Tucson Speaks Out: May 6

San Pedro River

Thanks to Howard Fischer for his report in the Star (May 1) on water management around the San Pedro River. He reported that the state Court of Appeals ruled that the Arizona Department of Water Resources doesn’t need to review management of the area because the legal requirement for such a review didn’t specify a frequency for reviews. The court acknowledged that water use has contributed to degradation of the San Pedro ecosystem, but that water conditions also were not specified as a reason for review. Perhaps the original law mandating reviews didn’t need to spell out something so obvious — that deteriorating water conditions is a reason to conduct a review. What should determine whether or not a review is conducted? Pressure from tract-home developers? The article points out that there are other ways to increase water management for the San Pedro River. Please, let’s prioritize the long-term preservation of Arizona’s natural beauty and resources over short-sighted economic gains.

Fred Davis

Foothills

Blindness abounds with mayor, council

The mayor and City Council need to open their collective eyes to see the effect of their policies playing out in the streets and neighborhoods within city limits. Drug-afflicted individuals, often bent over on medians, are seemingly on every major street. The homeless and unhoused, with shopping carts and makeshift shelters, are in alleys, sidewalks and corners. Car break-ins and burglaries are frequent and underreported since the undermanned police department has to (rightfully) attend to more violent crime. Nighttime vehicular deaths often involve street people as they wander onto our dark roadways. These issues will only get worse with the upcoming summer heat. This cannot and should not be accepted by our elected officials. Instead, they need to get out of their own echo chamber, take a drive and observe. It’s time for them to represent the vast majority of citizens that want to take pride in their city, which starts with strong public safety.

David Cohen

Midtown

U.S.-Canada relations

Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, is a skilled politician with a background in banking and economics. He has three degrees in economics: a B.A. at Harvard, and a master’s and doctorate at Oxford. He was governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, as well as many positions where he demonstrated his expertise in the global financial and economic sectors. In domestic and international affairs, he is an acknowledged expert in his field.

The president’s experience is in the business sector. His business holdings have taken bankruptcy at least four times. He made millions but has no background in economics or international trade and he thinks he understands it.

As for Canadian/U.S. tariff wars, he thinks he has the upper hand, but Mark Carney’s reactions do not fit his playbook. He is playing Trump. A skilled fly fisherman is playing a trout. Other fishermen are watching. They are learning.

Michael Burdoo

West side 

The deficit

I find it interesting that the so-called party of fiscal responsibility has no problem with this president’s spending wastefully. Yet when the Democrats are in control, all we hear is “tax-and-spend liberals.” The wasteful spending is ridiculous. Top of the list is this war. Second would be his every weekend on the golf course. Guess the next Democratic president (hopefully) will have to clean up the mess, just like President Clinton and President Obama did.

Eugene Corral

North side

Department of War

The Pentagon has requested a formal name change to the Department of War at a cost of approximately $50 million. Seems that money would be better spent on helping homeless veterans.

Gayle Poe

Foothills

History redux

In 2003 George W. Bush justified his invasion of Iraq because he said Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. They did not. Now, Trump and his puppets — Hegseth, Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders — continue to try to justify an illegal war by saying Iran was on the verge of having nuclear weapons. This is far from the truth as all independent analysis specifies that Iran was at least 10 years away from developing a nuclear weapon. We also had a nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated by Obama, but Trump pulled out of that. So, now when questioned about high gas prices, the astronomical war cost, or dead and wounded troops, the stock answer is “We cannot allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.” Trump deploys his patented fear card and his followers are duped again.

Gary Haslett

SaddleBrooke

What real Americans should do

In this 250th year of the United States, the president should be leading the celebration of the laws which have kept us together as a nation and not ignoring or overriding them. If you want to celebrate our nation, then get rid of the trash in Washington and in state legislatures who don't have the backbone or integrity to fight for the Constitution and replace them with the kind of patriots our Founding Fathers envisioned. Stand the hell up and demand that court rulings be followed and laws are enforced based on proof and not the whims of ignorant, vindictive or spineless egotists.

