Letters to the editor: Jan. 6 commission, private attorney, car-happy Idaho
Capitol riot
Three of our four legislators have shown what little regard they have for the job and lives of the Capitol police force. The next time “tourists” storm the Capitol, I wonder if the officers will remember how each legislator voted, but I think the Capitol police have more integrity than our three legislators.
Sheila Ames, Boise
Private attorney
Ref: Article on 30 May that Idaho State Legislature paid $1.2 million taxpayer dollars to a private law firm. That looks like misuse of taxpayers’ money to me, when the state Attorney General or his office could represent them at a much lower cost. How about the state Attorney General acquire more specific legal guidance when required, instead of the state Legislature making that decision. They just appropriated another $4 million from the general fund for their legal welfare fund. And their choice to spend funds on controversial issues most often resulted in losing those cases in trial. It appears the $1.8 million spent by the state Legislature and paid to one firm since 2015 is a lucrative jobs program for that legal office. Taxpayers deserve a more reasonable expenditure of their tax dollars. How can we as taxpayers and voters put an end to this process? Vote out the incumbent state Legislature in the next election!
Bill Burns, Boise
Car-happy
The Statesman’s recent reporting of the “I-84 connection” sends the dismal lesson that Boise and the Treasure Valley are car-happy. The goal of transportation “planners” appears to be this: Make cars happy and keep them happy with more roads. Sure, there are bike lanes painted on selected streets and sidewalks, too, all with built-in trip hazards.
At the same moment as more than 20 other municipalities around the country are not just closing, but removing roads, the Boise area seems intent to go right on paving over the land. Perhaps it’s a philosophy spawned by the well-known urban heat island effect; the more concrete and asphalt and rooftops, the greater the summer heat becomes. And so do noise pollution and toxic air pollution.
Doing the right thing for public health and quality of life does not equate to building more roads. It comes from making the city walkable again and giving folks a chance to live near their workplace, not commute by personal car to a workplace that’s 20 miles distant.
Connection? Connection to what? More bad air?
Alan C .Gregory, Mountain Home
Jan. 6 commission
Republicans in Congress were in a no-win situation, and they made the worst of it. If they voted to support a bipartisan commission investigating the events of Jan. 6, then the complicity of the Trump administration would be revealed in the lead-up to the 2022 mid-term election. If they voted against it, they appear to the American public to be putting self-interest ahead of the needs of the country and giving Democrats a solid argument in favor of getting rid of the filibuster. They may think they have avoided a political minefield by voting down the Jan. 6 commission, but instead they have moved one step closer to their worst nightmare: an exasperated Democratic majority that gives up on bipartisanship, deciding to get rid of the filibuster to go it alone. If this happens, Joe Biden gets everything he wants while the Republicans watch from the sidelines. Isn’t that the worst-case scenario for Republicans? Don’t they see that their resistance has made that scenario much more likely? In an environment where most mid-term voters are already highly partisan and most congressmen are from safe districts, the risks from the commission were really pretty minimal. Checkmate!
John Crow, Boise