From Trump to race relations: The most-read Star Tribune opinions in 2016

The following excerpts are from opinion articles ranked by highest online readership in 2016.

1. "Assessing the candidates' overall truthfulness," by PolitiFact and the Star Tribune's Mark Boswell.

We thought it a suitable moment to update the leading candidates' (and running mates') Truth-O-Meter scorecards.

2. "The Secret History of the Commission on Presidential Debates," by Kirk Anderson, a freelance cartoonist.

With the two major party nominees — and no one else — about to square off once again before a nationwide audience, it's time to revisit the thrilling misadventures that guaranteed voters would never learn about alternative candidates or ideas in presidential debates.

3. "Open your eyes to our North Side nightmare," by Mickey Cook of Minneapolis.

North Minneapolis is a war zone. We are afraid. We are losing our young people to gun violence. Why do we not deserve the same as other nearby communities?

Though many — including St. Paul school officials — seem reluctant to acknowledge it, the escalating violence and disorder follow a major change in school disciplinary policies.

5. "Norm Coleman: I will never vote for Donald Trump," by Norm Coleman, a former Republican U.S. senator from Minnesota.

I won't vote for Donald Trump because of who he isn't. He isn't a Republican. He isn't a conservative. He isn't a truth teller. He's not a uniter.

6. "A letter to my liberal friends," by Rosemary Warschawski, a senior vice president of exlnz, a Baltimore-based achievement consulting firm.

I agree that the Republican Party has troublesome issues of unity, that the front-runners would be poor choices for president and that the GOP is not dealing with the situation well. That said, I see things differently than you do.

Many Minnesotans believe their state's economy is unusually strong and prosperous, and should be a model for other states. Unfortunately, the state's economic performance has been mediocre in recent years.

8. "Natalie Hudson is clear choice for Minnesota Supreme Court," by the Editorial Board.

Voters will encounter only one statewide contest on their Aug. 9 primary ballots. It should give them little difficulty and considerable satisfaction to elect Supreme Court Associate Justice Natalie Hudson.

9. "Donald Trump must leave the race," by the Editorial Board.

The news of presidential candidate Donald Trump's vulgar view of women and his conceivably criminal activity toward them wasn't an October surprise, because it wasn't a surprise.

I don't know about you, but I'd never heard a sitting governor say race might explain why a black person was killed in an officer-involved shooting. Or was denied housing, or was rejected from a job.

11. "Race and the police: We can't avoid talking about behavior," by Richard Greelis, an author living in Bloomington who also is a retired police detective and teacher.

If we are really going to get to the bottom of the race issue, we're going to have to talk about it rather than just protest and point fingers, right?

12. "An open letter to Mike Freeman: Evidence in Jamar Clark case does not exonerate officers," by Crystal Yakacki of Minneapolis.

I watched your entire statement, and I am disturbed. My primary concern is that there was certainly no evidence presented that exonerates the police officers.

What price are we paying for ignoring reality — including the demographics of crime; the deadly, split-second environment in which the police work, and the potential for reckless public policies to undermine our communities' safety?

14. "Finland not an apt educational model for U.S. schools," by Robert Shumer, a research associate and adjunct faculty member in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.

No question Finland has done well. But while making the comparison, we need to remember that Finland is not the United States.

15. "Philando Castile and I were classmates at Central, where whites and blacks lived in separate worlds," by Carolyn Philstrom, a pastor at Prairie Lutheran Parish in Stanley, N.D.

Even though we graduated the same year from the same school (sort of), I didn't know Philando Castile. When I attended St. Paul Central High school from 1997-2001, my dad would often comment that Central is really two schools in one building.