Re “Southern California gas prices are rapidly closing in on $4 a gallon” (April 8):

Interesting. In the article on ballooning and spiking gas prices in California, it mentioned seasonal blend and refinery problems but some significant facts were omitted.

The gas tax increase statewide, the sales tax increase in many cities and the seasonal blend change are all government-initiated. Also, minimum wage increase laws affect prices at the station/distribution level.The Democratic Party is responsible for most of the gas price increase.

— Randy Evans, Downey

United States should take care of its own first

Re “Key cities missing at hearing on homeless” (April 3):

It boggles my mind to read about cities not providing housing for our homeless next to an article (“U.S. expands ‘catch and release’”) about “busing people hundreds of miles inland and releasing them” because the border cities have more than they can handle with “immigrant processing and holding centers overwhelmed.”

If we can’t take care of our own, how can we take care of the thousands flooding across our borders?

Looks to me like another example of “common sense is not so common” or the inmates are running the institution.

— Kathleen Ervin, Huntington Beach

Bashing Trump

Re “Adam Schiff vs. the grifter-in-chief” (April 7):

Larry Wilson’s columns all follow the same tired pattern. He touts the anti-Trump conspiracy of the week (collusion with Russia, supporting white nationalists, hiding something in his tax returns) but provides no evidence to support these theories.

He applauds blowhard politicians such as Adam Schiff who spend all their time in Washington lobbing unsubstantiated accusations at the president rather than addressing serious concerns such as health care or illegal immigration.

Most ironically, Wilson hurls the same sort of petty insults (Trump is a liar, he’s a racist, he cheats at golf) that many people have chided Trump for engaging in.A collection of zingers and wisecracks is no substitute for intellectual policy discussions and reasoned arguments. Perhaps Wilson should stick to local news and human interest stories.

— Julian Cummings, Huntington Beach