Tucson Speaks Out: Feb. 25 letters of the day

Hudbay aquifer protection permit

AZ Dept of Environmental Quality will be hosting two very important meetings for the communities surrounding the proposed Copper World mine.

The first was Feb. 20 at Corona Foothills Middle School. It was an informal meeting to explain the conditions included in the draft Permit for Copper World, followed by a Q&A session for the public.

The second one, on March 5, same time and location, is a formal meeting where public comments will be heard for the record, relating to the permit and the conditions and protections it includes. Will they be enough to keep our water and soil safe?

Please note: These meetings are focused on the Aquifer Protection Permit. This is not intended for general support or opposition questions and comments about the mine.

Please attend this upcoming meeting if at all possible; our future is on the line.

Tuesday, March 5, 6-8 p.m., Corona Foothills Middle School, 16705 S. Houghton Road, Vail.

Cathy McGrath

Vail

Love wins in Tucson with Matisyahu

Love prevailed and hate/fascism lost in Tucson.

Anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian protesters, inspired by Hamas tactics, forced the Rialto theatre to cancel the long-scheduled Matisyahu concert on Feb. 15.

The Rialto said the concert was canceled with “the safety of the venue’s patrons, staff and community in mind.” The Gestapo tactics of the pro-Palestinian protesters should not be tolerated in Tucson.

Fortunately, Matisyahu played a free concert that same night at the Rock on Park Avenue for 300 people, and it was a magical experience. It shows that they can’t cancel us.

Matisyahu sings; “One day, we don’t wanna fight no more. There’ll be no more wars, and our children will play.”

Maybe one day, Hamas and all its enablers will stop the violence against Jews, and there can be peace.

Tony Zinman

Midtown

Freedom of speech

Students in the Education Department are demonstrating to reinstate two professors who spoke about the Israeli-Gaza situation. The students claim freedom of speech. Freedom of speech was stifled by the Rialto Theater by canceling the Matisyahu show. Matisyahu is a Jewish singer who sings about peace. Do the professors and students in the Education Department really want to LEARN about the Israel-Gaza situation or, as I suspect, are just following the ignorant ‘woke’ crowd in condemning Israel? The people in Israel who got slaughtered on Oct. 7 were peaceniks. However, the pro-Palestinians who call for the genocide of the Jews ignore the history of this conflict. Many Jews and Israelis do NOT support Netanyahu and his right-wing government but are fighting so that the Jewish state can survive. Granted, the Palestinians have not always been treated fairly, but the majority of Israelis want to live together in peace with them. There must be another way besides spouting Hamas propaganda and fomenting hatred between the two sides.

Roberta Kurtz

Northwest side

Trump, Ciscomani and NATO

Juan ... by your silence on the issue, you apparently approve of Trump’s attack on NATO solidarity and his offering up various NATO member countries to Putin’s aggression! During the Cold War, I flew the A10 Warthog for three hyears in Europe, 1979-82, based in the UK and spending many hours flying along the East German and Czech borders in support of NATO, doing what the A10 was designed to do — offsetting the Soviet Bloc threats. “We” and those that followed did our job, and in 1989 “the Berlin wall” came down, and in 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved. I take great offense to your apparent lack of historical perspective and lack of concern and your failure to counter Mr. Trump’s dangerous and ignorant proposal and thereby supporting the possible resurgence of a “Soviet type” Russian Bloc. Why Juan? Speak up and show us your political courage and your promised “independent” representation in DC. Be a strong independent leader, not a weak Speaker Johnson or Trump follower.

Phil “Bulldog” Bentley

Foothills

ACC commissioners are failing us

Arizona Corporation Commissioners are supposed to protect the best interests of Arizonans by keeping corporate utilities from abusing their monopolies, but they are failing us miserably.

Last month, my Tucson Electric Power bill was three times higher than ever before. Convinced this was an error, I called customer service only to find out my electric rate had indeed tripled. One for the monopoly, zero for the consumer.

Adding insult to injury, this month, my Southwest Gas bill is two times higher than last month’s hefty amount. Once again, customer service confirmed my gas rate had more than doubled. Two for the price-gouging monopoly, zero for the unrepresented consumer.

If you too are unhappy with soaring utility bills, vote the current Republicans who approved these hikes out of office by electing the Democratic candidates running to replace them. If elected, they will represent us by keeping corporate utilities in check and preventing such abuses.

Jacolyn Marshall

Oro Valley

House Dems must bypass pro-Putin leadership

The GOP House of Representatives has given up its responsibility of governing. The insurrectionists and election deniers running the show continue to support 45’s efforts to destabilize our national security and world order. They are OK with 45 selling out our allies, our democratic values, his disparagement of our military, and his pro-Putin allegiance. They continue to create narratives that do not exist and find truth and facts inconvenient.

