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Celebrate safely THUMBS UP: The 4th of July is here, and if you aren’t ready to celebrate after the year we’ve all just been through, go back to bed. Last year, 4th of July celebrations were stifled by the coronavirus. Big gatherings were verboten and family picnics were a lot less fun with people wearing masks and standing six feet apart. This year we can afford to relax and celebrate. That being said, let’s celebrate safely. Please don’t blow your fingers off with cherry bomb, and let’s all drive safely. And that means don’t drink and drive. Let’s celebrate our ...

Rules of justice can be strict

One of the hardest things to imagine about our system of justice is how stringently the rules must be applied. In the U.S. criminal justice system, the defendants are considered innocent until the state can prove them guilty, and the burden of proof can be burdensome. There are rules for gathering evidence, rules for handling evidence, rules for how the accused has to be handled or questioned or even if he can be questioned. If those rules are violated, a defendant, even one who is most certainly guilty, has to be set free. So it it with Bill Cosby, accused of drugging and raping ...

Down to the wire

The Minnesota Legislature was cutting it close, as usual, on Wednesday. While most of the state’s budget bills have been passed and signed, legislators were still working on an education funding bill that will pump $1.2 billion more into the state’s classrooms over the next four years. This is money that will be going to school districts largely through the general fund formula, giving school districts the ability to spend it where they need it. We hope they passed it by midnight last night to prevent repercussions in school programs this year. One thing the Republicans managed to ...

Accurate information on CRT is needed

Critical Race Theory, or CRT, has become the latest point of contention in our particularly contentious society. Conservatives and liberals argue about what it is, and what it is going to do to our country. Conservatives feel it is a wild-eyed, marxist condemnation of White people as racists in control of a racist society, and is being used to sully our nation’s history, poison our school children’s minds and divide the people. Liberals see it as a recognition of the how racism has shaped policies in our social system, and that recognition is the first step to eliminating the ...

Police reforms won’t come all at once

The agreement Minnesota legislators reached on the public safety budget bill over the weekend contains some police reforms, but not enough for those pressing for changes in the way police interact with the public. The agreement contains regulation of no-knock warrants, creating a police misconduct database, and creation of an office dealing with the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, plus a task force on missing and murdered black women. But proponents of police changes want more. They want to stop police using traffic stops for minor offenses as a pretext for further ...

Session looks to end on time

The Minnesota legislative special session seems on its way to finish work on the state budget bills before the July 1 government shutdown date. Legislative leaders announced an agreement on the last contentious issue, the police accountability measures included in the public safety bill. Democrats had been pushing to add a host of new restrictions on police procedures to the bill, while Republicans were loath to add measures that they considered anti-police. The agreed-upon measures include regulations on no-knock warrants, creation of a police misconduct database to prevent problem ...