this is all speculation. No country has been in this position before. And, Raymo said, the “only likely large-scale response” the government can implement is “mass immigration on a level Japan has never experienced.”

Immigration is a controversial issue in Japan, a largely conservative country that perceives itself as ethnically homogenous. It has historically failed to integrate previous waves of foreign workers and has instead relied on temporary fixes such as employing foreigners on student visas. Foreign residents and Japanese nationals of mixed ethnicity have long complained of xenophobia, racism and discrimination.

Japan may not have a choice, however. A 2022 report by a Tokyo-based research organization found that Japan needs about four times as many foreign workers by 2040 to achieve the government’s economic goals.

And authorities have shifted that direction in recent years, creating new visa categories and considering proposals to allow certain types of skilled workers to stay indefinitely. The IPSS’ models predict that by 2070, “the pace of population decline is expected to slow down slightly, mainly due to the increase in international migration.”

Decades down the line, the new Japan “might be a slightly poorer country, and a slightly less generous country in terms of policy support for elderly and families,” Raymo said.

“I can imagine a much smaller and a much different Japan,” he said. “But I don’t imagine an empty Japan.”

On Feb. 15, 20-year-old San Jose resident Joshua Sodapop Bocanegra was arrested in San Francisco and 20-year-old Gilroy resident Michael Carabajal was arrested in Gilroy, San Jose police Officer Tanya Hernandez said in a news release.

The suspects were booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on murder charges.

Gunshots were reported around 4:20 a.m. on Dec. 17 in the area of Snow and Giusti drives. Hernandez said officers arrived to find evidence of a shooting but no victims.

A short time later, two men arrived at an area hospital suffering from at least one gunshot wound each, Hernandez said. One died of his injuries while the other survived. The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office will release the identity of the man who died once it is confirmed and his next of kin is notified.

The death marked the city’s 33rd homicide of 2023.

Hernandez said detectives went on to identify Bocanegra and Carabajal as suspects in the case and obtained warrants for their arrest. Police did not release a motive for the shooting.

Anyone with information related to the case can contact Detective Sgt. Martinez at 3934@sanjoseca.gov, Detective Jize at 4324@sanjoseca.gov or both at 408-277-5283.

Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or www.siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.

Check back for updates.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to fulfill Moscow’s goals in Ukraine and sternly warned the West against deeper involvement in the fighting, saying that such a move is fraught with the risk of a global nuclear conflict.

Putin’s blunt warning came in a state-of-the-nation address ahead of next month’s election he’s all but certain to win, underlining his readiness to raise the stakes in the tug-of-war with the West to protect the Russian gains in Ukraine.

In an apparent reference to French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement earlier this week that the future deployment of Western ground troops to Ukraine should not be “ruled out”, Putin warned that it would lead to “tragic” consequences for the countries who decide to do that.

Putin noted that while accusing Russia of plans to attack NATO allies in Europe, Western allies were “selecting targets for striking our territory” and “talking about the possibility of sending a NATO contingent to Ukraine.”

“We remember the fate of those who sent their troop contingents to the territory of our country,” the Russian leader said in an apparent allusion to the failed invasions by Napoleon and Hitler. “Now the consequences for the potential invaders will be far more tragic.”

In a two-hour speech before an audience of lawmakers and top officials, Putin cast Western leaders as reckless and irresponsible and declared that the West should keep in mind that “we also have the weapons that can strike targets on their territory, and what they are now suggesting and scaring the world with, all that raises the real threat of a nuclear conflict that will mean the destruction of our civilization.”

The strong statement followed earlier warnings from Putin, who has issued frequent reminders of Russia’s nuclear might since he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 as he sought to discourage the West from expanding its military support for Kyiv.

Putin emphasized that Russia’s nuclear forces are in “full readiness,” saying that the military has deployed potent new weapons, some of them tested on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The Kremlin leader said they include the new Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile that has entered service with Russian nuclear forces, along with the Burevestnik atomic-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon atomic-powered, nuclear-armed drone, which are completing their tests.

At the same time, he rejected Western leaders’ statements about the threat of a Russian attack on NATO allies in Europe as “ravings” and again dismissed Washington’s claim that Moscow was pondering the deployment of space-based nuclear weapons.

Putin charged that the U.S. allegations were part of a ploy to draw Russia into talks on nuclear arms control on American terms even as Washington continues its efforts to deliver a “strategic defeat” to Moscow in Ukraine.

