By DAVID FISCHER, Associated Press

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump last year in South Florida was given clear instructions on Tuesday on how he should behave — including a warning against making sudden movements — in court while representing himself during a trial that begins next week.

Barring any delays, jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in Fort Pierce federal court for the case against Ryan Routh. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off on Routh’s request to represent himself in July but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.

Cannon confirmed during a hearing Tuesday that Routh would be dressed in professional business attire for the trial. She also explained to Routh that he would be allowed to use a podium while speaking to the jury or questioning witnesses, but he would not have free reign of the court room.

“If you make any sudden movements, marshals will take decisive and quick action to respond,” Cannon said.

Jury selection is expected to take three days, with attorneys questioning three sets of 60 prospective jurors. They’re trying to find 12 jurors and four alternates. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Thursday, Sept. 11, and prosecutors will begin their case immediately after that. The court has blocked off four weeks for the trial, but attorneys are expecting they’ll need less time.

The trial will begin nearly a year after prosecutors say a U.S. Secret Service agent thwarted Routh’s attempt to shoot Trump as he played golf. Routh, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.

Prosecutors have said Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot.

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Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who prosecutors said informed officers that he saw a person fleeing. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested, and the witnesses confirmed it was the person he had seen, prosecutors have said.

The judge on Tuesday unsealed prosecutor’s 33-page list of exhibits that could be introduced as evidence at the trial. It says prosecutors have photos of Routh holding the same model of semi-automatic rifle found at Trump’s club.

The document also lists numerous electronic messages sent from a cellphone investigators found in Routh’s car. One message dated about two months before his arrest is described as Routh requesting a “missile launcher.” It says that in August 2024, the month before his arrest, Routh sent messages seeking “help ensuring that (Trump) does not get elected” and offering to pay an unnamed person to use flight tracking apps to check the whereabouts of Trump’s airplane.

The exhibit list cites evidence from Routh’s phone of an electronic “chat about sniper concealment” during President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. And it lists internet searches for how long gunpower residue stays on clothing and articles on U.S. Secret Service responses to assassination plots.

Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.

In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.

In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.

In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.

AP journalist Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.

The report is the first to quantify the stormwater capture capacity of the city’s forests, wetlands, and grasslands—helping prevent untreated sewage from overflowing into local waterways. 

Fall foliage at Seton Falls Park in the Bronx. Tuesday, November 21, 2023. (Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office)

When it rains, New York City’s natural areas—made up of forests, wetlands, and grasslands—play a crucial role in keeping sewers from overflowing by soaking up 17 percent of the city’s stormwater, a new report by the Natural Areas Conservancy (NAC) finds.

The report reveals that this natural landscape, which makes up a third of the Big Apple’s more than 30,000 acres of parkland, soaks up twice the amount of storm water on a per unit basis when compared to other forms of green infrastructure like rain gardens.

Using a model that relies on high-resolution spatial data, the report is the first to quantify the stormwater capture capacity of the city’s natural areas. 

The data shows that healthy forested areas absorb almost 10 percent more stormwater than degraded forests. It makes a case for the city to invest more funds in keeping New York City’s forests—like Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx or the Greenbelt in Staten Island—alive and thriving. 

“Investing in our forested areas is a really economical way of making sure we have increased stormwater capture capacity,” said Jeffrey Clark, senior manager of applied research at the NAC and author of the study.

These ecosystems save the city an estimated $760 million annually in stormwater treatment costs, the report notes, urging the city to look more to its trees to provide relief to the overburdened stormwater management system.

The city currently relies mostly on sewers, drainage pipes, and catch basins to manage its stormwater. This is problematic because these systems have limited capacity, in terms of how much water they can handle—about 1.75 inches of rain in one hour, according to the report.

Climate change is driving increasingly wetter weather: the city saw 2.07 inches in a single hour earlier this summer during a storm that caused flash floods and paralyzed the transit system. Hurricane Ida, which killed 13 people in 2021, saw a record-setting  3.15 inches.  

A Combined Sewer Overflow point at the Southeast corner of the Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. When the city’s sewers are overwhelmed, untreated sewage overflows into local waterways. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

What’s more, 60 percent of the city’s aging sewer pipes, sections of which date back to 1855, are part of a combined sewer overflow system that fills up beyond capacity during a rainstorm and ends up dumping untreated sewage into nearby waterways. 

“As of 2024, maintaining the sewer system costs the city approximately $1.4 billion [annually], with individual metered households paying a minimum of $1.27 a day in sewer and water fees or $0.01 per gallon,” the report notes.

In contrast, the city needs $380 million over the course of 25 years to keep its natural areas alive and well, making for a “more cost effective” way to treat storm water, Clark says.

