Letters & Opinions

Comparing the Kim Potter and Alec Baldwin cases is a powerful illustration of the missing element in our criminal justice system. Prosecutors are granted broad discretion in who they charge, so that they may consider the totality of circumstances and provide something that the literal interpretation of laws can’t -- justice. But the Potter and Baldwin cases show just how far astray from that goal our systems have wandered.

The program aims to provide funding to protect and conserve California’s deserts, a large and incredibly biodiverse region. There is truly nothing like experiencing a desert oasis. My favorite such place in California is the Amargosa River, which flows intermittently for 185 miles from Nevada into eastern California.

With the turn of the calendar to 2022, Republicans are not only looking to the 2022 midterm elections but to the prospect of Donald Trump running in 2024. Trump is hugely popular with the party’s base and that popularity freezes the plans of other possible candidates for the 2024 nomination. Trump’s hold on that nomination is brittle, however, because of his age. On election day in 2024 Donald Trump will be 78 years old. That is one year older than Ronald Reagan’s age when he left office in 1988.

Why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID-19 lately? A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant. Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn’t make them very sick, and its surge coincided with the holiday travel season in many places.

With all the political turmoil these days, most of which is separating rather than uniting us, I have tried to listen and keep my mouth shut, but there are straws and there are last straws and my last straw is an opinion or two. In 2021 to date there have been 30 school shootings in the United States, 22 since August 1st, 88 since 2018. The recent case at Oxford, Michigan High School left four dead and seven hospitalized. Blame is being waved around like flags on the Fourth of July. There’s plenty to go around, but the real issue is how freely we permit gun ownership without much, if any indoctrination as to their handling and use; the United States is the number one gun manufacturer in the world. Not only do we export them and provide our own military, but we also sell them carelessly to the civilian population. The NRA goof balls continuously quote the second amendment, blah, blah, blah.