Letters to the editor

Editor,

Neighborhood parks are constantly being eroded. ... For a new fire station, or day-care or a museum (all apple pie — how can you oppose these!) However, these take away open space and recreation area for ever. Because park land is "free,” city councils find it easier to use this land to launch other needed projects. The latest trend is taking park land for developing "work force housing” (also apple pie!).

Redwood City’s Open Space Vote measure is visionary in that it protects parks as well as the critical baylands. This is why 20 percent of the registered voters signed the petition in such a short time to put it on the November ballot. The City Council should listen to its constituents.

Gita Dev

Woodside

Citizens rights trashed

Editor,

In a major blow to the concept of fairness and citizens basic rights, a federal appeals court ruled that the president can order the indefinite incarceration of civilians, including U.S. citizens, ignoring due process. The five-to-four decision effectively reverses last year’s ruling. This new ruling is fraught with potential abuse and grants unprecedented power to the president. We now face the absurd situation where a sitting president, who has violated his oath of office to uphold the constitution, can declare anyone an unlawful combatant and render them outside the reach of the law.

This is strongly reminiscent of repressive governments such as Chile who "disappeared” their citizens who opposed their repressive policies. Innocent victims may languish in jail for the rest their lives. Thus far, the only person who fell victim to this draconian new law is Ali al-Marri who was arrested six years ago at his home in Peoria, Ill.

In June 2003, President Bush declared him an enemy combatant whereupon he was dispatched to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. and held in solitary confinement. Al-Marri’s attorney, Jonathan Hafetz, declared, "This decision means the president can pick up any person in the country — citizen or legal resident — and lock them up for years without the most basic safeguard in the Constitution, the right to a criminal trial.”

Jagjit Singh

Los Altos

Cargill’s corporate environmental record

Editor,

Cargill, Inc., a privately held, multinational corporation, which owns 1,433 acres of Redwood City’s Baylands, would have us believe they are good environmental stewards. Their "track record” says otherwise.

In 1992, the Council on Economic Priorities (CEP) said that the company had the worst environmental record in the agribusiness industry. Cargill’s record was tainted by the 1988 spill of 40,000 gallons of phosphoric acid into the mouth of the Alafia River in Florida, which killed a large quantity of fish. A subsidiary, Gardinier paid a $2 million fine.

In 1995, Cargill and other companies agreed to pay for the cleanup of a Superfund site along the Fox River in Illinois, where toxic chemicals had been dumped for many years.

In 1997, Cargill’s Ladish, Wis. malting unit paid $450,000 for criminal violations in connection with the death of a worker who fell from a grain elevator fire escape.

In 2000, Cargill’s beef, pork and poultry operations in Waco, Texas had to recall 17 million pounds of turkey products after an outbreak of listeria.

In 2001, Cargill’s North Star Steel subsidiary paid $7.7 million to settle allegations that it misled Arizona officials about emissions from the company’s plant near Kingman.

In 2001, Cargill paid an administrative penalty of $60,000 to Linn County, Iowa, for failing to file required air pollution control reports.

In 2002, Cargill Pork paid a $1 million fine for illegal dumping of hog manure at its facility at its facility near Martinsburg, Mo.

In 2004, a Cargill fertilizer plant in Hillsborough, Fla. dumped 60 million gallons of toxic waste water into a creek that feeds into Tampa Bay and was fined $270,000.

In 2005, Cargill signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the EPA that settled charges that the company’s plants throughout the country had violated the Clean Air Act. Cargill agreed to pay a fine of $1.6 million and to spend $130 million on pollution reduction.

In 2006, Greenpeace protested Cargill’s destruction of the Brazilian rainforest for allowing expanded soybean production.

In 2007, Cargill Salt’s plant in Newark has been the site of a series of spills of toxic brine into a canal. The company has been fined several times over the incidents, the latest being a $228,000 penalty.

In 2007, Cargill announced recalls for 2 million pounds of ground beef after outbreaks of e.coli poisoning. The recalls included beef that had been treated with carbon monoxide- a process that makes meat look fresher, longer.

The Cargill salt marsh lands are our last remaining bayland parcel, which should be restored to full tidal protection, carbon sequestration as well as the migrating birds and wildlife.

Voters in Redwood City need to have a say about the future, not just Cargill and seven members of the City Council.

Cynthia Denny

Redwood City

Tax ‘em

Editor,

The Scene: San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin doing his best to imitate Pontius Pilate by putting a proposed increase tax measure on the ballot applicable to those owning property exceeding $5 million.

Now just how do you think the majority of voters, who do not own property valued in excess of $5 million, are going to vote? Of course when it passes, likely overwhelmingly, the soon to be termed-out supervisor can than say "it was the will of the people.”

Perhaps those owning property in excess of $5 million should be subject to a higher tax rate, I don’t know; however, it seems to me there should be a more equitable method of determining the same. It appears to be a slam dunk under Peskin’s plan.

Larry Hurley

San Francisco