Wish more politicians would follow the governor’s lead

Regarding Joe Soucheray’s Sunday May 11 column on Gov. Walz’s 2025 budget, in which Walz proposed to end some taxpayer subsidies to religious schools: Soucheray’s main argument is twofold: this has been a practice for 50 years and why would anybody oppose paying for religious students’ transportation costs.

I suggest Soucheray go back to the Minnesota State Constitution that has been the law of the land since 1857: “Article 111 Sec. 2. Prohibition as to aiding sectarian school. In no case shall any public money or property be appropriated or used for the support of schools wherein the distinctive doctrines, creeds or tenets of any particular Christian or other religious sect are promulgated or taught.” That predates the 50-year liberalization of laws by legislators and the courts who used twisted logic rather than straightforward garage logic of transferring public tax dollars to religious schools.

Even longer before that, Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) “to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of (religious) opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical.”

I, for one, find comfort in the governor’s ability to take on an unneeded government benefit. I wish more politicians would have the nerve to follow the governor’s lead and eliminate more taxpayer subsidies to religious institutions.

Steve Petersen, Shoreview

 

A pittance compared with all the over-spending

Once again Joe Soucheray has come out swinging and has hit the target right on. I do hope our governor reads his columns — he could really learn something.

I might not be the smartest person in the room but I do have common sense. Does Gov. Walz really think this pittance that goes to non-public education would make up for all the over-spending that has been done? If many of the students attending non-public education are not able to continue in their schools because of tuition increases they could be forced to attend public schools, increasing enrollment and stretching class size and over worked teachers.

I worked in special education for the Saint Paul schools and my children all attended Catholic schools K-12 (and actually college as well). I remember during their years at Nativity, our children were asked to clean up the fields at Groveland because they used them for baseball and soccer games. What? Did they forget that their parents were paying property taxes in the city?

I think we should try to get Joe Soucheray to run for governor, mayor just about any office just to get someone that has a brain.

Joan Barrett, St. Paul

 

Cheers for the Frost

Cheers to the Minnesota Frost, our Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) team, for never giving up. The PWHL is composed of the best female players in the world. The PWHL is about more than hockey. It is a movement empowering female athletes and society in general.

With three games remaining in the regular season they lost to the last-place New York Sirens at home. To qualify for the playoffs they would have to win their two remaining road games in regulation. They did. This gave them the chance to defend the Walter Cup, which they won in the PWHL inaugural season. Last season they also demonstrated a no-quit posture with comeback wins in the playoffs .The Walter Cup is given to the best team of the playoffs.

The Frost lost the first game of this year’s playoffs to the Toronto Sceptres. They rebounded and won the next three games, the last in overtime, to advance to the finals. They are three wins away from becoming Walter Cup champions again.

The Minnesota Wild this year in three home games in the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs sold out all three. Let’s show the same support when the Frost play at home at the Xcel Energy Center in the finals. Let’s sell out the arena. Let’s show civic and Minnesota pride. Let’s support these world-class athletes.

Never giving up, being resilient, passion, skill, hard work, teamwork, etc., are lessons in life our Minnesota Frost have displayed.

Gordon Hayes, Eagan

 

Take a more positive and objective view

This was a well written, heartfelt letter, very revealing regarding what Minnesotans are reading and comprehending.

The author begins, “I have never seen headlines and articles in the Pioneer Press or anywhere else like I’ve seen in the last week.”

He then goes on to list the headlines of the previous week, which were all Trump hit pieces.

His closing paragraph suggests he believes those hit pieces, and has not, or does not, read a broader range of information sources.

I too have been dismayed at the headlines over the past month, but have been questioning the lack of objectivity in current Pioneer Press reporting and editorials.

I close by challenging the writer to broaden his sources of information, while taking a more positive and objective view of America’s future.

Joe Remley, Hugo

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The controversial appointment of oncologist Vinay Prasad — an outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical industry and U.S. health agencies — to a key role within the Food and Drug Administration was a shock for drug companies. Biotech stocks immediately fell over fears that the bar for drug approvals suddenly got a lot higher.

Tightening regulatory standards is a reasonable goal. But achieving it requires delicately balancing evidence and compassion, weighing certainty against speed. Prasad has had a lot to say over the years about how companies and the FDA have gotten that balance wrong. Now, as the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which oversees vaccines, gene therapies and the blood supply, he has to prove that he can get it right.

Some of his more rigid and contrarian stances, such as his views on COVID vaccines, do not inspire confidence. Prior to his appointment, Prasad served as a professor at the University of California San Francisco. He gained notoriety during the pandemic with his near-constant haranguing of the Biden administration’s decisions. He was particularly incensed by recommendations to mask and vaccinate children, views that neatly align with those of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya.

