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Let schools decide

President Donald Trump is threatening to withhold some federal funds from education institutions, both K-12 and colleges and universities, if they do not reopen soon for the fall semester. Some governors also have issued blanket reopening schedules for their public schools. This is misguided, even if it is within the power of the president and governors. Each and every one of them should back off. Millions of Americans want schools and institutions of higher learning to reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. But when is that? Is it Aug. 15? Aug. 30? Mid-September? That ...

Train officers on importance of breath

Leave aside the political correctness that has resulted in universal condemnation of all law enforcement personnel, for a moment. In the interest of saving lives, let us return at least briefly to using our common sense. As The Associated Press reports, a significant number of officers, deputies, troopers and agents may not understand the seriousness of making it difficult for someone to breathe. Really. Under no circumstances can what happened to George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis be rationalized, of course. After being arrested on a relatively minor, non-violent charge, he was ...

Ignore the order, keep students safe

President Donald Trump, who assured us that the COVID-19 pandemic would one day just “disappear,” who wanted to lift stay-at-home restrictions and re-open the economy by Easter Sunday, who doses himself with hydroxychloroquine because he thinks its will prevent or cure COVID-19 (scientific studies show it doesn’t) and suggested that ingesting or injecting disinfectant and/or bleach would be a possible treatment for the disease (it would poison the patient), is now demanding that schools across the country re-open as usual this fall, and criticized the Center for Disease Control’s ...

Time to pay attention to candidates close to home before you have to decide

We get it. It’s summer in Minnesota. The skies are blue, the lakes are cool and the fish are biting. All any of us really want is some bonfire time with the family. But we’re going to ask you to peel a little bit of your attention away in the next few weeks and give it, instead of to the pursuit of happiness, to the pursuit of good leadership. Almost everyone is aware that Americans will choose a president in November. Most news consumers, at least, know that we’ll also be choosing our representatives to statehouses and local governments. Some don’t know that the ...

Short Takes

Open schools with modifications THUMBS UP: The Minnesota Department of Education released results Thursday of the Fall Planning Survey for Families. The survey indicated that 64% of respondents selected that they would feel comfortable sending their students back to school this fall. Of those 64% who said they’d be comfortable sending students back to school this fall, 94% would send students back to school full time. Less than 12% of respondents said they would not feel comfortable sending student back to school. However, of the respondents who answered they would not feel ...

Stifle disease’s comeback

Everybody loves an underdog. We cheer when sports teams that are way down stage a big rally and beat a highly favored opponent. It makes the victory that much sweeter. But there’s one thing we don’t want to see making a comeback, and that is the COVID-19 virus. Americans have been hunkering down, staying home, shutting down their businesses, standing six feet apart and wearing masks trying to keep this highly contagious and dangerous virus from spreading. These measures have helped keep the number of cases down, but in recent weeks the numbers have been surging in America and in ...