Exciting prospect: Trail-to-Springs link
The plan to link the Legacy Trail to Warm Mineral Springs is exciting and will benefit all residents of Sarasota County (“Legacy Trail connector to Warm Mineral Springs a priority for Sarasota, Manatee region,” Dec. 5).
I am a frequent user of the Trail as a link to much of Sarasota and Venice and the North Port Connector.
I’m grateful to county citizens who provided the funding for the Trail’s construction and improvements. Local runners/walkers and bike clubs from Florida and beyond come to ride the Trail.
Warm Mineral Springs is the most unique site in Sarasota County.
Frequent bathers Lucy Grochowski of North Port and Elizabeth Garbowski of Michigan enjoy the famed waters of Warm Mineral Springs Park in North Port.
It has historical, archaeological, biological, geological, recreational and chemical significance, with water heated by the molten core of the Earth.
The Springs’ drainage provides the heated water that attracts manatees seeking shelter from the “cold” Gulf. When conditions allow, I visit Warm Mineral Springs to check out the manatees basking in a downstream creek.Consider a family riding on the Trail from Nokomis with Warm Mineral Springs as a destination.
With the Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization listing the connector as a priority with funding by the SUN Trail Program, the possibility of the connection of the Legacy Trail to Warm Mineral Springs will become reality.
Pete Trinchero, Venice
Trump pardoned major, minor figures
Here is a very short list of pardons granted by during President-elect Donald Trump’s previous term in the White House:
Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Roger Stone: Those are some of the names often heard on the news relating to crimes they committed, which include bank fraud, witness tampering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Trump also granted pardons to many lesser-known criminals, including the ex-husband of Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, Albert Pirro Jr., convicted of tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
Charles Kushner attends the funeral for Ivana Trump, socialite and first wife of President-elect Donald Trump, at St. Vincent Ferrer Church, in New York City, on July 20, 2022. Kushner, who was convicted of tax evasion and other charges in 2005, received a pardon during Trump’s first term as president. Kusher is the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and has been selected to serve as America’s ambassador to France.
And don’t forget Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared. He served time for tax evasion, campaign violations and witness tampering.
Charles Kushner’s brother-in-law testified against him. Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his sister’s husband and filmed the encounter to use as blackmail so he would not testify. He testified anyway and Kushner was found guilty.
That same Charles Kushner has been picked by Trump to be America’s ambassador to France.
I don’t recall any backlash from Republicans when all of the above pardons were granted.
I switch to Fox News often and I have heard no derogatory remarks about any of these pardons. But there is a lot about Hunter Biden’s pardon for crimes that rarely, if ever, result in prison time.
Jean A. Del Bonis, Rotonda West
Flawed nominees signal extremism to come
Now that the 2024 election is history, it remains to be seen what kind of presidency Donald Trump will pursue this time around. Will it be one of chaos on steroids and even more extreme than his last administration or will he have learned from his first term and moderate his positions?
Based on the people he is nominating for his Cabinet and those from whom he is seeking counsel, it would appear to be the former.
While several of his nominees appear fairly reasonable, the majority have either deep personal flaws or no experience in the job for which they are being nominated.
I believe the few remaining Reagan Republicans in the Senate will balk at approving those nominees who don’t measure up and are being put forth solely based on their fealty to one man.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump campaign in Duluth, Ga., on Oct. 23, 2024. Kennedy, a vocal skeptic of vaccines, is President-elect Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
These individuals may well represent the check needed to restrain Trump from acting out his extreme authoritarian ideas. Joining with Democrats to stifle Trump’s worst instincts is probably the best we can hope for going forward.
As one pundit recently said, the MAGA people need to get ready for a “cold shower.”
This is what they voted for and now must live with.
Steven Berry, Sarasota
Hard to accept this man as president
The letter “Grieving over outcome of election” speaks with all my heart.
I am still in shock that President-elect Donald Trump will once again lead this country. A loser in the 2020 election who wouldn’t accept it and organized the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, that shocked the whole world.
And now Trump threatens to put the politicians in jail who investigated this insurrection and came to the conclusion that he was ultimately responsible and should be prosecuted.
On the other hand, Trump wants to pardon the Capitol rioters who seriously injured police officers and badly damaged the building.
Pro-Trump protesters storm into the U.S. Capitol during clashes with police, during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. SHANNON STAPLETON/SOURCE: REUTERS
Isn’t this all wrong?
Brigitta Moser-Harder, Sarasota
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Warm Mineral Springs would benefit from link to Legacy | Letters