Minnesota
OPINION EXCHANGE | What America needs to know about Tim Walz of Minnesota
Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
As Democrats scramble to assemble a ticket following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is putting himself out there as potential vice-presidential pick. He is making the rounds of national talk shows bragging about his record. A closer look reveals little to brag about.
During his first term as governor, Walz faced two major challenges: The riots following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and COVID-19. He fumbled both.
As the Twin Cities burned for three days in May 2020, Walz froze, terrified of upsetting his party’s activist base which sympathized with the rioters, for whom Kamala Harris raised money. Walz hesitated to commit the National Guard — whom he dismissed as “19-year-old cooks” — but when they finally were deployed, the violence ceased immediately.
This concern for criminals over law-abiding citizens has contributed to Minnesota becoming a high-crime state for the first time in recent history, with part one crimes, such as murder, aggravated assault and rape, now above the national average. Indeed, Minnesota’s crime rates began climbing in 2018, when Walz took office and two years before George Floyd’s death. In 2024, violent crime in Minneapolis remains 29% above 2019.
In response to the second challenge, COVID-19, in defiance of the science, Walz shut down schools, churches and businesses and instituted draconian mask mandates and shelter in place orders. This was driven by a computer model cooked up by a couple of graduate students over a weekend and which was such a failure it was quietly abandoned. Walz spent $7 million on a morgue to hold all the forecast bodies. This, too, was quietly sold without ever housing a single body. Walz’s failed nursing home policies resulted in over 5,000 deaths from COVID, one of the highest percentages in the country. And the man who likes to talk tough on cable news, telling Republicans to “mind your own damn business,” created a phone line for people to snitch on their neighbors who violated COVID regulations.
For all this government activity in response to COVID-19, Walz still managed to oversee the largest COVID fraud scheme in the country, with $250 million stolen. Millions more have been wasted in other fraud schemes throughout his time in office, but no one has been fired or held accountable.
Walz frequently touts his experience as an educator, but Minnesotans have seen no benefit from this, with the quality of Minnesota’s K-12 schools falling steadily during his time in office. Minnesota fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math scores on national tests are the lowest in 30 years. On the education component of CNBC’s much-heralded — including by Walz — “Best States for Business” rankings, Minnesota has dropped from fifth in 2018 to 17th. Walz will tell national audiences he “fully funded” K-12 education, but more money does not translate to stronger achievement.
Instead of achievement, Walz focused on instituting radical social studies standards and ethnic studies requirements that infuse critical social justice ideology into K-12 education. He used a bait-and-switch to sell ethnic studies as “learning about other cultures,” while hiding the real purpose: to reshape our children’s identity around skin color and convince them that America is a “racialized hierarchy” defined by oppression and injustice. Walz also allowed protesters to tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus and changed Minnesota’s state flag because he wrongly believed it was racist.
In 2023, Walz squandered a $17.6 billion budget surplus and raised taxes on income, sales, gasoline, car tabs, deliveries, boats, marijuana and businesses. His new family leave program will be funded with a new tax on every employee and employer in the state. They are yet to launch the program but have already raised the tax rate. Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota recently fell behind the country in GDP per capita for the first time in modern history.
Walz signed away Minnesota’s energy future by locking us into a renewable energy mandate that is driving up electricity costs in the pursuit of unmeasurable climate change goals. Running an energy grid with weather-based, intermittent energy sources, as called for in Walz’s 2023 renewable-energy mandate, is causing massive price increases and will ultimately lead to blackouts.
Minnesotans have been voting with their feet during the Walz governorship with new data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) showing a net loss of 13,455 individuals leaving Minnesota for other parts of the U.S. in 2021-22. The population loss is across the board — every age group tracked by the IRS shows a net loss of people.
Now that we think of it, promoting Tim Walz could be a really good idea. He couldn’t possibly do more harm to Minnesota in the relatively meaningless job of vice president.
John Phelan is senior economist and Bill Walsh is director of communications for the Center of the American Experiment.
A rest area along Interstate 94 in Minnesota has been closed to trucks until about Independence Day to accommodate an almost $3 million improvement project.
The eastbound I-94 Enfield rest area between St. Cloud, Minnesota and the Twin Cities between Wright County Road 8 and Highway 25 is now closed to cars and commercial vehicles as crews resurface the entrance and exit ramps, and update nearby sidewalks.
According to KNSI, the full closure is just the first phase of the project. The rest area will reopen to passenger vehicles only the week of May 11th. During that time, the truck parking area will remain closed as crews repave the lot.
The truck parking lot will reopen the week of June 30th, right around Independence Day. During that time, the passenger vehicle area will be shut down to allow for the resurfacing of the lot. The Minnesota DOT expects the rest area to be fully open by late July. The entire project is expected to cost $2.9 million.
Drivers heading east on I-94 are encouraged to use the Big Spunk Lake rest area near Avon, or to drive a little farther out to the Elm Creek rest area.
Could a UCLA baseball team that’s perfect in Big Ten play get better?
Bruins coach John Savage thinks so, which is a frightening prospect for the rest of a seemingly overmatched conference.
While Savage’s top-ranked Bruins completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota on Sunday with a 5-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium — stretching their Big Ten winning streak to 21 games — he said there’s more upside to be realized.
