A car heads north on Park Avenue near Grant, along part of the proposed route of TEP’s Midtown Reliability Project. (2024 file [photo)
TEP’s ‘occasional friction’?
The Tucson Opinion by the President and CEO of TEP in Sunday’s paper made me laugh and then shudder at her attempt to project TEP as a collaborative, cooperative partner with Tucson, touting their energy grid that “runs alongside — and occasionally under — city streets.” I attended the 10-day ACC Line Siting Committee for the Midtown Reliability Project last year and was impressed that it took two lawyers and a Phoenix “expert” and several others to try and get out of undergrounding this project through the many residential neighborhoods it would egregiously impact both visually and valuation wise. Currently they are fighting Tucson’s Scenic Corridor laws to enable them to avoid undergrounding at designated major streets. We have no laws to protect residents from their visually devastating our own neighborhoods. Just look around you at the freakishly tall and closely spaced huge rusty poles that have gone up without discussion along our roadways and neighborhoods. Beware their threat of higher rates for what is common practice elsewhere.
Christie Cummins
Midtown
What are you going to do about it?
What will you do?
In the last couple of months, I have been reading the letters to the editor. Most of these point out the changes and damage being done by the Trump administration. I think many people are satisfied by just letting their thoughts be known. My question to these letter writers is, “What are you going to do about it?”
I would like to recommend that we all choose an option(s) available to us. They include attending rallies and demonstrations to show support; contacting your congressional representatives; joining and participating in an advocacy group; supporting the organizations financially which are best able to stop some of the lawlessness (ACLU and other legal challenges to the administration); and other ways of being active. If we just talk about it or write letters to the editor, nothing may come of those. We need to act.
Tom Regnier
Green Valley
Dodging DOGE detractors, losing billions
Elon Musk has been described as a entrepreneur, industrial engineer, investor, and smart. Did he really believe that by teaming up with #47 and becoming a DOGE despot who laid off and fired thousands of government employees, while aggravating citizens, would result in Americans being so overjoyed that they would run out and buy his Teslas? Currently Elon Musk’s net worth has dropped by more than $144 billion since December, while Tesla sales have fallen by 49% in Europe. Is this a good business model? Meanwhile he has found time to accuse Senator Mark Kelly of being a traitor for supporting Ukraine, saying “Well, I think someone should care about the interests of the United States above the interests of another country. And if they don’t, they’re a traitor.” Does Musk then consider Defense Secretary Hegseth’s Signal chat debacle that put the U S interests and military at risk non-traitorous? Now Musk has taken a keen interest in Tesla backlash, protests, and burnings.
Max LaPlante
Southeast side
Re: Ciscomani dodges voters
I am a Ciscomani constituent. For 2+ years I have periodically put the following request to Ciscomani’s staff: Please provide a policy statement, or a reference, which explains why Ciscomani supports defunding the IRS. I have never received an answer.
This is an important issue. For example the Government Accountability Office estimates that “the tax gap — the amount of taxes that is legally owed but not collected — has grown to about $600 billion/year.”
It is easy to ask Google or ChatGPT to superficially summarize arguments for defunding the IRS: government is too big, encourage voluntary tax compliance, and so on. Does Ciscomani endorse these summaries? I have no idea.
In any event it is important that Ciscomani can demonstrate some competency by formulating an argument, or at least the ability to reference arguments based on fact. It is not okay that Ciscomani consistently pleads the 5th Amendment to questions not involving immigration or DEI.
Doug Pickrell
Midtown
Resign, Hegseth
I flew 39 F-4 combat missions over North Vietnam in 1972. Most were joint services attack operations involving over 100 aircraft. One of our most dangerous missions was to escort unarmed reconnaissance aircraft assessing attack damage, flying over the targets shortly after the attack. We expected enemy aircraft, missiles, and anti-aircraft artillery to be ready and waiting for us.
The predictability of the reconnaissance flights multiplied aircrew risk. SecDef Hegseth’s release of time and location details in the Signal chat made targets and timing similarly predictable. Non-secure publication of the plans constituted aid to enemy combatants. His actions increased the risk faced by U.S. forces. Did he see himself back in his Fox “news” studio gleefully sharing juicy “scoop” details with his audience? However he perceived himself, he showed ignorant and callous disregard for the lives and safety of people serving under him. He should resign.
David Coatsworth
Midtown
The RFK Jr. nightmare
The worst has happened, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now leads the Department of Health and Human Services and the headlines hysterically proclaim no more vaccines and massive employee firings.
While these are major issues that the political sausage machine will eventually sort out, let’s address Bobby’s insistence to ban direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising, particularly on television. The U.S. and New Zealand are the only nations that allow drug makers to advertise directly to consumers and he argues that Big Pharma drives up drug consumption and costs while negatively impacting public health. We haven’t experienced his kind of political resolve since the U.S. banned cigarette advertising in 1971.
