Tucson Speaks Out: December 30

Reinstate bus fares

The city recently raised our utility taxes on our electric, water and natural gas bills. I strongly agree with councilwoman Nikki Lee, who voted against tax increases because she said the city could raise more money by reinstating bus fares. Two comprehensive reviews by the Transit Cooperative Research Program — 2012 and 2023 —surveyed dozens of fare-free systems nationwide. The 2012 review observed that fare-free transit is typically limited to small, university, and resort communities, while larger urban areas have avoided it due to concerns over revenue shortfalls. The 2023 report echoed this. Denver eliminated fares downtown during the 1970s. Ridership increased significantly, but buses became overcrowded, and vandalism spiked. Austin’s 1989-90 trial produced similar results: severe crowding and increased assaults. Sound familiar? On Christmas Eve, a SunTran rider stabbed another rider 12 times. The attack was “completely random and without provocation.” It is the 12th violent incident connected to Sun Tran that has been reported since April. Enough is enough. Let’s reinstate bus fares.

Sam Dean

Midtown

Jane Kay's TCE reporting

David McCumber’s report on the dedicated and consequential reporting by former Daily Star reporter Jane Kay regarding TCE contamination of drinking water on Tucson’s south side was truly impressive and inspiring. The description of Ms. Kay speaking with over 500 people living in areas with elevated levels of illnesses tied to TCE summoned images from the movie “Erin Brockovich,” which dramatized a similar, true story in Hinkley, California. Both cases resulted in successful class-action lawsuits by families of the victims.

In a year-end report this week, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration has “dismantled a wide range of climate and pollution regulations,” including rolling back deadlines for water utilities to remove two types of “forever chemicals” from drinking water and rolling back limits on four related chemicals.

Imagine Kay and Brockovich proving that industries had polluted drinking water with carcinogenic chemicals and industry officials responding, “So what? It’s not illegal. Trump eliminated the regulations.”

Brooks Keenan

Oro Valley

Wa Wa Bla Bla?

Ed LeGendre's LTE of Dec. 27 (Wa Wa Bla Bla) seems to miss an extremely critical point. What separates infantile Trump from the "drunken uncle at Thanksgiving" is the fact that the current raving lunatic in the White House occupies a position of unspeakable power — the power, in fact, to not only devastate people's lives in this country, but literally around the world. He has shown he's willing to make outrageous and often illegal decisions based on his frequently ill-considered "reasoning." I propose a bargain with Mr. LeGendre: When Donald Trump somehow magically transforms into a sane, coherent, non-sociopathic, decent human being, I'll stop reminding people that this "president" displays none of those qualities. Until then, I, and probably many other like-minded folks, will not take our collective foot off the gas, and will continue to reiterate the significant dangers presented by the twisted mindset of "drunken uncle" Trump and the sycophants surrounding him. Deal with that.

Hope Gastelum

East side

Religion in the classroom

Re: "Religion, Science don't belong in the Same Classroom" published in the Star on Dec. 25.

The editorial cited above was just the right editorial to publish on Christmas Day! Senator David Farnsworth's ridiculous proposal that "Intelligent Design" should be taught as an alternative idea in Arizona classrooms alongside legitimate science topics is patently absurd. It is also quite offensive to those of us who check the "No religion" box on the religion surveys, and between 22 and 28 percent of us Americans do so.

Intelligent design is just another absurd story the Christians are foisting on the rest of us. Christianity is a large cult, as are other religions, and not one of the Christian story time fables (The virgin birth, the resurrection, the concepts of heaven and hell, etc., etc.) has any place whatsoever in public school classrooms. Jefferson and Madison created the genius idea of the separation of Church and State, and that is how it ought to be.

Robert Lanning

Downtown

Context

Dec. 27: Page A6 “Medicaid paid over $200M for dead people”.

Per statista.com: Medicaid paid $748 billion in 2021 and paid $824 billion in 2022, total $1.572 trillion. The article stated overpayments to dead people of $207.5 million during 2021-22. That is an overpayment for those years of 0.0132%. If $207.5 million was for one fiscal year, then that is an approximate overpayment of 0.026%. Less than three errors in 10,000 transactions. Sounds like a very low clerical error rate, not a fraudulent scheme. However, upcoding is inherently fraudulent. I presume there are other instances of fraud, but 0.026% is not it.

James Abels

Midtown

Football bowl game

Do I have this right? Tucson should be proud of a football bowl game held in a stadium named for a casino that preys on the gambling habits of mostly people who can't afford to gamble, with a pavilion exalting some concoction called Gin and Juice and with a title sponsor rapper arriving in a vehicle associated with a marijuana enterprise.

This isn't my Father's Rose Bowl. Get it out of town.

Hollis Moore

Northwest side

So many potholes

All I wanted for Christmas was for Pantano Parkway (between Golf Links and 22nd Street) to finally be freshly paved. I didn’t get my wish. Maybe next year!

