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Make it harder to sell catalytic converters

We continue to see police reports about the theft of catalytic converters. They are stolen off vehicles in car lots or on the streets. People who find their vehicles vandalized and looted by thieves face an expensive replacement cost. It may be upwards of $1,000, depending on the model. Catalytic converters make tantalizing targets for thieves. They are relatively accessible under the car, can be sawed loose in a couple of minutes, and they contain some very expensive metals — platinum, palladium and rhodium — which can fetch a fair return at a salvage yard. The price of these ...

While vaccine is scarce, vaccinate neediest first

President Joe Biden wants to open up COVID-19 vaccinations to everyone by May. That’s a commendable goal, one that could best be reached by providing the vaccines needed to vaccinate everyone by May. Gov. Tim Walz has opened up vaccinations to anyone 16 and older. Again, that is a great development that is tempered by the fact there isn’t enough vaccine yet to throw the vaccination clinics wide open. So until the production of vaccine is able to meet demand, it is up to the health care professionals who are administering the vaccines to focus their efforts on those who need it ...

Immigrants boost Minnesota’s economy

They work, spend money, pay taxes and help fill demographic gaps, chamber finds. The Minnesota Chamber Foundation is out with a much-needed report on the many contributions of immigrants, detailing the critical role they play both in this state’s present and its future. Immigrants have helped offset declining birthrates in Minnesota and have provided critical work in agriculture, health care, food manufacturing and elsewhere, the report notes. They play an outsized role in the labor force, since more of them tend to be in their prime work years. The demographic shift in ...

Those trillions add up

President Joe Biden, fresh from signing his nearly $2 trillion COVID-19 relief law, is now proposing another $2 trillion package to rebuild and expand the nation’s infrastructure. The late Illinois Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen is often quoted as saying of the federal budget, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it begins to add up to real money.” So it goes with Biden’s proposals. The U.S. national debt has zoomed past $28 trillion — that’s $85,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. Heaven knows the U.S. infrastructure is in need of help, and those ...

Let’s have some normalcy

Gov. Tim Walz promised that “normalcy is on the horizon” during his State of the State speech on Sunday. Speaking from the classroom where he once taught social studies at Mankato West High School, Walz said “brighter days are ahead,” thanks to the increasing number of COVID vaccinations and businesses starting to reopen. So, what is normalcy? Here are some ways you can tell normalcy is here: • Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature quit yelling at Walz about his emergency powers declarations and go back to yelling at him about high taxes and excessive state ...

We can see it for ourselves

The murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis police officer who kept his knee on the neck of George Floyd last May for over nine minutes, until Floyd died, is different from any other trial held in Minnesota up to know. It is being livestreamed. We can all watch and listen as the attorneys make their cases, as the witnesses testify, as the judge rules on motions and objections. Previous to this, cameras and recorders have not been allowed in Minnesota courtrooms, except recently when cameras have been allowed in the sentencing phase of a trial. In a case that has ...