By STEVE PEOPLES and FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden returns to the national stage Tuesday to elevate liberal concerns that President Donald Trump’s agenda is threatening the health of Social Security.

The 82-year-old Democrat has largely avoided speaking publicly since leaving the White House in January. That’s even as Trump frequently blames Biden for many of the nation’s problems, often attacking his predecessor by name.

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Biden is expected to fight back in an early evening speech to the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago. While Biden has made a handful of public appearances in recent weeks, Tuesday’s high-profile address focuses on a critical issue for tens of millions of Americans that could define next year’s midterm elections.

“As bipartisan leaders have long agreed, Americans who retire after paying into Social Security their whole lives deserve the vital support and caring services they receive,” said Rachel Buck, executive director of the ACRD. “We are thrilled the president will be joining us to discuss how we can work together for a stable and successful future for Social Security.”

Trump almost immediately began slashing the government workforce upon his return to the White House, including thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration.

Along with a planned layoff of 7,000 workers and controversial plans to impose tighter identity-proofing measures for recipients, the SSA has been sued over a decision to allow Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access individuals’ Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information.

Musk, the world’s richest man and one of Trump’s most influential advisers, has called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

At the same time, Social Security recipients have complained about long call wait times as the agency’s “my Social Security” benefits portal has seen an increase in outages. Individuals who receive Supplemental Security Income, including disabled seniors and low-income adults and children, also reported receiving a notice that said they were “not receiving benefits.”

The agency said the notice was a mistake. And the White House has vowed that it would not cut Social Security benefits, saying any changes are intended to reduce waste and fraud.

Biden will be joined in Chicago by a bipartisan group of former elected officials, including former Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and former Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley.

“Social Security is a sacred promise between generations,” O’Malley said. “We are deeply grateful to the President for joining us at ACRD to discuss how we can keep that promise for all Americans.”

Biden is not expected to make frequent public appearances as he transitions into his post-presidency. He still maintains an office in Washington, but has returned to Delaware as his regular home base. Trump has revoked his security clearances.

While Biden may be in position to help his party with fundraising and messaging, he left the White House with weak approval ratings. Biden also faces blame from some progressives who argue he shouldn’t have sought a second term. Biden ended his reelection bid after his disastrous debate performance against Trump and made way for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in the fall.

Just 39% of Americans had a favorable opinion of Biden in January, according to a Gallup poll taken shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

Views of the Democratic former president were essentially unchanged from a Gallup poll taken shortly after the November election. They broadly track with the steadily low favorability ratings that Biden experienced throughout the second half of his presidential term.

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A second U.S. aircraft carrier is operating in Mideast waters ahead of the next round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, satellite photos analyzed Tuesday by The Associated Press showed.

The operation of the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group in the Arabian Sea comes as suspected U.S. airstrikes pounded parts of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels overnight into Tuesday. American officials repeatedly have linked the U.S.’ monthlong campaign against the Houthis under President Donald Trump as a means to pressure Iran in the negotiations.

Questions remain over where the weekend talks between the countries will be held after officials initially identified Rome as hosting the negotiations, only for Iran to insist early Tuesday they would return to Oman. American officials so far haven’t said where the talks will be held.

The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

But even Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly described the first round of talks as going “well,” even while still couching his remarks Tuesday.

U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who represented America in last weekend’s talks in Oman, separately signaled that the Trump administration may be looking at terms of the 2015 nuclear deal that the president unilaterally withdrew from in 2018 as a basis for these negotiations. He described the talks last weekend as “positive, constructive, compelling.”

“This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program, and then ultimately verification on weaponization,” Witkoff told Fox News on Monday night. “That includes missiles, the type of missiles that they have stockpiled there. And it includes the trigger for a bomb.”

He added: “We’re here to see if we can solve this situation diplomatically and with dialogue.”

Vinson joins Truman as second US aircraft carrier in Mideast

Satellite photos taken Monday by the European Union’s Copernicus program showed the Vinson, which is based out of San Diego, California, operating northeast of Socotra, an island off Yemen that sits near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. The Vinson is accompanied by the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the USS Sterett and the USS William P. Lawrence.

The U.S. ordered the Vinson to the Mideast to back up the USS Harry S. Truman, which has been launching airstrikes against the Houthis since the American campaign started March 15. Footage released by the Navy showed the Vinson preparing ordinance and launching F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets off its deck in recent days.

The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which oversees the Mideast, declined to discuss details of the Vinson’s operations. However, hours after the AP’s report, the U.S. military’s Central Command posted videos from the two carriers on the social platform X saying there had been “24/7 strikes” on the Houthis by the two carriers.

Khamenei responds

The Vinson’s arrival came as Khamenei, while speaking to high-ranking government officials in Tehran on Tuesday, endorsed the progress of the talks.

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting with a group of top officials, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

“We are neither radically optimistic about the talks nor radically pessimistic about the talks,” the 85-year-old Khamenei said, according to Iranian state television. However, he said the talks had been “implemented well in the first steps” and that Iran remained “pessimistic” about America.

