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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature have been complaining since the middle of May that Governor Tim Walz should end the state of peacetime emergency that he called to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and allow the Legislature to have a say in how the state should be responding. The ...
Some things never change. North Korean dictators’ determination to stay in power by keeping the rest of the world off balance is one of them. For a time, it seemed as if North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un might be altering course from that pursued by his father and grandfather. Kim and U.S. ...
Charity begins at home, especially in safeguarding Americans from COVID-19. But we have a long, praiseworthy record of having big hearts, and now should be no exception to that. Efforts to develop new medicines to treat the symptoms of COVID-19 and to develop vaccines against it have ...
It’s been difficult to find many bright spots as the country has been moving through various stages of the coronavirus pandemic. But one of them is that more dads are connecting with their kids like never before. As many parents work from home, it’s brought some clear challenges. Not ...
We hate to see you go too THUMBS UP: The Independent headline said “Leaving his mark.” There is no truer statement when it comes to Glenn Olson. He retired from the city of Marshall after serving as the city engineer since 2001. And during that span of time, Olson directed many ...
American taxpayers should not be handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to businesses without having at least some idea of where our money is going. That seems obvious. However, demanding such transparency puts the U.S. Treasury Department — and some of the businesses being ...
Regardless of how you lean politically, what Army Gen. Mark Milley did a few days ago was reassuring. President Donald Trump has been criticized by some — and, in needs to be noted, praised by others — for something he did after a night of civil unrest near the White House. You will have ...
Complaints about voter disenfranchisement often have more to do with incompetence than partisan scheming, we suspect. This year’s primary election in Georgia appears to be a case in point. Complaints about voter disenfranchisement often have more to do with incompetence than partisan ...
As the United States began the process of “reopening,” there was encouraging news on the economic front. About two weeks ago, nearly 25 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits, the Labor Department reported. By last Thursday, the number had decreased to about 21.5 ...