Breaking News

Editorials

Vaccination still best COVID protection

The Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Disease Control are recommending that people aged 50 and older could get a second booster immunization against COVID-19, if it has been at least four months since they got their third immunization. People 65 and older and younger people with high risk factors are especially encouraged to get the fourth shot. That’s a good idea, but what is an even better idea is for people who are unvaccinated to get their shots, and for those who have not yet gotten their boosters to get their third. Vaccinations may not be perfect — people ...

Zero death days good COVID news

On two days this month, the state of Minnesota Department of Health recorded no deaths from COVID-19. On March 12 and March 16, zero deaths from COVID were reported. That is good, heartening news on the COVID front, but it carries a caution. Since a lot of reports to the DOH are delayed as cases and lab results come in, it is possible a death could be reported late, but the numbers for the past week have been encouraging. Since the 16th, 12 deaths have been reported — five on the 17th, but no more than three since then.Compare that with the 33 a day during the last week in ...

Time to get tougher on catalytic converter theft

The theft of catalytic converters from cars has been growing over the past few years. The converters, part of the emissions control system, are coated with a variety of rare and precious metals to convert unburned hydrocarbons in exhaust into carbon dioxide and water. Thieves found that with a little practice and an electric saw they can slide under a car, take out the converter and be gone in a couple of minutes. They can sell the converters to salvage shops and recyclers for a few hundred dollars. They also leave the car owner with a very expensive repair bill. It can cost around ...

Russian brutality should count as war crimes

Russian troops that have besieged the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have waged a kind of war that should be considered crimes against humanity. They bombed a maternity hospital. They have shelled schools and hospitals where civilians have gathered to seek shelter, including a theater where 1,300 people are believed to be inside the destroyed building. Refugees fleeing the city have run a gantlet, dodging Russian artillery and guns to escape. The city behind them is being destroyed. The siege will “be remembered for centuries to come,” because of the terror tactics of the ...

Legislature failing businesses in state

With its inability to pass even the most basic and common sense legislation in a timely fashion, the Minnesota Legislature has hit Minnesota’s employers with a huge tax increase. This increase could have been avoided if the state had just agreed to repay the debt in the Minnesota Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, a $2.7 billion deficit that arose due to the unexpected unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government stepped in with enhanced federal unemployment payments, but the bill has come due and Minnesota has to refill its trust fund. The state is sitting ...

Is this what Texas lawmakers wanted?

The State of Texas, like a lot of Republican dominated states, passed voting restriction legislation that they claimed would “make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.” So how is it working? In the March 1 Texas primary this year, the state threw out 23,000 mail-in ballots, roughly 13% of the mail ballots cast in the counties surveyed by the Associated Press. The rejected ballots indicate that voters were having a hard time complying with the new rules Texas installed, including providing a personal ID number, such as a driver’s license number or Social Security number as ...