Thompson to make rounds in district in next 2 days

Rep. Mike Thompson, Benicia's representative in the U.S. House, will be in Vallejo tomorrow to discuss the newly enacted tax bill and its potential impact on seniors. (File photo)

 Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Benicia in the U.S. House of Representatives, was in Washington, D.C. this weekend as the country was in the midst of a government shutdown that ended on Monday, but he is back in the Bay Area. The Democratic congressman is going to have a busy schedule in the next two days as he travels to cities throughout his district to meet with constituents. 
   First, Thompson will be in Santa Rosa today for a town hall meeting, which is open to all residents in California’s 5th District. The meeting will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, located at 1351 Maple Ave. 
   Thompson has two events on Thursday. The first is a Coffee with Our Congressman event for Pinole residents to meet with Thompson and learn about services available in the area through Thompson’s local office. This event will be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Pinole Senior Center, located at 2500 Charles Ave. After that, the congressman is off to Vallejo from 3 to 4:30 p.m. to host a town tax hall for seniors. The event, open to all constituents of California’s 5th District, will discuss how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act-- passed by both houses of Congress in late 2017-- will impact senior citizens. The meeting will be held at the Florence Douglas Senior Center, located at 333 Amador St.
   For more information on any of these events, contact Thompson’s Vallejo office at 645-1888.

Rep. Mike Thompson to speak on Social Security bill today at Benicia Senior Center

(Originally published in the 3/30/16 edition)

    U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) will be hosting a town 

hall meeting today at the Benicia Senior Center today to discuss the Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 1391), which he was one of the original co-sponsors of. The bill's sponsor, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) will also be speaking.  

   H.R. 1391 was introduced to the House on March 17, 2015 and aims to provide an increase in benefits to current and future Social Security beneficiaries and cut taxes for its recipients. It also would amend Title II of the Social Security Act to increase the primary insurance amount formula factor from 90 to 93 percent of all beneficiaries, revise how cost-of-living adjustments are calculated using the Consumer Price Index and increase the minimum primary insurance amount for lifetime low earners based on years in the workforce. It would also raise the gross income threshold for the taxation of Social Security benefits from $25,000 to $50,000 for single taxpayers and from $32,000 to $100,000 for married taxpayers who file joint returns.

   Thompson, who represents Benicia in the House, will be speaking alongside Larson on the progress of the bill in Congress. Afterwards, they will take questions from attendees. Elizabeth Charles, the operations supervisor of the Social Security Administration's Vallejo office, will also be on hand to answer questions.

   The town hall meeting will take place 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. today at the Benicia Senior Center, located at 187 East L St. For more information, call the center at (707) 745-1202. 

Rep. Mike Thompson's noodle dinner will feature civil rights icon

(Originally published in the 3/22/16 edition)

   Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) will be hosting an International Noodle Dinner in Vallejo as part of an effort to know the constituents of his district- or rather let the citizens of his district know him.

   “He just wants to be a face and for people to know who he is and feel comfortable reaching out to them, rather than some figurehead in Washington who doesn’t ever come back and you don’t really know,” Thompson’s campaign events coordinator Mary Jane Bowker said. “He is a real person who cares tremendously about his district.”

   Thompson, who also represents Benicia as part of California’s 5th district, will be speaking for about 15 minutes on projects he has been working on for Solano and Contra Costa counties and deliver updates on what has been going on in Washington, D.C. All of this will be occurring as guests enjoy noodle dishes of several different nationalities, including Italian, Chinese, Filipino and Thai.

   Guests will also hear from Rep. John Lewis. In addition to having represented Georgia’s 5th district since 1987, Lewis was a major civil rights figure in the ‘60s. He was among the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, which also included Martin Luther King, Jr. Lewis was president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and played a big role in fighting segregation and racial discrimination. He was also one of the original Freedom Riders, spoke at the March on Washington in 1963 and led the 1965 march in Selma, Ala. in a day that later came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”

   Thompson and Lewis have worked closely together, with Thompson even joining Lewis in Selma for the 50th anniversary of the march.

   “(Thompson) is a colleague of Mr. Lewis in Washington, D.C., and they work closely together,” Bowker said. “He asked him to come out here, and he said yes.”

