Ok. I submitted my questions - except for State Assembly. No questions could be submitted for that one. So, I will ask one here of the candidates for State Assembly: What are you doing to ensure that President Trump is NOT returned to office?

Gee. The State Assembly candidates have not yet posted any responses to my question (above). Our incumbent Assemblyman is Marc Berman - formerly on the Palo Alto City Council. His opponent on the November ballot is a Republican former member of the Menlo Park City Council. There is no real contest. But I will raise another issue: The Secretary of State (top state elections official) in Colorado filed a federal lawsuit on Friday to halt distribution (I guess just in Colorado) of a mailer from the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE warning voters they should request a mail-in ballot at least 2 weeks before the November 3 election. What's the problem with that? In Colorado, every registered voter receives a mail-in ballot automatically (if delivered by the Postal Service). Telling voters they must request a mail-in ballot is misleading in Colorado AND IN CALIFORNIA. What is Assemblyman Berman, chair of the Assembly elections committee, doing in California about that evidently nationwide political piece from the United States Postal Service?

Gary,

Why isn’t anybody discussing the new research that shows even eating outdoors doubles your chances of getting COVID? Found here (Web Link titled “CDC Study: Adults With COVID-19 Twice As Likely To Say They Recently Ate At A Restaurant”

The research used California as a data resource. All restaurants in CA are serving outdoors, correct?

This means there is now scientific proof that this practice is a public danger, and all politicians are doing is trying to cover themselves regarding trying to make it more dangerous, not more safe.

The report stated:

“The study did not differentiate between indoor and outdoor dining. Researchers relied on interviews in multiple languages with roughly 800 people across 10 states, which did not include New York. Participating states included California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington.”

And:

“Asked about the CDC report, Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, said, “It is not surprising that dining at a restaurant was found to be associated with a positive test. This is likely due to the fact that eating and drinking, two activities intrinsic to visiting a restaurant, require removal of face covering."

So are we going to take the proper actions to prevent spread? Or are we going to let more peopled get sick? This data puts the state into another crisis where it is going to likely have to reverse the outdoor dining options now.

What do the candidates think about this?

Dear the MV Voice, reminder that the League of Women Voters Mountain View Whisman School Board Candidate Forum is: Wednesday, September 23rd at 7pm
Registration Link:
Web Link

There are only 3 upcoming virtual forums scheduled at this moment, with only 1 being the general public (Crittenden PTA 9/15, LWV 9/23, Shoreline West 10/03). 3 out of the 5 seats are up, and there are distinct differences between the panel of all very capable candidates. PAUSD has 9 candidate forums, MVWSD's election is equally important, I hope more MV community organizations sponsor candidate forums.

To clarify my comment.

From what I understand, the following states in the study prohibited indoor dining:

California has had no indoor dining. Colorado appears to have no indoor dining. Massachusetts appears has no indoor dining. Minnesota appears to have no indoor dining. These states had no indoor dining

Maryland has indoor dining with restrictions. North Carolina has indoor dining with restrictions. Tennessee has restricted indoor dining.

Ohio only recently opened indoor dining with restrictions. Utah only recently opened indoor dining. Washington only recently allowed indoor dining with restrictions. During the study they were closed

So out of the 10 states at least 7 had no indoor dining at all during the study, and 3 did with restrictions.

To me that seems pretty clear, the findings are mostly counting infections from outdoor dining as a source. I know I didn’t point this out a clearly as I should. But it really appears that outdoor dining is just not safe given that it increases your infection probability by 100%.

Maybe this makes it more clear to the readers too.

By the way, even though we have seen a reduction in infections in Santa Clara County, it is due to the fact that the air quality is so bad that people are not going to eat outdoors for the last 3 or more weeks. So do not assume that the improved numbers we have now are a good sample or predictors. The reality is that once we allowed outdoor dining as an option our infections increased significantly if you look at the history.

@Christopher Chiang: What are the "distinct differences" among the candidates for the MV Whisman school board?

The BEST (IMO) listing of all Mountain View candidate website is [again this year!] from the Monta Loma neighborhood association. Thanks mutchly!

montaloma(dot)org candidates-information

Web Link

Shoreline West Neighborhood Association will also be hosting a MVWSD School Board candidate forum on Saturday October 3 7pm-9pm. Registration will be provided here Web Link