Joe Soucheray

A shooter was prone on the roof of a building 200 yards away and fired a single shot, horribly destructive, and then is seen scurrying off the roof and disappears.

Americans are entirely justified in wondering if the murder of Charlie Kirk was a professionally accomplished assassination ordered by who or what we don’t know. I am particularly disbelieving of anything the government tells me.

But it apparently wasn’t that wormhole at all. That was written while I was as feverish as the next person. The people running us must be proud of how frazzled they have us.

We were told during the Joe Biden administration that Joe was fit as a fiddle. He clearly was not. It was all his handlers could do to get Joe to go through the motions. Who was running the country?

Donald Trump was elected a second time and he inherited with his ascendency a re-invigorated Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Trump has to keep fighting off the Epstein connection. Bits and pieces of the so-called Epstein files are dangled before us and then magically withdrawn. If those files are devastating to Epstein’s pals, will we ever know?

Who is running this country? The people we vote for? Increasingly, that doesn’t appear to be likely at all.

And why Charlie Kirk? There are dozens of louder, meaner and more outrageous pundits in the marketplace. Kirk was only 31. Many of the things he said were easy to disagree with and many of the things he said and believed were easy to agree with. That is called having opinions. Opinions are still legal and should not be punished by a sniper with a bolt-action rifle.

About that shooter. Yes, I am aware that the woods will soon be full of hunters who can take a deer from 200 yards. But they can’t and wouldn’t try if there were hundreds and hundreds of people between them and the deer.

We want answers and question number one is: Who is running the country?

The government, or the government we are allowed to know, is doing a miserable job in virtually every aspect of life. If you think of something the government does extremely well, please let me know. We are in a period of maddening moral and ethical decline. We are exampled no character, no morality, no fiscal responsibility – well, except for Congress members who enter Congress supposedly broke and then are suddenly worth millions. We are played like peas under one of three cups and we don’t even know which cup we are under.

We are not safe. We are not secure. We are critically in debt.

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The judicial system is a revolving door. Criminals roam the streets. The once-great cities of America are infested with deadly drugs and theft and assaults, car thefts and shootings. Police departments are short-staffed. Entire downtowns, once the center of commerce, are hollowed out and decaying.

The kids at Annunciation weren’t safe. A Ukrainian immigrant woman wasn’t safe on a train in Charleston, N.C., where she was stabbed to death by a career criminal who should have been in jail. Charlie Kirk wasn’t safe and all he was doing was taking questions on a college campus.

The inevitable answer to all this is just get rid of guns. It’s a lovely wish. Do you trust the government to make that happen? Hell no, that might cost them their place on the third rail, where they lead lives separate from the rest of us.

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.

Amy Lindgren

Second Sunday Series — This is the first of 12 columns on career planning post-60, which will appear the second Sunday of each month from September through August.

I’m excited to introduce my Second Sunday topic for the coming year, which is career planning for your 60s and beyond.

Nope, not kidding. It’s an issue I’ve been deeply passionate about since writing my first guide for “older workers” more than 30 years ago. Why? It’s all about demographics. Having been born on the tail end of the baby boom, I’ve been part of a crowd ever since I toddled into my kindergarten class jammed with 30 other kids.

The pile-up continued throughout my growing up years, which helped me develop a keen instinct for finding opportunities — a lucky skill to have when graduating with a horde into the terrible recession of the early 1980s.

Of course our group has been aging out, retiring or dying as any group does. But when you start with so many, there are an awful lot left. Advances in health care and personal wellness have played their part, meaning we’re more vital than previous generations were at our age.

Which brings us back to this Second Series topic. The key factoid: Although 11,000 people a day turn 65 in the United States, not everyone plans to retire. Whether it’s finances or temperament or something else propelling them, a significant number express the desire to work into their 70s, 80s and even beyond.

The conundrum? If you’re one of these senior workers, or expect to be, you’ll need a career path that accommodates who you are now — physically, mentally, emotionally and financially — and who you might be in five, 10 or 15 years as those factors shift.

The challenge is intensified by a rapidly shifting economy. For the first time in generations, the stability of Social Security is uncertain. Because this comes at a time when few workers have access to pensions (and may have tapped their 401ks), career planning for the post-60 crowd takes on a certain urgency.

Market disrupters such as artificial intelligence, tariff policies and immigration uncertainties also play a role (although those might be navigated more easily by some according to their work).

These are daunting points but they needn’t become actual barriers. The real barrier is one of attitude, for both workers and potential employers. If either side believes that advanced age creates automatic deficits in capability, it’s hard to imagine an employment match.

