Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
The scourge of gambling Gambling is going to ruin college sports even more than name, image, and likeness payouts and the “transfer portal” shell game already have. As your recent article on Philly’s “betfluencer” Shane “Sugar” Hennen suggests, when even pros who make tens of millions can be compromised by gamblers or the gambling industry, college athletes are going to be easy pickings. Richard Crossin,Philadelphia No joke I’m glad Speaker Mike Johnson finds Donald Trump’s trolling about a third term funny. I thought it was funny when he talked about how the 2020 election was rigged, how he would pardon the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists on the first day of his second term, how he would let Elon Musk do whatever he wanted to the federal government, how he would send troops into blue cities, and how he would let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Johnson might find this even funnier: Trump’s joke about being both president and speaker of the House. Now that’s funny. Alex Pearson,Merion Station Pa. deserves better I am sad to see Sen. Dave McCormick join his fellow Senate Republicans in urging Donald Trump’s health officials to rescind approval for mifepristone, one of two drugs that can safely be used in abortion and miscarriage management. Hundreds of peer-reviewed clinical studies have demonstrated time and time again the safety of mifepristone — safer, in fact, than common medications like penicillin, Tylenol, and, yes, even Viagra. Indeed, the study Sen. McCormick and his Republican colleagues are citing is deeply flawed and not even peer-reviewed. Let’s be clear: This isn’t about protecting women’s health. It’s about restricting women’s autonomy. Sen. McCormick’s call to revoke Food and Drug Administration approval defies logic, science, and the lived experience of millions of people who have relied on mifepristone for abortion and miscarriage. Sen. McCormick, as a U.S. Military Academy graduate, often refers to “duty, honor, country.” If the senator truly intended to serve by these principles, he would defend evidence-based medicine, not pander to partisan agendas. During his campaign, Sen. McCormick claimed abortion should be left to individual states — yet now he’s signing onto a letter demanding federal interference in the FDA’s long-standing, evidence-based approval of mifepristone. The hypocrisy is staggering. Kyler McVay, Philadelphia Worst murder rate Donald Trump says he’s protecting victims of murderous capitals of blue states, but the nation’s highest murder rate is in Mississippi, and he doesn’t send the National Guard or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents there. Why isn’t that newsworthy? Penny Stanger, Phoenixville SNAP cuts About $95 million in SNAP benefits are distributed monthly in Philadelphia. It’s nice to hear that everyone is talking about donating money and food to local food banks, but it won’t come anywhere close to filling the need left by missing benefits. Every single Philadelphian not on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would need to pony up $95 a month to cover the gap. If you really want to help, in addition to donating food, please call and email your senators daily to let them know SNAP should be funded during the shutdown. Sara Sierschula,Philadelphia