“Ahead of the U.S. election, they just want to show their citizens, as well as others, that they continue to rule the world,” he said. “It won’t work.”

In his speech that focused heavily on economic and social issues ahead of the March 15-17 presidential vote, Putin argued that Russia was “defending its sovereignty and security and protecting our compatriots” in Ukraine, charging that the Russian forces have the upper hand in the fighting.

He reaffirmed his claim that the West was bent on destroying Russia, saying “they need a dependent, waning, dying space in the place of Russia so that they can do whatever they want.”

Putin has repeatedly said that he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to protect Russian interests and prevent Ukraine from posing a major security threat to Russia by joining NATO. Kyiv and its allies have denounced it as an unprovoked act of aggression.

The Russian leader has repeatedly signaled a desire to negotiate an end to the fighting but warned that Russia will hold onto its gains.

Putin, 71, who is running as an independent candidate in the March 15-17 presidential election, relies on the tight control over Russia’s political system that he has established during 24 years in power.

Prominent critics who could challenge him have either been imprisoned or are living abroad, while most independent media have been banned, meaning that Putin’s reelection is all but assured. He faces token opposition from three other candidates nominated by Kremlin-friendly parties represented in parliament.

Russia’s best-known opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose attempt to run against Putin in 2018 was rejected, died suddenly in an Arctic prison colony earlier this month, while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges. Navalny’s funeral is set for Friday.

The event will honor civil rights activists Willie Mims and Frances Green, County Supervisor Federal Glover, Shaman Wright, founder of Bridge Builders of the New Generation, as well as the late Regigie Moore, first Black Antioch councilman, and the late Dietra King, a business leader and founder of Hearts Realty and Dad’s BBQ.

Antioch was predominately White until the mid-1990s and now is the second most racially diverse city in the Bay Area, with 2 % of its residents Black. With a majority Black council, it also is home to the Bay Area’s largest concentration of Black Americans with advanced degrees, according to Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, who is Black but was raised by Hispanic parents.

The event will celebrate the Black community’s culture and those who blazed a trail for Antioch’s burgeoning Black community, according to a news release from the mayor’s office

The Delta Bay Community Church is at 1020 E. Tregallas Road. The event is open to the public.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A court employee and a police officer were fatally shot Thursday after the court process server tried to serve an eviction notice at a home in Missouri, authorities said.

A second officer was critically injured, but is expected to survive, police said.

Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman said Thursday afternoon at a news conference that two of his police officers were met with gunfire while coming to the aid of Drexel Mack, the man who had been trying to serve the eviction notice.

Mack had called 911 saying he had been shot, Dustman said. The officers responded at about 1:10 p.m. and approached Mack to help him when someone shot at them, he said.

“I’m very tragically sorry to report that we lost one of our own,” Dustman said, identifying the officer as Cody Allen.

The second officer, whose name wasn’t released, underwent surgery and is expected to recover, Dustman said.

Dustman called Allen a hero and described the police department as a “broken family,” over Allen’s death.

A male suspect was in custody and sustained minor injuries, Corporal Justin Ewing with Missouri State Highway Patrol said during an earlier news conference.

Independence Police Department spokesperson Officer Jack Taylor said no details were immediately available about what led to the shooting.

Mack had worked for Jackson County for over a decade, officials said.

“We are devastated that a court employee, who is a public servant, was shot by a member of the public while performing their job,” Presiding Judge Jalilah Otto said in a statement. “Our hearts are heavy and our thoughts are with our employee, our entire Court family, and the Independence Police Department.”

Helicopter video from KMBC-TV showed emergency vehicles converged around an isolated house in the middle of a field. The media was cordoned off in an area about 1 mile (1.61 kilometers) from the crime scene. The area was a mixture of woods and farmland with a smattering of houses on large, multi-acre lots. A church was mixed in among the houses.

Independence is a suburb of Kansas City, with about 122,000 residents.

The Sunnyvale woman celebrated her 26th, or 104th, birthday Thursday at her Murphy Avenue home where she has been living since 1947.

Birthday parties are usually an intimate affair, with close family members and friends gathering for a barbecue at the Santa Clara home of Hidalgo’s eldest daughter, Marlene Kanawyer. This year, however, the Sunnyvale community decided to show their appreciation for one of the city’s oldest residents by parading by her house.