“Its not an insignificant amount of money, but it’s also fairly trivial when you compare it to the cost of some of the other fiscal budget items,” Clark said.

“And because we are not actively always measuring some of the services that these natural areas are providing to the city, they are often undervalued. And when they are undervalued, they become underfunded,” he added.

The Big Apple’s Department of Parks and Recreation is tasked with keeping the city’s fauna and flora alive and well, but there is currently no permanent budget dedicated solely to maintaining the city’s forests, wetlands, and grasslands.

The budget adopted for the 2026 fiscal year includes $3 million in temporary funding for natural areas, according to Emily Walker, senior manager of external affairs at NAC. This will allow the designated natural areas division within the Parks Department, known as the Natural Resources Group, to bring on 35 staff members. 

But Walker says 51 critical forest management positions were lost in the previous year’s budget, prompting advocates to fight for more permanent funding, saying a “one shot” allocation just isn’t enough and needs to be permanent.

Old Putnam Trail located in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

The Parks Department, however, has historically been underfunded. For the past 30 years, the agency has received between 0.5 and 0.6 percent of the city’s total budget. 

In line with this trend, New York City set aside 0.6 percent of its $115.9 billion budget for Parks this year. 

When Mayor Eric Adams was running for office he promised to dedicate 1 percent of the city’s total budget to parks, but he is yet to make due on that commitment.

And now that NAC’s report produced evidence for the first time that the Parks Department’s natural areas are a key to keeping storm water runoff out of sewer systems—and waterways—and off of the streets, the stakes are even higher, the group argues. 

While neither the Mayor’s Office nor the Parks Department responded to a request for comment, a City Halls spokesperson told City Limits earlier this summer that the administration has “made major investments to improve our parks and public amenities.” That includes “increasing the Parks budget and headcount to their highest level, as we aim to reach the 1 percent target.” 

But Council members like Shekar Krishnan, who is the chair of the Committee on Parks and Recreations, says the city needs to work harder to secure continued funding for the department. 

At a City Council hearing when budget discussions wrapped in May, he promised that the Council “will keep fighting for full funding to keep our parks clean and green.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Mariana@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Thriving Natural Areas Help Keep NYC Sewers from Overflowing, Report Finds appeared first on City Limits.

By MOLLY QUELL, Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide said Monday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

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The determination by the International Association of Genocide Scholars — which has around 500 members worldwide, including a number of Holocaust experts — could serve to further isolate Israel in global public opinion and adds to a growing chorus of organizations that have used the term for Israel’s actions in Gaza. Israel rejects the accusation and called the resolution an “embarrassment to the legal profession.”

“Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” according to group’s resolution.

“People who are experts in the study of genocide can see this situation for what it is,” Melanie O’Brien, the organization’s president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told The Associated Press.

The resolution was supported by 86% of those who voted. O’Brien said 28% of members participated — a rate that’s typical for the group’s resolutions. Voting is held by email, according to the group’s bylaws, and members have 30 days to reply.

In the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Forty-eight hostages remain in Gaza, around 20 of whom Israel believes are alive. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

In Israel’s ensuing offensive, large swaths of Gaza have been leveled and most of the territory’s over 2 million people have been displaced. More than 63,000 Palestinians have died, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but that around half have been women and children.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes the figures but has not provided its own.

The scholars’ resolution accused Israel of crimes including “indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure” in Gaza and called on Israel to “ immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.”

It begins with an acknowledgment that Hamas’ attack “constitutes international crimes.”

Genocide was codified in a 1948 convention drawn up after the horrors of the Holocaust that defines it as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The U.N. and many Western countries have said only a court can rule on whether the crime has been committed. A case against Israel is before the U.N.’s highest court.

Israel — founded in part as a refuge in the wake of the Holocaust, when some 6 million European Jews were murdered — vehemently denied it is committing genocide.

“The IAGS has set a historic precedent — for the first time, ‘Genocide Scholars’ accuse the very victim of genocide — despite Hamas’s attempted genocide against the Jewish people,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Disgraceful.”

Israel says Hamas is prolonging the war by not surrendering and releasing the hostages. In recent days, it began the initial stages of a new offensive and declared Gaza City a combat zone.

The scholars group, founded in 1994, has previously held that China’s treatment of the minority Muslim Uyghurs and Myanmar’s crackdown on Rohingya Muslims meet the threshold for genocide.

In 2006, the organization said statements by then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in which he called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” had “genocidal intent.”

In July, two prominent Israeli rights groups — B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel — said their country is committing genocide in Gaza. The organizations do not reflect mainstream thinking in Israel, but it marked the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations.

