To the editor: City Council's chief of staff post should be open competition

Toledo City Council President Matt Cherry

Toledo city council president Matt Cherry must have been thinking that it’s “good to be king” when he unilaterally appointed his pal Steven Steel to the new position of chief of staff at a salary of $78,000.

If Mr. Steel is indeed the the most qualified, most experienced and most knowledgeable person he knows, what harm would it do to follow the council rules and open the job to competition so that his fellow councilmen could interview all the possible candidates? So much for getting “new blood” in Toledo politics.

MIKE McMAHON

Cemtral Toledo

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Coal plants spew toxins

In “EPA offers regulatory certainty,” Aug. 25, in The Blade, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler seemed to forget his Ohio roots, parachuting into Toledo to tell Ohioans that we don’t need the Clean Power Plan. He says that we don’t need the first-ever rule to rein in carbon pollution spewing out of coal-fired power plants. Mr. Wheeler is out of touch with reality. Ohio needs the Clean Power Plan protections more than ever.

Mr. Wheeler contends that the EPA will not use its authority to pick winners and losers in the energy marketplace. Ohio is currently being outpaced by neighboring states in the clean energy economy. We are forfeiting the race to renewable power if we sit idly, clinging to the energy sources of the past.

This policy is an effort to to prop up the increasingly uneconomic and flailing coal industry. He should know that his home state won’t stand for it. Ohioans lead — something Mr. Wheeler seems to have forgotten.

HEATHER TAYLOR-MIESLE

Columbus

The writer is executive director of the Ohio Environmental Council.

NCAA rule is ludicrous

Your AP article on Aug. 31, “NCAA clears MSU of any rules violations in Nasser sex scandal,” reports that Dr. Larry Nasser can be found guilty and locked up forever but Michigan State University has not violated any NCAA rules. The conclusion is so ludicrous that one wonders what it takes to violate an NCAA rule.

EDWARD NUSSEL

Sylvania Township

Why all the Trump support?

Recently, there have been numerous articles or opinions written by Blade staffers that support all of the different polices or the Trump administration as a whole. 

Even when I logged into my Blade app on the day two people tied to Trump plead/​found guilty, the story was buried and was next to last. 

In today’s Blade the lead story on the app was about a town and its support for Trump. 

I do not recall seeing an article talking about all of the citizens that do not agree with the president...which I find it hard to believe since Lucas County overwhelmingly voted Democrat. If I wanted to read strictly republican news, I would read Fox News.

SCOTT McGORTY

South Toledo