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Community Voices

People skills: they’re important in any type of job

There’s a well known saying when it comes to career success that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. It’s true in both urban and rural areas. It’s true in any part of the United States. As far as I know, it’s the case throughout the world. When I was in my 20s I didn’t think it was fair. It was part of my idealism. I thought it was wrong if the most qualified applicant didn’t get a job, if someone else was chosen because of personal connections. I felt the merit system in the post office was the fairest way to go. If someone scores best on an exam or has the ...

City budgeting factors provide for a comprehensive process

The city of Marshall has recently presented to Council a draft budget and a preliminary property tax levy amount. All cities are required to prepare and adopt an annual levy and budget. By law, in Minnesota, the fiscal year of a city and all its funds must be the calendar year. The budget sets out a council’s yearly plan to maintain, change, add or drop services and activities. For cities, a budget is one year of estimated money coming in (revenue) and money going out (expenditures). Property taxes are the largest source of revenue for cities. Thus, through this budgeting process ...

How does food attract us?

What is it about food that makes us want to eat it? What circuits are triggered when we look at the foods we like? How do the sensory properties of food influence our choices of what to eat? There are no simple answers for this complex function. What follows is just a piece of the mechanism. There are different models, each with its own perspective. The different models are due to the complexity of the food attraction mechanism. A traditional way to explain food attraction is called the Hedonic model. The suggestion here is that food is associated with pleasure. Anything that ...

Grazing in Kansas

Eating is a central part of the human experience much in the same way that swimming is a central part of being a fish. My wife and I recently visited relatives in the Kansas City area, so we decided to swim in the waters of the region’s food scene. But first we had to take care of some important business by which I mean “go shopping.” Some mysterious law of physics forces our car to steer itself into the parking lot of any shopping center that we might happen to drive past. And since we’re in the parking lot, says my wife, we may as well go inside and see what the store has to ...

Referendum is about investing in our students

Raising my family in Marshall, I learned firsthand the importance of community and the responsibility that comes with serving others. Over the years, I’ve seen how Marshall Public Schools shape not only our children’s lives, but the vitality of our entire town. Serving as your school board chair has been a privilege. The trust you place in our board is not taken lightly, and I am grateful for the opportunity to help guide the future of our schools. Our board has worked side by side with district leaders to minimize the impact of ongoing financial challenges. We’ve made tough ...

Rural townships remain vibrant in the 21st century

Townships in the region have changed a great deal in the past 50 years, but they’re still important places with a good quality of life. Their vitality is clear in at least several ways. They’re valuable for housing, local government, and in some cases churches and stores. Over the years there have been rumblings about eliminating township boards or taking steps that minimize their role. That should never happen. Some indications suggest that townships could become more important rather than less. Population totals have fallen in most rural townships because of declines in the ...