What constitutes ‘public outcry’?

My thoughts about the death spiral St. Paul is in were confirmed after reading the article in Friday’s Pioneer Press about the St. Paul City Council voting to not extend the terms of a state grant awarded to a start-up business in the Energy Park business district.

This business according to the article has brought 83 well paying jobs (range of $47/hr to $127/hr) to the city with a goal of at least 113. The article cites “public outcry” as the reason the City Council declined to extend the terms of the grant.

I’d like to know what constitutes “public outcry”? The Council heard from 30 or so anti-ICE and pro-Palestiian activists in person and another 32 via email. They voiced their opposition to this company that makes semiconductor microchips for missiles and F-35 military bombers plus other plug-in modules used in the aerospace industry. So you basically have 62 people shutting down commerce and shrinking the tax base in St. Paul because of their activist positions (anti- ICE and anti-Israel). Allowing radical activists to influence these types of decisions is a prime example of why St. Paul is in such dire financial straits. We have  a hollowed out downtown, another retailer (Evereve) just announced they are leaving Grand Avenue, and property tax increases seem to be the only fuel to feed this failing engine. I wonder if the last one to leave will remember to turn off the lights.

Kevin J. Kelly, St. Paul

 

Grow up

Endorsing songs like “F— This” (how very articulate; this guy should run for mayor) and “Minnesota Nazis” (facile and an insult to Jews everywhere) does nothing to contribute to the discussion about ICE policy and tactics. Grow up.

Martin Johnston, Somerset

 

Don’t let data centers use groundwater

I hope long before the end of this legislative session the Legislature bans data centers from using groundwater. It is insane to allow them to use groundwater.  Aquifer depletion is something that humans cannot restore. The data centers can build holding ponds or build huge holding tanks, like you see on these tank farm locations where fuel is stored, that can help to cool the water they need but under no circumstances should they be using any groundwater. During flooding season the data centers can divert water from the rivers into ponds or tanks. I wish there were a jail sentence for any legislator who votes for data centers to use groundwater.

Lenny Leier, St. Paul

 

Independence

My best  friend and I never spoke of politics before. Then out of the blue, he said he was a Democrat, I thought I would reciprocate and told him I was an independent. He asked why and said, “You know you will never win.” That really got me thinking. To me when you pledge loyalty to either the Democratic or Republican party, it takes away your ability to be a free thinker.

During Donald Trump’s first presidency, he shut down the border to illegal immigration. When Joe Biden was elected he opened the border to illegal immigrants. When Trump was elected, he closed the border to illegal immigrants.

As an independent I ask this:  “Where were the Democratic leadership and Democratic advisers when he did such an absurd thing? Where is the Republican leadership and advisers when he is also doing absurd things.”

I am a proud independent and able to use my vote to get around all these misplaced loyalties that blur common sense. I may never be on the winning side politically but I like what I think.

G.  Mertz, St. Paul

 

Signature moves

Donald Trump is performing one of the signature moves of every tyrant throughout history. When losing popularity with the people, they find a reason to start a war in vain hopes of raising a rush of patriotic fervor. In Donald Trump’s case it is another act of performance with little if any plan or thought of consequences. Once again we have an old favorite, regime change. The leadership of Iran uses war threats to increase suppression of the people. USA is The Great Satan and a mortal enemy. A shooting war gives Trump his reason to declare a national emergency to create even more havoc against the population and what is left of the economy.

Joe Danko, North St. Paul

 

Masks for some?

So St. Paul passes an ordinance that prevents police and federal agents from wearing masks. But I don’t see anything proposed to outlaw masks from
the assaulting, destructive and vandalizing protesters who seem to roam the streets at will. What’s wrong with this scenario?

Lee J. Christianson, Baldwin

 

The luxury of borrowed grievance

I recently attended a service at a liberal St. Paul church where the air was thick with “fear” and “terror” regarding immigration enforcement. As one of the few conservatives in the pews, I found the scene surreal.

