How ironic it is that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (“Vilsack warns of impact on Iowa,” Feb. 20 story) said it may be necessary to lay off meat inspectors because of the fiscal cliff.

Please, Vilsack, are they not more vital than the sensitivity training put on by your department recently in which employees were mandated to attend? This training was conducted by a left-wing radical for which he received a tidy sum (nearly $200,000). This bit of malfeasance was uncovered by “Judicial Watch” using the Freedom of Information Act and airing a video on Fox News.

I challenge the editors of this paper to not be complicit with the rest of the “so-called mainstream media” in avoiding publishing news that is unfavorable to the Obama administration.

Roman Welter

Monticello