No surge for the red?

I am curious why red state governors Ron Desantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas are not actively inviting an ICE surge into their own states. Both Florida and Texas have 10 times the number of immigrants as Minnesota. Both states have internment camps that detainees could be bused to rather than flown to on commercial airliners. Both have a larger number of residents who might actually support the fascist and unconstitutional practices of masked ICE agents.

The answer to my question is obvious. Desantis and Abbott know all too well the political and economic damage an ICE surge would do to their states. It is far easier for them to promote the false narrative that ICE activity in blue states like Minnesota is making those states and indeed our nation safer. Their hypocrisy is shameful.

Rick Gavin, Eagan

That aroma

I passed by you on the sidewalk today, and didn’t say anything. I sat near you at the coffee shop today. There you were at the mall, close by. When flying to Las Vegas this weekend, I passed by you as I searched for my seat. Your aura, fragrance and aroma, unmistakable. I asked Google to describe:

The smell of marijuana, particularly when it is considered “awful” or overwhelming, is often described as a pungent, skunky, and thick aroma that can trigger feelings of nausea or anxiety. It is notoriously difficult to hide and is frequently described as a mixture of burning rubber, rotting fruit, skunk spray, and damp, stagnant water.

The vast majority of us keep our heads down, hold our breath and pass you by.  I want to take this moment to tell the truth, not to bring you down from your buzz, nor to make you even more paranoid, a side affect of the drug. You stink.

Jerry Wynn, St. Paul

 

You know that voice

Just came home from a post-operative check-in with an eye doctor and was surprised to have been greeted by a cheerful employee leading me to a self-check-in kiosk. It was not too difficult to use the screen, though I did stumble a bit. After all, I am somewhat tech-literate. It struck me as an impersonal interaction, putting a machine between befuddled customer and a wonderful human being. I’ve always enjoyed cajoling, teasing, laughing with the sign-in personnel, and this seemed unnecessarily mechanized.

We all know that what we need right now in these troubled times is caring, personal contact between each other. If efficiency is the kiosk’s purpose, well, consider that it required a person to help me get through the sign-in process anyway, and rather than talking about the weather or whatever, she needed to help an old duffer get through the technology. Maybe others have experienced the dreaded AI voice when calling to make a medical appointment or get some personal help for a medical condition. You know that voice, the one that can’t understand the word “YES!”  This makes me worry about what’s ahead.

Bob Goepel, Little Canada

 

Pawns in a larger war

The feds’ refusal to share information with the state about the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti will prevent a full accounting of what happened. The federal agents who pulled the trigger multiple times should be brought to justice. But even with full cooperation, investigations of those killings would be insufficient.

Triggers don’t get pulled in a vacuum. The agents who killed Good and Pretti are pawns in a larger war to pit Americans against each other.

These agents were put here by a reckless, lawless president for bogus reasons — do these masked ruffians look like they’re rooting out fraud? He armed them with simmering resentment of people with brown skin through dehumanizing and demeaning rhetoric. He empowered them with disdain for the rule of law. They were further egged on by J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller, declaring that federal agents had immunity.

Congressional Republican lemmings, blindly following a self-serving and malicious authoritarian, funded this chaos through the incongruously named One Big Beautiful Bill. Minnesota’s highest ranking lemming, Tom Emmer, has learned to lie and misdirect as proudly as the big boss. Like a good little lemming, he declared that ICE violence is the fault of local leaders.

Words have consequences. Contempt as policy has consequences. Trump and all of his enablers are responsible for Minnesotans’ suffering — including the deaths of Good and Pretti — and should be held accountable.

Rich Cowles, Eagan

 

Parallels

It is hard not to see the parallels between the ending of Baum’s The Wizard of Oz and the current chaotic scenes that play out daily at the White House. Harry Truman is credited for having placed a sign on the Resolute Desk that read, The Buck Stops Here. Unfortunately, as with many of the current resident’s past ventures, the result is bankruptcy, only this time it is of the moral kind. Minor flaws can be overlooked or overcome, but Donald Trump’s flaws are of the deeper and more tragic variety. When Dorothy exposed the Wizard of Oz and his false majesty, she reproached him and called him “a very bad man,” to which he replied, “No my dear, I’m a very good man – just a bad wizard.” And while it is certainly possible for someone to be a good man but a bad president, Trump shows us time and again by his reckless words and his feckless deeds that it is well nigh impossible for a very bad man to be a good president.

John W. Wheeler, Maplewood

Not a verdict on his potential

The Minnesota Vikings are right to pursue an experienced quarterback to serve as QB1 next season. Sam Darnold was never going to remain in Minnesota, and the mistake was not moving on — it was failing to start Daniel Jones as QB1 last season while allowing J.J. McCarthy to develop as QB2. Instead, McCarthy was rushed into a role he was not positioned to succeed in, effectively being asked to lead an offense that was not structurally prepared to support a rookie quarterback.

Evaluating Vikings quarterback play has been difficult dating back to the end of the 2024–25 season, when Darnold was sacked 11 times in his final two games, including nine in the playoff loss to the Rams. That breakdown did not end with that season. In 2025–26, Minnesota’s offensive line ranked approximately 25th to 28th out of 32 NFL teams in pass protection. That level of protection made it harder to evaluate quarterback play based on quarterback performance alone, as even elite passers see their performance and statistics suffer against an unrelenting, unimpeded pass rush.

That reality mattered for every quarterback, but it was especially true for McCarthy, who was effectively navigating his true rookie season. Even so, his final four starts showed progress: a 4–0 record, 64.3% completion rate, 703 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions, and a cumulative passer rating near 95.

Two things can be true at once: the Vikings are right to seek a veteran QB1, and McCarthy should still be viewed as a possible NFL-level quarterback. Rushing his development was a team decision — not a verdict on his potential.

