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The firing of Andrew McCabe was justified, writes Jim Koval of Maumee.
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To the editor: Entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts

ASSOCIATED PRESS

To the editor: Entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts

I am writing in response to a March 30 letter, “Justified or convenient?,” and in support of The Blade’s March 20 editorial, “A failure of duty.” The author of the aforementioned letter criticized that particular editorial, which dealt with the firing of Andrew McCabe.

Here are the facts:

Andrew McCabe lied four times: twice to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility, once to the special counsel, and once to Congress.

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The FBI’s own Office of Professional Responsibility, which is made up of Mr. McCabe’s fellow agents, recommended that he be terminated.

The letter writer was particularly frustrated with the possibility that Mr. McCabe would lose his “hard earned pension.” A March 17 article from Forbes states that while Mr. McCabe did incur some “tangible financial losses” from his firing, he will receive a pension and that “it is grossly misleading that various news outlets are giving the general public the impression that he has lost his pension entirely.”

Ultimately, law enforcement officials should be and, in this case, were held to a higher standard.

The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat, once said, “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”

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JIM KOVAL
Maumee

Click here to submit a letter to the editor | View the Behind The Readers’ Forum series

Bill will help credit unions serve customers

The U.S. Senate recently voted to support a bill that will strengthen our community, and now Ohio’s and Michigan’s smaller financial institutions need the U.S. House of Representatives to see it to final victory.

S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, is a bipartisan, common-sense approach to lawmaking that we haven’t seen in quite some time from Washington.

This legislation is a positive step toward enabling credit unions to more effectively meet the needs of consumers and small businesses. This, in turn, will facilitate a fuller blossoming of local economies across Ohio and Michigan.

The bill will accomplish this by making the process of getting mortgage loans from credit unions easier and more straightforward for consumers. It will adjust thresholds that ensure lending regulations intended to rein in Wall Street banks do the job, without overburdening credit unions and community banks. It will change how credit unions designate loans to finance small rental properties, freeing up capital for additional small business lending. And, it will provide important safeguards against elder abuse, giving greater protections to some of the most vulnerable consumers of financial services.

On behalf of credit unions in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, who serve so many members in our area, I respectfully urge that the U.S. House pass these common-sense fixes that will enable us to be even more effective in helping to grow our local and state economies.

BARRY A. SHANER
Toledo

Editor’s note: Mr. Shaner is the President and CEO of Directions Credit Union.

Not for charity, but for safety

The Blade has reported that the Ohio General Assembly is intent upon seizing the revenue generated from Toledo’s red light cameras because the city has professed that the use of the cameras is not for increasing city revenue. In the April 2 editorial, “GOP hates Toledo,” The Blade states, “You don’t see the General Assembly proposing to give that money to the Little Sister of the Poor.”

Did The Blade forget that a fairly recent article of its paper stated that Ohio intends to use the money for highway safety projects? In that respect, it’s not going to charity, but it would be going toward increasing highway safety.

Doesn’t the editorial board read its own paper? If they did, they wouldn’t be belittling Ohio about its intended use of the funds.

LARRY GILLEN
Maumee

How to build the wall

President Trump first said Mexico will pay for the border wall. Then, he said the U.S. taxpayers will pay for the wall. Now, he proposes the military pay for the wall.

Here’s an easy way to fund the border wall: President Trump can pay for the wall with a donation of $25 billion, taken from his own wealth and others in his administration. Ultimately, it may not cost him nearly that much because he can stiff many of the contractors like he has often done in the past.

Worth a try.

STEVEN KRAMER
Perrysburg

College rankings do not tell all

In the March 20 story about law-school rankings, “UT Law college falls in influential rankings,” The Blade reported that the University of Toledo College of Law had “dropped . . . placing it near the bottom among Ohio and Michigan’s public law schools.” The article created the mistaken impression of a serious decline in the college’s standing.

Toledo’s ranking this year fell slightly among all accredited law schools in the country — public and private — from its 2017 ranking. So did the rankings of other Ohio schools: Ohio State, Case Western Reserve, and Akron. Toledo dropped five spots from its 2017 ranking, but that year it had moved up ten places from 2016. Toledo is still five places up from where it was two years ago.

One must be careful in citing the U.S. News rankings. They can be easily misunderstood.

The slip in Toledo’s overall ranking for 2018 is hardly reason to sound an alarm. The Blade’s March 20 article did not, however, leave the reader with that impression.

RICHARD S. WALINSKI
Ottawa Hills

First Published April 7, 2018, 9:00 p.m.

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The firing of Andrew McCabe was justified, writes Jim Koval of Maumee.  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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