The congregants — largely affluent, white Americans — protest with a fervor that suggest they are the ones being victimized. This is a recurring pattern. From Wall Street to current anti-ICE protests, these individuals consistently immerse themselves in the “cause of the week.”

While they act as if they are under siege, they are actually the least vulnerable people in our society. It appears they have been ideologically conditioned to adopt victimhood as a primary identity. One has to wonder: What is the next crisis this movement will push on these willing “victims” to keep them in a state of perpetual outrage?

Warren Poole, St. Paul

 

Restitution?

There appears to be something missing in Feb. 19 article “Man gets probation for copper thefts.” The article failed to discuss restitution to the city. Is there no accountability for the inconvenience to city residents who rely on those lights, who paid for those lights? The effort and money by the police department to identify the perpetrators on top of the $200,000 expense to repair, why are they and Dem-Con Metal Recycling in Blaine that bought the copper — it’s clearly against the law to purchase copper with “City of St Paul Public Works” stamped on it — not required to pay restitution? Or was that a part of the plea bargain and not included in the article. Please do tell.

Todd Roth, Lakeville

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By JAMES POLLARD

NEW YORK (AP) — Dolly Parton’s name might inspire full-throated sing-a-longs to her working woman’s anthem “9 to 5,” or evoke memories of thrilling days spent at her Dollywood theme park.

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Now, the Grammy-winning country music superstar is lending her name to a new cause: advancing pediatric health care in her home state. The East Tennessee Children’s Hospital announced Thursday that it will now be known as Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital.

“Ever since I’ve been in a position to do my part, to help others, I have tried to do just that. Especially when children and families need it most,” Parton said in a video announcement. “I’ve always believed that every child deserves a fair chance to grow up healthy, hopeful and surrounded with love.”

The impact of Parton’s philanthropy is already felt across Tennessee and beyond. Her Imagination Library initiative reports to send 3 million free books every month to children whose parents request them. She donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University’s Medical Center for research that helped produce Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. And her charitable foundation provides numerous college scholarships and offers disaster relief.

Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital did not share how much Parton donated as part of the naming announcement. But Matt Schaefer, its president and CEO, said her support would ensure “every child who walks through our doors receives the treatment they deserve.”

Adam Cook, the independent not-for-profit hospital’s chief development and public affairs officer, said they would continue offering the same care that the community has come to expect. The gift “encourages us to continue to support our mission,” he added.

“This is a generational collaboration that will transform pediatric care in this region,” Cook said in a statement to the Associated Press. “It will positively impact patients and families for decades to come.”

The support comes as rural hospital closures have left tens of millions of people with fewer health care options.

The East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, now named after Parton, has operated with an “open-door” policy that no child would be denied care for their race, religion or ability to pay medical bills since it opened in 1937, according to its website. Its main campus in Knoxville, Tennessee is one of more than 20 locations across the eastern part of the state.

Parton said she is honored to support the hospital’s doctors, nurses and team members — and invited the public to join her.

“I can’t do it all myself,” she said in the video.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate slipped this week below 6% for the first time since late 2022, good news for home shoppers as the spring homebuying season gets rolling.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell to 5.98% from 6.01% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.76%.

The average rate has been hovering close to 6% this year. This latest dip, its third decline in a row, brings it closer to its lowest level since Sept. 8, 2022, when it was 5.89%.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.02% at midday Thursday, down from around 4.07% a week ago.

Mortgage rates have been trending lower for months, helping drive a pickup in home sales the last four months of 2025, but not enough to lift the housing market out of its slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows.

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Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes remained stuck last year at 30-year lows. And more buyer-friendly mortgage rates this year weren’t enough to lift home sales last month. They posted the biggest monthly drop in nearly four years and the slowest annualized sales pace in more than two years.

Still, with the average rate on a 30-year mortgage now below 6% as the annual spring homebuying season begins, it could encourage prospective home shoppers who can afford to buy at current rates to shop for a home this spring.

“Assuming rates stay below 6%, buyers and sellers are going to start getting back into the market,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “March is when the spring homebuying season typically begins to ramp up and with rates at a three-and-a-half year low, it could be a barn burner of a spring homebuying season.”