He also urged officials “not to tie the country’s affairs” to the talks, which are scheduled to have a second round on Saturday.

The “red lines are quite clear for us and the other side,” he added.

Witkoff suggests 3.67% uranium enrichment for Iran

Meanwhile, Witkoff offered for the first time a specific enrichment level he’d like to see for Iran’s nuclear program. Today, Tehran enriches uranium to up to 60% — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

“They do not need to enrich past 3.67%,” Witkoff told Fox News. “In some circumstances, they’re at 60%, in other circumstances, 20%. That cannot be.

“And you do not need to run, as they claim, a civil nuclear program where you’re enriching past 3.67%. So this is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program, and then ultimately verification on weaponization.”

The 2015 nuclear deal Iran agreed to with world powers under President Barack Obama saw Tehran agree to drastically reduce its stockpile of uranium and only enrich up to 3.67% — enough for its nuclear power plant at Bushehr. Iran in exchange received access to frozen funds around the world, and sanctions were lifted on its crucial oil industry and other sectors.

Iran’s Javan newspaper, which is believed to be close to its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, suggested in an editorial Tuesday that Tehran would be open to reducing its enrichment.

“Something that we have done before, why should we not carry it again and reach a deal?” the editorial asked. “This is not called a withdrawal by Islamic Republic from its ideals anywhere in the world.”

When Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, however, he pointed at Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile as one reason to leave the deal. Witkoff said any deal with Iran would have to include “missiles, the type of missiles that they have stockpiled there and it includes the trigger for a bomb.”

Iran relies on its ballistic missiles as a hedge against regional nations armed with advanced fighter jets and other American weaponry. Getting it to abandon its missile program likely will be difficult in negotiations.

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In St. Paul’s Midway, the long, nearly cart-less winter of every Cub customer’s discontent is finally over.

After weeks, if not months, of complaints about what appeared to be a near-complete lack of supermarket carts, the Cub at 1440 University Ave. W. recently rolled out dozens of the highly-in-demand wheeled wonders, which had dwindled down to little short of collector’s items. During the dry spell, the few customers who had scored carts would be approached by customers who had not as they bagged their groceries, leading to an awkward exchange near the cash register that looked a bit like panhandling.

Similar acts of desperation between the cart-wielding haves and cart-less have-nots unfolded in the supermarket lobby and parking lot.

“When I went shopping … I still couldn’t find a cart, and on the way out of the store an employee followed me to my car,” wrote a customer on Facebook on March 21. “That was kind of creepy. He wanted my cart, obviously.”

As winter wore on, customers approached store management for explanations and tried to find their way up the chain of command from there. Based in Providence, R.I., United Natural Foods, Inc. acquired Eden Prairie-based SuperValu, Inc., parent company to Cub, in 2018. On Feb. 14, a customer shared on Facebook a response from a store manager indicating that a concerned community member dropped off dozens of carts, and that Cub was looking to its sister store in Stillwater for more.

Still, the shortage continued.

The lean times fueled social media speculation that Cub did not intend to renew its lease in the Midway, a rumor that resurfaces online every few months, driven in part by Cub’s decisions in recent years to close its self check-out lanes and burrito bar and place cold medicine and other pharmacy items behind locked glass. Store managers and employees repeatedly denied that’s the case. Other rumors had it that the carts could be found at a nearby homeless encampment, or strewn about the Midway.

“I don’t typically delve into conspiracy theories, but I find myself fully immersed in this one,” wrote Don Allen on his blog, JournalOfABlackTeacher.Blogspot.com, on April 2. “The Cub Foods on University Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, situated in the vibrant heart of Midway, has been eerily devoid of shopping carts for over a month now. How can you shop on a Sunday after church and not have a cart — and only two cashier lanes open?”

Another Facebook user wrote on March 30: “Just went to Midway Cub Foods around 11:30 this morning. No carts in the entry. No carts in the parking lot. Self checkout no longer being used. One checkout line open! Felt like a store on the verge of closure! Anyone hear or know if this location is closing?”

Wrote yet another Facebook user on April 1: “None of this would fly in neighborhoods with different demographics.”

Promising signs of grocery life have finally blossomed with the first buds of spring. In the past week, the Midway Cub has added more than 100 carts to replenish its stash, which a spokesperson said were pruned by cart scofflaws.

“At our location on University Avenue in St. Paul, we have encountered some issues with community members removing carts from our parking lot and not returning them,” said Kristen Jimenez, a spokesperson for United Natural Foods, Inc., or UNFI, in an email last Friday. “To address this, we recently added 100+ new shopping carts to this store’s inventory and are also working with the mayor’s office and our local police department to find ways to reduce theft of shopping carts as much as possible.”

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The circus act

My eyes were rolling to the back of my head as I struggled reading through the April 9 article detailing the issues of St. Paul’s rent-control ordinance. What a mess the voters of this city created by passing this ordinance back in 2021. This issue is further complicated now by these same voters having elected an incompetent mayor and city council, who are trying to figure out a way to attract investment while at the same time handcuffing landlords. What large developer or small businessperson would want to try to navigate through all the potential legal hurdles facing them as investors or landlords?

