Who can support this administration?

So it looks like Trump’s approval rating is hovering around 33%. That begs the question; who are those people?

Who can support a convicted felon? Convicted of fraud, convicted of sexual assault, most certainly a pedophile, a clear narcissist, a habitual liar, an adulterer, misogynist, and a person who acts like a petulant child. Who are those people?

One would think that would be enough to dissuade support, but he has also made America the laughingstock of the world, while making enemies with our closest allies, at the same time being duped by our enemies. Quite the accomplishment indeed.

And of course both friends and foes know you can’t believe a word he says. And I won’t even get into his clown show cabinet who has put our brave troops at risk, see the USS Abraham Lincoln (“they should have been deployed longer”) which is very rich coming from a draft dodger.

And does anyone want to talk about the reemergence of measles? Or we could talk about his climate change denials, while he is enriching his family and big oil companies as the world is burning and flooding.

Once again, we must ask who are those people, and how poorly it speaks to our society when one third of the population supports this unhinged, mentally unstable person.

Bruce Parker, Arlington Heights

The costs of a cashless society

More and more places are going cashless. The ballparks, parking garages, and some vending machines are all cashless. If our country goes cashless, it will be just another value lost for our youth.

Children will no longer learn the value of money. When we went on family vacations in the early 1990s, I would give my son $75 to spend on souvenirs and whatever. This was his money to spend, but once it was spent, he would not get more. He was very aware of the amount of money he had in his pocket, as it was hard cold cash. Anytime he wanted he could take it out of his pocket and count it over and over so he knew how much was left to spend. How many people are overdrawn on their debit card due to not knowing their balance, as it is so easy to spend and spend when all you are doing is showing a piece of plastic?

Other values that our youth have already lost or are on the verge of losing are knowing how to count up on giving out cash change, how to tell time on an analog clock and learning cursive handwriting.

Yes, there is a place for electronic transfer of funds and credit/debit cards. How do you make donations to the scouts selling popcorn, cookies on the corner, lemonade stands, or to the Salvation Army volunteers during the holiday season without cash.

Cary Riske, Grayslake

Shelter deserves to expand

Shelter is asking to expand the number of residents at their Arlington Heights transitional housing from six to 10. Here are some facts that prove this transitional housing is a good idea for you, me, the young men directly impacted, and Arlington Heights:

Just sayin', I am one of 11, 9 kids and 2 parents, who lived at one home in our mayor's neighborhood, and it turned out pretty good, too, with all of us kids graduating college and gainfully employed when we were 'discharged' from our home! Can you imagine if my parents, who were married 63 years when my mom passed, had to ask the neighbors if it was OK to have more kids? Makes me laugh thinking about it!

Let's continue to make Arlington Heights the welcoming village of good neighbors we can all be proud to call our home.

Mary Hahn, Arlington Heights

Mail-in ballot confusion

I believe there are more late mail-in ballots because people are confused. Some states require ballots to be received by a certain date; others require them just to be completed by a certain date. BTW, the purpose of mail-in ballots is to allow those who can't go to the polls due to health issues or not being in the voting district on Election Day. It was never intended for the lazy.

Bill Voda, Warrenville

Writer is wrong about Democrats

Larry Casey of Huntley said in a letter published Aug. 31, 2026, that he would supply “philosophies and directions of our political parties” without naming them.

According to him, “One party supports boys and girls showering together and sharing the same washrooms,” while the other is for separate washrooms and showers. I challenge him to identify any Democrat who supports the first statement.

He says, “One party is for open borders, allowing anyone into this country.” Again, will Mr. Casey please identify Democrats who support completely open borders? Bipartisan legislation to reform immigration has been developed under several presidents, and in every case it's been far right Republicans who have refused to allow it to pass.

Regarding Iran, he says, “the other party is for peace and ignoring Iran,” referring to Democrats. Under Obama, a multinational agreement that peacefully kept Iran from developing nuclear weapons was signed. Trump killed it in his first term, promising a better agreement, and a war is what we got instead.

He says, “One party believes it's a person's responsibility to ensure they have health insurance. The other party wants health insurance for everyone, paid for by taxpayers.” He proposes no solution other than letting people die if they don't have access to health insurance and aren't wealthy.

He says one party “doesn't want any structural changes to the White House without prior Congressional approval.” Republicans in Congress have failed to stand up for their constitutional responsibilities. The White House, the reflecting pool, the Kennedy Center, and other national monuments show the results of letting Trump just have his way.

In his last comparison, Mr. Casey says that one party wants to “eliminate police officers and prisons.” Again, let him show where this is an official policy of the Democratic Party. Very few people on the far left hold such beliefs, but they aren't Democrats.

Diane Neal, Elgin

Beware of AI

I asked AI the question of profitability and over-promoting data center building: I agree with the assessment. Daily Herald should be doing a deep dive so your readers know the risks.

