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Cost of wildfires

Re: the Aug. 9 article "Wildfire risk map spurs anger, pushback."

Wildfires are part of climate change. The national cost to fight wildfires has averaged over $2.3 billion/year between 2015-20.Property loss and deaths occur in these fires. The article about the Oregon risk map pushback is a sign of the times. People living in those area do not want to pay the costs for greater risk. Insurance premiums are an unaccounted cost in burning fossil fuels. Lloyds of London paid over $130 million in Oregon for wildfires in 2021. Should people living in areas with low risk pay for increased premiums?

Wildfire costs is one more reason that the Inflation Reduction Act is critical. Drought relief will occur and wildfires will decrease in frequency. We should thank our senators for supporting the passage of the bill so we can begin to reverse global warming.

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Inflation Reduction Act

Some assistance and advice, please. The badly misnamed and cruelly misleading Inflation Reduction Act promises to unleash a horde of 87,000 new IRS auditors on unsuspecting taxpayers. In our own backyard, though, our understaffed Border Patrol personnel are working their tails off just to keep the paperwork flowing as literally millions of undocumented newcomers cross our international border. Is something out of whack here? If not, I hereby offer to share my own auditor with other middle-income citizens. I don't think he or she is going to have much to do in harassing me over my modest annual earnings. Is it 2024 yet?

Fraud in the White House

Former President Donald Trump has just shown why he is unfit for any public office. He does not know the difference between the illegal break-in and burglary by the Watergate thieves and the FBI conducting a search based on credible evidence and a judges approval of the warrant previously approved by the director of the FBI and the attorney general of the United States. Trump appointed that judge and the director of the FBI. How many times have we heard him say that only mobsters and the guilty plead the Fifth amendment? He just pled the Fifth 450 times in New York. It is certainly his right to do so, but he said only crooks plead the Fifth. Lastly, the classified information found in his residence is a crime. As a former Air Force officer responsible for handling, storage and safekeeping of classified information, had those documents been in my house I would have been in jail for a long time.

Bad company for US

In the United States and Arizona in particular, the death penalty is legal and carried out. The arguments in its favor, deterrence and retribution, are shaky at best. And some wonder what they say about our cultural values. Another way of evaluating state-sanctioned execution is to look at the nations who support the punishment and those who oppose it. According to deathpenalty.org, nations who have abolished the death penalty include England, Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Ukraine, Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, and Israel. According to the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, the State of Israel is an unusual case. Although the death penalty remains on the books, it has been employed only once, that for the execution of Adolf Eichmann, and never again. On the other hand according to worldpopulationreview.com, nations who employ the death penalty include Afghanistan, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States. Just consider.

City Attorney $30,000 payout

Re: the Aug. 8 article "City agrees on $30K payment."

It is bad enough that the Tucson City Attorney's Office paid out $30,000 to two women that based on solid evidence instigated a confrontation with off-duty Tucson Police Officer Robert Szewleski in a restaurant parking lot in 2021. One of the women was initially charged with disorderly conduct but the City Attorney dropped that charge and gave the woman $15,000. What a scam. This cowardly act by the City Attorney's Office, designed to avoid the time, money and risk of litigation, was simply shameful. This case should have gone to trial, which is the job of the City Attorney. That they "walked away" from fighting to support law enforcement also served to embolden others to seek easy money from the City of Tucson. I think the evidence in this matter cleared the officer by the City Attorney's Office and certainly did not warrant a payoff to the instigators.

Let's act smart on global warming

Re: the Aug. 10 article "We must act now on climate emergency."

Greg Falk sets out facts about the rise in global temperatures which are important. However, he omits two critical aspects both of which override anything we here in the U.S. might do.

First, the population in the world is growing too fast and our planet simply cant absorb so many people. The current population is 7.6 billion and is expected to reach another billion by 2030 and 9.8 billion in 2050. Our planet cannot sustain families of five, six, seven and more children. But no one seems to address this issue when discussing global warming.

Second, experts say that unless China and India reduce their carbon emissions, whatever we do in the U.S. will be ineffectual. We should not foolishly adopt measures which hurt us but which are worthless if India and China are not on board.

So focus on reducing world population growth and bring China and India on board for decreasing their carbon emissions.

Pro-life, sometimes

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the Republican Party and legislators have led the fight against abortion (no exceptions). The outrage is that abortion kills a fetus and Republicans are pro-life. But in the last week since the FBI removed classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, fanatic followers of Donald Trump and fervent Republicans are advocating killing FBI agents. Evidently they dont have the sanctity of a fetus. This is horrific and insane rhetoric and behavior. There was a time when the Republican Party was known as the Law and Order Party. They embraced the FBI and championed them cracking down on protestors. It seems now there is nothing pro-life about the Republican Partys view, despite their anti-abortion propaganda. They are now the party of Trump. The only thing Trump is in favor of is: Trump.

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Letters to the Editor: Aug. 22 - Arizona Daily Star