Digital grocery
coupons
Two of the major grocery chains in Tucson have digital coupons. The deals using these digital coupons are GREAT! Especially with the rise in food prices.
Here is my complaint. I am almost 70 years old, and although I own the latest model in a cell phone and even though I downloaded the stores' app and this IS required, I was not able to navigate it to get these digital coupons. I did go to customer service twice, and the young man whizzed thru it.
My point is I'm old. This is not fair that I can't get these discounts — and what about people that don't own a cell phone?
I think there should be an alternative way to get these discounts, or maybe we should just take a good look at who we are leaving behind in the age of "digital" coupons.
Amy Barnard
East side
Cops! I can't
hear you
Why does our national police force in every community support their slain officers in long funeral processions, but we do not hear their voices in support of national gun control? Now that would really be a force!
Michael Craig
West side
AI for Red Flag Laws
Social media uses AI to focus your searches, direct advertisements to your screen, and suggest feeds you might be interested in. Why not mandate social media revise/or add to their AI software and require they monitor internet activity to look for trigger statements and browsing history that indicate mental or socially destructive personality traits? This history could then be communicated with law enforcement for them to follow up with individuals identified by the AI. Next, law enforcement needs to add staff to follow up on the identified individuals and pass on recommendations to law enforcement officers for Red Flag Law enforcement.
Seems to me this would be a good use of AI software and vastly improve the enforcement of red flag laws (assuming we get good ones passed into law). This also costs social media companies money and requires more law enforcement. Maybe this is a rational step we can take to reduce mass shootings.
Cal Rooker
Northwest side
UA campus
not a bubble
The UA administration, marketing and image department have been working overtime with the constant studies and reports regarding campus safety. Like, duh. The campus is a public place and part of the community and, as such, is subject to the good and bad that comes with it. Nobody condones violence and crime, but short of building a wall with entry gates, it is impossible to shield the students, and the campus in general, from life in the real world.
William Long
Foothills
Quid pro quo
For decades it appears that Justice Clarence Thomas has been bankrolled by a GOP mega-donor. Are Republicans in DC concerned about the ethical implications of nearly one million dollars in "gifts" to Thomas or the potential corruption of a man with a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land? No. They are focused on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Linda Stanley
East side
Controlling AI
The news of artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT2 passing exams raised our awareness of the growing power of AI. Now the “godfather of AI,” Dr. G. Hinton, quit Google to warn us of AI’s potential threat to humankind. This is serious! What can we ordinary citizens do?
Like human intelligence — the ability to gain and apply knowledge, i.e., facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience — AI must be trained. The trainers are the developers, first humans and later the “human-like” AI, at which point AI can displace humans — scary? Is the speed in performing given tasks the only criterium in human decision-making? While AI is still under human control, AI’s threats or benefits depend on the ethical character of the designer/trainer and user. In a democracy, we citizens must elect honest and compassionate officials to oversee the development and use of AI. We've got work to do when our Supreme Court does not have a code of ethics!
Ke Chiang Hsieh
Midtown
Boycott UA football
It has been publicly reported this week that the University of Arizona’s star quarterback, Jayden de Laura has admitted committing felony sexual assault in the second degree under Hawaii law (commonly defined as “rape”). I am no longer a UA football fan and will be boycotting UA football games — I will not attend in person and will not watch on television — so long as de Laura is on the team. I urge others to do the same.
Amelia Cramer
Downtown
Biden and Thomas
I'm tired of conservative fixation on Hunter Biden. He probably benefited from his father's name, as did Donald Trump's children and son-in-law, i.e., billions from the Saudis. Of much more importance is the Supreme Court. There is no confidence in them. Thomas is open to be bought; Trump's appointees lied about abortion to get confirmed. Our lives and freedoms are impacted to a vastly greater degree by a body with no oversight or ethical constraints.
Craig Miller
Northwest side
Pay our bills first
Re: the May 7 letter "Budget limit."
As the writer rightfully points out, if your kid maxes out his $5,000 credit card limit, the first priority should be to pay off the debt, then address a responsible budget. He then praises Kevin McCarthy for proposing just the opposite, holding the nation’s economy hostage by not paying the debt we have already accrued.
President Joe Biden is correct that the debt should be paid first, and then negotiate a new budget. The Republicans didn’t hesitate to increase the debt limit three times for Donald Trump even though Trump’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy contributed to his record $7,800,000,000,000 increase in the national debt. This seems to be a Republican trait since Ronald Reagan doubled the debt. Talk about austerity while exploding the debt. McCarthy wants to cut “discretionary” spending that would gut programs not impacting the wealthy but devastate programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Pay our bills, McCarthy, and then we’ll talk about the budget!
Gerry Wolter
SaddleBrooke
Protecting children
Re: the May 8 article "Bill outlaws dolls with real faces."
The year was 1951. I was a 4-year-old little girl playing in our front yard on Broadway and Vine in Tucson. A sedan slowed down near our curb. The driver asked, “Would you like some candy little girl.”
I started to walk towards him when my mother ran screaming for me to stop. The man gunned his engine and raced off.
“The nice man wanted to give me candy mama.” Shaking and with tears on her cheeks, my mother said, “He wasn’t a nice man. he did not want to give you candy, he wanted to hurt you.”
That was 72 years ago. When I read this article it seemed like yesterday. These predators need no help finding and exploiting children. I now have grandchildren. Sen. Justine Wadsack is right when she reasons that having sex with these dolls will lead predators to move on to real children.
My prayers are with the legislators seeking to protect our children. Children just as I once was.
Karen Papagapitos
Northwest side
Kindness
Random Acts of Kindness
It is my own opinion
About my neighbor Lou
I think he is the kindest
Man, I ever knew
Each morning he brings my paper
Right up to my front door
A random act of kindness
It's that and nothing more
You see I'm on a walker
Much trouble when I walk
But Lou is really something
He really walks the talk.
I'm not the only one he helps
There's others down the street
They’re all in need a little bit
Lou's there, their needs to meet
It's really something to behold
Such kindness that is free
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God makes blind men see.
Tom McGorraay
Northwest side
