Tucson Speaks Out: December 10

Detention town

We have been wondering when ICE would strike. Well, they did at Taco Giro, with the IRS, “after a yearlong investigation.” Hopefully, we will learn the reasons why, and why Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva was such a threat.

The community is on tenterhooks waiting for the next large shoe to drop. Tension has grown since knowing a privately held company Management & Training Corp (MTC), the third largest operator of adult correctional and detention facilities, has a property in Marana. The property, sold to the state for $150K, purchased by MTC for $15 million, indicates how much profit they expect to make.

I hope the community forum at Tortolita Middle School on Dec. 11 will have copies of the well-documented MTC "rap sheet" outlining the dismal track record of the company. Hopefully, local citizens will fight becoming known as a detention town should MTC locate in Marana.

Mitchell Anderson

Catalina

Contesting testing

The op-eds regarding standardized testing by Olli-Pekka Heinonen and Drew Cline, though they disagree, both make good points. The problem is that they are addressing different issues. Cline’s argument is that standardized testing helps economically disadvantaged students to be admitted into good universities — assuming his statistics are correct, this is an important point.

But on the other hand, Heinonen’s argument is that standardized testing is mathematically based and ignores the larger issues of what the purpose of education should be, and the important questions “How can I make a meaningful life? How can I make life better for others and the planet?” These two articles open up an important discussion about testing and college admissions, for which there is no easy solution, except to try to unite the two goals of enabling students from underprivileged families, but also enabling education to improve our society.

Thomas Kovach

North side

You can’t eat data centers

Last week, the ACC members, specifically Rene Lopez, chose to approve TEP’s agreement with non-registered, foreign LLC Humphrey’s Peak Power.

Weeks before that, Heinz and Scott (along with the "for the rich, let them eat cake" Christy) approved the land deal with Humphrey’s Peak Properties, LLC, another foreign but AZ-registered company.

Each meeting the voters’ elected — emphasis on elected — officials took time to berate the people.

If only the people were paid to attend meetings, write letters and spend millions to influence these elected officials like our chamber of commerce and these companies.

We the people are asking to pause agreements too for our water and clean (for now) air. That is a ‘line too far’?

The plumes of heat that rise from these data centers and the dirty air that powers them will kill people. It will bring negative long-term growth. Ask those in Louisiana, Georgia, etc.

In a hotter world, you can’t grow food, and you can’t eat servers.

Carissa Sipp

Midtown

It's called cheating

Gerrymandering is cheating. To change congressional district maps to favor either party is cheating. Gerrymandering is an old and unfair manipulation to favor desired voting outcomes. It is unbelievable to me that the practice of gerrymandering still exists. I thought that independent commissions drew the voting district lines. To have the "ruling" political party in a state Legislature drawing voting districts is the epitome of corruption. Aren't we divided enough without cheating by "fixing" voting districts to favor a political party? Have we sunk that low? Wake up and be against gerrymandering. It's always been wrong, and it needs to stop.

Richard Bechtold

West side

Red lights

Numerous LTEs have promoted the reintroduction of red-light cameras in major Tucson intersections, and I agree with their arguments. They favor of reinstallation because so many drivers blast through the red lights. Obviously, those who demand red-light cameras realize that they could very well be victims of an unnecessary violent collision as soon as tomorrow. Interestingly, the same people requesting safety for themselves will not support the similar safety for others. Defunding the police and accepting repeated release of career criminals who victimize innocents seems to be acceptable. Demeaning and actually attacking lawful ICE officers who are attempting to remove vicious illegal criminals who prey on innocent victims is unrelenting. The transgender man must be allowed access since it is not your daughter or granddaughter who lost a scholarship or was forever scarred when seeing an unexpected penis in her locker room. In the last five years, more people have died of drug overdoses than died in WW2 but there is continual criticism of aggressive interdiction efforts. Curiouser and curiouser.

Loyal M. Johnson Jr.

Oro Valley

(Bob) Costa's Hummingbird

That real cool story about the confused young hummingbird was such a delightful story !! It was a break from the private police ICE, reading about useless dummies trying to run our fascist government. It was entertaining to read a true happy story about the (Bob) Costa's hummingbird.

And the people who really care about wildlife. Please do write more stories like that. It's a break from all the negative garbage going on now. I'm burnt out of the lies we are told. Bob's story is a joy to read. It made my Sunday morning. It's nice to know there good people who care about our wildlife, before the human race destroys them, like our so-called leaders are doing to our country.

David E. Leon

Vail

The Post betrays its values

After 50 years of supporting the Washington Post since I was a freshman at American University in Washington, D.C., I have canceled my subscription. The recent Post editorial endorsing the Republican plan to stop The Affordable Care Act's tax subsidies at the start of the new year is abhorrent.

The editorial board article quibbles over fraud that may exist somewhere in the yearly $35 billion in credits. So, fix the program, don't kill it.

Meanwhile, the editorial board has made no comment on the Big Beautiful Bill that gave almost $1 trillion in tax relief to corporations.

Is it possible that mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of the Post, had a hand in writing this and other recent Trump regime-friendly editorials?

Who knows. But we do know he is the one hiring the hands that write them.

Their stance on Obamacare is wrong. I've had enough.

Peter Bakke

SaddleBrooke

Welfare for corporations

So, now the taxpayers will be giving $12 billion of welfare to American farm owners and corporations since China refuses to buy their soybeans due to Trump's incompetent policies. This is on top of the price increases we face due to his erratic and vengeful levy of tariffs.

While I don't begrudge reparations to family farmers, corporate welfare is a growing trend under the Trump administration. It seems that “welfare” is only bad when it goes to the neediest among us.

Bruce Hilpert

North side

AZ new dental law

Senate Bill 1124, signed into law in April 2025, created a new category called “Oral Preventive Assistants” with drastically abbreviated training for dental assistants to perform scaling and prophylaxis procedures. The difference in educational requirements is substantial. A registered dental hygienist accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation completes nearly 3,000 hours of comprehensive education and the clinical application of preventive and therapeutic care. Under the new law, Arizona now permits dental assistants to become oral preventive assistants and perform scaling procedures with 120 hours of training. That’s less than 4% of the education standard that CODA-accredited programs require. Before your next dental appointment, consider asking your provider about the qualifications of their hygienist. Is your hygienist CODA-accredited? How many hours of training did they complete? When we compromise on training requirements, we’re essentially conducting an experiment with public health.

Lois Bowen

Southeast side

Dressed to kill: restaurant raids

I read this article several times to figure out who did what and why. Finally, the photographs say it all. Special agents from ICE HSI (HSI is ICE's investigative arm, pursuing federal criminal investigations such as financial and cybercrime, as well as drug and weapons smuggling, human trafficking and fraud. Although no one has suggested that the search was prompted by any of these — except perhaps financial since the IRS was involved), ERO (ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations), the IRS Criminal Investigation, (they don’t have another special abbreviation), all in full battle gear swept into a taco restaurant and the homes of employees and detained 46 immigrants from Mexico on “suspicion of administrative immigration violations.”

An impressive army of acronyms (and a helicopter) was deployed, with agents/soldiers? dressed for battle, masked and armed, and the Taco Giro was taken. Personally, I think they were overdressed, especially for carrying boxes out of the Taco Giro. The FBI usually just wears khakis and a black T-shirt.

Katharine Donahue

Foothills