Static where it doesn’t belong
CenturyLink is totally unresponsive to consumers’ needs. Most of us hope that letters to the editor create static, but we don’t need static on our phone lines! Our entire area suffers from static on the phone lines. CenturyLink repairmen come out, if we’re lucky, and say the lines are old and worn. The repairmen who come out do the best they can, but the problem persists. When you call in the issue AGAIN, a repairman calls and says he’s fixing the static remotely and you never hear anything again except the static. Ask for a supervisor to find out why the problem persists, and you get the runaround from a flunky whom you can even abuse until you get you get so frustrated you hang up thereby helping her to accomplish her job: not letting you speak to a supervisor!
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Barbara Benjamin
Foothills
Republican ridiculousness revisited
Re: the Sept. 16 article “Panel rejects Hobbs’ housing chief.”
So, Republicans on a Senate Panel voted against a supremely qualified candidate named Joan Serviss because she “plagiarized” some wording when advocating housing. Senator Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, said that because Serviss parroted language without attribution Serviss is, per Howard Fischer’s article, “unfit because he said it shows she lacks original thinking.”
I supposed Hoffman said that with a straight face.
Meanwhile, Republicans parrot bills from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that prewrites bills for Republican legislatures across the country. And the Republicans won’t attribute the bills to a right-wing organization that pushes legislation that support the rich and corporations at the expense of working people and civil liberties. Doesn’t this show Republicans lack of original thinking themselves?
I guess, according to Hoffman, that means Republicans are unfit to serve the offices they hold.
Matt Somers
Midtown
Releasing balloons a danger to animals
Re: the Sept. 18 article “Family, friends gather to remember Vejar, 14.”
I do not pretend to know what Miss Vejar’s family and friends are going through as a result of her recent death. My heart goes out to them in sorrow. But I would like to note that one symbol of their grief and love — their balloon release in Marana this past Saturday (Sept. 16) could endanger local wildlife.
According to a US Fish and Wildlife story from 2015, when free-flying balloons lose their helium and land, they are often mistaken for food by turtles and other animals, while still other animals can get tangled in the balloons’ strings.
Either way, the affected animal frequently dies.
There are many ways for humans to harm the environment. Let’s please not make balloon releases one more of them.
Dave Peterson
Midtown
A sweetheart deal for Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden was recently indicted on three federal felony charges related to purchasing a firearm and lying on the ATF 4473 federal form, claiming he was not a substance abuser. He brandished the firearm in videos while using crack cocaine. Hunter was only indicted now as the five year statute of limitations was about to expire. A firearms case like this is not complex, and could have been prosecuted in a matter of months. Yet five years later, the USDOJ offered him a sweetheart deal. A plea to two misdemeanor tax violations and a felony firearms charge. That felony charge would have been under Deferred Prosecution, meaning that after two years, the conviction would have been expunged from his criminal record. The plea agreement also provided Biden with immunity from future prosecutions. You think any other person not named Biden would be offered this? No, that is why the Judge rejected it. I believe Biden has received preferential treatment from the USDOJ, and other felonious crimes have been intentionally ignored.
Rory Smith
Marana
A better economy, a brighter future
I am grateful for President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Law that continues to revitalize our economy by making substantial, long-term investments in America’s workforce.
Since its inception three years ago, 4,300 federal projects have created 13 million new jobs to repair our nation’s roads and bridges, strengthen our electric grid, manufacture electric vehicles, improve public transit, replace lead water pipes, and provide broadband access to rural areas.
Strong job growth has resulted in the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years and raised the value of the dollar to its highest level in 20 years. Moody’s Analytics estimates GDP will increase by trillions over the next decade.
To date, the US has experienced the strongest economic recovery of all the G-7 world’s wealthiest nations.
Biden’s investments in the American workforce have produced a resilient, robust economy where anyone who is willing to work hard can have a good job, make a livable wage, raise a family, and enjoy a future free from hunger.
Misty Atkins
Oro Valley
Stop building unnecessary roads
I just read an article in the Star concerning the widening of Grant Road. Enough already. With the advent of AI being used for traffic control and the amazing capabilities it portends, building new lanes should be relegated to the tar pit. AI is revolutionizing traffic management around the world. A quick Internet search will bring up articles covering many aspects of the use of this technology in the field of traffic management, including but not limited to predicting in real time, traffic flow along a given route, adjusting for construction, emergencies and emergency vehicles and countless other variables.
Let’s rocket into the 21st century. It’s time to stop tearing up the earth and evicting business and homes to give way to traffic. Our home is the Old Pueblo and our heritage goes back thousands upon thousands of years. Technology offers us the future and the preserves the past and will help save our planet.
Joe Thompson
Foothills
Jokes about Alzheimer’s disease
Tuesday we saw “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.” There is nothing funny about Alzheimer’s disease. Shame on Nia Vardalos, who wrote and directed this film and shame on our fellow theatre goers that roared with laughter at a woman suffering from this dreaded disease.
Steve Sox
North side
Relationship and communication
Communication and relationship skills training for our students would support family life and largely eliminate most incidences of mass shootings.
In as little as one semester of communication and relationship skills, we could prepare our children (and adults) for effective, loving lifelong relationships of mutual honor and respect anywhere: marriage, family, parenting children, and at work.
When we provide our children with effective communication and relationship skills, the number of mass murders, picking up a weapon, and shooting up schools, bars, supermarkets, and other public events, the incidence of domestic violence and abuse, will largely disappear.
Talking about guns and gun ownership amounts to a distraction and political misdirection, a bugaboo employed to distort our public discourse.
It’s not the gun, it’s the person holding the gun.
Paul Zohav
East side
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