PARIS (AP) — The United States announced Tuesday it will again pull out of the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias, only two years after rejoining.

A man enters the UNESCO headquarters Tuesday, July 22, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

This will be the third time that the United States leaves UNESCO, which is based in Paris, and the second time during a Trump administration. President Donald Trump had already pulled out during his first term and the United States returned after a five-year absence after the Biden administration applied to rejoin the organization.

The decision will take effect at the end of December 2026.

In 2023, Minnesota enacted the most expansive paid family and medical leave (PFML) law in the country. Starting Jan. 1, 2026, nearly all workers will be eligible for up to 20 weeks of partially paid leave each year — with wage replacement rates as high as 90% for lower-income employees. The benefit will be funded through a statewide insurance program, paid for by a new payroll tax, with employers covering at least half the cost.

Other states have adopted PFML programs, but none go as far. California offers six to eight weeks of leave with tighter wage caps. New York provides up to 12 weeks at 67% wage replacement. Minnesota’s model is far more ambitious — and largely untested.

The law’s stated goal is admirable: to give workers time to care for themselves or loved ones during difficult moments. For many Minnesota businesses, however, concerns remain — not just about higher taxes, but about implementation and unintended consequences.

PFML consistently comes up in business roundtable discussions across the state. Two questions dominate: How rigorously will eligibility under the law, especially given its ambiguous language, be enforced, and how many employees will take advantage of the benefit each year?

Most employees will use the program responsibly. But generous benefits combined with limited oversight — a common issue in public programs — could lead to far higher utilization, and even misuse, than anticipated.

The implications matter. Minnesota’s labor market is already tight, with unemployment at just 3.2%. Employers in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare and other hands-on industries may need to overstaff simply to cover unexpected absences — a costly burden in an already strained hiring environment.

As one small business owner recently put it: “We have two full-time warehouse workers. If one takes 20 weeks of leave, I either need to scramble for a temporary replacement — which won’t be easy when everyone else is doing the same — or hire a third employee in advance and carry 50% more labor cost indefinitely.” Imagine that dynamic playing out simultaneously across the thousands of small-to-midsize businesses which account for almost half of Minnesota’s jobs.

All of this comes against a backdrop of economic underperformance. From 2019 to 2024, Minnesota ranked in the bottom third of states for GDP growth and job growth, according to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s “Minnesota: 2030” report. Businesses are already investing elsewhere. A rocky rollout of a costly program could accelerate that trend.

Any large-scale social program must be paired with accountability, transparency, and flexibility. This law could go smoothly and meet its goals — or veer toward something far different.

Either way, one essential question for Minnesota’s elected leaders remains: What exactly is the contingency plan if this ambitious program does not go as expected?

Patrick Knight, Orono, is CEO of a Minnesota food processing company.

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Regarding the latest public-program fraud allegations, these questions come to mind

In reading the article in the July 17 issue on the investigation into the fraud against Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Program, it seems to me that the focus in this and the previous fraud cases that have been in the news has been on identifying and then prosecuting fraud. This seems to me an after-the-fact type of approach. What efforts are put toward reducing the risk of fraud in the first place?

Specific questions that come to my mind from reading this article include the following:

— When new programs such as this are developed, are specific guidelines and rules put in place prior to launch? If so, who is responsible for doing so – the Legislature as part of the bill, or the executive as part of the administrative function?

— In the case of the Housing Stabilization Services Program, were any requirements put in place for those offering to provide services, or required qualifications, or any attempt to identify likely service providers? Any effort to verify providers who enroll in the program prior to providing reimbursement?

— Per the article, spending over a 16-month period ran approximately six times the estimated rate ($22 million or $1.375 million/month versus estimated cost of $2.6 million/year or $217 thousand/month), and that’s just the spend on the 14 providers in the warrant. Who is responsible for tracking program spending? Is that the state responsibility as this is a Minnesota specific program, or left to the federal Medicare program?

It seems to me some increased attention to controls prior to program launch is warranted if we are going to address the fraud problem the U.S. Attorney cites in the article.

John Stephani, Burnsville

The land of million dollar frauds (allegedly)

Well it seems like déjà vu all over again. Minnesota’s become the land of million dollar frauds (allegedly). Didn’t we just have one about feeding our kids, where no one got fed, except the fraudsters? Now in the news, “Federal agents raid suspected housing fraud”.

