12 Jun 2024

Shooting in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen kills man

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A man was killed in an early morning shooting in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen area.

Police responded to the 800 block of East Maryland Avenue just after 1:30 a.m. on reports of shots fired and someone having been shot, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman.

Officers found a man with multiple gunshot injuries and St. Paul Fire Department medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Police searched the area for possible suspects, whom they didn’t find, Ernster said. The police department has been looking for evidence and witnesses, and investigators are working to determine what happened and who is responsible.

Investigators are asking anyone with information to call them at 651-266-5650.

The police department plans to release the victim’s name after the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office confirms his identity.

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12 Jun 2024

2024 Bush Fellows include six from St. Paul, Ramsey and Washington counties

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A few years before losing her mother and grandmother, Jouapag Lee teamed with five other like-minded professionals to talk about healing from traumas — both recent and historical — in the Hmong refugee community. One member of the Hmong Healers Collective was a substance abuse counselor. Another was a spiritual energy healer. The year was 2019, and little did they expect that the pandemic — which had a disproportionate impact on Hmong families — would offer plenty of lessons about grief, loss and recovery against the backdrop of a national wave of anti-Asian hate.

Jouapag Lee. (Courtesy of the Bush Foundation)

Then, in 2022, her mother and grandmother died within months of each other, shortly before the birth of her second child, opening up for her an even more personal understanding. Lee now hopes to expand her trauma studies, in part by learning from Jewish communities in the Netherlands and an indigenous community in Australia, an effort made possible with financial support from the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation.

The foundation has selected 24 fellows from a pool of nearly 600 applicants to receive funding for two-year leadership awards. The fellows, including six from St. Paul and Ramsey and Washington counties, hail from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share the same geography.

The 24 award winners will each receive up to $100,000 to fund their education and other grant-supported pursuits in their desired field. Fellows were selected through a review process that included interviews and mentoring sessions with community leaders, Bush Fellow alumni and Bush Foundation staff.

Counseling, healthcare and cultural growth

Several of the recipients have ties to counseling, healthcare and cultural growth.

“As folks are working one-on-one with individual clients, they start seeing the need for systemic and community collective change, and the Bush Fellowship is oftentimes for folks who work in the healthcare field to start working on the collective level,” Lee noted.

Archibald “Archie” Bush, a Duluth bookkeeper with the company that would grow to be known as 3M, founded the foundation in 1953 with his wife, Edyth Bush. The foundation was set up with few restrictions, with the goal that board members would have flexibility to address changing needs of the day over time.

“I’m still kind of in shock,” said Bush Fellow awardee Trahern Crews, the chair of the St. Paul Recovery Act Community Reparations Commission. “This is is surreal.”

Among the 24 award winners:

Mari Avaloz. (Courtesy of the Bush Foundation)

Mari Avaloz of St. Paul: After her sister — for whom she was primary caregiver — died of ovarian cancer in 2019, Avaloz wanted to make it her mission to help other Latin families navigate healthcare systems while dealing with barriers like language, documentation and familiarity with the industry. She plans to use her Bush Fellowship to enroll in an intensive Spanish immersion program, obtain a graduate social work license, learn from other healthcare leaders working in the cancer field and the Latin community, and complete courses related to her own leadership in healthcare. Avaloz has been employed by St. Olaf College for 23 years, including more than a decade as director of its TRIO/Upward Bound program, and holds a master’s degree in clinical social work from the University of St. Thomas.

Adrean Clark. (Courtesy of the Bush Foundation)

Adrean Clark of St. Paul: As a deaf author and illustrator, Clark found few places where American Sign Language-speaking deaf artists could publish their works. She co-founded a publishing company to showcase the work of other sign language speakers and established an online dictionary for written ASL that eventually became known as the “ASLwrite” method. With her Bush Fellowship, she plans to pursue her doctorate at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and expand her research on how ASL is represented on paper. She has published several books, and shares her comics and zines at adreanaline.com.

Trahern Crews. (Courtesy of the Bush Foundation)

Trahern Crews of St. Paul: Crews, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, has been a vocal advocate for Black Minnesotans, an effort that gained greater attention after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis, at the hands of a Minneapolis Police officer. With Crews acting as co-chair, the St. Paul City Council established a legislative advisory committee on the subject of recovery and reparations for institutionalized and structural racism. Based on the work of the committee, the city council in 2023 then established the St. Paul Recovery Act Community Reparations Commission, which he chairs. Crews, who recently joined a national network of reparations commissioners, plans to use his award to connect Black Lives Matter Minnesota to similar efforts in other states, as well as enroll in college courses and training in public speaking through Toastmasters and other opportunities.

