Professional sports’ promotion of gambling websites in leagues that have heavily and severely sanctioned players for gambling is disingenuous and hypocritical.

There are players who have been banned for gambling activities in those sports who now see league commissioners actively promoting sports gambling, including designating certain for-profit companies as the “official” gambling operations of their sport.

What is the message the commissioners are conveying here? Is it just about the licensing fees? Can we now look forward to seeing them promote the “official assault rifle” of the sports they govern?

I find this duplicity and inconsistent messaging disgusting. Every day players see league promotion of gambling sites through the media. What kind of message does this send to them? That it is OK for them to bet, as long as they don’t wager on the sport they play?

Given the stance on gambling that major league sports have taken, it is only fair, as a first step, that all players who have been banned because of gambling activities be reinstated immediately. The ultimate remedy would be the discontinuation of the “official” status in each sport for all commercial gambling operations.

David Speis, Hopewell

‘Never Trumpers’ must do more than just vote

Concerning Tom Moran’s recent column, “Will Christie vote for Biden? Logic demands it”:

If former Gov. Chris Christie or any of the formerly powerful Republican leaders who once supported Donald Trump — but no longer do — vote secretly for President Joe Biden in November, they will have failed to do everything in their power to assure Trump’s defeat.

If they truly want to influence the large independent electorate, they must give their full-throated support to the incumbent president. This group includes former Vice President Mike Pence, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, and these former Trump administration officials: Bill Barr (attorney general), Mark Esper (defense secretary), and John Bolton (national security adviser.).

Hopefully, Biden will recognize how important it is to encourage their approval by opening a dialogue that could result in his moderating some of the policies that true Republicans may find offensive. Of course, that would likely antagonize the far-left progressives whose intransigence on policy issues is as responsible for our government’s stagnation as the far-right Make America Great Again crowd’s.

However, I’d bet that whatever votes Biden loses from progressives would be far outweighed by the number of independents who could be be swayed into the Biden column by Republican “never Trumpers” who speak up on the current incumbent’s behalf.

Joseph Gervasi, Denville

Hope for more competitive elections in N.J.

U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi on March 29 ruled against New Jersey’s longtime use of “county-line” ballots, which greatly advantage party-endorsed candidates, and ordered that June’s Democratic primary election be conducted with block-format ballots.

In New Jersey, where more than 80% of primary candidates run uncontested, this is a huge step forward for democracy.

We can look forward to more competition. Good candidates who haven’t run in the past, knowing they had little chance of winning nominations if they were not on the county line, will now run for office.

We can look forward to more debate. Candidates will spend far more time discussing and speaking out on issues important to voters, since there will be no more cake walk for the one candidate who has the approval of county party leaders.

We can look forward to better, more voter-centric representation.

Mike Lyon, Boonton

EV infrastructure: Not there yet

Regarding Steve Rodas’ recent article about a lack of demand for fully electric vehicles at New Jersey dealerships, I think the piece missed another important reason why folks are not buying EVs in big numbers: a lack of charging stations.

I own a Hyundai Ioniq and I really like the car. I had a charging station installed on the side of my house, which works for 90% of my driving needs. However, I think twice before taking the car on a long road trip.

Charging stations are far and few between, turning a long trip into a management ordeal. There are no charging stations the Garden State Parkway. There are only a few on the Turnpike, and most of them can charge only Tesla vehicles.

The infrastructure for EV charging is still not there.

Sandra Talarico, Little Silver

Lazy error about pride of Teaneck

Contrary to your daily print edition “Birthdays” feature, Rudolph Isley, of Isley Brothers musical fame, did not “turn 85″ on April 1, 2024.

Rudolph passed away on Oct. 11, 2023. The fact that the newspaper published his birthday as if he were still with us is, at best, lazy. Adding insult to this is the fact that the Isleys are the pride of Teaneck. They named their record label after the town.

A New Jersey newspaper should be better informed. Not a good look.

William Haller, Martinsville

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