I ask at least one Tucson Democrat letter writer to say this is good policy and hope I don’t hear crickets.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
OPSEC
Regarding discussing war plans with a reporter and the President’s “nothing to see here” attitude towards the security breach: While stationed at the Pentagon I inadvertently left a safe unlocked and a letter was placed in my file. The only classified document in the safe concerned a ship’s movement — and the ship had been decommissioned decades earlier. Imagine if active war plans were in that safe. Would the Navy have said nothing to see here? I don’t think so. Those clowns are going to get somebody killed. Hopefully Congress will take the matter more seriously than the President.
Dave Bertagnoli
West side
Border security
Ignoring declining immigration, Trump declared invasion and national security threats to empower ICE at the southern border and blatantly abuse human rights. What’s next? They are flying inland immigrants and activists to Louisiana and foreign countries in military planes. To meet deportation quotas, border agents and soldiers could sweep up brown-skinned folks with Spanish surnames along the border in Pima County — tri-national citizens of the U.S., the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Mexico. Juan Ciscomani’s new bill allows border activities in wilderness areas and building troop housing 100 miles from the border. The next targets will be traitorous Democrats in Long Beach, Riverside, Tucson, Silver City, Deming, El Paso, and Alpine legally protesting atrocious GOP actions. Command posts could be in Forts Pendleton, Huachuca, Bliss, and Sam Houston. Martial law in the Mexican border states could be the first step toward Trump Reich. Resist.
Tom Van Devender
North side
Sound the alarm
Okay folks, this is getting serious. We knew it was going to be bad, but it’s barely two months in and we are seeing things we thought could never happen here. Financial chaos as economic policy, threats of American hegemony over sovereign states, an unelected oligarch making decisions at the highest level of our government, private and public education institutions being told what they can and cannot teach, law firms punished for legal challenges that displease the President, and even worse: federal judges being intimidated, and legal residents being swept up by plain clothed ICE agents. None of this is hyperbole or left-wing propaganda, just read today’s paper. Will the growing frustrations that are resulting in larger and more frequent resistance demonstrations as well as additional court rulings against the President, result in a decree of martial law? Think not? Think again! We now know, it can happen here.
Mark Hanna
Foothills
Campgrounds for the homeless
I live next to a pocket park frequently used by the homeless for camping, so I know the negative effects of homeless camps on surrounding neighborhoods. This is one reason I oppose Councilmember Uhlich’s “Helping Huts” proposal to allow homeless camping in our city parks (Daily Star Top Story 3/28/25). While I think sanctioned campgrounds with wrap-around services are perhaps the best immediate response to the service-resistant homeless, I do not think city parks are a good place for them. As Steve Kozachik recommended, a better place would be in industrial or rural zones, not residential or business neighborhoods.
The best place for unhoused persons is initially a shelter, and eventually a home. According to the latest (2024) point-in-count survey, there are enough shelter beds in Tucson currently for every homeless person. But if you want no-barrier beds for service-resistant unhoused populations, sanctioned campgrounds outside of business and residential areas are a reasonable compromise while other longer-term solutions are developed.
Adrian Wurr
Midtown
Trump and Musk
On November 7, 2022, Iranian lawmakers issued an alert to the country’s leadership calling for severe punishments to those found guilty of participating in anti-government protests.
The letter, signed by 227 of Iran’s 290 parliament members, compared protesters to ISIS militants and domestic terrorists.
The MPs’ demands also reiterated unfounded government claims that the United States and other enemies of Iran incited the ongoing protests. Iran had provided no evidence to back up its claims of foreign involvement in the protest movement.
This March 12, standing in front of five Teslas in front of the White House, Trump was asked by a reporter if he would consider labeling those protesting and committing violence against Tesla owners and dealerships as “domestic terrorists.” He replied, with no evidence, “I’ll do it. I’m going to stop them — because they’re harming a great American company.” Actually, Tesla is not a “great American” company. China manufactures more Teslas (65%) than California, Texas and Germany combined.
Sheldon Metz
Northeast side
A third term?
Trump hasn’t been in office 10 weeks. He has managed to tank the stock market, raise prices on everything, deport people who are in America legally. His national security staff have used easily hacked public chat rooms for military strategy information which jeopardizes the lives of armed forces personnel. He spent $6 million to buy space in a prison in El Salvador with a great photo op for Kristi Noem, (the dog killer), and created incredibly stupid tariffs that ruin our relationship with long term necessary allies and the American people will pay the bill. Trump wants a third term as President. He should get a first, second and third term in a prison for January 6th insurrection, mishandling of classified documents in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, and interfering in elections in Georgia (find me 11,000 votes). What an ego. This guy is a joke.
Richard Bechtold
West side
Trump’s plan
Since when is it ok in America to disappear people with no legal process because of what they say? Since when in America is it ok to cancel the best source of information that counters the disinformation put out by all the world’s dictators? That’s Voice of America, which we listened to for many years overseas. Since when is it ok to degrade our best allies and praise the dictators, our enemies? The President is operating the same as every other dictator to destroy democracy. First disparage the weakest political groups and blame them for all our troubles, thus dividing society. Then try to silence the free press when they don’t follow the party line. Next attack the judiciary when they stop your actions if they deem them unconstitutional, then silence the legal profession. This is what Stalin, Hitler, and Mao did. Now Trump. Who voted for this?
Don Ries
Southeast side
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