Wading In

Thursday, March 28, 2013 Time for ’59 buckers’ to unite! By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | March 28, 2013 | 7 Comments Some startling financial numbers leaped out at me this week.     $423,644. That’s how much Alameda County administrator Susan Muranishi will receive per year when she retires. That will make her the highest paid public retiree in California.     $371,043. That’s how much former Solano County administrator Michael Johnson, the reigning champion of California’s ridiculous public retirement salaries, rakes in every year. Johnson has to feel good that he will be passing the golden baton to Muranishi when she retires.     $94,758. That’s how much Solano County supervisors are paid.     $85,282.20 is how much future supervisors would earn if the current supervisors had voted for a 10 percent pay cut this past week. The majority opted not to, using the well-worn excuse that we need high salaries to attract good people. ...

Thursday, March 21, 2013 Should we ban smoking in homes? By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | March 21, 2013 | 2 Comments Assemblyman Mark Levine (D-Marin) proposed Assembly Bill 746, which bans smoking in any residential property with two or more units that share a wall, floor, ceiling or ventilation system. Yes, it would be the most sweeping anti-smoking law in the country banning smoking inside condos, apartments, town houses and duplexes. The law would not affect standalone homes. According to the U.S. Census, nearly 22 percent of housing units in Solano County are in multiple-unit structures. So, if passed, the new law would affect one in five homes. The first time I heard about this law, I opposed it. It sounded like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s nanny-state soda law that was recently overturned. After all, your home is your castle. If I want to walk around my house in a red lace thong with an AR-15 strapped to my back and a 64-ounce Big Gulp in one hand, a fat cigar in the other...

Thursday, March 14, 2013 Should gay couples kiss in public? By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | March 14, 2013 | 2 Comments Last week, a security guard at the Roseville Galleria mall asked a same-sex couple to leave the premises after seeing them hold hands and kiss. The gay men recorded the confrontation with the security guard, who stressed that he would ask any couple that was kissing to leave. Sacramento news stations went to the Roseville Galleria for hours and filmed straight couples holding hands and kissing. Not one was asked to leave. The couple involved told Fox40 News they just want to be treated equally. Californians as a whole are feeling more equal these days. A Field Poll released last month found 61 percent of Californians now approve of same-sex marriage. It’s a stunning turnaround from just five years ago, when voters passed Proposition 8, restoring California’s ban on same-sex marriage. With the idea of same-sex relationships and marriage equality gaining public support,...

Thursday, March 7, 2013 Gun buybacks part of gun violence solution By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | March 07, 2013 | 2 Comments Solano County law enforcement will offer a gun buyback from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Solano County Fairgrounds at 900 Fairgrounds Drive in Vallejo. This comes on the heels of buybacks in Los Angeles and Oakland that netted more than 2,600 firearms. Put your unwanted, unloaded guns in the trunk of your car and bring them in to exchange for gift cards. I used to question the validity of gun-buyback programs. Criminals certainly aren’t going to turn in their weapons for gift cards. Plus, gun buybacks usually result in broken guns and rusty rifles being turned in. What good is it to get a bunch of old guns from law-abiding citizens? But that misses the point of gun buybacks and the purpose they serve. Gun-buyback programs usually have a learning curve. For instance, at Saturday’s event, the guns must be in working condition. Some gun-buyback programs are h...