The data center boom is a classic infrastructure bubble — real assets being built, real money being spent, real value being created for some players. But the eventual owners of the facilities (whether hyperscalers or REIT investors) are making a bet that AI revenue will eventually justify the apex.

If that bet is wrong, the winners will be:

The bag-holders will be:

The true value of a data center is the computation it performs that someone actually pays for. Right now, most of the money being made is in building them, not operating them. And that's a dynamic that should look very familiar to anyone who watched the fiber optic bubble of 1999-2001.

The stockbrokers hyping value? They're not wrong that data centers could be worth trillions in aggregate. They're just conveniently omitting that most of that value has already been extracted by the people selling the shovels, not the ones digging for gold.

Thomas Braun, Mount Prospect

Democratic socialists offer something

The House just voted 220-192 denouncing socialism “in all its forms.” ALL?! Ponder this: Our healthcare system is in complete disarray and totally unsustainable. According to the Commonwealth Fund, U.S. News and World Report, as well as Pew Research, when comparing statistics among the 10 wealthiest countries, we rank dead last in access, affordability and outcomes. And yet, we spend 17% of our GDP on healthcare, which is more than all our economic competitors. How is that even possible? Our current system is failing, and something must be done. Even BCBS, long considered the gold standard, recently “decoded” some of its coverages, which will only end up costing consumers even more. Conservatives get bent out of shape by the national debt. However, when it comes to the quality of human lives, they're silent. It's reprehensible. At least Democratic socialists are promoting “Medicare for All” as an alternative. What are Republicans offering? As usual, absolutely nothing!

Wes Dickson, Orland Park

‘Lawsuit abuse’ claims are wrong

The claim that Illinois is suffering from widespread “lawsuit abuse” does not match the facts (Stop Stacking costs on Illinois Small Businesses, Aug. 31). In fact, civil filings have fallen by 45% over the past decade. In Cook County, those numbers have declined by 61% since 2010.

CNBC recently ranked Illinois the 12th best state for business, its highest ranking ever and tied for the nation's largest improvement since 2019. Those results underscore that protecting consumers' rights, holding wrongdoers financially accountable for the harms they cause and maintaining a competitive business environment are quite compatible.

The same is true of workers’ compensation. The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) reports that Illinois has a financially healthy workers’ compensation system, with fewer lost-time claims and insurers continuing to maintain strong underwriting results. This benefits employers, employees and taxpayers alike.

Rather than heeding calls to weaken workers’ protections and restrict access to the courts that Illinois taxpayers fund, we should celebrate having a civil justice system that is open and accessible to all, especially those without wealth and power.

Policymakers should continue to support laws that encourage responsible business practices, protect workers and consumers, and hold those who cause harm responsible. Such an approach is what makes Illinois a fair, competitive and attractive place to live, work and do business.

Michael T. Mertz, President, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association

Trees are worth saving

It takes mere months to build a housing subdivision, but it takes more than a century for a native White Oak to grow mature, strong, and irreplaceable.

Currently, a unique 32-acre wooded parcel along 75th Street — owned by the DuPage Water Commission — is under contract to Pulte Homes for a 94-unit duplex subdivision called Naperville Ridge. If approved by the Naperville City Council, this project will clear-cut 850 mature trees, destroying a vital, functioning ecological sanctuary.

We must consider the irreversible losses this development brings to our community. The site houses legacy White, Red, and Bur Oaks — a keystone genus supporting over 500 local wildlife species. Pulte's plan slashes 338 of these high-quality trees. Furthermore, the property's Shagbark Hickories provide documented summer maternity roosts for the federally endangered Northern Long-eared Bat and the proposed endangered Tricolored Bat. Finally, the site's forested wetlands act as a natural sponge, absorbing stormwater to reduce regional flooding risks along 75th Street, while serving as a breeding ground for the state-threatened Black-Billed Cuckoo.

Once this ecosystem is fragmented and paved, its environmental protections and flood-mitigation benefits are gone forever. We can rebuild houses anywhere, but we can never rebuild an old-growth forest.

An upcoming Naperville City Council vote (date TBD) on annexation and development will decide the fate of this land. I urge readers — both Naperville residents and neighboring community members who value conservation — to email Mayor Wehrli and the City Council. Please ask them to protect our shared future by voting NO on the Naperville Ridge subdivision and YES to saving the 75th Street woods.