Dennis M Dunnigan, White Bear Lake

 

By SOPHIE AUSTIN

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — More than a dozen states sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its rollback of vaccine recommendations for children, calling the move an illegal threat to public health.

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The states argue that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put children’s lives at risk when it announced last month that it would stop recommending all children get immunized against the flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV. Under the new guidance, which was met with criticism from medical experts, protections against those diseases are recommended only for certain groups deemed high risk or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making.”

The new vaccine recommendations ignore long-standing medical guidance and will make states have to spend more to protect against outbreaks, the states, including Arizona and California, said.

“The health and safety of children across the country is not a political issue,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, at a news conference. “It is not a culture war talking point.”

The CDC and Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit escalates an ongoing battle between Democratic-led states and Republican President Donald Trump’s administration over the federal government’s changes to public health policy under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Trump administration has laid off thousands of workers at federal public health agencies, cut funding for scientific research and altered government guidance on fluoride and other topics.

Kennedy last year ousted every member of a vaccine advisory committee and replaced them with his own picks, which Tuesday’s complaint alleges was unlawful.

FILE – California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court, on Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

The lawsuit comes months after the Democratic governors of California, Washington state and Oregon launched an alliance to establish their own vaccine recommendations. The governors said the Trump administration was risking people’s health by politicizing the CDC.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren, though the CDC’s requirements typically influence state regulations.

It should be obvious by now that Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing for time. His negotiators are dragging out peace talks, making enough conciliatory noises to fend off renewed U.S. pressure while Russian missiles and drones pound Ukraine. If the White House wants to broker a lasting settlement, it’s going to have to make continued war more costly for him.

With Russian forces registering little progress on the front lines, the Kremlin has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Earlier this month, on the eve of negotiations in Abu Dhabi, Russia launched 450 drones and 71 missiles at Ukraine’s energy grid in -20C (-4F) temperatures. Days later, Russia struck again, targeting the high-voltage transmission lines that form the grid’s backbone.

Each strike compounds previous damage. Ukraine’s largest private power producer, DTEK, says roughly 80% of its thermal generating capacity was destroyed or damaged. Those fuel-fired plants, which accounted for roughly two-thirds of Ukraine’s thermal capacity before the war, provide both electricity and district heating. Ukrainians now face not only blackouts but also freezing homes, stalled elevators in tall buildings and disrupted water supplies. Kyiv residents get only a few hours of electricity a day. The city’s mayor says nearly 600,000 people have fled the capital.

The Kremlin’s aim is twofold: to freeze Ukrainian civilians into submission, and to convince the world that Russia’s victory is inevitable and aid to Ukraine merely delays that outcome at needless expense. In fact, after nearly four years of fighting, Russia controls only a fifth of Ukraine’s territory and has made paltry territorial gains since early in the war — at enormous cost. An estimated 1.2 million Russian soldiers have been killed, wounded or are missing. Roughly 40% of federal spending now goes to defense and security, draining Russia’s economy and hollowing out its workforce.

Additional pressure on Putin would have an impact, which is one reason his negotiators are working so assiduously to avert it. Europe has sent emergency generators and relocated an entire thermal power plant from Lithuania to Ukraine. But what’s really needed are additional air-defense systems to protect substations and power plants, as well as more transformers and grid-hardening equipment.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe need to focus on further strangling Russia’s income from oil exports. A bipartisan sanctions bill in the U.S. Senate, targeting buyers such as India and China, would help. So would a proposed new European Union sanctions package, which includes a ban on EU-linked companies providing insurance, repairs, financing and other shipping services to any tanker carrying Russian oil.

After World War II, nations agreed that wars should have limits. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian commanders over strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. While Russia rejects the court’s jurisdiction, attacks on objects indispensable to civilian survival are prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law. The idea that they can bring peace closer is risible. It’s time the U.S. said so.

— The Bloomberg Opinion Editorial Board

 

By DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Central Intelligence Agency offered help to potential informants in Iran on Tuesday, providing Farsi-language instructions on ways to safely contact the U.S. spy agency as President Donald Trump mulls possible military strikes.

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The post is the latest in a series of recruitment pitches in Farsi, Korean, Russian and Mandarin that offered secure ways to contact the CIA. The Farsi-language message posted Tuesday to X, Instagram and YouTube, however, comes at an especially uneasy time in U.S.-Iran relations and as the Iranian theocracy faces new protests at home.

The U.S. has assembled its largest military force in the Mideast in decades as tensions with Iran have risen. Trump threatened military action in January in response to the government’s fierce crackdown on national protests before shifting his focus to Iran’s disputed nuclear program and warning it to make a deal. Another round of nuclear talks is planned for later this week.

In a sign of new unrest in Iran, students held anti-government protests at universities in Tehran on Monday.

“Hello. The Central Intelligence Agency hears you and wants to help,” the agency wrote in the message, according to an English translation. “Here are some tips on how to make a secure virtual call with us.”

The Farsi-language post racked up millions of views within just a few hours.

People drive their motorbikes in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The agency won’t say if earlier recruitment videos have resulted in tips or new sources, but Director John Ratcliffe has said the posts are having an impact.

“Last year, CIA’s Mandarin video campaign reached many Chinese citizens, and we know there are many more searching for a way to improve their lives and change their country for the better,” Ratcliffe said earlier this month when a new Mandarin video was posted.

The CIA’s tips include using a virtual private network, or VPN, to circumvent internet restrictions and surveillance, and the use of a disposable device that can’t easily be traced back to the user. The CIA also urged potential informants to use private web browsers and to delete their internet history to cover their tracks.

Women walk at the shrine of Saint Saleh during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user’s identity. The CIA has also posted similar instructions in Russian.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the new video.

Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report from New York.