International human rights groups have also leveled the allegation.

Meanwhile, South Africa has accused Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice — an allegation Israel rejects.

The court does not have a police force to implement its ruling, which could take years, but if a nation believes another member has failed to comply with an ICJ order, it can report that to the U.N. Security Council.

The council is able to impose sanctions and even authorize military action, but each of the five permanent members holds a veto, including Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he does not believe genocide is taking place.

Address speed, safety on St. Clair

St. Clair Avenue has become a speedway to and from 35E. People use it more and more to bypass the backed-up traffic at Snelling and Selby.  Syndicate is often used as a shortcut to Grand Avenue from 35E.  Speeds are excessive. Recently an SUV plowed into the retaining wall at St. Clair and Syndicate going 40 miles an hour.

At the same time, many people cross St. Clair on foot, which is terribly dangerous.  Kids often cross St. Clair at Syndicate to get to and from Randolph Heights School.  Pedestrians and children on bicycles have been hit. The worst intersections are Syndicate, Albert and Saratoga.

Is the City going to wait for a tragedy before it acts?  Is this the way our city leaders want this neighborhood to be?

Here are some solutions:

1. Put in flashing pedestrian lights like the ones on Snelling at Macalester College. These are very effective at getting drivers’ attention.

2. Enforce parking restrictions near intersections to increase visibility for cars trying to turn onto St. Clair.

3. Put 4-way stop signs at Syndicate, Albert and Saratoga.

It is time for the city of St. Paul to take action to protect our pedestrians.

Meg Arnosti, St. Paul

Just too costly

After being grounded for most of the summer because of a new knee, I finally got back on my bike. First ride was on Summit Avenue from Dale Street to the river and back on a weekday, 8:30-9:45. (I saw only one other cyclist.) Given the financial stresses on the City budget, I just don’t see spending millions of dollars on the proposed bike lane “improvements.” The first priority must be new pavement curb-to-curb; the existing surface is riddled with cracks and holes that make cycling dangerous. I could support restriping to move the bike lane curbside with the parking lane separating cyclists from motorists. The current proposal is just too costly.

Ellen T. Brown, St. Paul

Contradicting its own rules?

St. Paul’s plan for rebuilding Summit Avenue contradicts its rules for street reconstruction. The City of St. Paul repeatedly states “Summit Avenue hasn’t been reconstructed since Taft was President (1909 -1913)” as justification for ramming through the unwanted Summit Avenue Regional Trail. Let’s look at the facts.

The City’s standard for the “life of a street” before it needs evaluation for reconstruction is 65 years.

The City’s recently published workplan for Summit Avenue is to “rebuild” from the Mississippi River Boulevard to Fairview Avenue in 2028 (Segment 1) and “rebuild” from Fairview Avenue  to Hamline Avenue (Segment 2) in 2029.

83% of Segment 1 — from the Mississippi River Boulevard to Fairview Avenue — is not due for a rebuild until 2044 or 2054. That leaves only 17% of Segment 1 that is arguably due for evaluation for reconstruction.

Snelling Avenue to Lexington Parkway recently received a complete mill and overlay, and is in the best condition of any segment on Summit Avenue.

Analysis of the city’s 2022 CAD drawings of Summit Avenue shows that the stretch from Lexington Avenue to the Cathedral is where approximately 44 percent of the street meets the criterion of “more than 65 years from the last reconstruction.” Yet this segment is not even on the city’s workplan.

Since the city’s driving mantra is Summit’s need for reconstruction, why is the city moving first with a section that has the least need for reconstruction Furthermore, why should tax dollars pay for tearing up 100% of a segment that needs only a 17% adjustment? Why is the City tearing up the segment of Summit that’s in the best condition of any? And, why is the section where 44% is eligible not even on the work plan?

The city asks us to believe they are dutifully adhering to sound principles in road construction while publishing a plan that contradicts those principles.

Marilyn L. Bach, St. Paul

Fill the ranks, St. Paul and Minneapolis

Both the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police Departments are inadequately staffed at 80% of the number authorized. The goal should be staffing to the point at which the officer assigned to a “beat” knows who the “bad actors” are, to include drug dealers, gang members, sexual predators and, yes,  those seriously mentally disturbed. It is hard to imagine that in the case of the Minneapolis Annunciation Church mass shooting, there were not red flags from family, friends, neighbors, employers, etc. that would have been picked by an officer who knows the neighborhood, prompting a request to a judge to view his social media accounts, search his home, prohibit him from buying weapons, and authorize mandatory mental health treatment.

Why are police departments not staffed to this level?  A lack of commitment from elected officials, judges and prosecutors. We need to do better. We can do better, to prevent these tragedies from happening.