Cheing-Mei Suen, Naperville

Same old stuff from Democrats

Well, the lefties are at it again, picking your pocket. The tollway board — all appointed by Pritzker — voted unanimously to raise the tolls by an unbearable amount for tollway users. To regress a little, I remember when the tollway was first built with the promise the tollway booths would be eliminated when the initial construction was all paid for. How did that work for all of you? Now we are going to get a 57% increase in tolls with another raise every two years for inflation. This is similar to the inflation factor on our gas tax every year that was supposed to go for road improvement. Maybe you all forgot about the $. 35 a gallon gas tax increase in 2019 by Pritzker, making us the second highest gas tax in the country. That road improvement fund money of which over $500,000,000 dollars was quietly given to the Chicago transit system — the liberal media always keeps it quiet — to bail them out because of very poor management. One hand washes the other in politics. When you go to the store, you will see even higher prices on items delivered by trucks that use the tollway because they cannot absorb the increase, so they pass it along, taking more of your money from your pocket. Illinois is already the second highest taxed state in the union, which is causing an exodus from this state, which will do nothing but increase your taxes even more because less folks will be here to spread the pain over. Less state income, higher taxes for those who remain because adjusting the spending is not in Pritzker’s or the Dems’ vocabulary. Both political sides have their own ideology although much of it not built on true facts just misdirection. Government is big business, probably one of the largest businesses in the country. If we keep allowing it to get larger, we are just picking our own pockets toward a slow financial death. If you vote for the same people again, don’t complain about the prices. Just look in the mirror and finally realize you did it to yourself!

John Briar, Schaumburg

Data centers are literally hot

Data centers are HOT. Not HOT as in the popular Trumpian lexicon, nor HOT as in popular — HOT in the most literal sense of the word. In May 2026, an Arizona State University research paper published in everyone's favorite journal, the Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities, clarifies just exactly how hot.

The study's authors found that a single data center's discharge waste heat can be 14-25 degrees Fahrenheit above its surroundings. That heat can flow and disperse, causing 'thermal plumes' of heat discharge that can spike air temps up to a third of a mile away up to 4 degrees hotter than neighboring areas not near a data center.

High temps mean it costs more to cool your home. High temps mean more heat stress on vulnerable people at the extremes of age. High temps mean a vicious cycle perpetuating our cities as urban 'heat islands', attracting and retaining more and more heat that can't be dispersed. This is money coming out of your pocket to line a techno robber-baron; this is your neighborhood and your neighbors on the line.

How much more do we need to learn about data centers on our lands before we say an emphatic 'NO'?

Nathan Dombeck, Janesville, Wisconsin

Where are the police?

In a recent letter, a gentleman from Hoffman Estates noted the rampant violation of traffic laws: speeding, running lights, etc. He asks, “So where are the police?” I completely agree with him. The other day I had to drive over 80 on the Tri-State just to try and keep up with traffic!, and I was falling behind! It makes me think of the policies of the DSA, the socialist wing of the Democratic Party. They want to defund/abolish the police! You think we have scofflaws now! Yikes!

John Gibson St. Charles

Think before voting for DSA

Have you wondered what the party platform of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) is? According to Megan Romer, the National cochairwoman for the DSA, it is as follows: pro-Palestine, anti-Israel; Abolish the police; Replace the Presidency with the President chosen by Congress; Abolish ICE and immigration enforcement; Supreme Court chosen by Congress; Abolish the Electoral College; Switch from private ownership of companies to Public Ownership; Legalize all immigrants, no visa caps; Regulated housing for all; Abolish prisons; Abolish U.S. Senate; No fossil fuels; Defund the Department of War; Voting rights for all residents; Universal single payer healthcare for all; Universal Basic Income, 32 hour workweek; Punish ICE agents; Queer liberation.

Consider what the results of all these proposals would be. Our country would no longer be a place anyone would want to come to. It wouldn't take long for us to become “a third world country.” Think of what Mayor Mamdani promised the folks in New York City. He couldn't deliver, and I am guessing many who voted for him wish they had not. Please, please think about these things and do not vote for socialist, communist, or similar candidates this fall or thereafter.

Patricia Bertrand, Carol Stream

Put guardrails on Flock

As anti-China rhetoric peaks this midterm season, establishment politicians reveal their hypocrisy. Neoconservatives and establishment liberals have long condemned China's social credit system and state surveillance as antithetical to Western liberal democracy. Yet many of these same politicians support domestic surveillance of their own citizens.

Flock cameras, the AI powered license plate readers now used by police departments nationwide, are the clearest example. They are marketed as tools for solving crimes and finding missing people. But they are increasingly used to surveil the working class, and especially women. In Georgia, a former police chief used Flock data to track his ex-girlfriend 600 times. In Wisconsin, an officer checked whether his girlfriend visited an abortion clinic. In Florida, a man ran 192 searches to stalk an ex. This is not public safety. It is a mass infringement on ordinary people's privacy.

If Illinois is serious about protecting women and minority communities, we need strict guardrails on Flock systems now, or we should eliminate them entirely.

Sandeep Pant, Palatine