Minnesota recently released its annual list of its 13 counties with the highest combined totals of alcohol-related traffic deaths and serious injuries for 2008-10. And as these pages (in the St. Cloud Times) have noted the past several years, the list contains few surprises.

Not surprisingly, the 13 counties accounted for almost half of the state’s alcohol-related deaths (202) and half of the state’s serious injuries (462) during 2008-2010.

No one was happy with the news that a judicial board approved the first release of a sex offender from the state’s sexual predator treatment program.

There is obvious reason for safety concerns upon the supervised release of Clarence Opheim, a 64-year-old convicted pedophile.

But the partisan political rhetoric at the state Capitol is not helpful. Instead, it’s time for a reasoned discussion of improving the civil commitment process.

No budget can be judged in isolation. The baseline question is: compared to what?

Republicans will make much of President Barack Obama’s failure to fulfill his promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Given the shaky recovery, he’s right to break that promise. The short-term goal must be economic growth, not deficit-trimming. Taming the ever-growing pile of debt is a longer-term challenge.

At long last, federal and state authorities have reached an out-of-court settlement with five leading mortgage lenders, a major step in resolving the furor over “robo-signing” and other dubious foreclosure practices that came to light in October 2010. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial will pony up $26 billion in return for a measure of legal immunity; the figure could grow to $30 billion if an additional nine banks join the deal.