Minnesota
Readers Write: Making Minnesota a sanctuary, recycling lumber, friends, D.J. Tice, words
Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
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Enough is enough!
I almost choked on my coffee when I saw the headline in the Sunday paper about a bill that would make Minnesota a “sanctuary state” (“Bill would make Minn. a sanctuary,” Feb. 4).
Personally, I’m all for immigration as long as it is done according to the laws we have. When the rules for immigration are followed, there is no need for “sanctuary” of any type. Sneaking across the border is bad enough, and offering sanctuary to anyone who thumbs their nose at our laws is infuriating. Why should there be immigration laws in place to protect our sovereignty and safety if some misguided fools offer to protect those who chose to flout our laws? To make such an asinine decision to make Minnesota a sanctuary state is a kick to the crotch to the majority of Minnesota residents and opens this state to busloads of lawbreakers like we’ve seen happen to New York — and the problems come with it. Making Minnesota a sanctuary state does nothing to help this nation’s immigration problem and will only encourage more lawbreakers.
The vast majority of these illegal immigrants are not running from a hostile government in their own country but are economic refugees seeking a better paycheck. That is not a reason to offer them “sanctuary,” especially if they have entered this country illegally.
Democrats, you are on notice. (I was once a registered Democrat, but now am an independent.) Put an end to this stupidity, do the work you were voted in to do for the citizens of Minnesota to make this state a better place for those of us who actually pay taxes — which are high enough already. Are you going to reach in my pockets for a few more dollars to pay for this wrongheaded idea? You were not elected to solve the world’s problems or offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants.
Wes Hickman, Stacy, Minn.
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I had to do a double take when I read that the Minnesota DFL was proposing to pass a law called the North Star Act to make Minnesota a sanctuary state, essentially permitting illegal immigrants free rein in the state. With the crisis at our southern border already out of control, how in good conscience could the DFL propose such a law? What is it that the party doesn’t understand that people crossing our border illegally are breaking the rule of law to begin with? Indeed, the Biden administration has been incredibly irresponsible and derelict in enforcing our immigration laws. For the DFL to pass this law would essentially be encouraging more illegal immigrants to enter our country and endorse the failed Biden policies.
In a recent CBS poll done Jan. 3-5, 63% of Americans said our border policies should be tougher. In the same poll, 93% of Americans classified the border problems as somewhat serious, very serious or a crisis, with the vast majority (75%) citing the latter two. Sanctuary cities by definition should be illegal to begin with. It’s one arm of the government essentially defying federal law and encouraging people to break it. Although the DFL has a slim majority, its entire agenda has been heavily left-leaning. So much for Gov. Tim Walz’s campaign promise of “One Minnesota”! A good reason to have divided government!
In addition to the proposed North Star Act being in complete defiance of federal immigration laws, it would put undue pressure on Minnesota’s educational, health care and social services systems. Just look at the problems in Chicago and New York, where some students have been forced out of their schools to house illegal immigrants. I suggest if this law passes, every DFL politician should house an illegal immigrant family and pay for their shelter, food, education, health care services, etc., rather than putting the burden on the rest of Minnesotans.
Steve Hayden, Eden Prairie
REUSING LUMBER
Exactly what we should all be doing
I write in support of the “guerrilla” recycling business highlighted Sunday in the Star Tribune (“Lumber gets second life, splintering rules,” Feb. 4). LumberStash is picking up and selling left over lumber from the owner’s driveway to keep it from ending up in the landfill. My garage stores a history of lumber left from various repair projects. Most recently, hail damage gave me a new and bountiful supply of lumber I knew would end up in the landfill if I didn’t ask for it. I’m already using some of it.
My dad built affordable homes before that was known terminology. The house I grew up in was built in Bloomington in 1948 when I was 2, so my siblings and I could grow up in the country. Dad borrowed $500 from my grandfather and built the house largely with lumber and other materials he offered to haul away when a Minneapolis school building was torn down.
I understand the need for residential codes, but there is also need for businesses like LumberStash to be given larger driveways somewhere to succeed. It’s not just the lower costs for the many consumers who need that. It’s the decrease in environmental pollutants needed by all of us, whether we recognize it or not.
Larry Johnson, Golden Valley
FRIENDSHIPS
Long live new friends
It was interesting reading about Anna Bonavita’s efforts to gather a group of new friends here in Minneapolis (“Are you lonely?”). It reminded me of my experience moving here in 1981. I also found it very hard to break into existing social circles. It wasn’t that people were unfriendly. They just didn’t really think about including us. They had had their own group of friends for years, and sort of assumed everybody else did as well, I guess. At one point someone put an ad in the Twin Cities Reader and started a “Non-Twin Cities Native Group” that got together regularly at local haunts. I remember going to those. What’s old is new again!
