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Pete Hegseth

His latest proposal on testosterone brings to mind the phrase "all brawn and no brain." Perhaps we need more brain as the military works at its best with good leaders.

Patricia Moran Newman

Northwest side

What's in a word

Toadies, trucklers and tuft-hunters. Different terms for the same congresspeople, state legislators and others in our current administration who turned their backs on the American people and the U.S. Constitution. You already know their contortionist behavior and orange-sucking operations. Now we must listen to their obfuscation of those actions during their reelection campaigns. It is not enough to rail against the Orange Occupant. Come November, we must surgically remove these enablers from any position of authority over us. Your vote has a very sharp edge. Use it wisely to cut out the rot before a vote means nothing under the “Save My Backside Act� and other tales told by a fool.

Spencer Elliott

Oro Valley

Election interference 'lies'

The President’s prime-time rant was nothing more than pushing his same old debunked 2020 election lies. He did not produce a shred of evidence supporting his claims of election interference or vote flipping. Now, the President is trying to use immigrants as a scapegoat to undermine the 2026 elections. He claims 270,000 non-citizens are on our voter rolls. Total lie! Look to the conservative Heritage Foundation for the truth: less than 100 cases of non-citizens voting over the last 25 years. Now Markwayne Mullin is threatening to jail election workers based on false information on non-citizen voting.

The only proof of election interference lies with the president himself. Trump is the one who accepted Russian interference and dialed up the Georgia Secretary of State demanding that votes be ‘found� to declare him the winner. If he was really concerned about election security, he would not have eliminated the body that helps states with voting machine standards or terminated CISA — our cyber defense agency.

Kathy Krucker

Midtown

Convenient Fraud

Trump won the 2016 election: NO FRAUD. Trump won the 2024 election: NO FRAUD. Trump lost the 2020 election: FRAUD. Selective, convenient fraud, used to frighten future voters, disenfranchise voters and control future elections. Rather than create a Republican platform which meets our needs, crying wolf about fraud is an easy way to take away our voice, our power, our vote. That's fraud.

Rita Pollak

Oro Valley

Election integrity

Never before in American sovereignty has our process of electing representatives been so gravely in peril. This predicament is not due to foreign attacks, noncitizens or domestic fraud — it is entirely due to the psychotic and unhinged rants of Donald Trump. If you are among those who, without a single shred of evidence, believe him, then your next medical visit should include a shrink.

The Republican Party no longer exists; it’s been effectively replaced by the Trump/MAGA cult bearing no resemblance to conservatism or fair-minded governance. The former GOP accepted election losses and power transitions as cyclical — MAGA rejects every ballot loss while dishonestly changing voting rules to solidify their political control. If you don’t see this as putting democracy on the brink with indisputable evidence of impending autocracy, please reread world history 101.

Those of us who see the writing on the wall are sounding the alarm — ignore it at your peril. These are truly the times that try our souls and nonpartisan American patriotism.

Ralph Atchue

Oro Valley

Proposed City-TEP agreement

The proposed Energy Collaboration and Franchise Agreements define no measurable performance metrics that benefit ratepayers-taxpayers.

They support TEP’s plans to generate 80% of their electricity using expensive natural gas-fueled power plants that deplete our water aquifer supply when substantial reductions in CAP water supply are imminent, will create water shortage crises and enormous costs to identify new water sources and transport to Tucson. TEP natural gas costs continue to increase, require a new $5B vulnerable pipeline, and, when mined, release heat-trapping methane that increases temperatures and ratepayer electricity costs (TEP Revenue/Shareholder Profit) for cooling. Ratepayers-Taxpayers pay TEP franchise fees and city utility tax.

The City-TEP collaboration can be productive and mutually beneficial if the Agreements are modified to require that TEP increase fixed/lower cost solar generation in Arizona, reducing water usage, harmful emissions and reliance on transmission infrastructure, from the current 12% to 50% by 2031 and that they implement cost reductions necessary to avoid an increase in rates or surcharges.

Terry Finefrock

Foothills

WW III

As near as I can tell, at least 29 — or 7% — of the world’s 193 countries are directly involved in the 2026 Iranian war while the rest of us suffer disruption of the economic system. With the Strait of Hormuz closed and Houthi in Yemen threatening to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait, it compromises the World’s economic system. Estimates are that 25 to 30% of global ship traffic would be stopped. Increased energy prices and diminished food security will occur when global trade is so disrupted. Further, foreign involvement in the Ukrainian/Russian War actively involves at least 50 countries, as well as making 41% of the world entangled in just these two wars. With these two headline-grabbing wars, there are at least 30 high-intensity armed conflicts going on. At what point are we in a World War?

Richard Fridena

West side

Just another day in the Old Pueblo

A downtown shooting is nothing unusual in Tucson. Gunplay in 1882 had Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday murdering Frank Stilwell at the Toole Avenue railroad station. Honoring the killers, a statue was erected at the depot several years ago.

Another murderer celebrated by a downtown statue is Pancho Villa. He may not have killed Tucsonans, but he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, including many Americans.

So shootings downtown here aren't uncommon, because in the United States, as H. Rap Brown honestly observed in 1967, "Violence is as American as cherry pie."

David Devine

Midtown

Ciscomani ignores oath

Please don’t vote for Rep. Ciscomani. He swore an oath of office to “protect and defend the Constitution ..." to " ... bear true faith and allegiance to the same ..." But as Trump wages a congressionally unauthorized war against Iran — squandering an estimated $100 billion (while still managing to lose the Strait of Hormuz), Ciscomani has only encouraged him. Trump is using the Department of Justice unlawfully and unconstitutionally to persecute his political enemies, and even to pardon the goons who tried to kill Capitol police on Jan. 6. Ciscomani does not protest. His campaign ads claim he’s in Washington to fight corruption, but he turns a blind eye as Trump pockets billions playing the market he manipulates as president. The pattern is clear. We need to vote out Ciscomani and all Republican reps because when Trump intervenes unconstitutionally in the upcoming election — and we know he will — these sycophants will continue to ignore their oath of office and enable Trump instead of stopping him.

Mark Hengesbaugh

Foothills