Echo bank

THUMBS UP: Banks have taken their share of knocks but it's great news when a regional bank constructs a new building in a small town. Citizens State Bank of Clara City has built a new bank in Echo, a town with a population of fewer than 300. A huge statement of faith in the area and in its customers. There is also a nice, relatively new Citizens State Bank of Clara City on U.S. Highway 212 in Granite Falls.

A veteran's story

Thumbs up: This region has many veterans like Milo Hovland of Canby. Soldiers who did their job during wars and in difficult, intense situations. Hovland helped deliver dozens of airplanes for the U.S. Military during World War II.

Drunken criminal

Thumbs down: The Associated Press reported a Moorhead man pleaded guilty this week to burglary during the April flooding. Daniel Orion Opgrand, 24, broke into a hotel that had closed during the Red River flooding on April 16, the AP said. The story also said Opgrand said he'd been drinking on that early morning. Opgrand did more than $1,000 in damage, the AP said. It's too bad the man didn't channel his energy into filling sandbags or helping in another way instead of drinking and then committing a crime. If the flooding closed the hotel, then it appears Opgrand is also a lucky man, he could have wandered too close to the flood waters.

Hate crimes

Thumbs down: Twenty-nine people were killed in gay bias-motivated incidents in 2008, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs said. It's the highest number of deaths recorded since the group started to keep those statistics in 1999. People may not agree with a gay, bisexual, lesbian or transgender lifestyle but it's sad that some would actually hurt or kill someone because of such sexual preferences. Ironic. An Iowa court has ruled same-sex marriage is legal and President Barack Obama is extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees and people are still killing others because of a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender preference.