The Minnesota Legislature and the DNR won't be allowed to "manage" our wolf population any longer after a federal judge ruled that the Great Lakes wolves will be returned to the endangered species list ("Judge halts wolf hunting," Dec. 20). How did the Legislature and the DNR do? Great, if you belong to one of the special-interest groups (a subset of deer hunters, farmers and trappers) that couldn't wait to start killing wolves for recreation. If you, like the majority of Minnesotans, think that wolves are an asset that should be protected, legislators and those at the DNR deserve to be fired for their performance. They rushed to start a wolf hunt in 2012 without any public hearings. More than 900 Minnesota wolves were snared, trapped and shot in the first three seasons.

Let's find ways to coexist with wolves that don't involve trophy killing. Let's fund a program that uses the best nonlethal practices to protect livestock from wolves. We failed this time, but we can still redeem ourselves and protect our wolves.

Mike Chutich, St. Paul

• • •

The judge's decision makes a mockery of the Endangered Species Act and will hurt legitimate designations in years to come. As an environmental educator, I have seen attitudes about wolves change in the last 30 years from the inaccurate image of demon to the inaccurate image of deity!

The stated goal of returning wolves to their original range is ludicrous. Will the proponents eliminate roads, towns and farms from this range, relocate humans and replant a wilderness? Urban folks who do not live near wolves are quick to romanticize them, because they are never exposed to consequences. Wolves are increasing to the point where, in Cook County, there are rising negative contacts with people, dogs and livestock. These encounters are not at the edge of the Boundary Waters but near the town of Grand Marais.

Wolves will be the losers in the long run. Wolves are not noble characters in a nature movie. They are an apex predator species that thrives in "wilderness" habitat. They are doing well in the "wilderness" of our state when we look at the scientific, not the emotional, evidence. When their numbers increase beyond what the wild places can sustain, no amount of wishful thinking can change the facts.

Karen Kobey, Lutsen, Minn.
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

The problems with Klobuchar's triple play

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar puts forward three wise ideas ("How the drug companies play Scrooge," Dec. 23). They're sound as far as they go, but none strikes at the heart of why prescription-drug prices are so steep in America: patent protection. Our government grants monopoly power to pharmaceutical firms, letting them price pills from 10 to 100 times higher than they would cost us without patent protection. Big Pharma will argue that its prices fund important research and development that brings us lifesaving medicines. Government-funded research through the National Institutes of Health could accomplish the same thing, without granting proprietary protections to profiteers.

Klobuchar has introduced a bill to allow importing inexpensive drugs from Canada. It won't eliminate incentives that result in overpriced look-alike medicines sold here. She also co-sponsored legislation to strengthen the Federal Trade Commission's enforcement powers to speed generics to market. It won't eliminate incentives that keep research findings secret. She supports price negotiation for the Medicare program. Why stop with seniors?

Klobuchar should look for ways to truly transform our domestic industry as Scrooge was transformed by seeing the past and present for what they truly were. Otherwise, the future won't be that much different.

Bradley Craig, Burnsville
MALL PROTEST

Here's something else that was disrupted

I feel the heartfelt need to tell a different side of the Black Lives Matter intentional disruption at the Mall of America on Saturday:

My dear friend's 9-year-old daughter belongs to a St. Louis Park elementary school musical group that was scheduled to perform at the mall's rotunda that day. They had practiced for weeks in preparation for this special performance. Their parents purchased special Christmas outfits for them to wear. Family members and family friends were proudly invited to attend. Special plans were made for a Christmas season celebration for these children.

It is worth mentioning that this is a diverse group of excited young children. But, because of the protest, their concert was canceled. All of their hard work and preparation was put to waste. This protest showed a group of people with blatant disregard for others. I sincerely believe they don't care about the repercussions of their actions — shame on them all.

Nancy Wulf, Bloomington
JOE COCKER

His death is imbued with significance

Joe Cocker died Monday. And I am so sad. There was so much of him and his music that became so much a part of me and all of us who "grew up" in the '60s. And I wonder if I am sad at the loss of his life or sad at the pending loss of mine or sad at the loss of a time when if you did something, it mattered. Really mattered.

Tina Landeen, Edina
AIR QUALITY

Idling school buses aren't exactly helping

I have a question to put out to everyone. Why is it that when we have air-quality signs on the highways, we also have school buses sitting in neighborhoods idling for 15 to 30 minutes every day? Does air quality not apply to them? Who pays for their extra operating time? Is it the taxpayers supporting the schools, or is it the bus companies? Do the bus companies know about all this extra fuel being burned?

It is like clockwork: Every morning, we have two or three of them idling on our block. If this is done everywhere, is there a wonder why we have pollution problems? We could start here, and I'm sure it would be a good start.

Dordean Lien, Brooklyn Center
THE HOLIDAYS

To be Jewish isn't to feel excluded

Growing up Jewish, I too would tell people that I was a Hanukkah girl ("A Santa fiasco for a holiday square peg," Dec. 22). Yet I never felt like a "square peg." On the contrary, I felt a great sense of pride knowing that my holiday was special to me — lighting the menorah, singing the Dreidel Song, opening a small gift each night and always appreciating the love of my family. I too admire Christmas lights and holiday songs and visits to Santa, but it's not my holiday. I and my family will continue to celebrate our traditions, while still appreciating those that we do not practice.

Laurel Lifson, Hopkins