Here we go again. For as long as I can remember, or maybe it just seems that way, Minnesota police and state troopers are again attempting to get control of a large and dangerous group of irresponsible drivers: behind-the-wheel users of phones and electronic devices.

A new 30-day campaign to rid state thoroughfares of this menace is underway this month, with the threat of tickets and warnings ("Motorists are warned again: Put the phone down," front page, April 2).

I applaud this latest enforcement and education effort to get state drivers to follow the 2019 hands-free law. This legislation has no doubt saved a substantial number of families from the grief of vehicle fatalities and injury.

But one statement from the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety was unnecessarily apologetic. In the past, officers have been positioned in school buses and utility trucks to better identify offenders. "It's not like we try to lay in the weeds," Mike Hanson, director of the office was quoted in the article as saying, "but we are positioned better to observe violations."

That's exactly what they should be doing. I don't know about you, but I take great comfort in knowing that someone is on the lookout to possibly prevent a phone-addicted menace from denting the side of my car — or worse.

Bruce L. Lindquist, St. Louis Park

The aim of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, as in Syria and Chechnya, is "to create a desert and call it peace," as the Roman historian Tacitus wrote 2,000 years ago regarding another war of annihilation. Tyrants never change.

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It is said that evil flourishes when good men watch and do nothing. I truly wonder, which is the real war crime? Something to ponder.

Thomas Jesberg, East Bethel

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Several times over the last few weeks I have seen members of the Ukraine parliament and mayors of cities in Ukraine interviewed by news people. I have been struck by their clarity, focus, strength, youth. Absolutely no comments blaming another party or their president. I contrast that with the old codgers and crones in the U.S. Congress who have been in their seats far too long and can only see through a political lens. And the young upstarts who make irrational comments. Grandstanding fools. It is an embarrassment.

In an April 2 letter ("Trans rules in sports: The missing context"), the writer criticizes the International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) lead in "moving away from testosterone-based limits toward a system that doesn't presume transgender women have an advantage" and has found a Swedish study supporting these claims. If this study is well-based (and it likely is) and knowing that all individuals have different levels of testosterone in their systems, the IOC might be forced to introduce testing of all athletes (female, male and other) to place them in an appropriate competitive category based on the testosterone levels in their system and/or the mean body mass of the athlete. If the IOC did this, the athletic competition would be better leveled for all and the biological gender at birth less of an issue.

Dr. Ronald Linde, Northfield

Perhaps it is an April 2 letter writer ("Supreme Court: False equivalencies") who is not aware or has chosen to overlook the fact that the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights also strongly opposed the nomination of Samuel Alito, whose name was put forward when it was clear that Judge Janice Rogers Brown, whose name was on the shortlist to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, would be filibustered. Then-Sen. Joe Biden and his Democratic colleagues did not achieve a filibuster to block Alito's confirmation even though they had the same reservations about his record.

Judd Swanson, Minneapolis

U.S. Sen. Tina Smith's April 1 commentary on the effect of oil supply on gas prices ("It's time for some real talk on gas prices") says that President Joe Biden approved in his first year more oil and gas leases then President Donald Trump averaged in a year. However, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, during a television interview on April 2, pointed out that after a lease is approved, an additional drilling approval is required. He said there are now more than 4,000 such requests waiting for approval.

How is this supposed to work? Lower-income people most hurt by the higher prices are supposed to buy electric cars for $60,000, while the well-off who are not affected much will likely wait and buy a new car on their regular schedule.

We should go back to what we produced before, and even more. More supply will cut prices, help those in need and improve national security.

Richard Petschauer, Edina

There are a lot of things I don't understand in this world, and that's because they're really complicated, but there's one thing I don't understand, because it seems so simple.

I'm talking about sports scheduling among Minnesota's major league teams.

Why couldn't one of them play at 1 p.m.?

And then on Monday, we had no games.

These are billion-dollar industries. Why can't they use these newfangled things called computers and spread their products out?

Is it some kind of a league pride thing? I'm asking as a fan: Why would you make your customer have to choose?

Just asking.