Letters to the Editor

All on the road must obey rules

Driving alongside bicyclists has become a dangerous activity in Philadelphia. Cyclists ignore stop signs and red lights while weaving in and out of car lanes, making left turns across lanes of cars and straying far from bike lanes where they exist.

Many cities, like Chicago, are heavily fining cyclists for breaking any and all rules of the road. Chicago also fines drivers for "dooring" an oncoming cyclist, which can cause the cyclist serious injury.

This rodeo-style riding by a segment of the cycling public must cease, or there will be many fatalities from their dangerous activities. Imposing heavy fines on cyclists who break the law is as essential as fines for motorists who act recklessly.

Saul Lichtine, Voorhees

Eye-opening press phone sweep

The Inquirer finally is waking up to the Obama administration's stomping on Americans' rights and freedoms ("Justice Department's journalistic dragnet," May 15). Now enlightened to the Associated Press civil-rights interference, the editors have opened their eyes, albeit perhaps too late, to the demise of our constitutional rights under this president.

Michael Woloshin, Medford

Better way to build a turnpike

It's time to reexamine the 1990 federal Immigrant Investor Program, which grants special status to foreign investors, whose loans are being sought by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. Concerns reach beyond the troubling concept of selling residency or citizenship to wealthy bidders and issues of vetting the sources of such financial windfalls. Concern also focuses on the $20 million in fees that turnpike advisers stand to get from "trade secret and confidential proprietary information," as the commission reported.

Noted financial journalist Jane Bryant Quinn once told me in an interview that if you don't understand a financial instrument, don't buy. So it should be possible for our creative financiers to be more transparent, and for public works projects still to be conceived and implemented in the interest of the public.

Ann Rappoport, Wyncote

Not so sweet on Hershey deal

Attorney General Kathleen Kane's settlement with the Hershey Trust was a disappointment to many who helped elect a woman who campaigned with the promise of "no more business as usual in Harrisburg" - touting her determination to get rid of the "good old boys" ("Settlement ends Hershey Trust probe," May 9).

Disappointingly, Kane reached a settlement that exonerated the former trust board, then chaired by former Attorney General Leroy Zimmerman. Aside from outlandish pay packages for themselves, the board members diverted millions of dollars away from the trust's stated purpose of educating low-income children. Instead, they made questionable real estate deals, funded a golf course and a clubhouse, and made lavish hotel improvements.

Kane has demonstrated a remarkable willingness to forget campaign promises and continue doing deals the same old way in Harrisburg. Rather than kicking them out, she settled right in with those good old boys.

Leslie Anne Miller, Bryn Mawr