Police working with targets on their backs

October 6, 2020

By the end of September 2019, 30 U.S. law enforcement personnel had been killed while on duty. Thirty-seven have been killed this year. Non-fatal injuries have soared too. It is not being inaccurate to note that many — probably most — police officers, sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement personnel feel they are going about their jobs with targets on their backs. A number of them are shot, stabbed, battered or harmed otherwise every year. It is worse now, however, and we know why. Both directly and indirectly, protests against brutality involving a minuscule minority ...

States must punish evil, help those in need

October 5, 2020

It was to be expected that when Congress approved about $3 trillion in emergency aid to Americans hurt financially by the coronavirus epidemic, the criminal element would seize the opportunity for ill-gotten gains. Both as individuals and criminal organizations, they have been doing just that on a massive scale. It is doubtful we will ever know how much in unemployment compensation has been paid out wrongly. Millions of people need the benefits badly. Though the economy is recovering slowly from business slowdowns linked to COVID-19, it still has a long way to go. Officials in some ...

Et Cetera

October 3, 2020

Schools change model This week the Fairmont School Board passed a motion to return to hybrid learning at the Fairmont Jr/Sr high school and continued in-person learning at the elementary school. They also voted to resume all extra-curricular activities. Unfortunately, this decision didn’t last long, as the Minnesota Department of Education stepped in on Thursday and directed that Fairmont Jr/Sr High go-to distance learning as of Monday, October 5, and the elementary school go to distance learning October 12. This directive was due to the rapid rise in COVID cases in the area. We ...

Next President must address Postal Service

October 2, 2020

Talk for months about how inefficiency and lax security in the U.S. Postal Service may affect the upcoming presidential election has had an unfortunate side-effect: It has distracted attention from the agency’s very real, deeply rooted dilemma. Any private company suffering as badly as the Postal Service has for long as its problems have been allowed to continue would have filed for bankruptcy protection years ago. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been caught in the partisan battle over mail-in election ballots. DeJoy, nominated by President Donald Trump, has been accused of ...

The president knows what his limitations are

October 1, 2020

President Donald Trump often shoots verbally from the hip. Many voters like that. Many others deplore it. But Trump, while holding the most powerful office in the world, understands fully that he is bound by certain rules and traditions. One of them is that when we hold an election, the result is binding. The winner takes office. The loser, if in office, steps aside. Much has been made of Trump’s response to questions about how he would react to a loss in the Nov. 3 presidential election. He has been asked if he would abide by the result. “We’ll see,” Trump replied several ...

The system failed Breonna Taylor

September 30, 2020

Breonna Taylor’s family is right: The system failed her. She should be alive today, but she is not. It is too late to save Taylor, who died in a hail of bullets from three police officers in Louisville, Kentucky one night in March. It is not too late for law enforcement officials throughout the country to ask themselves if what went wrong in Louisville could happen in their towns, cities and counties. Grand jurors in Louisville investigated Taylor’s death and came up with violently controversial decisions. One of the three officers was indicted for reckless behavior because ...