Richard M. Ryan, Woodbury

Illegal parking at the Farmers Market

What are citizens to do when ignored by city leaders?

Illegal parking at the Farmers Market is not being prevented or consistently enforced by the city. Parking in explicit no parking zones, violating/misusing 15-minute load zones and blocking alleys/garages happens every Saturday and Sunday morning.

Parking within 5 feet of an alley violates city ordinance. When a vehicle is parked too close to an alley, we literally can’t see traffic until we pull into the lane of traffic. It’s dangerous.

Traffic Geometrics was asked to provide signage to prevent this violation. They refused. Their contention is an alley that has over 100 residential parking spots and is a half a block from the Farmers Market should be treated the same by the city as a service alley in a remote part of the city.  It has forced residents to have to pay for city signs to be installed on a public street to try to provide some safety.

The city council president and the police have been provided dozens of pictures and videos of these violations dating to last year, including a video of 14 vehicles parked on Fourth Street between Wacouta and Broadway, blocking the lane of traffic for two blocks.

I’ve emailed the mayor’s office asking questions about the city’s response. It was unanswered. I followed up. It was unanswered.

Questions and calls to the police and council president largely go unanswered. The best we can hope for is sporadic enforcement from the Parking Enforcement Unit. Illegally parked vehicles have been reported to the police and hours later the vehicle remains and no ticket has been issued.

I understand illegal parking isn’t the biggest problem this city faces. But, the leaders responsible for its enforcement and engagement to fix this issue have known about the problem for over a year. City ordinance is routinely allowed to be violated to the detriment of residents. If leaders feel comfortable ignoring this, what else will they selectively ignore?

Ryan Radunzel, St. Paul

Minnesota doesn’t need one of these

The Pioneer Press reported an MPR story on Aug. 21 about ICE detention centers in other states which have been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, Deportation Depot, Cornhusker Clink. People have joked about these centers. But the inhumane conditions suffered and the human tragedies playing out within those walls deserve respect. The immigrants who are detained have lives and families which are being pulled apart.

Core Civic, the owner of Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, MN, is “aggressively pursuing” a contract with ICE. Minnesota doesn’t need to have one of these detention centers.

Richard W. Podvin, Roseville

A ‘far-right agenda’? Highly misleading

An article in the Aug. 24 paper — “Far-right agenda is mainstream in Trump’s second term” — is highly misleading and in some cases totally inaccurate. One blatant example is the repeating “good people on both sides” quotes from Trump. The article suggests he was referring to neo-Nazi activists and leftist protestors. That lie has been debunked many times. He was referring to activists on both sides regarding Confederate monuments. In addition, the article suggests that the Trump administration is racist without a shred of evidence. The article suggests Trump has hired several people with racist or antisemitic remarks and does not support it with facts. The whole article suggests that all the current administration is doing is far-right agenda, but the article almost totally focuses on immigration. Some 70% of the public are against illegal immigration, so the article seems to suggest that 70% of the people are far-right, obviously not true. In total, the article makes no definition of what is far right and what is mainstream. I do not believe that eliminating taxes on overtime, tips and social security is far-right. Eliminating fraud and waste is not far-right either. I could go on and on, but typical of NY Times writers, it paints a picture that is very misleading at best or a total lie at worst. It would seem that the paper would do a service to their customers if they would actually print balanced reporting.

Ron Wobbeking, Hastings

The heresy of rational discussion

Michael Bloomberg added quite the twist to the political divide so many like him stand behind, constantly chastising us for unbelieving in whatever it is we are supposed to believe in (“RFK Jr. is sabotaging President Trump’s health legacy,” Aug. 24). In this case it’s mRNA vaccines. He suggested we should now blame RFK Jr. for sabotaging Donald Trump’s presidential legacy. When exactly did the medical and pharmaceutical communities become so sacrosanct that we are forbidden to question them?

In the age of Trump we get but more Trump, the increasing masses who think any rational discussion is an act of heresy. It’s completely irrational and yet another weekly essay proves it rules American politics from both sides.

Julia Bell, St. Paul

A recipe for injustice

The Aug. 24 article titled, “Trump’s promise of revenge: He’s making good” contains the boldface subtitle, “Trump as ‘chief law enforcement officer.’ ” I appreciate those single quotation marks around those last four words because actual law enforcement officers are bound by rules. The official manual for federal prosecutors, which is available online at www.justice.gov, contains the following section:

9-27.260 – Initiating and Declining Charges – Impermissible Considerations

In determining whether to commence or recommend prosecution or take any other action against a person, the attorney for the government may not be influenced by: …

2.  The attorney’s own personal feelings concerning the person … or

3.   The possible effect of the decision on the attorney’s own professional or personal circumstances …

In addition, federal prosecutors and agents may never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution, or select the timing of investigative steps or criminal charges, for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.