A majority of Americans want rational and coherent border policies and continual support for Ukraine: both issues critical to our national security and our economy. The Senate sent bipartisan bills addressing both of these vital issues to the House. Speaker Johnson called them dead on arrival and sent the House on a two-week vacation.

Since House Republicans will not govern, House Democrats must bypass the Speaker and his minions and call for a discharge petition to bring these Senate bills to a full House vote.

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I bet both bills would pass.

Kathy Krucker

Midtown

EV curb weight

It’s appropriate for the Legislature to establish an annual fee for electric vehicles; it is long overdue. EV owners need to pay their fair share for the maintenance of our roadways because they do more damage than gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles. It’s common knowledge that heavier vehicles do more damage and most EVs are considerably heavier because of the battery weight. Here are examples of lowest curb weights according to manufacturer specifications: Tesla Air Pure, 4,630 lbs., BMW IX, 6,867 lbs., Audi e-tron, 7,066 lbs., Ford F-150 Lightning, 8,250 lbs., Cadillac Lyriq, 5,688 lbs. Mercedes EQS Sedan, 5,500 lbs. and our Arizona manufactured Lucid Gravity, 6,130 lbs. The average gasoline/diesel powered passenger vehicle has curb weights 3,000 to 4,000 lbs. according to Chat GPT. Based on this information, they should pay more; especially since we may have to replace roadside guardrails to protect EV passengers as reported last week.

Jerry Knoski

East side

Ukraine: Things I don’t understand

Things I don’t understand:

1. How can a party (Rep.), once concerned with national defense go on vacation rather than send needed funding for Ukraine to survive a brutal war?

2. Why is it that Biden has been concerned from Day 1 of the invasion with not upsetting Putin, vs. having Putin fearing NATO if it went too far? Biden has over worried about Putin’s “red-lines’, rather than Putin worrying about ours.

3. The result of this has been for Biden to have been late on every major weapons system from HIMARS through f-16s, not to mention the Patriot air defense, the delays for which 100’s of needless civilians deaths rest.

4. Why are we denying Ukraine with missiles that can reach into Russia?

5. With the denial of the above, along with Ukraine being 30% of Russia’s population, how can Ukraine win a war of attrition?

I remain confused and troubled.

Phil Lyons

Foothills

Re-thinking donation

Re: the Feb. 20 article “New deal for UA’s Lloyd: $5.25M in ’25.”

After reading this headline in the Star, I got mad.

Really? With all the financial problems the university has been having lately?

I had planned to leave part of my estate to the U of A Foundation to go to the school of nursing. I would like to know the annual salary of the Director of Nursing? Don’t we need more nurses than basketball players?

Something is wrong with this picture!

Judy Willmott

Green Valley

Fairly assessing costs for road maintenance

Re: the Feb. 19 article “Lawmakers consider new annual fee on EVs in AZ.”

Globe’s Representative Travis Grantham fears dangerous forces “with a dark agenda” want to base the costs of road maintenance on miles driven. He fears that will encourage such horrors as use of mass transit, walking, and bicycle riding. He knows that driving a fossil fuel-powered car is a freedom and a right. The Constitution’s Bill of Rights was drafted in the 1780s. There were no cars.

Individual freedom requires a respect for the freedom of others. Freedom to breathe clean air, to drink clean water, and to have a livable planet is not a “dark agenda.” Basing a price for road damage on mileage and weight is fair and reasonable. Owners of electric cars should pay taxes for road maintenance, but that should be based on the damage they cause. That is a fair and reasonable way to pay for road maintenance.

Mike Carran

East side

Trump invites Russia to invade Canada

Recently, Donald Trump invited Russia to invade any NATO country that did not spend at least 2% of its Gross Domestic Product on National Defense. In doing so, it appears to me he is inviting Russia to invade Canada. Canada is a member of NATO. Its gross domestic product is $2.221 trillion. Its national defense budget is $26.5 billion. Thus, it is spending about 1.2% of its GDP on national defense. I hope that some Trump supporter can explain to me where I am wrong. Otherwise, it appears to me that he is encouraging Russia to invade Canada, and if he was president he would do nothing to stop that. What a border crisis that would be! Or would he build a wall across our northern border to stop the Russians?

Donald Klein

Foothills

U of A finances

The faculty finance committee should be commended for shedding light on the lack of transparency and accountability in spending at the University of Arizona. The Arizona Daily Star has provided excellent reporting on the subject. I have one question. Did John Arnold resign his position as executive director of the Arizona Board of Regents to become Chief Financial Officer of the University? These are separate organizations with very different roles. To serve in both positions simultaneously is a clear conflict of interest. Who did he mean when he said, “How have we harmed the academic units?” Did he mean the university or the Board of Regents? I believe the University needs a fresh start if it is to clean up its financial mess.

Susan Blaney

Midtown