Dear editor: I am writing as a concerned citizen to speak against the budget proposals in Congress. First off, its morally wrong to cut things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, housing etc. Cuts to Medicaid will have a negative impact on our rural hospitals. I would hate to see any ...

To the editor: My sister’s father-in-law suffers from MS and dementia. He was in a private pay facility for two years until family finances were exhausted. After that, he became a Medicaid recipient in North Dakota. Last Friday, the nursing home contacted my sister saying that Medicaid is ...

To the editor: Having read the 4-24-2025 ‘Xcel meeting offers closer looks at planned Garvin power plant’, here are some questions I would have liked to ask Xcel: 1. What is the estimated cost of the 420 megawatt gas turbine fired power plant and its substation? And what percentage of ...

To the editor: I’m concerned about the reluctance to receive scheduled vaccines. I have practiced medicine for 54 years and have witnessed many serious diseases that current vaccines prevent. In my early years (1976-1995), spinal meningitis was a familiar and deadly illness in Marshall, MN. ...

To the editor: Why is your pet my responsibility? There are so many of us who share the same problem and the problem is your pets. Don’t get me wrong, I love animals. I just choose not to own them. There are many others who also choose not to keep pets for whatever reason may be. There are ...

To the editor: Steve Moore’s brief column in Friday’s edition of the Independent is absurdly inaccurate (boarding on out-right dishonesty). He starts out with the claim that “[Trump’s] tariffs could raise as much as $6 trillion over the next decade in federal tax collections. ...