But before that, he was known for his criticism of the lack of rigor in oncology drug data. He’s been a social media gadfly, calling out what he sees as subpar studies and a low bar for approvals. He’s argued against faster approvals for cancer drugs based on measures like a tumor shrinking or the disease not worsening, which Prasad and others have shown don’t always translate into people living longer. When taking down a medical finding, one of his favorite responses is, “Randomize or STFU.”

That message, though acerbic, isn’t wholly controversial. He thinks the public deserves drugs that are safe and effective and the decisions around approvals should be free from conflicts. And many experts, including former regulators, bioethicists and health policy experts, agree with his belief that too many drugs are making it onto the market before being proven to have real value.

I’ve also criticized the FDA for leaning too far into speed over certainty: Approving drugs on scant evidence doesn’t just give patients false hope, it can cause real harm. Patients risk significant financial hardship for a product whose benefits are modest at best or nonexistent at worst and might even have dangerous side effects.

And yet, those of us on the outside also have the luxury of armchair regulating.

The FDA is often weighing data that might look promising but isn’t definitive, against patients’ urgent need for better treatments. “None of these decisions are going to be easy ones, where there is a single, objectively right answer,” says Holly Fernandez Lynch, a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Making the right call means engaging with every stakeholder in order “to be flexible where flexibility is appropriate, and push back where flexibility is inappropriate,” she says.

Not all drugs will fall under Prasad’s purview (many of the cancer drugs he has criticized, for example, were reviewed by the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research). But he undoubtedly will be faced with deciding the fate of treatments for people with no other hope. Anyone who has listened in on advisory meetings for treatments for rare diseases like ALS or Duchenne muscular dystrophy will tell you that parent and patient testimonials can be gut-wrenching.

The gravity of those decisions calls for a degree of humility on the part of an FDA leader. And that’s the rub with Prasad: His public persona — often harsh and operating in the extremes rather than acknowledging the nuances — does not suggest he will strike the right tone in either his actions or words.

Ultimately, Prasad’s approach to regulating carries significant consequences for biotech and pharma companies, many of which are working on some of the most promising technological advances of the last two decades, including gene therapy and mRNA vaccines. Already many of those companies are struggling to come up with a viable business model for their products, which address very small patient populations. Raising the regulatory bar too high could push some out of the game entirely.

“If you make innovation too daunting, there’s going to be very little capital to fund it — and to find the next big breakthrough,” says Cantor Fitzgerald biotech analyst Josh Schimmer.

That doesn’t mean discoveries will screech to a halt, rather they will happen elsewhere, like China, he adds.

In his first meeting with FDA staff, Prasad reportedly struck a more even-keeled tone on the topic of rare disease drugs. He noted that “randomized controlled trials are not always necessary,” according to Inside Medicine, a Substack run by physician and public health researcher Jeremy Faust. And he apparently acknowledged that, “Evidence must also contextualize the condition — how rare and dire it is, and we should be flexible for the many people who do want to try things.”

While any glimmer of measured leadership is welcome, we should take it for what it is: a few rational sentences amid volumes of antagonistic posts on social media. We won’t truly know his threshold for approval until decisions start rolling out. That means for the foreseeable future, every advisory committee meeting and approval deadline for this critical corner of the FDA will be “big, binary events for the whole industry, each one a glimpse into where the bar is set now,” Schimmer says.

Even if he strikes a good balance, there’s another critical unknown to consider: Can he lead? Unlike his predecessors, Prasad does not have experience navigating the FDA. And he is walking into a downtrodden agency. Sweeping cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services did not spare the FDA, and even as some employees were called back, weeks of anxiety have taken a toll on morale. Many of those left behind, including experts who review new products, are looking for new jobs.

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And like with the entire slate of COVID contrarians leading our health agencies, there’s the lingering question of who will really call the shots on hot button issues like vaccines. If HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tries to interfere with products that fall under Prasad’s regulatory umbrella, will he push back? Some of his recent comments about the childhood vaccine schedule and the committee responsible for it veer too close to Kennedy’s views for comfort.

That could immediately affect fall COVID boosters, which Prasad now oversees. A post on his Substack suggests he is on board with recent comments by Makary suggesting updated vaccines need new studies, a position that would make it near impossible to get new shots authorized. “Folks who think COVID-19 vaccines should continue to roll out without randomized trials are anti-vaccine, anti-science, and pro-corporate,” Prasad wrote.

The concern now centers on a current threat, but we should also worry about the standard Prasad would set for future vaccines. His predecessor is credited with developing a clinical strategy that enabled COVID vaccines to be rolled out with breathtaking speed, ultimately saving millions of lives. How would Prasad treat the bar for authorization in an emergency?

