Regarding “Houston City Council drops plan to hire lawyers to investigate housing scandal allegations,” (Dec. 1): A city employee acts as a whistleblower and accuses Mayor Turner of favoritism in awarding a housing contract for the city. Turner fires the whistleblower, cancels the deal and calls for an investigation. City Council, after delays, declines to investigate the matter. The possibly corrupt deal is gone, but the whistleblower is also gone. If another questionable deal comes down the pike in the next year or three, will the next such city official be less inclined to raise the issue and risk being fired? And shouldn’t whistleblowers be protected against retaliation?
Donald Cook, Houston
Regarding “Suspect’s parents charged in Michigan school shooting,” (Dec. 1): When I was a young boy growing up in Kansas City, my family and neighbors often used the facetious expression, “you better watch out, the little men in the white coats will get you,” as a retort whenever someone exhibited erratic or questionable behavior. Meaning that the person so addressed was regarded as at least momentarily “crazy” or mentally ill and the little men in the white coats — attendants from the local mental hospital — could be alerted to pick him or her up.
I have no idea whether parents, neighborhood residents, school officials, teachers or others 80 years ago could legally call and have someone that had been guilty of troubling behavior picked up and...
A British science journalist-turned-attorney who initiated a lawsuit that saw a Harvard University-affiliated cancer centre pay $15 million (11 million) to settle claims of alleged data misreprese...