DA’s personal life should not impede Trump trial
To me, it is obvious that Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis absolutely should not have engaged in a personal relationship with her special assistant DA. It is equally obvious that this relationship has nothing to do with whether Donald Trump is guilty of the crimes for which he was indicted.
It should also be obvious that voters need to know before the election whether Donald Trump will be a convicted felon.
Trump’s trial must go forward without further delay.
LARRY AUERBACH, ATLANTA
Border free-for-all only now important to Dems
I am just curious: did AJC columnist Patricia Murphy read the entire bipartisan immigration bill before writing her article in the Feb. 7 edition? Does the bill ever really close borders even after their proposed threshold of 5,000 crossings on average per day on a given week?
Does more security stop the influx? Why is this bill in with aid to our allies? Why does it not go to the floor on its own? Why doesn’t Joe Biden just undo his executive orders? Why are we not like every other country regarding immigration? To me, it seems like a free-for-all.
In the past, I’ve written to the editor because you’ve never reported on the immigration crisis. Now that it is part of the Democrats’ story against the Republicans, it’s in the paper every day.
NANCY ORTNER, JOHNS CREEK
Universal health care would unburden primary care doctors
Monday (Feb. 5), the AJC ran two articles confirming that Georgia is running far short of the primary care doctors we need. These are the neighborhood practitioners who would see us promptly for common complaints, provide simple treatments whenever possible and emphasize preventive medicine. Primary care, when done well, can reduce expensive hospitalizations.
Many primary-care practitioners do a crummy job, however, of dealing with dozens of insurance companies and commercial plans (Blue, Gold, Silver, Pink, Chartreuse, . . . ). They dislike this burden. They don’t have back offices staffed with high-priced accountants and lawyers who typically collect the billing for specialized, high-tech clinics and huge hospital empires.
Most of us want more availability of high-quality primary care. And we want fewer health care dollars siphoned off by corporations and bureaucrats who don’t see patients. Achieving both these goals will be easier if we have the courage to prohibit private profit in health care.
Give us a universal, simplified system financed by progressive taxation.
HENRY KAHN, MD, ATLANTA
Clean energy options will attract new industry to state
“State lured data centers. Now it needs juice.”(Feb. 4) Is that pickle juice? We lured data banks with tax breaks, earmarking power and water resources to them without considering the impact on the environment and households. That’s troublesome. We need a longer-term vision that protects utility costs and reduces carbon pollution.
Hopefully, greywater designs will provide water for the new centers’ cooling needs without too much expense, but without adequate power planning, will we have to resort to adding fossil fuel plants?
I hope not. Georgia power utilities must continue developing non-polluting sources to attract new companies with sustainability concerns.
Back in 2020, the DataBank company announced a 100% renewable energy mark for one of their Minneapolis Data Centers.
Investors may prefer the Southern Company to combine utility planning with companies like DataBank because most Georgians understand that global warming is mostly human-caused, and more companies have sustainability commitments.
Let’s prove Georgia’s commitment to net zero by 2050.
BOB JAMES, ATLANTA