“Offensively, we just really couldn’t get a lot going,” Savage said after his team went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded six baserunners. “We just weren’t able to put a lot together, but when that pitching and defense shows up every day, it gives yourself a chance to win, and that’s kind of what we did all three games, really.”
Those elements were so good Sunday that they overshadowed Roman Martin’s solo homer in the third inning and Will Gasparino’s two-run shot in the sixth.
Bruins left fielder Dean West made three superb catches — two leaping and one diving — and four relievers combined to give up only one run in 4 ⅔ innings. Closer Easton Hawk needed only six pitches to record a 1-2-3 ninth inning while notching his third save in as many days.
Savage credited Minnesota’s pitching after the Golden Gophers (22-17 overall, 5-13 Big Ten) held the Bruins (36-3) to an average of five runs during the series and said many of his team’s offensive struggles were situational.
“We have very, very good offensive players — some of them are in … little ruts right now, but that’s OK,” Savage said. “These guys play a lot and get a lot of at-bats; there’s a lot of ups and downs.”
When it comes to UCLA’s conference record, it’s all been up.
What it means
UCLA’s sweep is further evidence that the Bruins aren’t getting complacent because of their record.
“This culture is really solid, and these guys truly believe in one another and they’re playing for the team,” Savage said. “We’re very fortunate to have this group, and so they love playing together, so there’s no complacency and there’s no reason to because we haven’t done anything; I mean, you’re 36-3, that’s great, but at the end of the day it’s about getting better and playing your best baseball the next 75 days.”
Turning point
Spotting a dominant team an early lead is never a good idea.
That’s what happened when the Bruins struck for two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
West led off with a single to center field, took third on Roch Cholowsky’s double to left and scored on a balk. With one out, Martin hit an RBI infield single off the pitcher’s glove. UCLA was up 2-0, and the Golden Gophers could never catch up.
Did you see that?
Minnesota did not like it when Gasparino admired his home run by lingering in the batter’s box before commencing his trot around the bases.
There was consensus in both dugouts because Savage also didn’t care for it.
“I thought he probably stayed in the box a little too long for me,” Savage said. “That’s kind of not who we are, and they didn’t like that; I wouldn’t like that either, really.”
MVP
West saved multiple extra-base hits with his catches.
Which was his favorite?
“Probably the diving one,” West said. “I think that was the coolest one. I got to leave my feet and make a play on it.”
Up next
The Bruins will open a five-game stretch of nonconference games when they host Hawaii on Tuesday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Of the many terrible roster decisions Minnesota sports teams have made over the past 30 years, the worst of the bunch may have been trading Randy Moss to the Raiders for the No. 7 pick in the draft and linebacker Napoleon Harris.
Why are we bringing up a trade that happened 21 years ago? Because the New York Giants traded defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 pick in this week’s NFL Draft. It was the first time a non-quarterback has been traded for a top-10 pick since the infamous Moss trade in 2005.
Minnesota traded Moss for the Raiders’ first-round pick, Harris, and a seventh-round pick on March 2, 2005. The Vikings used the No. 7 pick on wide receiver Troy Williamson, who never panned out in the NFL. He had 24 catches for 372 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie, 37 receptions for 457 yards and zero touchdowns in 2006, and just 18 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown in 2007.
Williams led the league with 11 dropped passes in 2006. Minnesota traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick after the 2007 season, where he played in 10 games over two seasons and totaled just eight catches for 64 yards. He was cut before the start of the 2010 season, and that was a wrap on the former South Carolina speedster’s NFL career.
Moss didn’t put up jaw-dropping numbers with the Raiders for two seasons, but he set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches in 2007 with the New England Patriots. He caught 47 touchdowns in 48 regular-season games with the Patriots from 2007 to 2009.
Whether it was trading Moss to the Raiders, the Timberwolves sending Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics — or drafting Ricky Rubio AND Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry — or the Twins cutting David Ortiz and watching him become one of the greatest players in MLB history with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota sports teams have a long history of making terrible decisions.
The Bengals, meanwhile, gave up the 10th overall pick for one of the best defensive tackles in the league. They’ll likely get great production from Lawrence, while the Giants are now under pressure to get the 10th pick right. New York also holds the No. 5 pick in Thursday’s first round of the draft.
By the way, the Vikings had two picks in the first round of the 2005 draft. After taking Williamson, they used the No. 18 pick on defensive end Erasmus James. He was just as much of a bust as Williams, playing in 23 games in three years with the Vikings. He had four sacks as a rookie, but injuries wiped out most of his 2006 and 2007 seasons before he was traded to Washington for a conditional seventh-round pick.
James was cut by Washington in December 2009, marking the end of his NFL career.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow
-
Washington, D.C6 minutes ago
Duffy touts air traffic controller applications amid push to recruit gamers
-
Cleveland, OH12 minutes agoRabbi Leibel Alevsky, 86, AH | Anash.org
-
Austin, TX18 minutes agoAthena the owl: 2nd owlet discovered to be alive
-
Alabama24 minutes agoAlabama juvenile is charged with murder of missing 10-year-old girl found dead at a home
-
Alaska30 minutes agoU.S. Coast Guard announces homeporting of the first two Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska
-
Arizona36 minutes agoDust returns to Phoenix area after hazy weekend – KTAR.com
-
Arkansas42 minutes agoArkansas Storm Team Blog: 7th driest year on record to date
-
California48 minutes ago480 ducks find homes after an emergency rescue operation in Riverside County