Emerging from the steps with her walker, a blue feather boa and a “Happy Birthday” headband, Hidalgo greeted an adoring crowd of neighbors, friends, first responders and city leaders.

The celebration included serenading Hidalgo with hearty choruses of the “Happy Birthday” song and gifting her bouquets of flowers and Certificates of Recognition from the California State Assembly and City of Sunnyvale congratulating her on the achievement.

“It was so sweet,” said Gloria Montes, Hidalgo’s daughter, who takes care of her mother. “She was so excited. This is the most lively she’s been in two to three months.”

Hidalgo’s close family and friends aren’t surprised by the community’s warm reception or the fact that she’s made it this far. The centenarian is known in Sunnyvale for having an active lifestyle and generous heart for helping others.

“I want to say it’s surprising, but it isn’t,” said long-time neighbor and friend Victoria Schindler. “She was a go-doer. She was always terribly active.”

The daughter of Spanish immigrants, Hidalgo was born in Antioch and moved to Sunnyvale at age 5. During the Great Depression, her father became ill and left 13-year-old Hidalgo to financially support the family. She dropped out of school to live with her aunt in Monterey and work in the fish canneries. She returned to Sunnyvale a few years later to work for Libby’s Cannery, once one of the world’s largest.

Hidalgo married her husband, Greg Hidalgo, in 1938. During World War II, she worked at Westinghouse as a machinist while Greg served overseas. In 1947, the Hidalgos and their five children moved into their Murphy Avenue home, right next door to Schindler’s family.

“Even though she had five kids, she always had time for me, the good, the bad and the ugly,” Schindler said. “She knew how to handle everything. She was a worker, always.”

Greg, who had lost his legs during the war, and Mary joined the American Legion Auxiliary in 1946. He died in 1962 just as Mary retired from work. Hidalgo continued to volunteer for the organization and logged 20,000 volunteer hours during her 16 years of service at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto.

“There were a lot of veterans that had come back. They didn’t have enough doctors or nurses to nurse the veterans, so we volunteered to help,” Hidalgo said Thursday during an interview at her home before the parade.

Hidalgo also committed herself to 35 years of volunteering as a docent for the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum, first at the old museum in Murphy Park, then at its current location near the Sunnyvale Community Center. She could be seen the first Tuesday of every month, guiding visitors and answering questions about the city’s history. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, then 100-year-old Hidalgo retired from her volunteer position.

Her retirement years also consisted of spending time with her family, including taking a trip to Spain to visit the hometown of her parents. Kanawyer said she cherishes the time she spends with Hidalgo. After all, not everyone can say they have a 104-year-old mother.

“So many of my friends lost their mothers at an early age,” Kanawyer said. “They just always say, ‘God, you’re so fortunate to still have your mother with you.’ “

Samuel Holquin, who is also known as Samuel Holguin, was sentenced to three months in prison and three months supervised release. A court order signed by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Chen says that Holquin has until April 8 to report to the Bureau of Prisons and start his sentence.

Holquin was charged in late 2022 with witness retaliation against Joseph Hardisty, a former member of the Richmond Hells Angels who testified for the government after several members allegedly assaulted him after he announced he was leaving the club.

Holquin allegedly texted menacing things to Hardisty and told another person, “I might as well drive out there and get all three of them (expletive) pieces of (expletive),” apparently referring to Hardisty and two other witnesses. Of his conversation with Hardisty, he allegedly wrote in a text message, “I had to let (Hardisty) know that I found him and know everything about him and his family,” according to a prosecution sentencing memo.

Defense attorneys representing Holquin said in court filings that he has learned his lesson. They also pushed back against prosecutors labeling Holquin a Hells Angels “associate,” writing that he was friends with a few members but not affiliated with the motorcycle club in any way.

“Mr. Holguin has learned a lesson from this conviction – the only time in his life he has been convicted of a crime. The lesson is that his focus must be on his family and on complying with the law,” his lawyers wrote. “During the pendency of this case, Mr. Holguin has demonstrated how thoroughly he has learned that lesson, performing flawlessly on supervision while serving as an in-home caretaker for his ailing father and grandmother.”

Hardisty’s testimony has resulted in four murder convictions over the death of a Hells Angels member named Joel Silva, and probably contributed to several others accepting plea deals.

Hardisty, a former friend of Silva, testified that the Hells Angels plotted to murder Silva due to his increasingly erratic behavior, culminating with him allegedly threatening a high-ranking club member during a motorcycle rally in New England. Silva was shot in the back of his head in the Hells Angels’ Fresno clubhouse and cremated illegally at a nearby funeral home, according to Hardisty’s testimony.

