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Watch what they do

Four career prosecutors in the DOJ refused to seek an indictment of James Comey or Leticia James and resigned when pressed to do so. The Attorney General of the Southern District of Virginia was one of those, a Republican appointed by President Trump in his first term. No one in the office would sign on with newly appointed Attorney General Lindsey Halligan, and she had to be the lone signer of the indictment of Comey and go to court alone. When charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams were dropped, 11 DOJ Attorneys resigned in protest. These jobs are highly sought and are hard to obtain, yet 15 attorneys resigned from Bondi’s DOJ. They don’t do that for nothing. I do not know the facts of the cases to comment on their validity, but I’m sure the attorneys who resigned do. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Don Ries

Southeast side

Faux majority

An obviously Republican LTE defends the elimination of tax credits for ACH participants because “majority rules.” This is probably based on Trump’s election win. However, receiving 49.7% of the popular vote does not a majority make. Further polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and others show more than a majority (78%) want Congress to extend the tax credits. This includes 57% of Republicans. More than a majority (61%) also oppose the cuts to health agencies, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The writer callously calls the estimated 22 million people who will be harmed by the cuts a “minority” and states “at least they have an option that wasn’t available before,” meaning the ACA his party is sabotaging. He presents the un-Christian heartlessness of the Republican Party and blind loyalty to their positions. They do not represent a majority. Of the 189.5 million registered voters nationwide, only 37.4 million (19.7%) are registered Republicans. A majority of Americans are against their cruelty.

Dee Maitland

Marana

Re: ‘It must hurt’

Loyal M. Johnson Jr., yes, it does hurt, everyone, daily.

The border is “closed” to wildlife. No effort was made to study the impact of the wall on wildlife. The general population is hungry, and avoidable deaths are occurring as people are not able to get healthcare. Formerly controlled diseases like smallpox, etc., are on the rise — some very sick. Some states are inundated with unhealthy kids. Tariffs are costly for “U.S.” and affecting international trade. Criminal illegal aliens are free to roam, but non-criminals in our cities are being harassed. Fraud. Waste. $20B given to Argentina. Troops violating our rights (costs money.) No money for healthcare. The Administration is the fraud – follow the money, his family deals in secrecy. The proof is in the pudding. The bully is not advancing safety. Inflation. Hardships. He ignores the courts, too. Remember his healthcare plan? No plan. More Trump golf courses. He is not king, but a dictator and fraudster. The country is in tatters. Yes, it hurts.

Peter Bisschop

East side

New mail-in ballot envelopes

Is anyone else bothered by the lack of a privacy envelope in the recent 2025 General Consolidated City of Tucson/School District Election? In completing my ballot, I noticed a new return procedure. The mail-in ballots no longer contain a separate return envelope that allows your Ballot Affidavit signature and phone number to be hidden inside. Instead, the Ballot Affidavit is now both a Return Envelope and a Ballot Affidavit, exposing both your signature and phone number on the outside of the envelope for all the world to see! I wonder what precipitated this change? I will no longer be mailing my ballot through the mail as I will now drop it off at an official voting site. I wonder how many others will be bothered to do this? Could this be simply a cost-saving decision or voter suppression?

Amelia Edwards

East side

Free speech with no responsibility

We are free to lie; manipulate; deceive; “walk it back” or by saying “I meant it figuratively.”

The First Amendment was written about 1789 when hand-made megaphones were used to inform the voters. Information such as mail/flyers full of lies were delivered by horse, stage or foot. Liars were exposed quickly, limiting the blatant lies.

Not so long ago, “we” had a much greater sense of responsibility; due to a sense of honesty, ethics, honor, rules, doing the right thing, policies et al.

After Trump created a packed SCOTUS full of conservative “originalists” the First Amendment has become weaponized. In July of 2025, the IRS stated that churches can endorse political candidates to their congregations without losing their tax-exempt status, which reverses a 70-year interpretation of the Johnson Amendment, which barred them from engaging in partisan political activity.

This is why so many love free speech, lies, and not looking for the truth.

Dan Bannon

Midtown

Where are they?

For months, we saw thousands of people across the country, and downtown Tucson, yelling and screaming for a ceasefire in Palestine. They were in full support of Hamas, even though Hamas raped women and cut the heads off of babies. They took over parts of universities all over the country and dared Jewish people to cross their area. This movement was supported by the LGBTQ, even though they would be the first group that Hamas would kill if they ever went to Gaza. Fast-forward to today, there is a ceasefire and a great plan for peace has been proposed that has the support of Arabs, Muslims, and dozens of countries all over the world. The protesters got what they wanted, so where are they? I think that we all know the answer. They are just a bunch of phonies.

Jack Hingstrum

Marana

Undermining confidence in the press

The benighted Tim Steller stated in his recent column that a recent US Supreme Court ruling “allowed racial profiling”, in that, “Federal agents may stop and detain people based solely on their race or appearance.”

A perfunctory reading of that ruling shows that what the Court said was that race or ethnicity, “in combination with other circumstances,” could establish reasonable suspicion for a stop. Steller’s dishonesty adds to the current distrust of the press.

Thomas Leupp

Northeast side

Nero is another good comparison

Responding to our Jr. reporter to the LTEs. The reason people refer to Trump as Hitler, dictator, fraudster, racist, is because those things are the freshest comparisons in people’s minds, and they can associate with them. Another callous, uncaring person of history that compares to Trump is Emperor Nero. He watched from afar as his subjects suffered, screamed for their lives as they burned alive, while he played his famous fiddle. Of course, nobody remembers him because they probably skipped ancient history class. You know what they say, “If it walks like a dictator, talks like a dictator, looks like a dictator, it’s a dictator.” You can’t run away or spin your words until you’re dizzy to change that.

Daniel Poryanda

Southeast side

U of A censorship demands

Thank you for reporting on Oct. 13.

As a graduate of the U of A in science education, I wholeheartedly support Jennifer Allen, the County Board of Supervisors, City of Tucson and outstanding professors at the U of A to resist the censorship demands on universities by President Trump.

I’m worried these demands go far beyond censorship of political opposition to his desire to make his damaging anti-science budget cuts permanent in service of “drill baby drill “and his “oil-i-garchy” donors, while doing irreparable environmental damage without contradiction by climate science, or the reality, like the flood from Priscilla in Douglas. As the article on climate noted, solar energy is the wave of the future, and our university is a world leader in developing biofuels, conserving water and solar innovation, and we must reject his censorship.

Instead of using those soldiers to support a sub-minimum wage, they could install biodegradable plastic — that saves a lot of water — and keep the price of vegetables low.

Roy Goodman

Downtown

Human intellect

If one were to spend time observing nature, there is a very important lesson to be learned. The animals that live in the wild display an acuity that is to be envied by us humans. Wild animals — and even domestic ones — have a natural instinct that guides their every way of life. This instinct is the “intellect” that produces an automatic response to every aspect of survival. Without sounding anthropomorphic, the animal’s instinct allows the animal to “think” as to sensing fear, finding security, having sustenance and keeping the patterns of nature in their proper order. Conversely, humans have this propensity to underthink and act on irrational impulses. All humans should imitate the so-called dumb animals in the wild — or that domestic one sleeping on the couch — and let the basic instinct that is ingrained in each one of us become the guide to intellectual behavior. The world could use some animal reasoning. Too bad we can’t put animals in charge.

Robert Nordmeyer

Northeast side