Cynthia Schiesel

East side

Liars depend on ignorance

Mort Rosenblum speaks of educated voters in his Sunday column on Juan Ciscomani. We have to remember that Ciscomani ran on an outright and blatant lie in 2022. He promised that if elected his first job would be to "fire Nancy Pelosi." That is of course an outrageous lie which his voters were not educated enough to spot or worse yet did not care about. The position of Speaker of the House is filled by the majority party so Ciscomani could only vote for someone from his party if they were the majority, which is in no way the same as firing her. He clearly was lying, the first of many for him but clearly not the last. We need to remember this come November.

Tim Canny

Oracle

Keep Iran's nukes buried

At first Trump claimed that U.S. bunker busters obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities but now he is considering sending in special forces to get the remaining enriched uranium buried deep under a mountain of rock, an unrealistic and unsound plan that will put our troops at tremendous risk. If our goal is to keep Iran from getting and further enriching their uranium, the simplest solution is to keep it buried and out of their hands. Every time they attempt to dig it out, bomb their bulldozers and keep it buried and at no risk to our troops. They can't enrich it if they don't have it, simple as that. Occam's Razor is a problem-solving principle that says the simplest solution is usually the correct one. Or in today's terms, "KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid."

Jeff Aronson

Northeast side

Trump has no cards

Because he doesn’t know any better, Trump led America to the greatest strategic military defeat in our history. Pure ignorance, ego and his lifelong psychological inability to admit failure forced us into his economically devastating war. The Vietnam and Iraq wars became unpopular, as the Iran war is today, but it took years, not two months, to reach that point.

Trump's relentless lies about ending the war have led to zero, zip, nothing. There is no progress, just Trump’s daily “BS.” Iran understands America's weakness. Trump, the bully, has met another bully in Iran. Reality: Trump has been defeated.

Watch for the Iranians to dictate the terms for reopening the Strait after Trump's failed military adventurism. No formal deal. Inevitably, both sides will withdraw from the contest. Iran will end its shipping embargo, and Trump will lift his naval blockade. Trump’s fragile ego and his dumb, costly, rash military catastrophe have failed.

You don’t have any cards, Donald!

Jerry Wilkerson

SaddleBrooke

4-day school week

I read with interest the article about PV High School going to a four-day week. A little further down was information that Cartwright District is returning to a five-day week after English proficiency dropped from 23% to 19% and math recorded the same decline. Was anyone else as stunned as I was after reading this? Twenty-three percent proficiency in English and math!? Really!? No wonder parents are looking for alternatives in educating their children.

Deedee Bruster

SaddleBrooke

SNAP fraud

To suggest that no amount of fraud occurs in the SNAP program is wrong. In the May 4 ADS article, State Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh is quoted as saying he thinks the "...massive decrease is caused by the fact that we had massive fraud in the system." Mr. Kavanagh offers an opinion but states it as fact, for which he offers no evidence. Offering an opinion as fact does not reflect well of his years of experience in law enforcement. Furthermore, references to the error rate in the administration of the SNAP program leave out two important details. The error rate includes both the overpayment of benefits as well as the underpayment of benefits. And to distinguish further, the overpayment of benefits is partly due to intentional misrepresentation (fraud) as well as unintentional misrepresentation (mistakes) in the determination of eligibility and the amount of benefit. All available evidence indicates SNAP fraud does not exist at high levels.

Marco Liu

Midtown

Voting rights

Just when you thought, or maybe not, that the John Roberts-led Supreme Court and Mr. Alito's majority opinion could not go any lower in "unalienable rights' determination, the decision to eviscerate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais decision was made. Shame on you Messrs. Roberts, Alito, and the other members of the court in this outrageous, offensive, and morally and ethically wrongful decision.

John (Jay) Van Echo

West side