Having lived in Lincoln for most of my 70 years, I really appreciate the great job that our state auditor, Mike Foley, and his staff have done. So far, he and his staff have uncovered more irregularities than any other auditor in my memory. The latest, involving Wyuka Cemetery, obviously involved a significant effort on the part of his office. It appears that the problems were deep, which made them harder to find. 

I feel that this great opportunity for Foley was caused by our passage of term limits. I was less than favorably impressed by his service in the Legislature; however, that changed as soon as he was elected state auditor. 

Bruce Abernethy, Lincoln

Please don’t forget Greens

The Lincoln Journal Star missed another opportunity to open up the political process recently when it talked about a Democratic candidate for Senate and again failed to mention Steve Larrick, who announced as the Green Party’s choice long ago. 

It may be true that he or the Greens have not garnered a high percentage of the electorate, but could the fact that most of the news and TV coverage continually fails to mention us explain some of that? When more than half of us don’t even vote, I would think, as a member of the Green Party, that any way to open up the debates would be seriously considered.

Tim K. Johnson, Lincoln

Keep violent patients home

I’ve heard shopping called “retail therapy,” but what the Regional Center is doing with their extremely violent patients is completely irresponsible. Patients who have been found guilty of any form of extreme violence should not be taken to the mall. The Regional Center claims these outings are an “important part of treatment” in helping patients rebuild social skills. Is this form of treatment more important than the general public’s safety? According to the Journal Star article (Jan. 19), the Regional Center workers are equipped during outings with two-way radios and handcuffs. Oooh, I feel so much safer now!

The man who walked away from a Regional Center outing last Thursday had stabbed a Hastings man more than 45 times. Another Regional Center patient who happened to not wander off from one of the mall outings had killed a family of six. Is this some sort of joke? What’s next, trips to Cold Stone Creamery for death-row inmates?

Joanna Pope, Martell