Jouapag Lee of Roseville: Inspired by her upbringing as the eldest of five children of Hmong refugee parents, Lee became a founding member of the Hmong Healers Collective to share practices for healing within her community. She hopes to create what she described as a “culturally grounded space for Hmong American millennials to learn the histories of oppression and trauma and explore what collective healing could look like in their community.” She will use her Bush Fellowship to obtain a trauma-informed coaching certificate through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and St. Catherine University, strengthen her written Hmong language skills, work with a coach to develop sustainable business practices, and travel with her father, husband and children to Laos and Thailand to further connect with her Hmong roots. She is program evaluator with the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and former employee of LISC and the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood.

Kasim Abdur Razzaq. (Courtesy of the Bush Foundation)

Kasim Abdur Razzaq of St. Paul: As both a mental health counselor and a Black Muslim male, Razzaq has long focused on topics seemingly taboo in the communities he travels. The importance of mental health is often disregarded in his circles, so he focuses on giving other Black males and Muslims the language to describe their personal experiences in a context rooted in culture. He plans to use his Bush Fellowship to focus on his own health practices and build capacity to support more Black mental health professionals.

May Lee Xiong of Cottage Grove is a 2024 recipient of the Bush Fellowship. (Courtesy of the Bush Foundation)

May Lee Xiong of Cottage Grove: Xiong grew up in Minnesota feeling disconnected from her Hmong culture, but later gained inspiration from the stories she was exposed to about her immigrant parents and their journey to America. She went on to help co-create the Hmong Studies and Hmong Dual Language programs at Phalen Elementary School in St. Paul. With her Bush Fellowship, she said she will seek ways to deepen her understanding of language revitalization and “build her skills to advocate for transformative changes in public education.”

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12 Jun 2024

Bruce Yandle: From the Boston Tea Party to today’s targeted tariffs: What happened?

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For a nation with roots in a rambunctious 1773 Boston Tea Party protesting British tariffs, it’s odd to see both major-party White House contenders trying to outdo each other with promises of tariffs. We’ve come a long way from the first Independence Day, which was sparked by a fundamental notion that a representative democracy would enable Americans to plot their own destiny, economic and otherwise.

Eager Boston patriots, we know, had something much bigger than the price of tea in mind: taxation without representation. The resulting revolution delivered a new order under heaven — a democracy — promising life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And democracy, despite being one of humankind’s prized inventions, does leave open the opportunity for special interests to gain at the expense of other, less adept, members of the body politic.

The latest proposed tariffs — import taxes, in truth, that we pay — will put even more limits on the flow of computer chips, batteries, solar panels and steel. They also prevent Americans from accessing $10,000 electric vehicles (yes, $10,000!) and hybrids capable of traveling more than 1,000 miles on a full tank and charge.

Yes, these vehicles are produced in China, but they’re on the road and heading out of factories. Just not here. Of course, China is in many respects an adversary and tariffs are viewed as a geopolitical tool. But if it’s quite so simple, why target EVs and chips? Chinese imports are everywhere; why not hit a much broader range and really sock it to them? As always, there’s more to the story.

While we always see through a glass darkly when trying to understand political workings, Mancur Olson’s 1965 seminal work, “The Logic of Collective Action,” offers clarity. Political efforts to pass out pork tend to be most successful when the largesse goes to members of relatively small, highly organized interest groups and the costs are spread across a vast number of consumers.

The unorganized consumers — making livings, raising families, focused on top-line political concerns — are “rationally ignorant” about much of what their government is doing. Who has time to read Federal Register notices? That means they’re mostly unaware that life is more expensive because tariffs are imposed on imports or tax dollars are doled to those who control money, votes or lobbyists.

Look again at the Chinese electric vehicles. The new $10,000 model, produced by the firm BYD, has not yet been sold in America, and thus, the proposed 100% tariff doesn’t really affect what we think of as the price of vehicles.

When asked, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen explained: “They’re very carefully targeted at sectors that we’re supporting through legislation that President Biden passed with Congress, the clean energy sector, semiconductors, sectors where we consider it critical to create good jobs.” Put another way, U.S. automakers and unions should love the targeted tariffs, and consumers won’t know what’s happening.