There are over a dozen newly proposed tenant protections noted in the article that are being sponsored by several city council members, as the mayor tries to scale back the rent control fiasco that he helped create. If you read the newly proposed tenant protections, the summary is a landlord must be able to stand on one leg while dancing a jig, juggling knives and reciting the alphabet backward. If they can accomplish the above, maybe, just maybe, they won’t get sued.

This circus act will continue to have a long run in downtown St. Paul until voters come to their senses and elect representatives with business sense and not community activists.

Kevin J. Kelly, St. Paul

 

What and who can we trust?

I read the recent article on the Stillwater teacher situation (“Four Stillwater teachers suspended for cheating on training program”). As a former high school teacher and adjunct professor what strikes me is the potential lack of ethics and integrity. Why that matters?  In our new world of AI, it matters greatly.

What and who can we trust? According to your article the union is characterizing this as miscommunication about the test being open-book and collaborative. I did a search and the test is neither open-book nor collaborative. The union saying that it is, that’s just disingenuous at best and casts a dark cloud over the profession.

But in the new world of AI teachers have to know and teach the right moral and ethical standards. There’s a bigger story here about our society and where we are headed.  Or perhaps, maybe we have arrived.

Burgess Harrison, St. Paul

 

‘Boys will be boys’

I read with interest “Tariffs expose rift in Trump’s inner circle of advisors” (Pioneer Press April 9 edition). This story covers the rancorous recent exchanges between Trump’s lead lieutenant Elon Musk and his top trade advisor Peter Navarro. (It may be remembered that Navarro is a devout Trump loyalist who went to jail rather than testify before the January 6 Committee.) Musk posted on X that Navarro is a “moron” who is “dumber than a sack of bricks.” He later referred to Navarro with a disgusting and childish slur, “Peter Retarrdo.”

As the story relates, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed the exchange, saying “Boys will be boys…” This is the first instance in which I have agreed with Leavitt; this country is indeed being run by children.

Peter Langworthy, St. Paul

 

Malfunction

Tariffs are put on hold. But tariffs don’t even begin to address the mess Trump and his administration have made for the American people. What about the people laid off? What about the people deported illegally? What about the United States’ relations with the rest of the world? What about what has been done to the disenfranchised? What about food prices? What about the harm done to businesses, farmers and everyday workers? What about the grants to colleges, schools, universities, researchers and others? And on and on …

So great, my 401K looked better than it did yesterday. There are too many people hurting to feel good about that. Just removing tariffs is nothing compared to all the damage that has been done by an uncaring malfunctioning administration.

Judy Horn, Lake Elmo

 

A cruel hoax

Donald Trump handed Joe Biden an economy that was predicted to lead to a recession in Biden’s term. A recession never came to fruition and the economy grew by virtually all measures save inflation. The Wall Street Journal and The Economist touted the health of the Biden economy, saying the winner of the 2024 election would be inheriting a healthy economy, one that was the envy of the world. The Wall Street Journal went further, judging Kamala Harris’ economic plan for the next four years to be far superior to Trump’s proposal.

What we have seen so far from Donald Trump is reminiscent of the first term where he left office adding to our national debt by trillions of dollars. His promise to correct inflation and end the Ukrainian-Russian War have not come to fruition, but he has rattled the tariff sword to where he has tanked Wall Street investments to the tune of a $6 trillion dollar loss. His DOGE cuts have caused additional pain to American’s lives in the name of efficiency. He is unlikely to find the kind of money he is looking for needed to pay for his tax plan that is designed, at its heart, to benefit the wealthiest individuals and companies in America. What kind of cruel, self-inflicted, economic hoax has he unleashed?

Pete Boelter, North Branch

 

Representing the people, not the president

A letter writer rightly criticizes the Trump Administration’s refusal to return a man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison.  However, the writer goes on to say this: “Attorney General Pam Bondi cannot be faulted in suspending (Department of Justice attorney) Reuveni” for admitting in court that the deportation was a mistake. “Short of breaking the law and possibly being unethical, attorneys have an obligation to support their clients …”.

The problem is, Donald Trump is not the client of the Department of Justice. The American people are the clients of the DOJ. Trump would like you to believe that the DOJ works for him, but it doesn’t.  Under our Constitution, the sovereign is the people, not the president. The Congress represents the sovereign, i.e. the people, in the laws it enacts. The president, and agencies within the executive branch including the DOJ, are tasked with executing those laws, and the courts are charged with interpreting those laws, all in the name of the people.

This distinguishes the USA as a self-governing nation, as opposed to Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Hungary and Turkey.

Matt Gilson, St. Paul

 

Dog owners fall short

When you drive your dog to a nature trail or the river and take them for a walk, bring a clean bio-degradable doggie waste bag with you. Pick it up after use and dispose of it properly, please. Too many are left behind, I find myself picking up too many of them..

My dog and I would appreciate it. Thanks!

Sue Schultz, Stillwater 

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