Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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So Arriell, the 17-year-old who was along for the ride in a stolen car that crashed into a north Minneapolis home, is doing well on a track team ("Few get a path out of trouble," Aug. 21). I'm sure that's a big relief to the people who live in the house. I wonder how they're doing; I wonder if Arriell is helping them pay to repair the damage to the house. I wonder if the people who live in the house — perhaps including children — feel safe there. I wonder how they're sleeping at night. I wonder, too, how the 71-year-old woman who was terrorized and assaulted by four female teenage thugs is recovering from her injuries. And I wonder when, if ever, she'll get any information about how the legal system dealt with those violent young offenders who attacked her more than two years ago.

The "About this series" at the end of Arriell's story says it examines "how Minnesota's juvenile justice system is failing young people, families and victims of violence." If the story gave as much emphasis to crime victims' suffering as it does to triumphant pictures and quotes from those who victimized them, readers would have a more complete picture of the harm done by juvenile crime.

Steven Schild, Winona, Minn.

In his opinion on drug pricing ("Health care changes will hurt Americans," Aug. 21), Star Tribune owner Glen Taylor suggests that the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act related to prescription drug rebates and negotiated pricing should apply not only to the Medicare program, but also to private payers. He is right about this.

In fact, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's Advisory Task Force on Lowering Pharmaceutical Drug Prices hinted at this approach in a 2020 report. Beyond Minnesota and the United States, many countries use the International Drug Pricing Index to set drug prices for their populations.

Jim Hart, Stillwater

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Haven't employers — through their health insurance providers — been negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies for years? And hasn't this been a form of cost-shifting — from employers to Medicare — for those years in which Medicare was not allowed to negotiate? Something doesn't ring true in Taylor's analysis. Pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to run up profits for shareholders and executives while at the same time cutting back on research funding. The Inflation Reduction Act is a small step toward industry accountability to the public.

Denise Beusen, Eden Prairie

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In our chronically opaque health care system, we can assume that drug manufacturers are already pricing medications at the ceiling that commercial markets will accept. A 2021 analysis by the Brookings Institution found no evidence that cost-shifting would occur as a result of better pricing for Medicare beneficiaries. A Congressional Budget Office analysis of a similar 2019 proposal backs up this finding, and also expects that inflation rebate provisions would actually reduce costs for drug benefits in commercial insurance plans.

Marie and Aaron Schutte, Medina

An Aug. 26 letter writer and so many others of his generation, in objecting to President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness, seem to think that taxpayer support for students in college education is some kind of undeserved "giveaway" that is insulting to students of an earlier generation who "paid their own way."

These critics seem to forget that there was indeed substantial taxpayer support for their education at that earlier time. State governments in Minnesota and elsewhere supported state universities with taxpayer dollars to a far greater extent than they do today. It is in fact withdrawal of the taxpayer subsidies that you enjoyed that is contributing to the cost crisis for students today.

The tuition cost for the University of Minnesota from 1979 in today's dollars was about $2,500. The actual cost of education in today's dollars was about the same as it is today in constant dollars. But state support was nearly 50% for the university then, effectively subsidizing tuition. Today the state appropriation is only 18% of the university budget. Figures are similar throughout the nation. The fact is, taxpayers supported higher education to a much greater extent in the past.

William O. Beeman, San Jose

The writer is a University of Minnesota professor emeritus.

Donald Trump mystifies so wise an observer as D.J. Tice ("Echoes of Trump in the trial of a founding scoundrel," Aug. 21). Tice concedes that Trump is a scoundrel. Yet the sheer volume of independent Trump investigations appears to alarm Tice that a persecution is underway.

One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons depicts two prisoners in their cell. The cellmates are lounging on their bunks, one musing, "Seventeen arrests, seventeen convictions. Maybe it's me."

Mark Warner, Minneapolis

The Rev. Greg Gabriel, Lincoln, Neb.

To Gary Gilson ("Readers unleash language pet peeves," Aug. 21): My language pet peeve is a question such as "Do you want this in a bag at all?" My reaction: I either want a bag or don't want a bag. To me the tag "at all" implies a degree of wanting while the question requires only a yes or no.