Does that mean functionally blocking a product that consumers might love to access has no effect? Of course not; it’s just harder to see on paper. Currently, the Congressional Budget Office is required to assess the effects of most of Congress’ new laws. The Joint Committee on Taxation analyzes tax changes. Shouldn’t a president be required to provide the public with a full economic assessment for tariffs?

That might help give us a fair ledger. One side would show how Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s love affair with selecting and blocking competitive products from abroad benefits organized interests. These might include the United Auto Workers (380,000 members strong in 2023) and the “Big Three” automakers (which produced 10 million vehicles). It may also include portions of the U.S. auto and steel industries who have joined hands with UAW to put pressure on Canada to duplicate U.S. tariffs on China.

The other side of the ledger would show how all these new, targeted tariffs affect a far-larger collection of people who, by and large, don’t know what they’re missing.

Of course, we ordinary, unorganized Americans will learn to pursue happiness inside the tariff walls, while politicians and special interest groups smile as they gain office and go to the bank. But if the Founders were around to see this, I suspect they’d suggest some ways to require accountability to We The People.

Bruce Yandle is a distinguished adjunct fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, dean emeritus of the Clemson University College of Business & Behavioral Science, and a former executive director of the Federal Trade Commission. He wrote this column for Tribune News Service.

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12 Jun 2024

Trudy Rubin: I am in Ukraine to see if the war vs. Russia is still winnable

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ODESA, Ukraine — On my way to Europe on Thursday, I watched a video of an emotional exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a 99-year-old World War II veteran in a wheelchair during ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy, France.

The vet whipped off his hat, embraced the Ukrainian leader in a bear hug, and exclaimed: “You’re the savior of the people. You’re my hero. I pray for you.” Zelenskyy, clearly moved, retorted: “No, you are our hero. You saved Europe.”

Perhaps only a veteran of the battle against the Nazis can fully understand the danger to Western democracies of permitting an expansionist dictator like Russia’s Vladimir Putin to get away with gobbling up territory in Europe.

Yet, the West may still let that happen.

So, I’ve come to Ukraine — via neighboring Moldova, since no civilian airports are operational in the country — and will continue on to Kyiv, the eastern front, and Kharkiv. All with a specific goal: to assess whether Kyiv can still win the war against Russian invaders. I still believe the answer is yes — followed by a big if.

Meantime …

Meantime, here in beautiful, historic Odesa, I’m waiting to hear the missile alert.

Russia fires drones and projectiles nightly into the port city to try to prevent Ukraine from exporting grain that is badly needed in Africa. Ukrainian cities are enduring rolling blackouts as Moscow targets the energy grid, so Odesa has already gone dark, although hotels and a few cafés operate on generators.

No one can be certain those drones won’t also target civilian apartments, or, as I witnessed a year ago, destroy a spectacular Orthodox church in the city center. The past several months have been a gloomy time for Ukrainians. Russia took full advantage of the six-month, Trump-imposed delay in Congress on approving a new military aid package for Kyiv. Soldiers on the front often faced Russian artillery that had a 10-1 ammunition advantage.

The lack of weapons — and some Ukrainian military errors — enabled Russian troops to break through around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which sits only about 20 miles from the Russian border. Moscow’s missiles deliberately target civilian buildings in Kharkiv — the normal mode of Kremlin warfare.

The Russian charge so unnerved the White House that it has finally permitted Ukraine to use precision U.S.-made missiles to attack Russian firing sites just across the border. Kyiv has pushed the Russians back, but could have saved lives had this permission come sooner.

“We lost many people, soldiers, and civilians,” I was told by Ukrainian parliament member Oleksiy Goncharenko, “and that is difficult for us.”

Similarly, had NATO nations provided Ukraine with the U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems it has begged for since 2022, it could have warded off Russia’s current destruction of Ukraine’s power grid. As it stands, next winter may be hell.

Seven more Patriot systems could protect those cities — in addition to the two donated barely a year ago by Germany and the U.S. that now help shield Kyiv. NATO allies together reportedly possess at least 100 Patriot systems. Yet, so far, only Germany has offered to cough up one more.

Ukraine’s success depends heavily on whether the Biden administration finally adopts a strategy for victory, rather than the current reactive response of providing piecemeal aid “too little, too late” that at best provides an unsustainable stalemate. It further depends on whether Donald Trump wins the election and does what he’s said he will do: cut off military aid to Ukraine unless it effectively capitulates to Putin.

