Dear Editor,

I own a house in Clearlake which is a primary residence and I have a problem with Clearlake's waste policy and its arrangement with C & S Waste Co. I have spent about half my time outside the area until recently; I am retired and I liked to move around.

One day about six months ago I came back to my house to find three waste containers in front of my gate. There was little advance notice of this. I immediately thereafter received a whopping bill of approximately $150. This company had provided not an iota of service but was demanding $150.

After being turned down for a waiver which I believed I was entitled to, based on compliance with legal requirements, I sent an appeal to the city of Clearlake; I never received a response. At this time my circumstances have changed and I can use their service.

Interestingly, the bills have been constant up to now: C & S is now demanding $300 for absolutely no service rendered, before the start of any service. Additionally, they offer no senior or income-based discounts; even PG&E and the water company, to their credit, offer such.

It costs $6 to leave a large bag of garbage at the dump. I'm told it's about $100 for 2 or 3 months of C & S service; I've heard complaints of having to pay substantial bills even when a person is not ready for waste to be picked up.

Bottom line: This policy needs to change. No one should be forced or coerced into using this waste company. It's about time the laws are reviewed. I'm at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if anyone wants to contact me. We need collective action but sometimes one person can make a big difference.

I was able to change the California state laws regarding the medical insurance companies by filing papers with the California Department of Managed Health Care. As a result, the insurance companies can no longer, under Covered California (and maybe beyond), deny primary coverage to anyone (only offering secondary for whatever reason) and still collect thousands if not millions of dollars in government subsidies (mostly federal) called “tax credits.” This case involved Anthem Blue Cross. The end goal is a universal, single payer health care system ASAP.

I had a medical issue recently where I needed an MRI and an appointment with a specialist. No one would accept Anthem Blue Cross and they wouldn't pay for an MRI. I was able to switch to Blue Shield PPO which is 10 times better and I pay exactly the same fees. All the specialists accept Blue Shield and I had my MRI paid for. Anthem was completely useless — it's only good for the most basic needs.

Lake and Mendocino counties are extremely limited when it comes to specialists. In comparison there are huge medical resources in Santa Rosa. It would be easy to get there by bus and return to Clearlake on the same day — but the Lake County Transit makes this impossible. If the Lake County bus left from Pear Tree in Ukiah at 5:30 instead of 5 p.m. — we could easily get to Santa Rosa and back on the same day.

It makes no sense to deprive Lake County people of the Santa Rosa medical resources when it's so simple to make this minor change. To emphasize this point I want to mention that I found only one spine specialist in all of Lake and Mendocino counties: This is unacceptable and intolerable.

These aforementioned issues need a thorough and serious rethinking. I have many more issues to discuss but those will be left for another time.

Glenda Wasserman lives in Clearlake, California.