The idea that one can’t work, or can’t find work, at this stage may have some historical truth but it was never entirely true. We all know older individuals employed in their 70s, 80s or beyond. These stories still get reported as “Holy cow!” features in the media, but they’re far from rare.

I mean that as an observation, not as a way to pooh-pooh the issue of age discrimination. Of course age bias is real — but perhaps cogent observations can dispel the idea that it’s all-pervasive. If some senior workers can find positions, others can too. It’s the question of “how” that we need to strategize.

Here too, demographics, policy and market forces may play a role, this time to seniors’ advantage. As the demographics reverse, smaller labor pools are available and more creativity is needed by employers to build a team.

Among the policy gains, baby boomers are reaping benefits from the Americans with Disabilities Act and the hard work of disability advocates in terms of workplaces that are less physically demanding. With better accommodations overall, seniors have better options for staying on the job longer.

Accounting for these and other factors tells me this could be the best time ever for a robust senior workforce in America.

But it’s not a “gimme” — these opportunities won’t just tumble into our laps. As ever, career planning is the responsibility of the worker, even when it’s happening in somewhat uncharted territory.

And, while I do worry about threats to Medicare and Social Security, eligibility for these supports still gives seniors a significant boost in career planning. Taken together, the two programs free older workers for the flexible opportunities often available with smaller companies or nonprofits with traditionally lower pay. Self-employment also takes on new potential when health care and a base income are available.

Have I got your attention? Join me on this year of discovery. Whether you’re a senior now or just looking out for the future, I think you’ll enjoy seeing what could be possible.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

Gophers tailback Darius Taylor is considered “doubtful” to play against California on Saturday night, according to ESPN.

The junior from Detroit appeared to injury his right hamstring early in the 66-0 win over Northwestern State last weekend and didn’t return to the nonconference blowout at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The official injury report will come out two hours before the 9:30 p.m. CDT kickoff at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.

With Taylor unexpected to play, Minnesota will use a group of running backs against the Golden Bears, according to reporter Pete Thamel.

Touches are expected to be shared between Marshall transfer A.J Turner, Washington transfer Cam Davis and redshirt freshman Fame Ijeboi. Through two games, Turner has rushed 12 times for 49 yards and one touchdown, Ijeboi has seven for 51 and Davis has six for 25 and one score.

Minnesota has been a 2.5-point favorite over Cal since betting lines opened Sunday.

The Gophers are off next weekend, which might give Taylor an added week to recover before the Big Ten opener against Rutgers on Sept. 27.

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By JESSICA DAMIANO

If the wait for bulbs to bloom in spring seems excruciatingly long, you can pot some up now and enjoy a floriferous winter indoors.

Gardeners are constantly gaming the system, using fertilizers to force plants to direct energy toward more blooms, more fruit or faster growth; starting seeds indoors to ensure earlier tomatoes; and using row covers or cold frames to extend the season. So why not bend nature’s schedule to gift ourselves some joy during the bleakness of January?

That is, after all, what professional growers do to fill all those pastel-foil-wrapped pots of tulips and daffodils sold as Easter plants.

All you need are clay pots, potting mix, ordinary spring bulbs and some patience.

How to do it

Fill pots with the mix, then set grape or standard hyacinth, tulip, daffodil or crocus bulbs — or a combination — just beneath the surface. (Tulip bulbs should be angled with their flat sides facing outward so that their eventual leaves unfurl over the container’s edge.)

Store the pots at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit for four to six weeks to ensure good root establishment, and water regularly to keep the soil slightly moist. An unheated basement or attached garage could serve well, depending on your location.

Then prepare for the deception.

For the bulbs to bloom, you’ll have to convince them that they’ve lived through winter. You can achieve this by placing the pots in the refrigerator (away from fruit, which releases ethylene gas that inhibits sprouting) for 12 weeks.

If you find yourself growing impatient, you can remove them from the fridge after six weeks, but they will take longer to bloom.

And if you’re feeling creative, take one pot out at the six-week mark, then remove another every couple of weeks. You’ll be rewarded with a succession of blooms that will last through winter.

This March 17, 2024, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows forced spring bulbs for sale in Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

After the chilling period, move the pots into the warmth and light of your living space, where they’ll grow and bloom in as little as two weeks. If you live in a frost-free region, you can even plant the chilled bulbs outdoors.

Aside from water, the plants won’t require anything from you, as bulbs contain all the stored energy and nutrients they need to survive and thrive.

When the danger of frost has passed, you can move your plants into the garden. Tulips may not reappear next year — that’s a gamble with nothing to lose — but you can expect daffodils, crocus and hyacinths to bloom again alongside their bedmates.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.