Tuesday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Texas pitching</p> <p>EDITOR: I was disappointed by your enthusiastic endorsement of Gov. Jerry Brown's rude and disingenuous response to Gov. Rick Perry's pitch to bring California jobs to Texas. (“Tall Tales? A Look at Texas' sales pitch,” editorial, Friday).</p><p>In 2011, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom led a bipartisan group of legislators to Texas specifically to learn why Texas was attracting more jobs than California. CNBC's 50 state comparative ranking of business attractiveness in 2012 ranks Texas No. 1. California is ranked No. 40. In the ranking subcategories, Texas is ranked No. 1 in infrastructure and transportation; California is ranked No. 30. In education, where you choose to ridicule Texas' performance, CNBC ranks Texas 26th, but California is ranked No. 33. America's top 650 CEOs ranked California “the worst state in which to do business” in 2012, for the eighth straight year.</p><p>Yes, California still has Silicon Valley and some significant quality-of-life benefits relative to Texas. But there is no denying that more business-friendly policies would attract new business, bring jobs and spur growth. Brown's “Nothing to see here; let's move on” response to this serious deficiency in California's business climate is appalling.</p><p>BOB MELLBERG</p><p><i>Santa Rosa</i></p><h3>Teens and steroids</h3> <p>EDITOR: Steroids. One word, multiple problems. It's no secret that teens use them. Boys often turn to these drugs in order for muscle growth and talent attributes. It seems, however, that they don't realize the danger of the chemicals they are packing into their bodies.</p><p>Steroids can affect people long-term, affecting males in ways of breast growth and voice pitch changes and females in ways of hair growth and voice change. Steroids affect male and females emotionally. Steroids have been known to cause extreme and violent mood swings.</p><p>School sports teams can stop this by randomly and repeatedly drug testing their student players. Schools should make a habit of educating students about the dangers and life alterations caused by steroids. What makes an athlete is the passion and courage pumping through their bodies, not a drug from a bottle.</p><p>SARAH INMAN</p><p><i>Windsor</i></p><h3>Not a wilderness</h3> <p>EDITOR: Hurray for the feds. In one fell swoop during difficult economic times, they accomplished the following:</p><p><BL@199,12,11,10>Closed down a $1.5 million business (“Oyster farm's legal bid rejected,” Feb. 5).</p><p><BL@199,12,11,10>Put about 30 people out of work.</p><p><BL@199,12,11,10>Denied Californians the pleasure of a delicious, healthy, local sea-food delicacy.</p><p><BL@199,12,11,10>Denied many visitors to the Point Reyes National Seashore the chance to buy fresh oysters.</p><p><BL@199,12,11,10>Improved Japan's economy at the expense of California's,</p><p>All this to create a wilderness that ceased to be a wilderness 100 years ago. At this point, Drakes Bay, at best, is a potential wilderness. It can only be designated a wilderness after all the improvements of the oyster company have been removed. The original Wilderness Act of 1964 was created to preserve wilderness, not to create it. The potential wilderness designation was added at a later date.</p><p>HANS ANGRESS</p><p><i>Cotati</i></p><h3>Another coast monument</h3> <p>EDITOR: I was puzzled that someone as astute as Lynn Woolsey wrote <NO1>on and on <NO>about environmental protection of the fishes but failed to mention that we have a California Coastal National Monument (“Speaking out in defense of our coast,” Close to Home, Monday). There are more than 20,000 offshore rocks identified since 2000 as being one of 103 U.S. national monuments. Monument statements speak about protecting animal life, “both terrestrial and marine”. Both Point Arena and Fort Bragg/Mendocino are gateways to the monument.</p><p>January was named “Say Hello to Your Favorite Rock” by members of the Mendocino Study Club (est. 1908), a collaborative partner of the California Coastal National Monument. Photos of favorite rocks were snapped and are on display at the Photographer Gallery on Main Street in Fort Bragg. The Sonoma/Mendocino Coast already has a very unique but not well known monument status with environmental protection being an important component.</p><p>RUTH SPARKS</p><p><i>Fort Bragg</i></p>