Despite Mr. Trump’s claim to be the “chief law enforcement officer” of the United States, I do not believe he is equipped by training or temperament for that job.  Rather he should leave prosecutorial decisions to the Attorney General of the United States or that person’s subordinates, who should follow the above rules.

In the article a spokesperson for the president is quoted as saying, “Joe Biden weaponized his administration to target political opponents — most famously, President Trump.  (He) is restoring law and order.” Tit for tat is not law and order, it is not justice, it is a recipe for injustice and chaos.

Richard Murray, St. Paul

Why aren’t these people immediately guilty?

Even though President Trump never said he was going after his political enemies, this will not stop the Pioneer Press from delivering another false narrative in Sunday’s newspaper.

Let’s go over two of the enemies listed as selective memory seems to be the media’s MO.

Letitia James while running for State AG of New York vowed as one her campaign promises to “Get Trump”. This is the classic campaign promise that should not come from a state AG’s mouth. Her bogus land inflation price to a bank scheme that suffered no financial loss to that financial institution wasn’t even a legiimate charge. Her standards would require every property seller to be charged with what she accused Trump of. Yet the media salivated as they believed this would be the one that would bring down the current president. And Ms. James finds herself in an alleged mortgage fraud case.

And then there’s Adam Schiff. Throughout the Russia hoax fiasco, Schiff went on MSNBC and CNN and said he had the smoking gun that would bring down the president. He never revealed what that was and now finds himself in an alleged mortgage fraud case.

Why isn’t the press finding these people immediately guilty like they did with Trump? It’s because they have a lot to lose with their political bedmates that they have backed for decades. The honesty of the press has long since passed away.

Thomas McMahon, White Bear Lake

What’s the plan?

Let’s see, we currently have National Guard troops supposedly wiping out crime in Washington D.C. Trump has said he wants to use armed troops and various masked government agents in other cities as well, particularly those in blue states. OK, it seems kind of weird, expensive and of little value. But, we get used to it.

Then comes election time in November of 2026. Trump has tried mightily to end the use of mail-in ballots. If people can mail their ballots they can’t be hassled or intimidated at the polls. But, the Constitution has tripped Trump up on the mail-in ballots. So, he’ll have to improvise.

Hey, those armed troops could just empty the mailboxes and throw out the ballots since the president says the ballots are “corrupt.” Yeah, now we see why he put troops in the blue cities in 2025.

I guess I really shouldn’t blame Trump. He’s not smart enough to plan that out. Luckily  he has Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation. They’re very good at this.

K.C. Simmer, Woodbury

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How do we stop this?

The Columbine school shooting of 1999 left 14 dead. Comments: Never Again. Guns don’t kill, people do. Thoughts and prayers. No words for this! Unimaginable. We’ll get through this together.

Never again? Since then more than a quarter of a century has passed and there have been at least 50 school shootings. Something is terribly wrong here and yet our politicians continue to pay homage to the National Rifle Association because they fear losing their jobs while our students continue to lose their lives. Never again? With Wednesday’s shooting and killing it’s time to ask if there is something wrong with us as a nation, something that needs to be fixed. This doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. We say never again. We send thoughts and prayers. We can’t find words for it, which we shouldn’t. We the people need to act because obviously our political leaders haven’t and won’t.

It’s time to stop with all the platitudes and really try to figure out what is going on. How do we stop this? Why in America? What do we need to change? Instead of everyone picking sides and spouting political nonsense, let’s put our heads together and put an end to this insanity. We are the greatest nation on Earth. We can send people to walk on the moon so we should be able to solve this. It’s past time for saying we can get through this together. It’s high time to say together let’s end this.

Dennis Fendt, Oakdale

Do we have a chance to see a winning game?

I am a senior citizen who has been a Twins baseball fan since 1961. I attend a few games each year and watch almost all the other games on TV.  In my opinion, about a month ago the owners of the Twins made a terrible decision.  Instead of trading three or four players, they traded 10 players.  Did the owners really need the money? Did they even think about their customers who have been supporting them by going to games every year?

My grandson Skylar, who is 21, has been going to games with me since he was 7. At his first game he got to run around the bases after the game. He scored his first pretend run. Now he also watches some of the games on TV with me. In addition, my granddaughter Rayne goes to a couple of games with us. We have a family of nine going to the Twins and New York game on Sept. 16.  Do we have a chance to see a winning game?

DeAnne Cherry, Woodbury