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Anyone who watches sports has recognized the influx of flashy, funny and big-budget advertising promoting online sports gambling sites and apps. It could be argued that the “sport” of betting on sports seems to be just as popular as watching the game itself. A few months back, the sports gambling bill again failed to pass at the Minnesota Capitol. And while gambling on sports remains illegal in Minnesota, the reality is people are going to continue to place bets on sports and potentially head down an all-too-common path of problem gambling and addiction, which can lead to ...

Beat the rush for back-to-school health visits

Talk of early bedtimes and back-to-school clothes — no kid wants to hear that in July. But now’s the time to begin looking toward this busy season when it comes to your family’s health care. Back-to-school checkups Now’s the time to schedule back-to-school preventive checkups, because clinic appointments can get filled up as we look to August. Most health insurance plans cover an annual preventive visit for every member of your family. If you or your family members have not yet had this visit in 2024, consider scheduling now before summer turns to fall. This visit is an ...

Water conservation remains important even in a wet year

It often surprises people that in our region water is a limited resource, something that needs to be conserved. We’re part of Minnesota. It’s known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes and the Land of Sky Blue Waters. It creates a perception that water is abundant all throughout the state. Our southwest corner actually has water scarcity issues. It’s one of the reasons we have limited amounts of industry. We’re a wet and dry landscape. Sometimes we get too much rain. This year we had a rain event that produced three inches. That’s too much in a short amount of time. It leads to ...

Oh, fiddlesticks to technology

Editor’s Note: Independent columnist Ted Rowe died on Sunday. Rowe wrote a weekly column for the Independent starting in 2011. In his memory here is his column that was published on Feb. 21, 2018. Have you ever wanted to “Stop the World – I want to Get Off”? Whenever I get to this time of the year being faced with the IRS tax forms that I can no longer decipher and then attempting to gather all the information that I think I need to even get the conglomeration of stuff to a tax accountant, I want to stop and yell: STOP THE WORLD! I get that feeling lots of other times as ...

Domestic violence extends beyond direct harm it inflicts

“Our family is living the tragic nightmare of the ripple effect of domestic violence. Our hope is that no one has to experience what Ariel and our family have had to go through. Our continued mission is in hopes to save and help people who are in similar situations. There’s a taboo when it comes to talking about domestic violence nobody wants to talk about, it is our hope that this changes, that people will talk about it, and people will know that there are options for them to get help.” — Nichole Sakry (Ariel’s mom) Ariel Christine Sakry was born and raised in Clarkfield. ...

A fellow traveler

During my previous life as an advertising salesman I would regularly stop at Koehn Marketing, located at Watertown, South Dakota, and chew the fat with owner Jeff Koehn. I would generally kick things off by asking, “How’s it going, Jeff?” and he would generally reply “Good, good! How about yourself?” Last winter when I stopped at Koehn Marketing and posed my usual opening question, Jeff threw me for a loop by answering, “Not so good. I just found out that I have tonsil cancer.” I told Jeff that I was sorry to hear this news and that I had never even heard of tonsil ...