   Additionally, there will be a raffle, free electronic recycling and a computers for nonprofits program. The company Computer Recycling Center will be giving out four recently refurbished Intel Core Duo/Dual Core Windows desktop computers to nonprofit organizations.

   “The reason we use this particular company is because they take all the toxic material out of the product and recycle them properly so nothing goes into the landfill,” Bowker said. 

   The computers in really good condition are refurbished and upgraded to Windows 8 so they can be delivered to nonprofits. Interested organizations should bring in a letter addressed to Steve Wyatt, including its 501(C) number and a short explanation on how its organization will be using these computers. The value of each system is $300.

   Bowker says the event will be a good way to educate people on the political system.

   “I think it’s very important that people get involved in the political system,” she said. “Politics starts in your home. It starts with people that are elected to the school board to city councils to supervisors. I think that the more people get involved, the more they become committed to the community. Mike wants people to know that he’s accessible. If you have a situation, question or problem, his offices are open and he wants to be very approachable.”

   The dinner will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., Saturday, April 2 at the Mare Island Museum, located at 1100 Railroad Ave. in Vallejo. Tickets are $25 for adults and free for children under 12. Tickets can be purchased in advance, at the door or online at MikeThompsonForCongress.com. For more information, call Bowker at (707) 226-8989.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Mike Thompson files for re-election

(Originally published in the 2/24/16 edition)

   Benicia’s congressman, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) filed for re-election in the 5th Congressional District Monday. 

   “Today, I filed my papers to run for re-election in our Congressional District,” Thompson said in a statement. “I am incredibly humbled to have a broadly diverse group of supporters including the endorsements of supervisors, mayors, city councilmembers, sheriffs, as well as business and community leaders from our district.”

   Thompson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1998 as part of California’s 1st district. At the time, the district consisted of Napa, Del Norte, Mendocino, Humboldt and Lake counties as well as portions of Sonoma and Yolo counties. Following redistricting in 2013, Thompson now serves California’s 5th district, which includes all of Napa County and parts of Contra Costa, Lake, Sonoma and Solano counties, including Benicia. 

   In a statement, Thompson extolled his ability to work with community officials during times of need.

   "I have strong working relationships with local and county officials and community members,” he said. “Together, we secured federal funds to rebuild after the 2014 South Napa Earthquake and the 2015 Valley Fire in Lake County.  And, we acquired assistance to help revitalize Mare Island, invest in Sonoma County’s transportation infrastructure as well as complete the Napa flood project.”

   During his time in Congress, Thompson has been a proponent of environmental issues, a public health care option and gun control. He is also the co-chair of the Congressional Wine Caucus, which protects the interests of the viticulture industry. 

   “As your representative, I will continue to protect Social Security and Medicare, keep fighting for comprehensive immigration reform and strengthen our national security,” Thompson said in a statement. “As a Vietnam combat veteran, I will continue to support our veterans and their families.”

   Thompson’s nomination papers included signatures from several Solano County officials, including Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis, County Supervisor Erin Hannigan and NAACP Vallejo President Jimmie Jackson. 

   A Republican challenger to Thompson has yet to declare. 

2015 in review: Crude-by-rail debate enters fourth year

(Originally published in the 1/1/16 edition)

   As 2016 begins, Valero’s Crude-By-Rail-Project is entering its fourth year of being debated on. The project, which aims to extend three Union Pacific Railroad road tracks onto Valero’s property in Benicia to deliver North American crude oil by train instead of by boat, was publicly announced in Feb. 2013 and was expected to be completed by the end of that year. However, strong opposition by residents and environmental groups triggered a debate that still goes on to this day.

   As 2016 will continue to have more major developments regarding the crude-by-rail project, it is important to understand where the project stands right now, especially with its developments in the last 12 months.

   The biggest news regarding the project was the release of the Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR). The first Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) was released in June 2014 to address the environmental and safety concerns that residents had about the project. However, the document was criticized by many, including California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who felt the report’s focus on the 69 miles of road between Roseville and Benicia did not adequately cover the scope of the project’s impacts. The RDEIR extended its focus to include three new routes: from the Oregon state line to Roseville, the Nevada state line to northern Roseville and the Nevada state line to southern Roseville.

   The RDEIR was expected to be released in June 2015, but delays pushed it back to Aug. 31. The new report, after extending its scope beyond the Roseville/Benicia route, found more “significant and unavoidable” environmental impacts, including direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, the increase of nitrogen-oxide levels in the Yolo-Solano region and increased threats toward protected wildlife species.

