WASHINGTON — The first graders who were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the most horrific school shooting to date would be 19 and 20 years old today.
At the time of that shooting, this reporter was the Washington correspondent for a Connecticut news website, and the brutal deaths of those innocents still weighs heavily on my mind. The violence and terror that visited placid Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012, taught me a lot of things I never knew about America’s gun culture.
I learned that there are far more civilian-owned guns (about 500 million now) in the United States than there are people. I also learned Congress is loath to pass even the mildest of reforms and that the deadly AK-47s used to slay the 20 6- and 7-year-olds in Newtown are prized by gun collectors like shooter Adam Lanza’s mother and a major profit maker for gun manufacturers.
But meeting some very brave parents who turned grief into activism and dedicated themselves to trying to prevent school shootings was the most valuable lesson.
Yet those shootings continue, with a regularity that has made this kind of once-unthinkable violence now part of American culture. The attack on the schoolchildren who were celebrating their first day of classes Wednesday at Annunciation Catholic Church will leave a long-lasting mark on Minnesotans. I guarantee it.
DFL seeks to move up state primary
Headed by former DFL Party chair Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee held its summer meeting in Minneapolis this week, hoping to shore up a party that was left on the ropes after last November’s elections.
Martin was hoping to bring unity to the fractious party, which has split over its position on Israel’s war in Gaza, flagging fundraising and the lack of support from some Democrats for Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral campaign and the DFL’s pulling of its endorsement from another Democratic Socialist, Omar Fateh, who is running for Minneapolis mayor.
Gov. Tim Walz joined the effort at unity.
“We do not have the luxury to fight amongst ourselves while that thing sits in the White House,” Walz told DNC members.
Still, discord continued, including behind-the-scenes fighting among states that want to scramble the DNC’s presidential primary calendar.
The DNC changed that calendar three years ago, with Martin and Minnesota officials and lawmakers seeking to move up its presidential primary to replace Iowa, which had become a solidly red state and holds troublesome caucuses.
The first presidential primary states benefit from political clout and tons of campaign money.
But then-President Joe Biden decided to give Michigan that early window instead.
Minnesota DFL Chairman Richard Carlbom told MinnPost he’s not going to try to move up the state’s presidential primary, now scheduled for March 7.
But Carlbom said he wants the nod from the DNC to move up its primary for state, local and congressional races, which is now held in August and results in long, costly and bitter primary fights that rarely benefit either party.
“My focus is trying to move up the state primary,” he said.
Carlbom said he’d like to move up Minnesota’s state primary to June.
To do so, the state GOP would have to agree to move up its primary, too. And the state Legislature would also have to agree to the change.
Trump nixes ‘cashless’ bail
President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week banning “cashless bail” or allowing those detained before their trial to be released without posting a bond or paying money.
Trump’s move was aimed at Washington, D.C., which along with Illinois are the only two jurisdictions that hold people in jail based on the seriousness of their crime rather than their ability to pay bail, though other states, including New York and New Jersey, have made reforms to their bail systems.
Trump said that the system must be scrapped because it lets dangerous criminals back on the street. “They kill people and they get out,” Trump said. “We’re ending it.”
But those charged with murder or other violent offenses and those deemed dangerous to the public are rarely allowed bail of any kind.
Some in Minnesota have advocated that the state adopt a cashless bail system.
Earlier this year, in response to a request from the state Legislature, the Minnesota Justice Research Center issued a report that said defendants who are detained pretrial suffer worst-case outcomes than those accused of similar crimes who are released during the pretrial period.
The report said detention before trial can have “widespread financial consequences, including loss of income, jobs, housing and public benefits.”
The report also said pretrial detention does not make a community safer and monetary bail does not increase the likelihood that someone will appear in court.
In other news:
▪️ We shared the AP’s coverage of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School and its report on the scene inside the church, as well as our own Ellen Schmidt’s photos from a vigil and other places during the day.
▪️ We also took a look at contracts that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has with various Minnesota businesses and organizations, including a city-owned shooting range in Cottage Grove.
▪️ Deanna Pistono reported on a recent Trump administration threat to cut federal funding for sex ed programs for youth that include what the administration calls “gender ideology” in the curriculum.
▪️ And we wrote about the two Democrats vying to replace U.S. Sen. Tina Smith — U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. Both hope to earn the DFL Party’s endorsement ahead of next August’s primary.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.
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