All of this adds up to an intense period of uncertainty. The FDA has never been perfect or made everyone happy. But everyone seemed to largely understand the rules. With Prasad, that standard seems much less clear — and patients and industry alike will feel the impact.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

BAUDETTE, Minn. – If the walleyes didn’t cooperate on this sunny Saturday morning, the opening day of Minnesota’s 2025 fishing season, it certainly wouldn’t be because of the weather.

Morning temps in the border country were in the 60s, with a southeast wind less than 10 mph – just strong enough to put a “walleye chop” on the water.

In short, Mother Nature had served up a dandy. And while the forecast called for winds strong enough to blow squirrels out of trees the next day – an exaggeration, of course, but only slightly – the weather last Saturday, May 10, was definitely a keeper.

The rest would be up to the walleyes – and, perhaps, a bit of fishing luck. They call it the Minnesota Fishing Opener, but up here on Lake of the Woods – and thousands of other lakes across the state, I dare say – it’s the walleye that reigns supreme.

So it was that six of us – Ron Nies of Minneapolis; Scott Jensen of St. Anthony; Peter Howard of Stillwater; and Jason Laumb, Joe Banish and I, all from Grand Forks, N.D. – joined fishing guide Travis DeWitt of Ballard’s Resort for two days aboard the 27-foot Sportcraft that will be his office for the next 125-or-so days, give or take.

This was Day One.

A native of Alexandria, Minn., and a 2014 graduate of St. John’s University in Collegeville, DeWitt has about a dozen years as a Lake of the Woods charter boat captain under his hat. He started coming up to Lake of the Woods on family trips as a kid and, as so often happens, the big lake got into his blood.

When the opportunity to make his living on Lake of the Woods presented itself, DeWitt says he jumped at the chance, even though a fishing guide career isn’t the traditional path for someone with a business degree.

He came highly recommended.

“You’ll enjoy his company,” Tim Lyon, a friend and veteran Ballard’s fishing guide who has a way with words (as well as walleyes), had told me before the opener. “From a technical standpoint, he is as good of a fisherman as anyone on that staff.

“He understands fish patterns, he’s good with people … he’s one of those people kind of made to do this job.”

And, as a caveat, “you can’t tell him I said that,” Lyon joked.

We were in good hands, in other words.

On the water

Pulling away from the dock with the small fleet of other Ballard’s charter boats, DeWitt’s opening morning plan was to head out the mouth of the Rainy River and west across Four-Mile Bay to a spot known locally as the “Morris Point Washout.”

Once there, DeWitt would drop anchor in less than 10 feet of water, and we’d dunk jigs tipped with frozen shiners – a “go-to” technique on Lake of the Woods – and wait for the tell-tale tap of a walleye.

Ice had covered large portions of the lake barely two weeks earlier, but the water temperature in this part of the lake already was in the low 50s.

Not surprisingly, we had plenty of other boats around us, most either anchored or “spot-locked” with trolling motors that interface with GPS technology to hold the boat in place.

“Slow is the way to go” when it comes to early season walleyes on Lake of the Woods.

DeWitt was first on the board, with a 15 (or so)-inch walleye that soon found its way into “the box” – the large ice-filled cooler at the back of the boat. Typical of fishing while anchored, there were occasional spurts of action followed by lulls.

We were fishing, we were comfortable and it was good.

Reason for optimism

Favorable weather aside, there was plenty of reason for optimism on this opening day morning. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the annual fall population assessment on Lake of the Woods tallied an average of 17.5 walleyes per net last September, above the historic average of 15.3 walleyes per net.

Walleyes from 9 to 11 inches long were abundant, the DNR said, as were “keeper-size” fish in the 13- to 16-inch range. Walleyes in the 19½- to 28-inch protected slot, which must be released, and trophy walleyes larger than 28 inches were “just below average” in abundance.

On Lake of the Woods, though, there’s always the chance of a big walleye. Banish, the youngster in our crew at a mere 30 years old – the rest of us ranged in age from 50 to 68 – found that out firsthand Saturday afternoon.

After spending the morning in the Morris Point Washout, DeWitt decided to head for deeper water on the north side of Pine Island in the afternoon.

Anchored in about 22 feet of water, fishing was slower than it had been at the washout, but a few bonus saugers and the occasional walleye provided just enough action to keep things interesting.

Joe Banish of Grand Forks, N.D., caught this 27½-inch walleye Saturday, May 10, 2025, the opening day of Minnesota’s 2025 fishing season, on Lake of the Woods near Baudette, Minn. He caught a 25-inch walleye minutes later, making a strong case for the adage that some anglers have all the luck. Both fish were released as required. (Brad Dokken / Forum News Service)

Then Banish got hot, landing 27½- and 25-inch walleyes minutes apart, basically on consecutive drops of the jig. Both fish, he says, absolutely clobbered the gold-tipped jig.

