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There’s ways to make Minn. safer place

National Columnists

In the months before the April 12, 1861, firing on Fort Sumter, there were lots of sharp divisions in the North about the proper reaction to the first seven Confederate states that had already left the Union. Not all Unionists believed that war was inevitable. Similarly, others agreed that the emerging Confederacy was not worth the trouble and costs of war, and the secessionists could just form their own nation and stew in their own backward, servile juice. But after Fort Sumter, Lincoln – who was hated as much by the Confederates as Trump is by the woke and socialist left – ...

This past month has been quite a year

National Columnists

From Minneapolis to Venezuela to Greenland, a year’s worth of current events have unfolded in a matter of weeks. Here are a few things that feel as long as the first few weeks of January have felt: Every episode of “Stranger Things” in Season 4 and Season 5. “In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust, the modernist French novel published in 1913 exploring themes of the human condition over the span of 486 chapters, more than 4,000 pages and 1.2 million words. “The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World,” a 1968 British underground film that runs 48 hours and is ...

‘Protest’ is word not to be abused, misused

National Columnists

Alex Pretti wasn’t killed while “protesting.” This is a common description of what he was doing on a Minneapolis street the fateful morning when a confrontation with federal immigration agents ended in his tragic shooting. But if Pretti had been a mere protester, he’d very likely be alive today. Now that we’ve seen videos of an earlier struggle with federal agents and learned more about the organized nature of the anti-ICE resistance, it’s become clear that the better word for Pretti was agitator, or perhaps even operative. A protester, as typically understood, is ...

There’s value in having a college degree

National Columnists

The debate regarding the value of a college degree has resurfaced in the news recently. With tuition continuing to increase at universities and colleges across the country, many people have, as a political reporter described, “grown sour on one of the longtime key ingredients of the American dream.” A recent news poll was cited of 1,000 registered voters in which 33% said they believe college is “worth the cost” because a degree provides more opportunities for better-paying jobs. Sixty-three percent stated that they felt a college degree “was not worth the cost” due to ...

Film tax credits, tariffs have common thread

National Columnists

Across America, officials promise to engineer the right economic outcomes by intervening in the market in just the right ways. Most people know that under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the idea has exploded. Less appreciated is how enthusiastically governors and state legislators are embracing their own versions. They repeat the same claims: With the right mix of subsidies, protection and political direction, one government or another can revive strategic industries and deliver durable economic strength. The results tell a different story. Wherever it’s found, industrial ...

Hold onto Ruthie’s in your hometown

National Columnists

All that remained of Ruthie’s Diner on Jan. 21 was charred, ice-encased rubble — the aftermath of firefighters’ desperate efforts to extinguish the blaze that ultimately consumed the modest eatery at Ligonier, Pennsylvania, which for more than 70 years had served locals and the travelers, anglers and hunters heading east along the Lincoln Highway Several locals pulled into the parking lot and simply stared, at a loss for words as they watched a community mainstay reduced to charred ruins, thin smoke still rising from the ashes. Ruthie’s was the kind of place where everyone ...