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Vaccine mandate struck down

The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t take long to strike down the Biden Administration’s mandate that large employers must require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, or wear masks, or undergo weekly testing. The conservative members of the court ruled that OSHA lacks the authority to make such a sweeping order, though it did allow the rules applying to health care workers to stand. A lot of larger corporations were cautious in their response to the news, saying they’d have to “examine” the ruling to see what kind of impact it would have. The ruling doesn’t say ...

Critical need for nursing staff

Hospital capacity is often referred to a “beds,” but the surge in COVID cases has proven that to be misleading. What really affects capacity, hospital administrators will tell you, is people on staff to treat those in the beds. More than beds these days, hospitals need trained people, nurses especially, to treat those who are sick. Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday he intends to use $40 million in federal pandemic relief funds to bring in health care staff from out of state to take some of the burden from the overtaxed hospital staff in the state. The funding will pay a staffing ...

More than COVID to worry about

Over the weekend the Associated Press reported on an AP-NORC poll indicating that people are finding more things to worry about these days than COVID-19. Pushing the pandemic off the front burner is the economy. While concern about how the COVID pandemic is handled waned from 53% a year ago to 37% today, inflation and personal finance are considered a top concern to 68%. Pandemic fatigue is setting in. If we’re not tired of hearing about COVID-19, we’re at least getting used to it. At some point, people want to live their lives, and risking a COVID infection may be taking on the ...

A new year is here — let’s make it better

We are starting a brand new year. It can be a fresh start for all of us ... but there is a lot on the horizon. Choices to be made in 2022 will be monumental — not just for individuals who might be hoping to lose a few pounds or save a little money, but for our nation as a whole. Resolve to think carefully — be honest with yourselves — about those decisions, folks, and pray our lawmakers do the same. If we want to walk into this new year as better people, let’s also make sure we make the new year better for those around us. We as a nation seem to have developed the habit ...

Lawmakers need to address carjacking

For some reason, carjacking has become far more prevalent in Minnesota over the past year. The number of cases in Minneapolis rose 57 percent in 2021 over the previous year —619 in 2021 compared to 388 the year before. This is not just a Minneapolis problem. All Minnesotans should be concerned. Many of us travel to the Twin Cities for business, or recreation, or to visit family. We could be just as likely a target of carjackers as a Minneapolis native. Many of us have family in the Twin Cities, and we don’t need to worry about whether our loved ones are safe. Carjacking is a ...

One of the great ones

More than 16 million American men and women served in World War II. Today there are only about 240,000 remaining. What brings that to mind is that this week the oldest surviving WWII veteran died. Lawrence N. Brooks, who served in the U.S. Army during the war, was 112 years old when he died Wednesday. Not only the oldest veteran, he was believed to be the oldest living man in the U.S. just three years younger than Thelma Sutcliffe of Omaha, Neb., who turned 115 on Oct. 1, 2021. Brooks served in the mostly Black 91st Engineer General Service Regiment and was stationed in Australia. He ...