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Capitol riot shows need to evaluate law enforcement

The violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol left many lessons for public officials and the public to wrestle with. One issue that should get intense scrutiny is the actions and makeup of the Capitol Police and in a larger sense, the radical, often white supremacist-centered views of some in law enforcement. Politico reports that there is strong support in Congress to remove the senior leadership of Capitol Police. That is a starting point, but Congress needs to appoint a bipartisan commission to dig deeply into the operations of the Capitol Police and develop strategies to improved the ...

Vaccinations depend on supplies

The Minnesota Department of Health has announced an expansion of the COVID-19 vaccination eligibility rules. The state is going to allow hospitals and health care systems to vaccinate a broader category of Minnesotans. This would include people who are not frontline health care workers, but who are over 65, or younger people with underlying conditions that put them more at risk. Of course, all that depends on the availability of doses. You can vaccinate someone if you don’t have the vaccine available. It’s a good idea, in places where everyone in the 1A category — the front line ...

Where to now?

The U.S. House of Representatives made Donald J. Trump the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice on Wednesday. There’s little chance that Trump, as a result, will be removed from office one second earlier than his allotted time. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he will not call the Senate back for an emergency session to hold the impeachment trial, so the Senate won’t hear the impeachment and vote on it until after the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden next week. So why impeach the president at all? Is it simply, as his most loyal enablers like ...

Getting ready

State governments across the country have been warned by the FBI that militant groups are planning a series of armed protests at their state capitols as inauguration day approaches on Jan. 20. In light of the armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, capitol buildings across the country are being made more secure with fences, barricades and plans to deploy National Guard troops. Gov. Tim Walz has announced the Guard will be stationed at the Minnesota Capitol to defend against armed violence. Legal protests that are being planned will not be impeded, but a repeat of the ...

Maintain caution when dining out

The state’s restaurants and bars are reopening this week, with some restrictions yet on how many people can be allowed inside, how many can sit at one table and how far apart they need to be. This relaxation of the COVID-19 closure order does not mean that the disease is no longer a danger. It is still out there, and while the vaccines are starting to trickle in, there are still many more who need to be vaccinated before we can truly relax. Statistics from the Minnesota Department of Health show that 147,645 people in the the state have been vaccinated. We have over 5.6 million ...

Where does his allegiance lie?

Hours after the U.S. Capitol was cleared of the Donald Trump-supporting insurrectionists last Wednesday, Congress took up the job the mob had tried to thwart, the verification of the electoral college vote and the declaration of Joe Biden as the president-elect. Sadly, even after the destruction, the gunfire and the violence, some Republicans clung to their allegiance to Donald Trump and voted to object to the verified election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania. Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota’s First District was among them. Hagedorn has long been a Trump true believer. In ...