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Vaccine fears

A report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released Monday indicates that only a third of nursing home workers have been getting COVID-19 vaccinations when they are first offered. In a look at 11,000 nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities, 78 percent of the elderly residents received at least one shot, but only 37.5 percent of staff members did. It is difficult to understand how skilled health care workers, who deal with the impact of COVID-19 on their patients every day, can be so skeptical about vaccines that are supposed to protect them and their ...

Vaccines: State must remain nimble in rollout

Minnesota’s rollout of coronavirus vaccines has to this point remained somewhat underwhelming. It’s important the state overcome bureaucratic obstacles and manage not only distribution of vaccines but the risk of each form of distribution. Federal data comparisons show Minnesota in the middle of the pack for the quickness of its vaccine distribution, with about 40 percent of its allocation delivered into the arms of patients according to data released Thursday. State officials say the slower rollout is due to the state following more closely the CDC guidelines on who gets ...

Back again: Voter ID bill

The idea of requiring a photo ID from people before they cast votes keeps yo-yoing back in the Legislature. Sen. Scott Newman, (R-Hutchinson) is proposing a bill to present photo identification at the polls. This bill has been proposed and shot down before, most notably in 2012, when Republican majorities in the House and Senate placed it on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. Minnesota voters rejected it with a 53 percent margin, and elected Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. The idea of requiring a photo ID for elections is a solution to a problem that really ...

The Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star on the legacy of Hank Aaron:

Back before it was possible to access any bit of baseball trivia on one’s iPhone, the Baseball Encyclopedia was an essential part of a stats geek’s library. Turn to the player register, and it was possible to see the complete big-league statistics of anyone who ever played. How fitting that the very first name in the register was Henry Louis Aaron. Talk about leading with your best stuff. Hank Aaron, who passed away last week at the age of 86, is no longer the all-time major-league home run leader on paper, having lost that distinction to Barry Bonds, who hit many of his homers ...

Do we really need sports betting?

Once again, the issue of legalizing sports betting is popping up in the Minnesota Legislature. Democratic Sen. Karla Bigham, of Cottage Grove, and Republican Rep. Pat Garofalo, of Farmington, are proposing a bill that would allow on-site sports wagering at tribal casinos for the first year, then mobile betting for those who sign up for an account at a casino. Revenue from a state tax on the action would go into the state’s general fund, with about 0.5% going to compulsive gambling assistance programs. Really? Does the state legislature need to debate that at this time? Don’t ...

Walz’s budget plan needs more planning

Gov. Tim Walz has announced his budget plan for the coming biennium, a $52.4 billion budget that would raise the income tax on wealthiest Minnesotans, lower the income tax for low earners, and slap another $1 tax on cigarettes and snuff. He would create a new tax bracket for those in the top 0.7% of earners, while letting those in the second tax bracket drop back into the first, which would lower their taxes. Walz would raise spending, especially for schools. He proposes $745 million in new spending for primary schools, to help them bounce back from the pandemic and help students ...