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Bernie Sanders’ plan would sabotage future

National Columnists

Most people welcome economic growth, but Bernie Sanders hates it. The Vermont socialist has come out against data centers, the mass computing facilities essential to the development of artificial intelligence. There are all sorts of NIMBY-type reasons for local residents to oppose data centers — they use a lot of energy and water, they are noisy and unsightly — but Sanders is against them on principle. If he can stop the creation of new data centers, he can squeeze AI research to a standstill and supposedly save American jobs and give Congress more time to regulate the new ...

Like people, societies age; complacency sets in

National Columnists

Western civilization arose in the 8th century B.C. Greece. Some 1,500 city-states emerged from a murky, illiterate 400-year-old Dark Age. That chaos followed the utter collapse of the palatial culture of Mycenaean Greece. But what reemerged were constitutional government, rationalism, liberty, freedom of expression, self-critique, and free markets — what we know now as the foundation of a unique Western civilization. The Roman Republic inherited and enhanced the Greek model. For a millennium, the Republic and subsequent Empire spread Western culture, eventually to be inseparable ...

Chanukah is relevant for everyone

National Columnists

Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, Chanukah, which began Sunday evening, Dec. 14, has always been one of my favorites. Even when I was younger and far less observant, I appreciated the holiday’s well-known rituals and customs: lighting the menorah, spinning the dreidel, eating potato latkes, and so forth. My given Hebrew name — “Maccabee,” because Judah Maccabee was nicknamed “the hammer” — is also synonymous with the hero of the holiday’s story. Because of the holiday’s timing and the general desire by corporate America and elected officials to include ...

Two men who changed their fields forever

National Columnists

The strange house on 23rd Street — a trapezoid of plywood, shower glass and chain link fence — was the laughingstock of our Santa Monica neighborhood. Even Frank Gehry’s gardener joked about the architect owner: “Poor Mr. Gehry.” Years later, my father and I attended an inaugural concert given at his stunning, sculpted Disney Hall. The Berlin Philharmonic played Schubert, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the most enchanting music I’d ever heard. The architect Gehry listened in the middle of the hall with no fanfare. At intermission, I approached him for a brief ...

Minot’s contribution to Special Olympics was significant

Letters to the Editor

Willie Ressler, Minot On behalf of Special Olympics North Dakota, thank you to the city of Minot for hosting the 2025 State Basketball Tournament. The Minot community played a significant role in providing 28 games for 28 teams, comprised of more than 302 athletes and 50 cheerleaders from across North Dakota, giving them a chance to showcase their ability and determination to succeed.  The athletes’ achievements were supported by more than 61 volunteer coaches and close to 200 hours of volunteer time and expertise from Minot, Nedrose girls basketball team and Minot Air Force ...

There’s no single story of immigrants

Letters to the Editor

Terry Hansen, Grafton When President Trump labeled Somali immigrants “garbage,” he weaponized presidential power to diminish an entire community. In her insightful TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns that “power lies not only in the ability to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.” Yes, some Somali Americans in Minnesota have been implicated in financial fraud. That fact should be reported, but it should never become the sole lens through which we view this ...