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3 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
Trump’s research cutswill set the U.S. backThe National Science Foundation finances much of the scientific research that takes place in the United States, and it is being hit hard with a more than 50% budget cut without an alternative plan. NSF sponsors much of the nation’s most basic research from which many applied scientific discoveries spring. Valuable research programs are being halted as the NSF pulls the plug per federal government instructions.
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3 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
End payouts fromgovernment to MuskRecent Democratic administrations have inadvertently created a monster named Elon Musk. In the early years of Tesla, it was on the brink of bankruptcy. The Obama administration guaranteed Tesla’s loan. Both the federal and California governments provided significant incentives to buyers of zero-emission vehicles.
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4 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
Fear and anger, not age,separate GOP, DemsThe mainstream media must drop the myth that Republicans appeal to the young and Democrats are weary old fossils enmired in the past.
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4 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
Even with leverage,would Trump use it? Marc Thiessen’s recent column makes a valid point about the need for more leverage in President Trump’s stated desire to end the war in Ukraine. The real question is, “Will he use it?”Contrary to Thiessen’s long-winded theory about passing a resolution and then holding it in the Senate, it would be far more effective if it were sent to the president for signature.
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6 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden said Saturday it will step up insurance checks on foreign ships in a move aimed at tightening controls on Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet ” of aging ships. The government in Stockholm said that, starting July 1, the coast guard and the Swedish Maritime Administration will be tasked with collecting insurance information not just from ships that call at Swedish ports, but also those that pass through the country’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
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6 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine on Saturday killed at least two people, including a 9-year-old girl, officials said, as uncertainty remains about whether Kyiv diplomats will attend a new round of peace talks proposed by Moscow for early next week in Istanbul. Russian troops launched some 109 drones and five missiles across Ukraine overnight and into Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said.
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6 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
Pebble Beach Company and three environmental nonprofits announced a landmark partnership Thursday to safeguard water quality in the Carmel Bay, a state-designated Area of Special Biological Significance (ASBS), officials announced. In collaboration with California Coastkeeper Alliance, The Otter Project, and Monterey Waterkeeper, the company will pursue the nation’s first Clean Water Act permit specifically for golf course discharges into an ASBS.
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6 days ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
The Sonoma County Water Agency began inflating its rubber dam in the Russian River near Forestville on Thursday, kicking off a multi-day process critical to providing clean drinking water to more than 600,000 residents in Sonoma and Marin counties, officials announced. Depending on river flow conditions, the dam can take four to 14 days to fully inflate, officials said. Once inflated, the rubber dam forms a pool from which Sonoma Water draws water into four nearby infiltration ponds.
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1 week ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
State’s leaders arecause of high pricesDespite claims of rising costs due to tariffs, March’s Consumer Price Index and April’s Producer Price Index showed the sharpest declines since the early pandemic days, and crude oil prices have dropped nearly 25% since Inauguration Day. Tariffs have also generated over $16 billion in revenue and are projected to generate $300 billion-$600 billion in external revenue by the end of this year.
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1 week ago | 
mercurynews.com | Jaime Welton
Stop high-speed railbefore spending moreGerald Veiluva falls prey to the sunk cost fallacy: we must continue building high-speed rail in California so that we can “recover some of the money spent.”The money spent to date is gone. The question is whether we should continue to dump tens of billions of taxpayer earnings into a project that will be decades, if ever, in completion, only to find that the operation requires 90% subsidies for eternity.