The 27½-incher was his new “PB” – personal best – Banish says.

“Catching it on the opener makes it even more special,” he said. “Following that fish up with a 25-incher just minutes later was a great bonus.”

I suggested he should fish without bait the rest of the weekend but it wasn’t to be.

His hot streak continued Sunday.

“The fish must have liked my jig pattern because it worked great all weekend,” Banish said. “Or maybe it was also a bit of luck that’s inherent to fishing.”

Day 2: The river

Instead of heading back on the lake for day two, DeWitt opted to fish a short ways up the Rainy River last Sunday morning. Reports from the previous day indicated plenty of fish remained in the river after the spring spawning run, and there’d be more protection from the wind, which was forecast to pick up from the south throughout the day.

Using ¾-ounce jigs to compensate for the current, we were able to keep our bait on the bottom, but just barely.

Anglers try their luck for walleyes on the Rainy River near Baudette, Minn., on Sunday, May 11, 2025, the opening weekend of the 2025 Minnesota fishing season. (Brad Dokken / Forum News Service)

The “plenty of fish in the river” part was confirmed minutes after anchoring, when DeWitt, fishing from his captain’s chair in the cab of the boat, hooked into what turned out to be a 27-inch walleye in 16 feet of water.

Beautiful gold without a blemish, the walleye was a picture of perfection.

As sometimes happens when anchored, fishing on this breezy morning wasn’t of the equal opportunity variety. While DeWitt’s 27 inches of gold came on the starboard side of the boat, the best action, for whatever reason, was on the port side.

But as the old saying goes, that’s why they call it fishing and not catching; most of the walleyes were of the “eater” variety.

Last hurrah

After a scrumptious noontime shore lunch back at the resort, complete with fresh walleye, spuds and baked beans – a fishing trip tradition – we closed out the weekend back on the river for the last couple of hours.

Fishing guide Travis DeWitt prepares a shore lunch of freshly caught walleye for a group of fishermen back at Ballard’s Resort near Baudette, Minn., on Sunday, May 11, 2025, after a morning of fishing on the Rainy River. (Brad Dokken / Forum News Service)

With temperatures approaching 90 degrees and winds gusting to 25 mph or more – squirrels were probably beginning to worry – being on the water was beginning to feel like standing in front of a blast furnace. By the time DeWitt pulled anchor shortly before 4 p.m., everyone on board was ready for the comfort of an air conditioned cabin.

Our fishing was pretty much on par with what DNR conservation officers encountered while checking anglers on the lake and river for the opener.

“Most anglers contacted over the weekend had great fishing reports,” Paul Kennedy, a DNR conservation officer in Baudette, wrote Monday in the DNR’s weekly enforcement update.

And so it went on another Minnesota Fishing Opener to Lake of the Woods; better for some in our crew than others, but good to be back in a boat again just the same.

The tradition continues.

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Today is Sunday, May 18, the 138th day of 2025. There are 227 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 18, 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state erupted, leaving an estimated 57 people dead or missing.

Also on this date:

In 1863, the Siege of Vicksburg began during the Civil War, ending July 4 with a Union victory.

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In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, endorsed “separate but equal” racial segregation. (The decision was reversed 58 years later by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.)

In 1927, in America’s deadliest school attack, part of a schoolhouse in Bath Township, Michigan, was blown up with explosives planted by local farmer Andrew Kehoe, who then set off a bomb in his truck; the attacks killed 38 children and six adults, including Kehoe, who’d earlier killed his wife. (Authorities said Kehoe, who suffered financial difficulties, was seeking revenge for losing a township clerk election.)

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public utility in America.

In 1973, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson.

In 1981, the New York Native, a gay newspaper, carried a story concerning rumors of “an exotic new disease” among LGBTQ+ people; it was the first published report about what came to be known as AIDS.

In 1998, the U.S. government filed an antitrust case against Microsoft, saying the powerful software company had a “choke hold” on competitors that was denying consumers important choices about how they bought and used computers. (The Justice Department and Microsoft reached a settlement in 2001.)

In 2018, a 17-year-old armed with a shotgun and a pistol opened fire at a Houston-area high school, killing eight students and two teachers.

Today’s Birthdays:

Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson is 79.
Musician Rick Wakeman (Yes) is 76.
Musician-composer Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) is 75.
Country musician George Strait is 73.
Actor Chow Yun-Fat is 70.
Hockey Hall of Famer Jari Kurri is 65.
Tennis Hall of Famer Yannick Noah is 65.
Comedian-writer Tina Fey is 55.
Rock singer Jack Johnson is 50.
Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter is 22.