I’m still waiting for a real investigation into Senator Richard Burr’s stock selloff

Senator Burr

The latest-latest news drives out old news, but please let us not forget unresolved questions about Sen. Richard Burr engaging in insider trading.

As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he was briefed about the lethality of the coronavirus, and on Feb. 13 he sold between $628,000 and $1.7 million of his stock holdings, including stock in hotels. Two weeks later he warned a private business group that the coronavirus was “aggressive’ in its transmission, but he did not warn the public.

Prices for the stocks Burr sold soon plummeted. Is the senator just a lucky guy? I’m sure that I’m not the only North Carolinian who would like a real investigation. Even Sen. Thom Tillis has asked for an explanation.

Rosalind Coleman, Durham

Advisory councils

The Raleigh City Council recently disbanded the city’s 18 long-standing Citizen Advisory Councils, eroding public trust in local government. Disbandment of community councils jeopardized the role of citizens’ voices in significant decisions made for Raleigh. While I can applaud a hope to re-engineer the civic engagement processes, the timeline is ill-defined and now hampered by COVID-19 and the cancellation of in-person meetings..

Community engagement processes are frequently required by U.S. authorities such as the CDC, DHHS and HUD. This critical engagement is part of our democratic process tapping into citizens’ experience and learned wisdom. Community stakeholder engagement is critical to the research I do — making sure that my work is aligned with community need and wisdom.

There needs to be a robust plan that incorporates diverse community voices. Let us learn from our past missteps and make every attempt to shore up community engagement in all our communities.

Nathan Boucher, Chapel Hill

Federal research scientist

Heed the experts

Many readers are probably as stupefied as I am by the daily updates on the toll COVID-19 is taking on American lives. But the April 28 CDC report saying 53,922 people have died brought another grisly figure to mind - the estimated 58,200 Americans killed in the Vietnam War. It seems incredible, but in a week or two, COVID-19 will have killed more Americans in five months than Vietnam did in 19 years.

Thousands more will die needlessly if we relax the stay-at-home rules too soon, as some misguided souls recommend. Let’s follow the recommendations of experts. Keeping six feet apart a little longer obviously trumps six feet under forever.

Jim Russo, Durham

Gov. Roy Cooper

Regarding “Coronavirus NC: Gov. Cooper extends stay-at- home order,” (April 23) and related articles:

Why doesn’t Gov. Roy Cooper just keep the stay-at-home order in place all the time? Then, he can run the state as the dictator he wants to be. It will take years before this state gets back on its feet at the rate he’s moving.

Vince Giannetti, Holly Springs

Republican policies

In 2008-2009 this country endured an existential financial crisis. It was precipitated by Republican-sponsored legislation that eliminated the barriers separating commercial banking from the securities industry, followed by deregulation of the derivatives markets.

Eight years of the Bush administration refusing to rein in the rampant excesses of the mortgage industry and Wall Street completed the disaster.

Fortunately, the actions of the Obama administration put this country on the track of recovery, economic expansion and full employment.

Now here we are again. In 2018, Donald Trump disbanded the White House pandemic response team. This was followed by months of Trump ignoring the warnings of experts and downplaying what is now an epic health and economic threat to us all.

How long will the American people continue to allow themselves to be victimized by the intellectually and morally bankrupt policies of the Republican Party?

Fred Gunther, Raleigh

Political noise

Reading some of the letters to the editor one might get the feeling the current pandemic was politically motivated. It was not.

But COVID-19 is going to change our country’s entire way of life for awhile, and maybe forever. We must learn from this experience and use what we learn to protect us against future pandemics and to strengthen our state and federal government response.

We will get an opportunity in November to sit in judgment of those who managed our COVID-19 readiness and response, but for now we need to all work together to make our environment and lives safer and keep us healthy. Let’s save the noise for November.

Stephen Berg, Chapel Hill