It’s the alienation that matters

In America the idea of the hired professional political assassin makes for action movies and hate speech. Russia uses professional assassins. So does Israel. In the U.S. the involvement of shadowy entities that hire assassins has been near impossible to prove.

Modern perpetrators of political and mass violence have been individual white males, mostly young, whose minds get messed up — increasingly via the internet.  Almost always these young men experience alienation from family, friends and institutions that otherwise could provide a guardrail against their sinking into an alternative dark reality. These men become obsessed with overcoming their alienation through the power of violence. Whether their life-views have been warped to the extreme right or left is actually secondary to the overall alienation-revenge drive in them. As we sadly know, the focus of violence for these individuals might be innocent crowds as well as political targets. These perpetrators are not professionally trained and hired hitmen — no matter what conspiratorial thinkers say.

It is time to counter the public health crisis of too many messed over, violence-prone individuals by actions like these, at the least. 1. Massive, modern mental health services for the young need warp-speed introduction.  2. Individuals cannot drink or smoke until they are 21; they should not own guns either.  3. Bump-stocks, large magazines, and ghost guns should be prohibited. 4. Background checks for all gun transactions and stronger red-flag laws are needed.  5. For adults to own assault-style weapons, special permits should be required.  6. Political rabble-rousers need to chill, and political intrusiveness needs to stop.

Dan Gartrell, St. Paul

 

Addressing shooting problems isn’t an either/or

It has been four weeks since the Annunciation Church and School shootings and over three months since the murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. Stories by victims, parents, families, physicians involved in the care of the victims as well as major medical groups have been shared widely. Tears have been shed. Children and the Hortmans have been buried.

Elected officials have talked – but nothing has happened, and according to the article in the Sept. 25 Pioneer Press (“Gov. Walz: GOP won’t budge on gun control; House speaker calls it ‘mischaracterization’“), it is unlikely anything will happen in the near future. This has been the pattern in our country for over two decades. Think about Columbine and Sandy Hook and Parkland. Let us also not forget all those who die by firearm suicide each year and the children who die by accidentally firing a gun they got access to in their home or at a friend’s home.

Our legislators seem to be caught in an “either/or” situation when it comes to what to do next. One side is pushing to ban assault style weapons and high capacity magazines in addition to stronger safe storage laws (all of which have been shown to decrease mass shooting deaths as well as unintentional shootings and suicides in states with these laws) while the other side is pushing for more mental health services and school safety officers (SSOs).

Let’s be clear – we can do what BOTH sides are pushing for, it doesn’t have to be a partisan issue. The time to talk is over. It is time to act and pass some laws to prevent further events like the ones that have already happened.

Sheldon Berkowitz, St. Paul

 

New leadership to rebuild trust

As a Minnesota resident, parent of two young boys in public school, and someone who works in local government, I believe deeply in the role government can and should play in building strong, equitable communities. That’s why it’s so disheartening to see repeated failures of oversight under Governor Tim Walz’s administration — and why I believe he should not seek a third term.

Minnesota has seen a troubling pattern of large-scale fraud in recent years: the Feeding Our Future scandal, misuse of housing stabilization funds, and now widespread fraud in autism therapy billing. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a breakdown in accountability that has allowed public dollars — meant to serve vulnerable Minnesotans — to be stolen.

This isn’t just about mismanagement. It’s about broken trust. And for those of us who believe in the power of government to do good, that broken trust is devastating.

I live in Minneapolis, where the consequences of these failures are visible every day — in the lack of affordable childcare, in public safety concerns near transit and downtown, and in the struggle to build vibrant neighborhoods supported by small businesses.

Governor Walz has led through historic challenges, and he deserves credit for that. But leadership also means knowing when to step aside. If he runs again, I fear he will not only lose, but damage the credibility of pragmatic progressives working to restore faith in public institutions.

Minnesota needs new leadership — leadership that can rebuild trust, enforce accountability, and deliver results. For the sake of our state’s future, I respectfully urge Governor Walz to step aside.

Katie Henly, Minneapolis

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Some causes for farmers’ stress

A letter in Thursday’s Pioneer Press compliments the recent Farm Aid concert. I agree that farmers are under a lot of stress, however, I can’t offer much sympathy. Farmers face challenges because of severe weather. The Republican Party says that climate change is a hoax. Four of the congressional districts in Minnesota are represented by Republicans. these are largely rural/farm communities. Because of one man, tariffs and reciprocal tariffs are impacting the markets for the farmer’s produce. Thousands of traditional farm workers have been deported without any due process. If you are a farmer in your 50s or 60s, how do the DOGE cuts to Medicare affect you?

Republican legislatures around the country are scrambling to illegally gerrymander congressional districts to carve up Democratic cities and suburbs to add more rural/farm voters. If farmers continue to vote against their own interests, I will have little interest in their complaints.

Tom Leary, Mendota Heights

By MICHAEL CASEY

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in Boston ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, adding to the mounting legal setbacks for the president’s birthright order.

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A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the fifth federal court since June to either issue or uphold orders blocking the president’s birthright order. The court concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims that the children described in the order are entitled to birthright citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The panel upheld lower courts’ preliminary injunctions, which blocked the birthright order while lawsuits challenging it moved ahead. The order, signed the day the president took office in January, would halt automatic citizenship for babies born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.

“The ‘lessons of history’ thus give us every reason to be wary of now blessing this most recent effort to break with our established tradition of recognizing birthright citizenship and to make citizenship depend on the actions of one’s parents rather than — in all but the rarest of circumstances — the simple fact of being born in the United States,” the court wrote.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state was one of nearly 20 that were part of the lawsuit challenging the order, welcomed the ruling.

