Need additional storage for your belongings? Moving to a new apartment or home and need some temporary storage? Consider renting a storage unit to keep your possessions safe and secure. But before you start packing, you should know what to look for in a rental storage unit or facility and a few ...
President Trump needs to do better. His recent call for four Democrats in the U.S. House to “go back” to where they came from does not even make sense. Three come from the United States. The fourth is a naturalized citizen, who happens to represent Minnesota in Congress. Trump is trying to ...
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign was just disrupted by campaign workers demanding the same $15 per hour Sanders demands government force all employers to pay. It serves him right. Years ago, the activist group ACORN faced the same problem. After fighting for a higher minimum ...
Acting on the principle “Why put it off until tomorrow when you can do the wrong thing today?” the House of Representatives last week voted to repeal a tax that is not scheduled to take effect until 2022. The vote against the “Cadillac tax” was 419-6, a reminder that ...
Question: Is it a violation if the third brake light quits working on a passenger vehicle? What about a vehicle that is equipped with a brake light(s) that flash or pulsate? Answer: The state statute says that a vehicle equipped with stop lamps or signal lamps shall at all times be ...
In 2012, after the addictive properties of opioid pain pills were known, drug companies shipped 12.6 billion of them to U.S. pharmacies. That works out to about 38 each for every man, woman and child in this country. No wonder drug companies involved in lawsuits over marketing of opioid ...
I punched back! Geez! I wonder what that means? Did he hit someone? Or??? As you read this, last week’s extreme heat wave is history — thankfully! If ever there was a time when a cooling summer drink was needed it’s now and a tasty, cooling summer punch is always a remedy for a heated ...
Everyone lives in the past to a certain extent, but I probably do so more than the average bear. You might even say that I’m a nostalgic nostalgist. It’s impossible for me to escape the past. My wife and I live in the house that my Grandpa Nelson built on the farm that was originally ...
“Where no man has gone before. Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life.” These are phrases from the long-running, popular TV series “Star Trek. Unfortunately, the interest ...
Our time in the outdoors, much like life, is defined by the successes and amazing events that live on in memory and require no photograph or journal entry to remind oneself, or perhaps a group of close friends around the campfire, of what happened. A simple “do you remember that time ...
ECHO The village of Echo, named after the township in which it is situated, was founded in August 1884, when the Minneapolis and St. Louis extension was built through Yellow Medicine County. A few settlers located in Echo Township in 1869, but early day settlement was slow. For many years ...
This month marks the 29th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990. Disability affects millions of Americans. It can inhibit peoples’ quality of life and their ability earn a living. Social Security is here to ...
Increasingly law enforcement is turning to automatic facial recognition technology, usually without any clear rules about its use. As one British civil rights group put it, facial recognition is “arsenic in the water supply of democracy.” Indeed many of the fears about abuses of the ...
When you’re trying to make the stars your old friends and getting to know your way around the constellations you need all the help you can get. Asterisms can be wonderful tools to get the job done. Asterisms are large and obvious formations of stars that are very easy to find. They are not ...
The sun was shining and the temperature was warm as I headed to Walnut Grove last Friday. I decided to volunteer at the “Little House” cast reunion that day, and I was curious to see what the weekend would bring. Nine of the stars from the show were scheduled to be there, and fans from all ...
Fixing the health care system THUMBS DOWN: The health care landscape is changing at a rapid pace throughout the nation and right here in southwest Minnesota. This week the Independent reported on the closing of DaVita Dialysis Center in Marshall by the end of the month. Patients needing ...
Sen. Tina Smith on Thursday announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is making up to $16 million available to eligible groups and organizations to fund efforts to get veterans and non-traditional farmers in Minnesota and across the country to get into agriculture. In the release, ...
Fifty years ago, millions of people around the world watched as the Apollo 11 mission blasted off from Cape Kennedy in Florida, carrying the first men who would walk on the moon. The marvel of that accomplishment, carried out only eight years since President John F. Kennedy had proposed a ...
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at peak cherry season, particularly cherries from the Northwestern United States. In fact, slight climate differences throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Montana ensure that ripe cherries are being harvested from June through August, and ...
Which one would it be: Fetzer, Toasted Head or Josh? Blind wine tastings are interesting but not always a vehicle to perfection. Here’s what I mean by that... For about the last 40 years, a wine’s worthiness has been measured by a number of dynamics — including its color, aroma, sense ...