Sue Smith

East side

Adam Smith said it best

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Adam Smith said it best in "The Wealth of Nations": "Nations spend what they have the most." In the case of HAMAS-controlled Gaza, HAMAS spent what it had the most: people. Israel spent what it had the most: weapons. That's why one has to be careful where he/she seeks war.

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

The root cause

Another article about the doom and gloom of Colorado River water in the paper this morning. I appreciate the information, but rarely if ever see a reference or suggestion of a solution for the root cause: People. In the early 1900s, dams were built throughout the West to develop reliable sources of irrigation water and encourage Midwestern and Eastern farmers to move to the West to increase the population here. Well, it worked. Now we have more people than the resource can supply. So the solution is painfully obvious. Encourage people to move somewhere else and restrict the expansion of agriculture. Hard solutions, but obvious.

Cal Rooker

Oro Valley

Copper World

Copper World and the environmental, health, and recreational destruction it will cause are being brought to you by the state of Arizona and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. None of this could happen without their full approvals to use 4 billion gallons of our water a year to wash rocks, proliferate toxic dust throughout the valley from a stream of heavy trucks hauling on soft dirt roads, create giant tailings piles within view of schools, destroy wildlife habitat including that where elusive jaguar are spotted, reroute the historic Arizona Trail, and, potentially, create a forever toxic lake that will capture future rainfall before it drains into the Santa Cruz valley. Views along scenic highway 83 will be devastated. What astonishingly bad “leadership” we have in AZ! This is certainly NOT a government of the people, by the people, or for the people. Shouldn’t government be about protecting our lives?

Peggy Hendrickson

Green Valley

Appreciation of Davis, Steller articles

Thanks, Tony Davis, for your article and clear explanation of the water crisis we face with the Colorado River, and the prediction that Lake Powell could drop to dangerously low levels as early as next year. The danger of dead pool and the difficulties negotiators are having in coming to consensus, are well laid out. Also thanks, Tim Steller, for your column suggesting that the AZ Legislature should end data center incentives: there is no need for these. While these issues are water and power related, they stem from climate change. How can anyone imagine that closing NCAR, where so much of the science which allows weather predictions to be made, is a good idea? Suppose we didn’t have predictions: imagine things if your water just suddenly stopped flowing?

And I appreciate that in recent weeks, the Star’s weather page has begun including daily data on the level of Lake Powell. You can see it drop in real time!

Retired astronomer,

Katy Garmany

West side

Two versions to every Bible

I really enjoyed Sister Karen Berry's guest opinion. Especially the last paragraph. While I am Jewish, I was raised in the same manner in which she writes (paraphrased), ‘The problem I see with some people's desire to have evolutionary theory and creationism (Intelligent Design) taught together in public schools is that they interpret the Bible literally, so they view the story of creation as being in opposition to evolution theory.'

I love to talk with my friends about religion and politics, even at holiday dinners, even though we're taught not to do so. Converted Jews and Jews in general are the biggest opponents. I could learn a lot from Sister Karen. 

Deuteronomy says Genesis variations were meant to allow for different perspectives. Genesis was supposed to reconcile conflicting views of nature. Nature reverence leads to idolatry or monotheism? Genesis is based on audible history (telephone game?).

Matthew, Luke and the Quran mention the virgin birth. Mark and John do not.

It's true that 'Christian Nationalism' isn't very Christian, especially today.

Sheldon Metz

Northeast side

Financial impact of football stadiums

Re: Caught in the Middle (Dec. 27), about communities absorbing the cost of football stadiums:

Yes, building new stadiums has some short-term financial effect locally, but no, the long-term financial gain to local communities is not much from stadiums. The article gave reasons for this reality, but one reason wasn’t mentioned. For games to be financially valuable to local communities, attendance must be dominated by fans from outside the community who spend their money locally. When this happens, outside money is infused into local communities. If games are attended mostly by local fans, there’s little to no net financial plus for the community. College bowl games can be financially impactful to communities because both teams are usually from outside the local community. For example, attendance at the 2025 Arizona Bowl was 37,232 people, most of whom were from Ohio and California, importing their money into Tucson's economy.

Paul Sheppard

Midtown

Kneeling to receive Communion

I greatly thank Monica for her LTE about her concern for the elderly and disabled in Catholic churches. To answer the question, as a lifelong Catholic who was also an altar boy, kneelers themselves are not being banned, but the act of kneeling to receive Communion is. Fortunately, in this Diocese, it is not. My parish has an elevator for those who cannot use stairs, and others have ramps. Many parishes reserve front pews for the disabled and elderly. If someone elderly or disabled desires to receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue, a beautiful practice, it can be made known to the priest or an altar boy, who will then inform the priest. Then, at Communion time, he or another Eucharistic minister will come to their pew and administer Communion to the person as they kneel on the kneeler without having to kneel on the floor. I think it is absolutely essential for all parishes to be accessible and accommodating for the elderly and disabled members of our communities.

Hector Guzman

South side