蜜柚直播

Thanks for supporting public lands

Thank you, U.S. House Representative Juan Ciscomani, for speaking up against selling Mt. Lemmon, Sabino Canyon and other cherished 蜜柚直播 public lands. I鈥檓 a Marana resident, former town council member and board member for the Friends of Ironwood Forest National Monument. I know how important these places are to 蜜柚直播ns, no matter how they vote. We hike, camp, hunt and find refuge on these shared national lands. They protect critical wildlife habitat. Yet there are many special places in Southern 蜜柚直播 that are still at risk, including Ironwood Forest National Monument. This monument, 30 minutes outside of Marana, offers outdoor access for Southern 蜜柚直播ns. I applaud Rep. Ciscomani for his support of public lands. Now, I urge him to continue to be a champion for these beloved places by telling the administration to leave Ironwood Forest alone.

Jackie Craig

Marana

Ward 3 City Council candidates

Takeaways from the recent Ward 3 City Council meet and greet:

Sadie Shaw is woefully inexperienced and lacks basic understanding of how things work. Her comments about the environment, housing and policing were frankly absurd. This is not a serious candidate.

Janet Wittenbraker, the Republican, refused to answer how she felt about Trump and the Republican Party holding up millions in city funding that was already granted for the causes she says she supports.

It is ridiculous to vote for someone supporting the Republican agenda to defund city resources, environmental initiatives and nonprofits who are trying to build up our community.

Kevin Dahl is the only candidate with a track record of community service, empathy and understanding.

Please Ward 3 residents, don鈥檛 make the mistake this country did last fall and vote for inexperience or hatred. Vote for Kevin Dahl, who knows the job and is looking out for everyone.

James Martinez

Midtown

We've been Trumped

Before the 2024 election, I was positive the greatness of VP Kamala Harris would sweep the presidential election. But I did speculate on what life would be like in the highly unlikely event Trump won. His evil and un-American oligarchy is spreading through the country like wildfire. Beneficial agencies like USAID and the Department of Education decimated. Total government war on DEI. Worst of all, our American universities and colleges, the heart of American free thought, are rolling over and playing dead to Trump鈥檚 attacks. Including our own UA. My pre-election speculation never imagined such an assault on my America. Trump now controls all three branches, so that safeguard is gone. He has the green light to just fire everyone. Federal government will hit a critical limit as people depart jobs and collapse. My Social Security? Gone. And I have no one to appeal to. In a very short time, Trump has chewed up our democracy and spit it out.

Thad Appelman

Northwest side

Chicken or the egg?

In the July 9 Las Vegas Review-Journal: 鈥淒emocrats have been especially aggressive 鈥� against President Donald Trump.鈥� The editorial did not provide any statistics to support the stated opinion. That said, given the competence and coherence of DJT, it might be true because he makes it so easy to impugn him and his administration.

Chicken or the egg? Trump or Democrats? Sounds like the easy target is hit more often than a difficult target. Hence, more shots attempted and fired successfully against the easy target.

James Abels

Midtown

Bad direction for clean energy

Much was harmful in the recently passed budget bill, including gutting of energy efficiency tax credits, which are now set to expire Dec. 31, 2025. I took advantage of the tax incentives last year and purchased a storage battery for my solar panels. The battery plus solar has saved me 75% on my bill. It also keeps my lights and A/C on during power outages. And I saved 30% of the battery cost on my tax filings. These incentives have helped 蜜柚直播ns like me save money on electricity bills, and they have provided good jobs for 蜜柚直播ns in the solar industry. The tax credits incentivized 蜜柚直播ns like me to invest in solar and battery storage and in other energy-saving projects for their homes.

I urge people to take advantage of these tax credits this year. Also, call your elected officials, especially Representative Juan Ciscomani, who said he favored clean energy credits then voted against them. Tell him that these tax credits make sense and are important to 蜜柚直播ns.

Lori Bryant

Northwest side

Disingenuous Ciscomani

A recent email from CD6 Rep. Ciscomani claims that 88% of seniors will pay no tax on their Social Security benefits. The Big Ugly Budget does not eliminate Social Security taxes. The standard deduction is set to rise due to inflation (COLA). Secondly, the bill adds an extra standard deduction that lapses after 2028. It also adds a temporary $6,000 boost for 65-plus, which disappears after 2028.

When you combine the expected inflation increase + temporary extra standard deduction + temporary bonus, a single eligible taxpayer (65+) can deduct a total of $23,750 from his/her taxes. According to the Social Security Administration, the average monthly SS retirement benefit for January 2025 was $1,976 ($23,712 yearly).

While many Arizonians will pay no taxes on their Social Security benefits for the next few years, Ciscomani fails to explain how it works. His email was self-promoting and outright disingenuous.

Jean Meconi

Oro Valley

Losers?

In the destructive flood in Texas, any talk of loss must involve the death of children and the adults who were trying to save them; the term 鈥渓osers鈥� does not enter into this description of the loss of loved ones. Yet at a recent news conference held by Governor Abbott, he decries the question about responsibility for the loss of over 100 people and addresses responsibility as he would a locker room rally, "Let me explain one thing about Texas, and that is Texas 鈥� every square inch of our state 鈥� cares about football. The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who鈥檚 to blame; that to 鈥減oint fingers鈥� is not something that winners do.鈥� I find this shunting aside of more than a hundred lives insulting and demeaning to those who perished and their loved ones. A critical analysis of the actions of those involved is called for 鈥� to prevent further loss of life if nothing else.

Richard Rebl

East side

Follow the money

Let the Hunger Games begin.

So it goes in Kerr County, Texas, where dozens of young women die fighting for their lives due to a bit of money, continually refused for a warning device that would have saved them all. Despite the loss of lives there from a flood just 10 years earlier.

Their governor says don鈥檛 point fingers at anyone, as he maintains steadfast support for reductions in Medicaid and the end of FEMA, whose principal mission is 鈥渉elping people before, during and after disasters.鈥�

As we are schooled to fight each other, I plead with you to 鈥渏ust follow the money,鈥� an expression I adopted forty years ago, when I was in politics. If you do, you will see the flood of cash flowing to those that least need it from those that most need it.

Richard Kimball

Midtown

Project Blue is a familiar scam

In the animated film "Rango," the title character confronts the mayor for secretly developing land around the desert town of Dirt to build 鈥渢he future鈥� while stealing water from longtime residents. Does this sound familiar? In 蜜柚直播, Project Blue is selling us the same lies as the mayor in Rango, but with real water on the line.

The Project Blue team, including Beale Infrastructure and Blue Owl Capital, claim they will work miracles by preserving our water supply despite evaporating millions of gallons to cool their data centers. They have not provided numbers to justify this contradiction, indicating that they cannot justify it. We simply do not have enough water for large data centers in 蜜柚直播. Miracles do not come from unaccountable out-of-state big tech companies making promises they've never kept.

We sadly have no gunslinging chameleon coming to save us, so call Mayor Regina Romero and your City Council members to ask them to oppose Project Blue.

Reed Spurling

Midtown