Sheryl O’Connor, Minneapolis
D.J. TICE
Cheers to a fulfilling retirement
Regarding “No room for debate: It’s been a great career” (Feb. 4): Back in 2015, D.J. Tice wrote an eloquent and moving commentary regarding the sorrow he felt over losing his pet, Lucky. The piece, titled, “Of life and death and love and dogs,” described his journey with Lucky, a stray dog, who was also his buddy, soul mate and loyal companion. As Lucky aged and became blind, Tice reflected in his commentary, “life was sadly diminished after that, but Lucky soldiered on.” Tice continued, “He suffered many stumbles, was bruised by many obstacles, but he found his way to the joys that could still be reached, rather as he found his way up and down stairs — lifting a paw into the air and sticking it out into the darkness, feeling for the next step.”
Mr. Tice, your thoughts and ideas, whether we agreed with you or not, have certainly kept us informed and on our toes! Your insights were something we could dissect and chew on.
Eight years ago your story ended with the hope that one day you too would use Lucky’s example and stick a foot out into the darkness in hopes of finding the next step. We wish you well and so much luck in your retirement. Congratulations to you on a fruitful and dynamic career in journalism!
Sharon E. Carlson, Andover
WORDS
No dictionaries here
I could relate to Gary Gilson’s frustration voiced in his column regarding writers using “big” words nobody knows the meaning of (“No need to drive readers to dictionary,” Feb. 4). I, too, hate it when people are sesquipedalian.
Doug Williams, Robbinsdale
The Minnesota Timberwolves have one of the brightest futures in the entire NBA with an exciting young core led by Anthony Edwards who looked like the best shooting guard in the league this past season. The Wolves were very aggressive in this year’s draft as they traded up to the eight pick without giving away any key player.
Let’s dive into each selection they made and the summary of their draft.
The Timberwolves traded into the top ten to land Rob Dillingham out of Kentucky. The 6-foot-2 point guard is arguably the best pure shot-creator and shot-maker in the entire draft. He is wired to score as he plays with unlimited confidence and can score it at all three levels. Dillingham’s pull-up jumper is elite as he has deep range and he is also a tough mid-range scorer.
What makes him an easy fit next to fellow stars is due to his elite spot-up shooting. He’s great at converting shots off the catch due to his great shot preparation, quick shot release and elite shooting ability. Dillingham is more than just a scorer as the Kentucky star is a very good playmaker who plays with a ton of flash.
His scoring gravity opens up the floor for his teammates mixed in with his good court vision which allows him to be one of the top playmakers in the draft. His elite handle combined with his quickness allows him to create space from defenders with ease. On the downside of things, he’s very limited as a defender and will likely be a negative defender in the NBA.
With their other pick in the first round, the Timberwolves added more offensive firepower as they selected Terrence Shannon Jr. out of Illinois. The 6-foot-7 wing was one of the most explosive players in all of college basketball last season.
The smooth lefty is extremely dominant in the open floor as he’s too fast and athletic for opposing players to handle him. He was able to score over 20 points per game while being one of the top scorers in the entire country.
Shannon improved as a shooter each year he was in college which opened up the floor for the rest of his teammates. At the next level, he will be able to bring microwave scoring off the bench while also having the tools to be a versatile perimeter defender. The main question for Shannon is the limited handle as he struggles to create space off the dribble if it’s not a straight-line drive.
The Timberwolves arguably had one of the best drafts of any team this year. They landed an elite point guard in Dillingham who has elite star potential. The talented lead guard will be playing behind Mike Conley who is one of the top veterans in the NBA so that will go a long way in Dillingham’s career.
There’s not a better fit in the NBA for Dillingham. Shannon could be a valuable piece to their rotation down the line as he offers three-level scoring while being able to make high-level athletic plays. The Timberwolves added more youth and elite talent to an already well-established roster. Minnesota fans should be extremely excited for the future.
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Minnesota
Texas man swindled northern Minnesota woman out of $100K in gold bars, $36K in cash, charges say
MARSHALL COUNTY, Minn. — A 23-year-old Texas man faces charges for his role in swindling $36,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars from a northern Minnesota woman.
Charges filed in Marshall County say that a 66-year-old woman said she sent the money to a man in Texas because he had told her he had access to her Social Security number. She said she’d sent the cash in $100 bills and tucked the money into books, which she sent to two different CVS stores in Texas.
She added that he had also bought $100,000 worth of gold bars online in August of last year. The man told her he would pick the gold bars up outside her home on Sept. 1, charges say.
That day, she received a phone call and the man told her to bring the gold bars outside and put them in the backseat of a white car sitting outside her home. Once she did so, the car drove off and she couldn’t see who was driving.
Documents say the suspect was apprehended in McKinney, Texas. He was seen on video footage picking up the packages from the CVS stores.
