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Great entertainment draws a crowd

Back in 2019, there was a lot of disappointment directed toward the Lyon County Fair Board when it was feared it would not be able to procure carnival rides for the upcoming fair. The crisis was eventually averted with the signing of the Todd Armstrong Show to provide carnival rides. Then in July of 2020, the Lyon County Fair Board reported to the board of commissioners a $10,000 loss caused by the decision to not hold a fair in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So the fair board has handled its fair share of disappointment in recent years. But the members of that board can ...

Widespread suffering from Ida

Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf Coast states last weekend and wreaked havoc along the coast. Flooding and power outages are challenging the recovery efforts. Over a million households in Louisiana and Mississippi were without power as of Wednesday and gasoline shortages were hampering rescue and emergency efforts. The bright spot is that only about half a dozen people have died from the storm, though that figure is expected to rise. We haven’t seen the disastrous flooding that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans in 2005. That flooding led to 1,800 deaths in and around New ...

Stop the political vengeance games

Last year the Republicans in control of the Minnesota Senate found a way to punish Gov. Tim Walz for continuing to exercise emergency powers in the fight against COVID-19. During the monthly special sessions that the governor had to call to extend the emergency powers, the Republicans started picking off the commissioners Walz had appointed, and which the Senate had taken its time on approving. After a couple of years on the job, the commissioners fell victim to the Republican wish for vengeance. Now, even with the emergency powers gone, Republicans are making threats against more ...

We owe a home to Afghan refugees

America’s misadventure in Afghanistan is over. The last troops were airlifted out, but many more people were left behind. “We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” said Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command in Washington after the last planes left. Some are people who worked with U.S. troops as interpreters, or in other ways. There are still be some American citizens in Afghanistan for one reason or another. The Taliban, now in control of the country, will not be allowing any more airlifts, but the U.S. government will still be working through other ...

A bitter ending in Afghanistan

As the last few evacuation flights get ready to leave the Kabul airport, we can already see the kind of society we will be leaving behind in Afghanistan. The Taliban will be ruling the country by dint of military force (bolstered by arms and equipment the U.S. left behind for the Afghani forces who quickly abandoned them). The Taliban will have to set up a government that people hope will be inclusive of all factions in the country, and that will respect the rights of women, but the Taliban has already said that Sharia law will be the basis of their rule. So much for a kinder, ...

No guns at the fair

A judge issued a just and eminently reasonable ruling on Wednesday, refusing to grant an injunction requested by a gun owners’ group to allow gun owners with permits to carry their weapons at the Minnesota State Fair. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus had sought the injunction, saying the state fair’s no gun policy violated their Second Amendment rights, and the state law that allows gun owners to carry their guns in public. Ramsey County District Judge Laura Nelson pointed out that the fair has not allowed guns since 2003, but the Gun Owners Caucus didn’t sue until earlier this ...