By CLAIRE RUSH and GENE JOHNSON

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge in Oregon has ordered narrow changes to hydropower dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest in order to help salmon, saying the Trump administration’s plans for the massive structures would harm salmon runs that are “disappearing from the landscape.”

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The ruling late Wednesday came in a decades-long legal effort by the states of Oregon and Washington, Native American tribes, and conservation and fishing groups to ensure better protections for migrating salmon, which are killed in large numbers by the dams.

In a landmark 2023 deal that paused the litigation in favor of finding long-term solutions, the Biden administration promised to spend $1 billion over a decade to help restore salmon while also boosting tribal clean energy projects.

But the Trump administration torpedoed that agreement last year, calling it “radical environmentalism” that could have resulted in the breaching of four controversial dams on the Snake River, and the plaintiffs went back to court. The deal had been opposed by Republicans who said it would jeopardize the region’s power supply, irrigation and the ability to export grain to Asia.

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon in his ruling Wednesday lamented what he described as the “disappointing history of government avoidance and manipulation instead of sincere efforts at solving the problem.”

“One of the foundational symbols of the West, a critical recreational, cultural, and economic driver for Western states, and the beating heart and guaranteed resource protected by treaties with several Native American tribes is disappearing from the landscape,” Simon wrote. “And yet the litigation continues in much the same way as it has for 30 years.”

A dispute over water and spill levels

Oregon and the other plaintiffs had asked Simon to lower the levels of reservoirs behind the dams, which they argued can help fish travel through them faster, and increase the amount of water spilled past them, which can help fish pass over the dams instead of through turbines. The federal government sought higher reservoir levels.

Simon ordered that reservoirs remain at the same level as last year and wrote that the changes in his order were “narrowly tailored” and essentially maintained the status quo.

“The Federal Defendants have, for years, maintained a safe and reliable power system and dam operations with the nearly the same spill levels as ordered here, and with the same reservoir levels from 2025,” he wrote.

Amanda Goodin, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said she was “incredibly relieved and happy that he ordered the levels of spill that he did.”

“If the government had been allowed to implement their proposal, it would have had really, really devastating consequences for salmon,” Goodin said.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the electricity from the dams, referred a message seeking comment to the Justice Department, which said in an email Thursday that it had no comment.

In court filings, the federal government called the request a “sweeping scheme to wrest control” of the dams that would compromise the ability to operate them safely and efficiently for power generation, navigation and irrigation. Any such court order could also raise rates for utility customers, the government said.

FILE – Water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near Almota, Wash., April 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios, File)

The dams have altered life in a wide area

The Columbia River Basin, spanning an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead. Today, four are extinct and seven are endangered or threatened. Another iconic but endangered Northwestern species, a population of killer whales, also depend on the salmon.

The construction of the first dams on the Columbia River, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville in the 1930s, provided jobs during the Great Depression as well as hydropower and navigation. They made Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers continue to rely on barges to ship their crops.

But the dams hurt salmon in a number of ways, including by forcing them through turbines, warming the slow-moving water in reservoirs to inhospitable temperatures, and greatly slowing the migration of juvenile fish to the sea. Juvenile salmon once reached the ocean from the upper Snake River in two or three days as swift currents pushed them along. Now, the journey past eight dams can take weeks, during which time they are exposed to more predators.

FILE – Water spills over the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, which runs along the Washington and Oregon state line, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

The plaintiffs, which include the state of Oregon and a coalition of conservation and fishing groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, filed the motion for a preliminary injunction, with Washington state, the Nez Perce Tribe and Yakama Nation supporting it as “friends of the court.”

Opponents of the injunction include the Inland Ports and Navigation Group, which says increasing spill to benefit fish can hinder navigation, disrupting the flow of commerce and hurt the economy.

“The order increases the risk of harm to infrastructure, listed species, and public safety while failing to demonstrate that there will be benefits to listed salmon and steelhead,” the organization said in a written statement.

The dams at issue are the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite on the Snake River, and the Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary on the Columbia.

Johnson reported from Seattle.