What Ukraine must do itself

Yet, the answer will also hinge on things Ukraine must do itself.

The beleaguered country needs to reform the structure and management of its military and develop a workable conscription system to provide desperately needed manpower.

It also needs to sustain the incredible level of military innovations generated by its army of talented techies — many of whom joined up as soon as Russia invaded. That has given Kyiv an edge over the Russians, but they are catching up with help from Iran, North Korea, and China.

On this trip, I want to learn how Ukraine intends to scale up its production of drones, sustain military morale, and keep up the amazing level of civilian volunteerism that has backed up the army in the face of uncertain U.S. politics. I want to see firsthand why most Ukrainians consider this an existential war that can’t be settled by negotiations until Putin no longer believes he can win.

Russia’s deliberate war crimes

My visit will take me to Kyiv and the eastern front lines to witness the latest war crimes Putin has wreaked on civilians in defenseless cities, towns, and villages. These Russian war crimes are carried out deliberately, not as “collateral damage” of war. This is part of Putin’s genocidal — and imperial — goal: to force Ukraine to accept the end of its existence as a sovereign state.

I hope to interview escapees from the territories Moscow has occupied since 2022 and claims to have annexed. There, the Kremlin has reportedly forbidden the use of the Ukrainian language, the existence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and any celebration of Ukrainian culture. It is indoctrinating children to believe there is no such country as Ukraine, and that anyone who protests is tortured, killed, or deported to prisons inside Russia.

This is the stuff of the worst days of the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain. It is important for Americans to understand the ambitions of a dictator who wants to rebuild an extensive Russian empire.

I also hope to interview soldiers near the front lines and around Kharkiv about the impact on morale from the six-month delay of U.S. weapons and the worry about future U.S. abandonment. Is ammunition finally arriving?

Americans don’t realize what a tremendous partner Ukraine would be if and when it is admitted to NATO, having battled the massive Russian army over two years to a standstill. That was before the unreliable American political system enabled recent Russian territorial gains.

In addition, I want to look at areas where the Ukrainian military has brilliantly succeeded, such as the production of many new varieties of drones that have reshaped the modern battlefield. I hope to see some private drone production operations and learn about efforts to scale them up with help from their government and from Western allies. I’ve heard NATO officials joke that Ukraine’s army is now the most sophisticated in Europe and that U.S. military officials are learning from its experience.

I also want to talk to Ukrainian security experts on their theory of winning. One key is undoubtedly using Ukrainian drones, along with newly arrived U.S. long-range missiles, to isolate Russian-occupied Crimea and make Moscow’s troop presence there untenable.

I will be attending a conference on Black Sea security in Odesa that will look at the options for retaking Crimea, as well as continuing Kyiv’s amazing success in driving Russian ships out of the Black Sea with sea drones and missiles. They have opened a corridor through which Ukraine can continue grain exports vital to the world, even though Ukraine does not have a navy.

“The Black Sea is the key to the war,” said Goncharenko, whose district is in the Odesa region. “The Black Sea controls the future of Odesa and all of southern Ukraine. We can continue to degrade them in Crimea. But we are losing time, and every week, the possibilities are diminishing.”

If Washington had given Kyiv long-range ATACMS a year ago, instead of just recently, Crimea might now be under Ukrainian control. This is the theme that sticks in my mind as I arrive in Ukraine.

As long as Putin thinks he’s winning …

Whether Kyiv can drive Russian soldiers out of every inch of occupied territory, there is no chance to negotiate so long as Putin thinks he is winning. And Crimea remains the best place to deal Putin a symbolic and strategic blow that would force him to reconsider the continuation of the war.

At a time when Western allies have just celebrated the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, the prelude to a triumph of democracies over evil, it is time for the White House to develop a theory of victory that enables Kyiv to do likewise — and for the GOP and Trump to stop aiding Putin.

As former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst told me: “Absolutely, Ukraine can still win, but it depends especially on the United States. If we arm them properly, it would make it very hard for Putin to supply Crimea. What is necessary to open a way forward is a major defeat for Putin that is seen by the entire world.”

At this perilous and decisive time, I am glad to be in Ukraine.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for The Philadelphia Inquirer, P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Her email address is trubin@phillynews.com.

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