Breaking News

Editorials

Swastika video does not define us as a community

“What is going on at my hometown?” That question was asked by former Marshall resident Bo Erickson, who works as a reporter with CBS News. Erickson and CBS News joined media outlets across the nation to report on the now famous viral video of a couple wearing face masks with the Nazi swastika while shopping at Walmart in Marshall. The roughly two-minute video was taken and posted on social media on Saturday by local church vicur, Raphaela Mueller. Originally from Germany, Mueller said seeing the couple wearing the swastika masks left her “speechless” and felt like a ...

Short Takes

Get behind the mask mandate THUMBS UP: A new AP-NORC poll finds that a large majority of Americans, including all Democrats and about six in 10 Republicans, favor requiring people to wear masks in public when they are around people. Meanwhile the evidence is mounting that masks work when it comes to decreasing the amount of germs being spread by coughing, sneezing, breathing and talking. A study published in Health Affairs in June showed steeper declines in the spread of COVID-19 in states with mandates. Unfortunately, politics continues to get in the way of what makes sense. On ...

Schools need to be funded to function

School, both public and private, will be quite different this fall. In many states, classrooms that normally would have been open by mid-August will not be occupied until September or October, if then. Whether the education process for millions of children will involve in-person teaching or “distance learning,” both public and private schools will have to do things that cost more money than in a normal year. Having students in school will require health safeguards such as social distancing, possibly use of face masks and screening to keep children from bringing COVID-19 to ...

Cancel the stamp debate for mail votes

Of all the irrational debates Americans should be having about the upcoming November elections, one reported last week takes the cake. Beyond any doubt, many voters will be leery of casting ballots at polling places because of COVID-19 concerns. That has renewed the debate over absentee ballots cast by mail. Indeed, there is genuine reason to have some concern about mail-in ballots. Will everyone desiring to vote that way have access to the process? Will the unscrupulous attempt to use fraudulent ballots? But the answer to one question some are asking has an obvious answer. The ...

Mobility for vets

Some of the men and women who serve us in uniform suffer wounds or other injuries that lead to a lifetime of sacrifice for us. In return, taxpayers help the most severely affected purchase specially adapted motor vehicles — once. U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, want to rectify that. They have introduced the Advancing Uniform Transportation Opportunities for Veterans Act. Under current law, the Department of Veterans Affairs can provide eligible injured veterans with one-time grants of about $21,400 to purchase vehicles adapted so they can drive. If the ...

Short Takes

The threat to rural MN is real THUMBS DOWN: The argument that COVID-19 is not a threat to rural Minnesotans is becoming less convincing by the day. Lincoln County is rural Minnesota. So is Pipestone County. Both counties are experiencing spikes in positive cases. In response to that spike, Avera Tyler held a community testing event on Wednesday with more 200 tests conducted by noon. Five deaths have been recorded among the 103 total cases in Pipestone County. Walz protecting his state THUMBS DOWN: Criticism has been directed toward Gov Tim Walz’s extension of the peacetime ...