“The First Circuit reaffirmed what we already knew to be true: The President’s attack on birthright citizenship flagrantly defies the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a nationwide injunction is the only reasonable way to protect against its catastrophic implications,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are glad that the courts have continued to protect Americans’ fundamental rights.”

In July, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide after a key Supreme Court decision in June. Less than two weeks later, a federal judge in Maryland also issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the order. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.

The justices ruled in June that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.

A federal judge in New Hampshire later issued a ruling prohibiting Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action suit, and a San Francisco-based appeals court affirmed a different lower court’s nationwide injunction in a lawsuit that included state plaintiffs.

In September, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to uphold its birthright citizenship order. The appeal sets in motion a process at the high court that could lead to a definitive ruling from the justices by early summer on whether the citizenship restrictions are constitutional.

“The court is misinterpreting the 14th Amendment. We look forward to being vindicated by the Supreme Court,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

At the heart of the lawsuits challenging the birthright order is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens.

Plaintiffs in the Boston case — one of the cases the 1st Circuit considered — told Sorokin that the principle of birthright citizenship is “enshrined in the Constitution,” and that Trump does not have the authority to issue the order, which they called a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”

Justice Department attorneys argued the phrase “subject to United States jurisdiction” in the amendment means that citizenship isn’t automatically conferred to children based on their birth location alone.

In a landmark birthright citizenship case, the Supreme Court in 1898 found a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a citizen by virtue of his birth on American soil.

Forest Lake Area Schools Superintendent Steve Massey will retire at the end of the school year.

Massey, 62, of Forest Lake, announced his retirement during the school board meeting on Thursday night. His last day will be June 30.

Superintendent Steve Massey (Courtesy of Forest Lake Area Schools)

“It has been my greatest honor to serve the students, families and staff of this amazing community and school district for the past 27 years,” Massey said. “My greatest desire has always been to lead the district to a better place during my tenure as superintendent.”

Massey, who has been superintendent since 2017, was in the final year of a three-year contract.

School Board Chairman Curt Rebelein said Friday that he has already started the process of looking for Massey’s replacement.

“It was a shock to us all, but I think Steve is leaving behind a really good legacy, and I wish him well in his retirement,” Rebelein said. “It’s an exciting time for him. He’s been a great superintendent in a lot of ways for Forest Lake Area Schools. He has led us through some pretty major, pretty amazing changes the last couple of years.”

Several controversial issues have come before the Forest Lake Area School Board this year, including whether to remove specific bans on symbols like swastikas, the KKK and the Confederate flag on clothing.

But Rebelein said that much of that “friction” has “settled down.”

“The majority of our meetings haven’t been as contentious as they were at that time of the year, so I hope things are starting to normalize for us. But only time will tell,” he said.

Rebelein said the new superintendent will have their hands full dealing with elementary-school boundary changes that go into effect next fall.

“I want to get the search going as quickly as I can because I’m really interested in attracting the top talent,” he said. “I’m working on just a very basic job description, so I can work with our director of human resources to get the position posted and start seeing what kind of interest we have.”

Massey’s departure will leave a “gaping hole” in the district, said board member Gail Theisen at Thursday’s meeting.

“Your have shown us what teamwork is and how to be strong and respectful,” she said. “We will carry on the good work, having learned from you. We will continue in your absence to go forward with integrity, respect and to always focus on what’s best for our students.”

Massey has worked in the district since 1999. He served 14 years as principal of Forest Lake Area High School before being tapped to be superintendent.

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Massey teaches the superintendency course and the principalship course at the University of Minnesota.

In his statement to the board, he said that “educating and preparing our young to be tomorrow’s leaders” is one of the greatest callings.

Massey also said that the district is in good shape.

“Enrollment is increasing despite declining birthrates, a testament to Forest Lake Area Schools being a place kids and families want to be,” he said. “Our financial footing is solid, and the district’s reserve funds are strong.”

With the Twin Cities Marathon wrapped up, the John Ireland Boulevard bridge over Interstate 94 between Kellogg Boulevard and Rice Street in St. Paul will close Monday for reconstruction expected to last until August of 2026.

Detours

Hundreds of runners make their way down John Ireland Boulevard and over the bridge towards the finish line of the 10 Mile race in St. Paul on Sunday, October 7, 2018. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Traffic will be directed from Kellogg to Marion Street to University Avenue to Rice Street.

Those on foot or bicycling will be detoured to Kellogg to the Marion Street bridge to Rondo Avenue.

Taking it apart, rebuilding it

The bridge, first constructed in 1967, has four lanes of traffic over I-94. The state Department of Transportation plans to take it apart and rebuild it.

While it is currently safe, repair is needed to keep it that way for motorists based on modern weight limits, according to MnDOT.

The bridge will be rebuilt within “the same footprint as the existing bridge,” according to a statement from MnDOT. There also will be sidewalk repairs, updates to bike and pedestrian facilities, accessibility, and railing.

When will the work start?

Construction noise is expected to begin between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday, MnDOT said.

Those with questions can contact the project hotline at info@stpaulbridges.com or 612-424-2698. More information can be found at 511mn.org.

Other bridge projects

Besides John Ireland, MnDOT also is working to replace bridges over I-94 and I-35E at Jackson Street, Robert Street, Minnesota Street, Cedar Street, Wabasha Street North, 10th Street West, Western Avenue North, Marion Street and the ramp from Fifth Street to westbound I-94. The work is expected to be finished by fall of 2026.

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