— I do not understand why the commonwealth of Pennsylvania would sell off money-making, state-owned businesses. If they were not profitable, why would a business buy them? The turnpike, liquor stores and now the lottery. And lottery oversight is going out of this country.

Can it be more profitable for the commonwealth to have a foreign, private business operate the lottery?

Could the Senate and House of Representatives be for sale? Or have they already been sold?

According to a recent report, the British company will guarantee $34 billion over 20 years, or $1.7 billion a year. If lottery sales are $3.5 billion, what happens to the other $1.8 billion, and how much will go to the private company?

How many Pennsylvanians will be out of work because of this move?

Carl Rosendale

Johnstown



Rothfus’ ‘no’ vote was because of pork

In response to Richard Holsinger’s Readers’ Forum letter on Jan. 12 (“Gov’t, society favor warfare over welfare”) concerning U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Allegheny, voting against aid to victims of Superstorm Sandy: That $60 billion bill had lots of pork for those outside the affected areas.

The entire state budget for New Jersey is $30 billion. Did they really need $60 billion to aid victims? Or was this bill just another in a long line of overspending that has gotten us to where we are today?

New Jersey will receive funding, but someone has to say no when others are piling on perks that are not remotely connected to the needed spending.

Karen Sroka

Windber



Train buff, son questioned by police

On Jan. 13, I was sitting by the Route 271 bridge overpass, watching trains with my 3-year-old son.

Mind you, I am in my mid-30s. An East Conemaugh police official pulls up behind me, right on my bumper, in the department’s SUV patrol car, as if I am a criminal or he is doing a traffic stop.

He walks up to my driver’s door, very suspicious of what I was doing.

Watching trains, he asks? I say yes.

Taking pictures of trains? I say yes.

My son is now bouncing around inside the truck as a train is passing by.

The officer then stated I was trespassing on Norfolk Southern property and that sitting 40-plus feet away from a mainline track is dangerous. Then he goes into his 30-plus years with police patrol experience.

Is it that East Conemaugh police have nothing better to do, like patrol Route 271 or other parts of town, other than picking on a father and his son watching trains go by on the tracks?

Let’s do real patrol work and pick on the easy targets. If I was on railroad property, it was an accident.

This area is known for people watching trains.

Brad Jones

Johnstown



Join fight to save SCI-Cresson

My husband is a corrections officer at SCI-Cresson, and I would like some answers.

I would like to know what Rep. Gary Haluska, D-Patton, and Sen. John Wozniak, D-Westmont, plan to do to stop the closing of SCI-Cresson. This closing will cause our families such a hardship, especially with the little time that they are giving the employees to leave.

I am asking Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel to put a hold on this move.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sue Bensinger stated that Cresson is not a specialty facility for inmates. But, Cresson is a specialty facility for the employees and their families.

My husband was transferred to SCI-Cresson on a medical hardship because I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. SCI-Cresson has him close to home in case I need him or if he is needed immediately by medical staff.

If he is sent to SCI-Benner, he will be over an hour away from home. What about the safety for the COs who work 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.? Do you realize what a dangerous drive this will be for them after completing an eight-hour shift then having to drive over an hour to get home? These COs will actually be working an approximate 12-hour shift with the drive.

All spouses, friends, families and businesses, please call Haluska (717-787-3532), Wozniak (266-2277), Gov. Tom Corbett (717-787-2500) and Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel (717-728-4109). Tell them of the hardship this is causing.

Elaine J. Mayes

South Fork



Facts versus opinion about assault rifles

In regard to Ron Stephenson’s Readers’ Forum letter on Jan. 4, “Tribune-Democrat’s gun stance blasted”: He is entitled to his opinion, but here are the facts: Assaut rifles are primary weapons of our military; they can be purchased only through a specialty licensed dealer; they aren’t available or sold at gun shows or retail dealer outlets.

Few Americans own these weapons, they are very expensive and have a stringent, rigorous and costly registration process closely monitored by the federal government.

These weapons have not been used in any mass murders.

Automatic handguns are nonexisting.

Gun shows are restricted with the same regulations as a brick-and-mortar store.

Progressives who blamed guns and the Second Amendment for the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School showed their true colors. They cared less about the senseless brutality and bloodlust from this mentally deranged person and more about their own personal agenda.

The utopian mindset will never except or understand that it’s only for the cerebral, that the violently mentally ill must be institutionalized.

The progressives succeeded more than 40 years ago in closing psychiatric hospitals. If these unstable individuals are not in prison, they are roaming our streets.

This mass murder occurred in a gun-free zone.

Sidwell Friends, an elite school in Washington, D.C., where our president and members of Congress send their children, has armed guards daily. Why are our children worth anything less?

Does any reader, progressives included, fear being massacred by a decent person?

J.E. Lawn

Johnstown

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