Chen also ordered Holquin to perform 40 hours of community service, stay away from Hardisty and not wear Hells Angels garb or associate with club members.

Measure B fails to
prioritize academics

Measure B is a $195 million bond (pretty word for tax) to paint, repair and update Antioch schools. Two prior bonds (taxes) were passed to do the same thing.

Students in Antioch schools are scoring poorly on state testing. For Example: Black Diamond Middle School Math: 8% proficiency. This means 92% of the students are below grade level. Only two students in a classroom of 25 can do math at grade level on average. Reading: 18% proficiency Less than five students in a classroom of 25 can read at grade level. Other schools in the Antioch School District aren’t much better. This is a travesty.

Our school district has a superintendent, principals and curriculum coordinators with master’s degrees, and they can’t figure out how to help our students succeed. The Antioch school administrators and school board should make academics a priority, not aesthetics.

Our children deserve a better education. Vote no on Measure B.

Lynette Solorio
Antioch

Unions favor Miley
for county supervisor

Your February 13 editorial discussing the District 4 Supervisorial race emphasized the role candidate Jennifer Esteen has played in public employee unions.

You neglected to mention that both public employee unions to which she belongs have endorsed her opponent, Nate Miley.

Dale Silva
Fairview

A right to speak,
but no call to listen

Re: “Man spews anti-Jewish hate at meeting” (Page B1, Feb. 22).

I join in the outrage over the hate speech delivered at a recent Walnut Creek City Council meeting.

Here is one solution to put such vile remarks in their place: Immediately upon hearing any hate speech in the council chamber, the council members quietly walk out, returning only when the speaker is done. Those in the audience should do so too.

There may be a constitutional right to free speech at City Hall, but there is no constitutional right to be heard.

Mark Peters
Walnut Creek

Kennedy would chart
new course for nation

I’m a mom of three young children in the East Bay. I’d like to introduce to my fellow residents our independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Many American families, like my own, are feeling increasingly distressed economically due to inflation and lack of job security. Kennedy recognizes that the average American’s quality of life has not improved since the 1960s. A massive military machine and rampant corruption have contributed significantly to the decline of the middle class. His proposed economic policies are centered around ensuring that hard-working individuals can lead a decent life. Kennedy plans to, among other things, make housing more affordable by backing 3% home mortgages with tax-free bonds, support small businesses by redirecting regulatory scrutiny onto large corporations, and expand free child care to millions of families.

I call on everyone to support Kennedy, as his presidency will reform and revitalize our nation.

Scarlett Fang
Danville

Deny hate speech
a council audience

Re: “Man spews anti-Jewish hate at meeting” (Page B1, Feb. 22).

The First Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to speak freely, even at the Walnut Creek City Council meetings.

There is nothing (to my knowledge) in the U.S. Constitution that forces the council members to listen to a Nazi moron’s diatribe.

Esteemed members, when he begins his ranting, leave the room for a couple of minutes. He’ll have his 120 seconds of notoriety and you will have a couple of minutes of peace and reflection. You will have also made a massive statement of your disgust for him and his ilk.

Robin Hall
Walnut Creek

Church’s attributes are
needed in neighborhood

Re: “2 private Catholic schools will shutter amid Diocese of Oakland’s bankruptcy” (Page A1, Feb. 24 ).

I sadly read the Feb. 24 article regarding the closure of my alma mater, St. Anthony’s School in Oakland, due to the diocesan bankruptcy. It maintains that “officials at the diocese attributed the closure to more than just financial constraints.” Rather, dwindling enrollment was due to “rising homelessness, unemployment and human trafficking in the surrounding San Antonio neighborhood.”

It seems to me this is where the hope and resources presented by the church and its institutions should be the most visible and accessible.

James Erickson
Brentwood

Alabama embryo ruling
wastes resources

The United States, including Alabama, once counted a Black person as three-fifths of a human. How much of a human will the eggs be? Maybe Alabama will make sperm a partial person whether it fertilizes an egg or not. A woman who miscarries can be charged with involuntary manslaughter. A technician who forgets to turn on the refrigerator housing embryos is a murderer. If the utility company turns off the power, they will be an accessory to murder.

Alabama must find a better way to use its resources than looking into wombs.

Norman Weiss
Orinda

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