Why is Minnesota the talk of the country again for all the wrong reasons?

In the past, news about Minnesota was no more than a picture of Wendell Anderson holding a fish, on the cover of Time Magazine. Has Minnesota Nice becoming Minnesota Easy, as in easy money? A state program to help people find housing was helping no one find anything, except scammers, who apparently found the source of a lot of money. The program started in 2020 and was expected to cost a little more than $2 million a year, but by 2024 had cost $104 million. Say what? Who was in the charge of that state checkbook? Did they think the swelling cost was a good thing? That runaway spending was considered a measure of success? Or that the state coffers leaking like a colander is no big deal?

Apparently legislation has been passed to limit these abuses but I have one more suggestion. If a program costs four times or more than what was expected, stop writing checks until valid verification is confirmed.

I don’t expect much will change, I just rather wish Minnesota had remained more known for fishing than fraud.

Bob Emery, Mendota Heights

Differing priorities, each defeating the other

Your report headlined “Rice Creek project on hold again,” from the layperson’s point of view, is yet another example of the failure of governing authorities to fulfill their responsibilities. With respect for the intricacies of such a major project, it has the appearance of differing priorities, each defeating the other.

Is this a housing and business development site? Is it a “green haven,” sort of a public park tied to private land?

Perhaps, written somewhat tongue in cheek, you can join with the state and develop the entire 437 acres into a regional park, a place where nature is preserved, everything is “green” and balanced, and then allow folks from across the state and country to come to enjoy it. Sort of the opposite of the Mall of America.

I really do mean the best to the governing authorities and urge you to finish your work.

Dave Racer, Woodbury

A voice of sanity

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Once again your columnist Ed Lotterman is a voice of sanity. If only our U.S. Congress members would read and heed his words. Our country is being destroyed from within (as Khrushchev predicted many years ago) by a Congress who either stand by wringing their hands or willingly support a corrupt president. At what point will people wake up and see that the emperor has no clothes? I thank God that there are still a few people like Mr. Lotterman who will speak the truth

Carole Mulcahy, South St. Paul

Today is Tuesday, July 22, the 203rd day of 2025. There are 162 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 22, 1933, Aviator Wiley Post landed at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the first solo flight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.

Also on this date:

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln presented to his Cabinet a preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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In 1934, bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater, where he had just seen the Clark Gable movie “Manhattan Melodrama.”

In 1937, the U.S. Senate rejected President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.

In 1942, the Nazis began transporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp.

In 1943, American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily, during World War II.

In 1975, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore the American citizenship of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

In 1991, police in Milwaukee arrested Jeffrey Dahmer, who later confessed to murdering 17 men and boys.

In 1992, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison near Medellin (meh-deh-YEEN’). (He was slain by security forces in December 1993.)

In 2011, Anders Breivik (AHN’-durs BRAY’-vihk), a self-described “militant nationalist,” massacred 69 people at a Norwegian island youth retreat after detonating a bomb in nearby Oslo that killed eight others in the nation’s worst violence since World War II.

In 2015, a federal grand jury indictment charged Dylann Roof, the young man accused of killing nine Black church members in Charleston, South Carolina, with 33 counts including hate crimes that made him eligible for the death penalty. (Roof would become the first person sentenced to death for a federal hate crime; he is on death row at a federal prison in Indiana.)

In 2022, Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Bannon is currently serving his four-month sentence in federal prison.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Terence Stamp is 87.
Singer George Clinton is 84.
Actor-singer Bobby Sherman is 82.
Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is 82.
Movie writer-director Paul Schrader is 79.
Actor Danny Glover is 79.
Singer Mireille Mathieu is 79.
Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks is 78.
Rock singer Don Henley is 78.
Author S.E. Hinton is 77.
Film composer Alan Menken is 76.
Jazz musician Al Di Meola (mee-OH’-lah) is 71.
Actor Willem Dafoe is 70.
Actor John Leguizamo is 65.
R&B singer Keith Sweat is 64.
Folk singer Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls) is 62.
Actor-comedian David Spade is 61.
Actor Rhys Ifans (rees EYE’-fanz) is 58.
Actor/singer Jaime Camil is 52.
Singer Rufus Wainwright is 52. Actor Franka Potente (poh-TEN’-tay) is 51.
Actor Selena Gomez is 33.
NFL running back Ezekiel Elliott is 30.