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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 ...

America is surviving, not living

National Columnists

Life in America doesn’t feel like life right now. It feels like triage. People get up, commute, grind through work, juggle kids and side hustles, scroll through their phones in bed until their eyes burn, then do it again tomorrow. They are surviving, but they are not living. The numbers explain why. The average American now carries around $100,000 in total consumer debt once you add mortgages, credit cards, auto loans and student loans, according to recent Experian data. Total household debt has reached a record $18.6 trillion, up more than $4 trillion since just before the ...

All human beings do not think same way

National Columnists

One of the most persistent mistakes in modern politics is the insistence on flattening all ideologies — pretending that all human beings think the same way, want the same things, and are motivated by the same forces. Every time policymakers fall into this trap, the result is not compassion or clarity but some of the worst public policy imaginable. The assumption usually begins with a comforting but false premise: that all people harbor the same yearning for freedom in precisely the same way. That belief animated much of the George W. Bush administration’s foreign policy, when the ...

Property tax revolt explodes across US

National Columnists

“Affordability” is the Democrats’ battle cry to win elections these days. But Republicans are ready to flip the script to woo homeowners, who make up the majority (65%) of American households. Across the nation, these homeowners are angry and ready to fight against soaring property taxes. Their homes have appreciated, but they don’t have more cash in their pockets to pay the rising taxes that come with rising home values. A property tax revolt, with silver-haired payers leading the charge, is likely to shape the political map for November 2026. Steve Moore, cofounder of the ...