Open schools with modifications THUMBS UP: The Minnesota Department of Education released results Thursday of the Fall Planning Survey for Families. The survey indicated that 64% of respondents selected that they would feel comfortable sending their students back to school this fall. Of ...
Everybody loves an underdog. We cheer when sports teams that are way down stage a big rally and beat a highly favored opponent. It makes the victory that much sweeter. But there’s one thing we don’t want to see making a comeback, and that is the COVID-19 virus. Americans have been ...
My wife and I were at the farm supply store the other day when a small glass cabinet caught my eye. “Look at this!” I exclaimed as I pointed at the locked cabinet. “What will they think of next? Now they’re selling oil for citizen’s band radios!” “You dope! That isn’t CB ...
To the Editor: Covid-19 testing here appears to be robust. If you think you have COVID symptoms or have been in contact with a positive case, you can be tested at no cost. Avera Marshall has also introduced Covid antibody testing for those who believe they have recovered from it. That is ...
Civil rights demonstrators this summer have engaged in a new round of tearing down statues of people they see as champions of bigotry. Why not replace them with statues of the heroes and heroines of the civil rights movement? Late last year, people in Montgomery, Alabama erected a statue of ...
To the editor: This recent celebration of America’s birthday occurred while the ability for local units of government to make decisions as they see fit, being mostly removed from those officials and objective discussions about COVID-19, being harder to find than hen’s teeth, Thomas ...
I like the example of a coffee pot or even other popular small appliances: blenders and mixers when giving examples of items residents ask about how to dispose of. Generally speaking, if any given consumer purchases a mid-range priced small appliance, a resident can expect to purchase anywhere ...
This past session the Minnesota Legislature passed the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act, a law that provides emergency insulin supplies to diabetics who can’t afford the catastrophically high price charged by the big pharmaceutical companies that make it. The law went into effect on ...
Growing up in the upper Midwest taught me to relish the warmth of summer. Sometimes those stretches of 90-degree days spanned just a week or two in August. Other summers, the warmth seemed to highlight the entire 12 weeks we were out of school. In between backyard kickball games, ...
It is going to be something to behold, on Jan. 21, 2021, when President Biden takes revenge on Russia for paying the Taliban to kill Americans in Afghanistan. He’ll task the CIA with killing the Russian agents behind the bounties, send lethal aid to Ukraine to defend itself against Russian ...
To the editor: The letter writer in the June 23rd Public Forum attested to the seeming fact that she and her six siblings, “memorized the Ten Commandments and knew the first three tell us how God wants us to love him and the rest, how to love our neighbor.” Memorization requires ...
Civil rights demonstrators this summer have engaged in a new round of tearing down statues of people they see as champions of bigotry. Why not replace them with statues of the heroes and heroines of the civil rights movement? Late last year, people in Montgomery, Alabama erected a statue of ...
The book I want to tell you about is “The Ragman’s Son,” c 1988, an autobiography written by Kirk Douglas, who was in “The Vikings,” the first movie I saw in my young life. I was 15 years old. It is such a telling book about his young years, the movies he was in (over 80), the nature ...
On the Fourth of July we celebrate the declaration of our nation’s independence with picnics and fireworks and with the great American tradition of going to furniture stores and taking advantage of their low, low prices on mattresses. The Fourth is essentially an all-you-can-eat potluck ...
To the editor: This is a letter of thanks to a gracious person who paid for our meal. A neighbor and I were in line at Taco Bell on Thursday, June 25, at 12:25 p.m. and I ordered food for five boys who were fishing , my 92-year-old mother and myself. We ordered boxes of burritos, nachos and ...
Fireworks are part of the Fourth of July. They are more available than ever in most areas. And this year, for obvious reasons, even some people who did not buy and set off their own pyrotechnics in the past may be tempted to use them to blow off some steam. Just so no one blows off a couple ...
From nearly the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, it was clear the disease has a racial component. Black Americans have been affected far more severely than whites. Exactly why that is so has not been learned yet. Obviously, getting answers is critical. But blacks are ...
To the editor Did you know that in Minnesota, 40 percent of 8th graders aren’t proficient in math? As part of Minnesota Math Corps, an AmeriCorps program, I’m trying to change that statistic. Being a tutor is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done and I’m writing today ...
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s first swing to knock young immigrants off their dreams by ending the DACA program. The president vows round two. Congress should put an end to this bullying. The court determined the administration’s method for ending the DACA ...
Keep your face masks on in crowds THUMBS DOWN: The recent rise of the COVID-19 cases nationwide indicates the threat of the virus is still thriving. Closer to home, it was reported Thursday that an inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Faribault has died after testing positive ...