Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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Jeers to dangerous oversimplification. On Tuesday, justifying his decision to both federalize and militarize the response to unrest in Los Angeles, President Donald Trump cited the riots that followed George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, saying that Gov. Tim Walz was too slow to deploy the National Guard. Arguably true, for both judgmental and technical reasons, but we’re not going to relitigate the specifics here. What we’d note is that the precise course of action is rarely clear during unprecedented and chaotic events, only in retrospect. Overzealous enforcement has consequences, too. When Walz did roll out the National Guard in 2020, it was effective, as Trump himself said at the time. And it was welcomed by a public convinced of the necessity.
Cheers to federal investigators who uncovered and seized more than 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage unit, according to an indictment. The discovery was a precursor to the raids in eight Twin Cities area locations on June 3, including the Minneapolis raid that caused so much controversy. There’s still much to debate and much to be proved about last week’s raids and the methods used, but the indictment begins to fill in the blanks and shows the value of caution in reacting to tense situations.
Jeers to the criminals behind the cyberattack on UNFI, a national wholesale food distributor, which stocks a lot of the medicines and food items stocked by local pharmacies and grocery chains such as Cub Foods and Lunds & Byerlys. As if we all don’t have enough concerns, the attack on the technology systems of United Natural Foods quickly led to noticeably short supplies in pharmacies and grocery store shelves in as many as 30,000 retailers nationwide. UNFI says it hopes to have its systems back up and working by Sunday. That does little, however, to assuage the concerns of those whose health was compromised by the attacks or who were anxious to learn whether identify theft is part of the collateral damage. No known group had claimed credit for a potential ransomware attack by midweek, but may the criminal actors involved be quickly identified and justice harshly served.
Cheers to Lakeland PBS, which recently joined the national PBS organization as a plaintiff in its lawsuit against Trump for his executive order eliminating funding for the nonprofits’ public broadcasting. The Lakeland affiliate, which owns two stations serving north-central Minnesota, provides programing for a considerable number of rural and impoverished residents who otherwise would lack local news coverage. Lakeland PBS is the only affiliate station in the country to join the lawsuit. Jeff Hanks, the CEO of the PBS affiliate, described its coverage as germane to nearly 490,000 viewers, who routinely turn to the stations for news on local schools and city councils, not to mention sports, weather and popular PBS children’s programing. Additional cheers to Lakeland supporters, who held a rally Tuesday in front the station’s Bemidji location in a spirited show of support.
Jeers to U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who spent valuable time this week touting his new bill to conduct more frequent threat assessments at the Canadian border. While border security is a daily concern, one wonders what Stauber would do if he wasn’t constantly trying to scare his constituents. If he would turn his camouflage binoculars away from Canada to focus on his district, he would see even greater threats. Rural hospitals and nursing homes, reeling from the threat of lost Medicaid benefits for large numbers of their patients, could close. Local college and trade school students could see their aid slashed, sentencing working-class kids to a lifetime of low-wage jobs. You’re right, Congressman. We are in danger. But the worst threats are on our side of the border.
Cheers to the parents, coaches, officials and volunteers who make spring state championship tournaments possible. Mahtomedi won the first-ever girls’ state high school flag football championship this past week. The state tennis and softball tournaments were last week, while the track and field, golf and boys volleyball championships happened this week. The baseball tournament concludes Saturday at Target Field, while the lacrosse tournaments wrap up at Eden Prairie High School. Each sport sends thousands of people across our state not only to compete, but to forge community pride, impart the values of sportsmanship and respect, and drive local economies. The kids are more than all right. They’re actually pretty darn good.
