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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Opinion articles draw attention for various reasons — because readers have an affinity with the topic, or appreciate the insights and the writing, or perhaps because they utterly disagree. Whatever the case, here are the articles that generated the most traffic in 2025:
- “As once-giant Joann Fabrics shutters its doors, the DIYers must sew our economy back together,” by Minnesota Star Tribune columnist Aaron Brown in May. An excerpt: “It’s the George Bailey problem. On paper, [these stores are] worth more dead than alive. But just like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ this calculation omits an important human factor.”
- “If we don’t get our act together soon, Duluth is destined to become a ghost town,” by Howie Hanson, a writer from that city, in August. “Ten years from now, we’re either thriving on purpose — or limping along on nostalgia and denial.”
- “You carry keys (probably). Are you a criminal?” by Star Tribune columnist Rochelle Olson in April. “A Minnesota law … has rendered nearly all keys manufactured in Minnesota illegal. Yes, the keys to houses, apartments, cars, boats and ATVs — because of the composition of the metal.” (The Legislature later changed the standard and delayed implementation for three years.)
- “The blunt truth about Charlie Kirk’s legacy,” by Nekima Levy Armstrong in August. “I abhor political violence. Charlie Kirk should not have been killed. Full stop. But to honor the truth, we cannot allow grief to blur memory into mythmaking.”
- “Minneapolis-St. Paul is in decline. What happened?” by Rick Kupchella in October. “What has happened in Minnesota over the last five years? Why haven’t we seen the same kind of rebound here in Minnesota that we’ve seen in other cities? In ‘A Precarious State,’ a new documentary film premiering Oct. 2, I seek to answer these essential questions.”
- “I grew up in a Minnesota bog the size of New York City; I didn’t know it was special,” by Aaron Brown in January. “Experts regard the 300-square-mile Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota as one of the world’s most interesting natural places.”
- “No crime such as Eichorn is accused of comes without additional victims,” by contributing columnist Sharon McMahon in March. “You’ve got to hand it to the Minnesota GOP: It wasted no time in rallying the troops to expel the disgraced state Sen. Justin Eichorn.” (Eichorn was charged with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.)
- “There’s something rotten in Minneapolis politics,” by Charlie Rybak in April. “[A]s good as I think our people are, the political culture in this city has been allowed to decay.”
- “I knew George Floyd and Derek Chauvin,” by Maya Santamaria in May. “[Chauvin] always complied with my direct orders” at El Nuevo Rodeo Nightclub and Restaurant, where Chauvin worked security. “That is the detail that haunts me — the thought that if I had been there, maybe I could have saved Floyd.”
- “It’s time to reevaluate Minnesota’s free school lunch program,” by Tim Rubash in June. “[The program] was launched with good intentions … [b]ut in practice, it has revealed serious flaws that undermine its original goals.”
- “As Trump trade threats loom, a Minnesota farm family braces for impact,” the first in a four-part series of articles by Star Tribune columnist Jill Burcum published between June and December. “The Johnsons know they can’t control the weather, but the trade conflict adds another unpredictable variable — one that’s already testing their peace of mind and could test their finances.”
- “Is Minnesota’s cannabis market already in trouble?” by Star Tribune contributing columnist Clemon Dabney in March. “Rule-making can make or break a cannabis business, determining everything from production limits to testing requirements and market access.”
- “Minnesota’s new flag is ugly and divisive. It deserves another do-over,” by Star Tribune contributing columnist Andy Brehm in July. “Our state flag should transcend politics and be a symbol that conservative and liberal Minnesotans alike hold up with pride.”
- “This harvest, a Minnesota farm family feels the fallout of Trump-era trade,” the third part of Burcum’s series. “In the months since tariffs were enacted, the couple has watched many of their fears play out, including one of their biggest: an erosion of U.S. soybean sales to China.”
- “In Melissa Hortman, so soon after Kari Dziedzic, Minnesota politics loses another selfless leader,” by Star Tribune columnist Rochelle Olson in June. “Dziedzic and Hortman shared an approach to politics that wasn’t mean-spirited or self-aggrandizing.”
- “Feel free to disagree with my husband, Jacob Frey. Just don’t protest outside our house,” by Sarah Clarke in August. “I support the right to peaceful protest. But there is a profound difference between voicing dissent in public spaces and bringing that dissent to the doorstep of an elected official’s family home.”
- “An unserious St. Paul City Council fiddles while downtown crumbles,” by Andy Brehm in March. “Downtown St. Paul is in a doom loop, evident to anyone who has visited its desolate streets recently.”
- “The Minnesota Twins broke their deal with taxpayers and fans,” also by Brehm, in August. “Minnesotans should consider lessons learned here and no longer be willing to subsidize professional sports teams owned by billionaires and staffed by multimillionaires.”
- “A response to Ann Coulter and her pro-genocide social media post,” by Star Tribune contributing columnist Anton Treuer in July. “She’s a shock jockey who knew she’d get over a million likes and shares the first day she posted this.”
- “Iron Range layoffs show human cost, long-term implications of arbitrary tariffs,” by Aaron Brown in March. “The news billowed across the Mesabi Iron Range like an ominous fog. Layoffs at the mines.”
- “Why are Republican states trying to overturn a pillar of disability rights?” by David M. Perry in February. “[T]he fundamental bipartisan consensus surrounding basic disability rights is under threat.”
- “Those of us who work in gender medicine are not going anywhere,” by multiple authors in the field, in February. “Gender care for youths is safe, effective and necessary.”
- “No one’s come up with a better model for affordable housing than this,” by Richard McGuire in November. “[Community Land Trusts] are widespread but little understood.”
- “Minnesota’s next manufacturing revolution is here,” by U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber in October. “While steel may have built the 20th century, it’s magnets that are powering the 21st.”
- “Working from home is so overrated,” by Paul John Scott in March. “Typing in one’s pajamas has become a sort of red line in our conversations about employment rights.”