   The release of the report, and the public comment period that followed, resulted in a packed City Hall for its Sept. 29 City Planning Commission meeting, where both supporters and opponents of the project turned up in droves. Supporters of the project argue that it would create temporary jobs in the construction of rails and permanent jobs in the operation of the project, provide $30,000 in tax revenues, operate under current air permits with Bay Area Air Quality Management District and reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East. 

   Meanwhile, opponents of the project contend that the project would increase air pollution, fuel climate change, increase greenhouse gas emissions and would be very dangerous in the event of a train explosion- particularly in the wake of an oil train explosion in Quebec shortly after the project was announced as well as numerous others since. 

   Elsewhere in the year, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) who represents Benicia in the House, co-authored the Crude-by-Rail Safety Act in March to establish safety standards for transporting crude oil by train. Among other things, the bill would aim to make oil train cars more durable and assure that first responders are on hand to handle emergencies. As of press time, the bill has not made it past committee, and government transparency website GovTrack.us believes it has a 4 percent chance of being enacted due to it being sponsored by Democrats, the minority party in Congress.

   The Final Environmental Impact Report is expected to be released in early 2016 to respond to comments on both the DEIR and the RDEIR. Amy Million, the principal planner in the Community Development Department, could not be reached for comment.

   For more information on the crude-by-rail project or to read public comments, visit the city of Benicia’s website at ci.benicia.ca.us. 

Congressional App Challenge open to high schoolers in 5th District

(Originally published in the 12/24/15 edition)

   Benicia teens will have an opportunity to show off their technical skills, as the second annual Congressional App Challenge is currently underway for all high school students in California’s 5th Congressional District.

   The nationwide competition, established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, allows high school students from participating districts to create applications for mobile or desktop devices to promote the importance of STEM- science, technology, engineering and mathematics- courses.

   “It’s a congressional effort,” Benicia’s congressman, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Santa Rosa), said. “I think it came about when Anna Eshoo, my colleague from Silicon Valley, brought the issue to the attention to the rest of the caucus. It’s a great program. It gives our future leaders and entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase their stuff, and hopefully there will be a lot of interest in the schools.” 

   Thompson said the outcome was rather slow in the 5th District last year, but his staff has been trying new things this year to draw bigger numbers.

   “We’ve tried more personal outreach to some of the schools, and we’ve contacted a few people in the tech industry for their ideas on how to get this out,” he said. “They’ve helped promote it through some of the work that they do.”

   The competition is available for all students above the age of 13 who live in the 5th District to participate, even if they do not have much experience with coding. The app must address a problem and provide a creative solution. Students must also provide a 1 to 4 minute demonstration video illustrating how the app works and what tools were used to create it. The video may be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo. 

   Thompson believes the challenge could open doors for a lot of young brilliant minds. 

   “It probably appeals to a small universe of people, but the truth of the matter is there are some real bright young stars out there,” he said. “This could be something they find very beneficial from an educational perspective and a career perspective.” 

   Thompson has already met with some technical creative people, even outside of the challenge.

   “Last year, we had a student from our district who developed an app on water conservation measures,” he said. “I met him in Washington, D.C., and he was a smart young guy who developed the app, and I think it’s going to benefit him personally and possibly the community.”

   One of the main goals of the contest is to promote STEM and computer science skills to teens. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration, STEM jobs are expected to grow 17 percent over the next two years. However, while nearly half of all STEM careers require a bachelor’s degree or higher, only 29 percent earn a degree in STEM fields, according to a study by Burning Glass Technologies. 

   Thompson believes STEM skills are important for students to learn because he feels they will benefit their futures in a big way.

   “it’s the future of our country and our district,” he said. “Young men and women are going to become leaders, not only in our towns and counties and state and country, but in the world. Anything we do to promote this is beneficial not only to them but to our future.”

   All interested Benicia High School and Liberty High School students, as well as other high schoolers in the 5th District, can participate by going to challenge.gov. The deadline for students to submit their source code online is midnight on Friday, Jan. 15. For more information on the contest and the steps to participate, visit MikeThompson.House.gov and click on “2015 House STEM Competition” under the “Fifth District” tab.