Letters to the editor: Testing, Middleton school district, Reed case, Sens. Crapo and Risch

Testing

Wednesday, Sept. 23, I took my son to a primary care provider (for a COVID-19 test). Six days later, we still have not received results. How can we possibly conduct contact tracing given this time lag? Fortunately, my wife and I can work from home, but not everyone can. We have self-quarantined while awaiting results. Given the excessive time, I am concerned that families that do not have the flexibility would have a difficult choice: Expose others to work and pay the bills or not feed their families. Given our environment, there should be more accountability to correct this immediately for the sake of all Treasure Valley residents.

Stuart Williams, Boise

Middleton schools

My question is do you know the facts about this staff member dying? From what I understand, it was over the summer when this person didn’t even have contact with anyone from school. Why is this information being released now? How convenient that they can’t give details about it. It seems highly like a strategy to make people fearful. I am an employee of the Middleton School District and my kids attend there. Do some digging into the details and give us some unbiased facts before you attack our school board officials. Maybe we want the choice to send our kids to school. Maybe we want to have the choice as staff to show up in person for them.

Jocelyn Nelson, Middleton

Reed v Reed

The front page of the Statesman on Thursday, Sept. 24, included an article about Reed vs Reed and its relevance to equal rights protection for women and the work of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While the majority of the article is correct, the part about Sally Reed walking into Allen Derr’s office after seeing “16 lawyers” who turned her away is not the full story.

Mrs. Reed initially drove to Mountain Home and met with our father, Robert F. McLaughlin, at his law offices. McLaughlin took on the case at no cost to Sally Reed and correctly challenged the constitutionality of the Idaho statute. McLaughlin took the case through Probate and District Court. After McLaughlin successfully convinced the District Court that the statute was unconstitutional, the case was appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court. This is when McLaughlin took Mrs. Reed to meet Mr. Derr. McLaughlin was co-counsel with Allen Derr before the Idaho Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court noted that all of the correct issues had been asserted by Reed in both the Probate Court and District Court by McLaughlin.

Mary McLaughlin and Michael McLaughlin, retired Idaho District Judge, Boise

Sens. Crapo and Risch

Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, you both had a chance to remove Trump earlier this year. He was caught red-handed extorting a foreign country to help him get reelected. You allowed him to get away with it, and he is now your responsibility. We could have had a President Pence. Trump said that if he is not the winner of the November election then the election is obviously fraudulent and he will not step down. He will call for ballots to be thrown out and will ask state legislatures to appoint electors who will vote for him no matter the vote count. This will end our republic. He has already co-opted the attorney general, Mitch McConnell will get him a favorable Supreme Court and everything Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison worked for will be gone. And you two will have done your part. Is blind support of a mentally ill Putin puppet going to be what history says of you? How can you let us down?

Rick Shackelford, Boise