advertisement

Who’s actually taking advantage of Americans?

The juxtaposition of the columns by Keith Raffel and Debra J. Saunders in the Friday, Dec. 13, edition is stunning.

Mr. Raffel brings up the well-documented ways that Trump and his family, associates, and nominees have been and continue taking advantage of their positions to enrich themselves. He is skeptical that Trump and his associates will “drain the swamp” rather than increasing it.

Ms. Saunders bases her column on the report of Sen. Joni Ernst to the Senate DOGE Caucus on federal employee telework. In fact, Sen. Ernst’s report is anecdotal. The statistics she uses are not backed up by the August 2024 report from the Office of Management and Budget (3,000 pages). The OMB report states that as of May 2024, 54% of federal employees spent all of their work hours at traditional work sites because the nature of their jobs precludes telework. For example, VA nurses, TSA workers, and air traffic controllers, to name a few federal civilian jobs, fall into this category.

Only 10% of the civilian federal workforce are approved for remote work, well below the one-third figure Ernst cited.

When you compare the graft of the Trump camp with the extremely few federal civilian employees who have taken advantage of telework, Ms. Saunders comes across as uninformed and whining.

Karen Heckmann

Des Plaines

Identifying drones’ owner could be easy

A simple effective solution to who is flying the drones and why. Shoot one down and listen to who hollers.

Andrew M Weiss

Wheaton

I’m cheering for the shopping community, because a judge has ruled that the merger of Albertson’s and Kroger cannot be completed. What I am not happy about, and frankly not surprised at, is that Albertson’s is now suing Kroger.

Albertson’s claims that Kroger didn’t do enough to ensure the merger. Hey, Albertson’s, your corporate greed is showing badly. You just don’t like competition.

Because you didn’t get that huge merger that would have increased your prices even more than they are now, hurt consumers, hurt employees and the whole community, you are throwing a tantrum in the courts. Shame on you.

The fact that your greed was stopped in the courts because they saw the damage that merger would do is a huge win for all of us who are dealing with high grocery prices. Maybe you could put the money it will cost you in the courts to far better use by lowering your prices for customers and stopping the price gouging.

Cyndi Kehoe

Elk Grove Village

So, I need to get clear on something. Over the past year or so. Gov. Abbot of Texas has seen thousands of undocumented immigrants cross the southern border unchecked by the Biden administration. In all probability, most of these folks are just looking for a better life. However, some could be criminals released from jails and told, go to the U.S., no problem.

Gov. Abbott bused thousands north to sanctuary city Chicago, Illinois. Welcome home, undocumented immigrants, but you can’t expect us to house you, educate you and take care of your health care issues.

Now, our soon-to-become border czar comes to Chicago and tells the mayor and governor the criminal element are going to be sent back. Tom Homan will not be going to shelters to deport everyone. Homan is going to deport those migrants who have committed criminal acts. That is his priority.

No, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said we couldn’t handle the busloads being sent here, now want everyone to stay. Didn’t you two hear what actual citizens said by the results of the election?

Migrants are a crisis. Let Homan do his job. Even better, why don’t you help him rather than play politics.

Don Lass

Oswego

For those who voted for Donald Trump: I imagine that you believe that your personal finances will improve. I hope you are right.

I also hope we’ll have clean air and water, in spite of the prevailing anti-regulatory sentiment.

I hope Congress will remember why we have three branches of government and that senators will refuse to confirm any candidate who is not qualified.

Given the Republican majority in Congress and a conservative Supreme Court, I hope that red state laws that severely restrict reproductive health care and ban appropriate health care for transgender minors do not become federal law.

Finally, I hope that all of us will defend the First Amendment as vigorously as some defend the Second Amendment.

The first of the important rights listed is freedom of religion. Many of our ancestors had firsthand experience with the religious persecution that resulted from the establishment of state churches in their home countries, yet some states want to make laws requiring Bibles in public school classrooms and lessons about them.

The First Amendment also guarantees freedom of speech, but if any of the talk we’ve heard about plans for revenge and retribution against anyone who dares to oppose the president-elect becomes more than talk, we all need to worry.

Freedom of the Press is another threatened First Amendment right. The nominee for director of the FBI has vowed to go after the media, but he hasn’t stated the crime they have committed. I suspect he will concentrate on outlets that ask questions and tell the truth about the president’s statements and actions.

It remains to be seen whether the rights to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances will be threatened, but we all must remain vigilant to be sure that all of our First Amendment rights remain strong.

Kathy Sutton

Elgin

Last year, over 120 million packages were stolen in the U. S. Many cities are fighting these porch pirates with decoy packages that contain trackers. Unfortunately, Chicago police are not doing this, so the thieves have little to fear and will continue stealing our packages.

Having packages delivered to access points is a good idea, but for many deliveries, only the shipper can change the address. In addition, many delivery drivers drop off packages on porches, ignoring instructions to ring doorbells or to place the packages in secure places.

Merry Christmas,

Larry E. Nazimek

Chicago

Here’s something that might bear further investigation and consideration: Public-private partnerships for transit, be they buses or trains.

Public-private partnerships have been used to pay for new highways. What about using financing like that for existing transit lines?

It could be tried on an experimental basis on a segment of the Pace or Metra service jurisdiction. Yes, it would cost more in all likelihood, but that’s one purpose of the experiment: how much will people pay to avoid the hassles of traffic, parking and fixed auto costs?

We used to call these things PPPs for public private partnerships. Investors pony up money to pay costs, and they get a fixed return. Seems to me that Metra and Pace are destined to lose money by design. Let’s make money by design and be creative about ticket prices for those who can’t afford them.

If memory serves, some of a huge I-15 construction project in the Salt Lake City area was PPP financed. Let’s think boldly around here.

Dan Brown

Des Plaines

I am a junior at Mundelein High School. After reflecting on the election, I’ve noticed that platforms like TikTok have become primary sources of news for many young voters. Whether this is good or bad is up for debate. Personally, I believe it has had a mostly negative impact.

While it has educated some Gen Z voters, you simply cannot rely on social media to provide the full picture

I think this is the core issue: a significant portion of us relies heavily on platforms like TikTok for political news. According to a Pew Research survey by Colleen McClain, half of respondents aged 18–29 use TikTok to stay informed about politics and news. This highlights just how much Gen Z depends on TikTok, even though the information appearing on their “For You” pages is not always fact-checked.

This reliance often leads to the spread of misinformation, whether it comes from influencers or random videos on your “For You” page

This is especially concerning during an election, as misinformation has the potential to undermine candidates and the democratic process. With discussions about a possible TikTok ban pending, could we instead consider regulating the platform’s news content? Implementing measures to ensure accuracy would protect Gen Z’s access to credible news in the future. If we are going to continue spending so much time on the app, it’s essential that the information we consume is reliable.

Joanna Landa

Mundelein

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.