He admitted to collecting the packages and delivering them to an unknown individual, charges say. He said he knew what was in the pacakges, and had picked up roughly 40 of them between August and September of 2023.
He said he had been coerced into picking up the packages, and he was being compensated for his work, according to documents.
The suspect was charged with two counts of theft. The theft charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.
Last week, Jabez Reeves, a sprinter at Minnesota State University – Mankato, stretched by himself on the end of the school’s track. He then ran three full-speed sprints, as his coach at Mankato watched on.
Three days later, Reeves was on a flight to Paris, where he’ll compete on the Liberian Olympic men’s 4×100 meter relay team.
While the team members are clearly tied to Liberia, they also share a strong connection to Minnesota.
“I have a lot of family toward the Coon Rapids, Brooklyn Park area. So for them, just having people that are from Minnesota, putting on and trying to take our name internationally is pretty huge for them,” Reeves said. “It’s just more like an honor thing, just being grateful that I’m allowed to be in this position now.”
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Reeves grew up in Woodbridge, Va., but transferred to MSU when another Liberian sprinter — Emmanuel Matadi — recruited him.
Matadi is also the veteran of the Liberian relay team. He ran at Johnson High School in St. Paul. Akeem Sirleaf was a sprinter at North St. Paul High School and now runs for North Carolina A&T State University. And then there’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, who ran for Hopkins High School in Minnetonka and then raced for the University of Florida.
Jabez Reeves in Mankato before heading to Paris for the Olympic Games.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
All three of them have state high school championships under their belts.
“When we all talk, we’re all like ‘Yeah, I’m from this part of Minnesota, I’m gonna do what I gotta do to represent this part of Minnesota,’” Sirleaf said. “But when we all come together on that relay, none of that matters. We just focus on the goal, which is to make it to the final and get a medal.”
While the team has a strong Minnesota connection, they rarely get to run together. Getting timing down and baton passes right will be something they’ll work on in Paris before their first race.
But at Olympic Qualifiers in May in the Bahamas, the team looked like a well-oiled machine.
The top two teams in each heat get automatic bids. Liberia was in fifth place as the last leg of the race came, but Fahnbulleh exploded in the anchor leg, pulling his team into second, edging out Switzerland by a hundredth of a second.
The ecstatic team ran to each other on the track, hugging each other.
“That whole relay was just amazing,” Sirleaf said. “I feel like it was a steppingstone for us to put our name out there to the world, to let the world know that, yeah, we’re a small country, but we’re coming.”
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Sirleaf is nursing an injury and will be an alternate in Paris. John Sherman, a 19-year-old from Middle Tennessee State University, will run in place of Sirleaf.
As the Olympic ceremonies open Friday in Paris, the team will come out waving the Liberian flag, a celebration both of their journey and Liberia’s Independence Day, which is the same day.
In 1991, the U.S., and specifically Minnesota, began resettling refugees from Liberia, who were fleeing civil war. Today, Minnesota is home to one of the largest Liberian populations in the U.S., estimated at around 30,000 people.
“The Minnesota connection is really strong,” said Momodou N’Jie, Joseph Fahnbulleh’s cousin and manager. N’Jie grew up with him in the Hopkins area. He says the community is excited to watch the Liberian-Minnesotans compete in Paris.
“There’s a lot of different watch parties, not only obviously here in Minnesota … Rhode Island’s another big place and obviously in Liberia,” he said. “I think it’ll be very cool to see all these different watch parties.”
As of Thursday, the exact location of those watch parties hasn’t been announced.
Many families will also be traveling to Paris, which wasn’t a possibility at the Tokyo Olympics because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
“I feel like it’s big, because my mom is going to be there. Because [Liberia’s] her native country. So for her seeing me there in Liberia gear, and us on the stage and being the flag bearer and things like that. It’s kind of just huge for her.”
He said racing for the team, representing the country his mother grew up in, will be an honor.
“I grew up around so many Liberians that it almost feels like a duty,” Reeves said. “I kind of felt like I had to run for Liberia just because of where I’m from. And it’s kind of like my birthright, kind of like something that I feel had to be done.”
Jabez Reeves warms up at Myer’s Field House in Mankato.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
He said it’s not only his family that’s excited, but the broader Liberian-American community.
“The very first time we qualified, I had almost 1,000 messages, just about ‘Congratulations. We’re so proud of you,’” he said. “I’ve had a couple of run-ins at the airport, like MSP, where people are like, ‘Oh, you’re the Liberian guy!’ It’s super cool to see people happy and excited that we’re doing something for not just ourselves, but for them as well.”
The first race for the relay team will be on Thursday Aug. 8. Fahnbulleh will run the first round of the 200 meters on Aug. 5. Matadi will run the first round of the 100 meters on Aug. 3.
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