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Opinion

Wildfire smoke signals growing climate crisis

Community Voices

Recently, a number of Republican members of Congress, including Minnesota Representatives Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber, sent a letter to the Canadian government, alleging that its poor forest management practices are responsible for out-of-control wildfires and for this summer’s air quality problems in the Midwest and Northeast. Notably, the letter fails to mention climate change. However, although fire-management practices can play a role in these megafires, climate change also has a profound impact. In the words of Natural Resources Canada: ...

Community Voices

If you try to decide on the most popular movie of all time, a good choice would be The Wizard of Oz. Almost everyone has been “off to see the wizard” more than once. I think I’ve seen it about 10 times, starting when the Marshall movie theater had special showings in the 1970s. That was more than 30 years after it first premiered. This month Boulder Estates has about a half dozen events structured around a Wizard of Oz theme. It’s a good subject to highlight. Even someone who’s not much of a movie fan knows the characters and the story. At first I feared the Wicked Witch. ...

Looking at empathy

Community Voices

The word empathy is used a lot. Sometimes it is confused with sympathy, but they are different. When you feel sympathy for somebody those are your feelings, experienced by you. Sympathy involves what you feel when you witness another person’s suffering or terrible misfortune. You may feel compassion, pity, sadness, or sorrow for him or her. So what is empathy? Empathy is your ability to understand someone else’s feelings. In a way, it is something like putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. It involves recognizing, understanding, responding to, sharing, or even ...

The Vietnam War – Marland Burckhardt – Farm and family life in rural Russell

Local Columns

We have begun learning about Marland Burckhardt, who grew up in rural Russell as the first of three sons born to Katie (Wixon) Burckhardt and Edward Burckhardt. Marland described his mom’s roles in the family. “Mom was a housewife and took care of meals and housework. The chickens were also her responsibility. She had a big garden and much of our produce came from that garden. She canned the excess for winter use. Mom would ask us to help weed the garden. I liked the products, but wasn’t fond of weeding. I probably pulled as many vegetable plants as weeds.” (Marland ...

That color-changing tree reminds us to ‘be’, not just ‘do’

Community Voices

As I slowly cruised the lakeshore, a tradition I do before heading to my favorite fishing spot on the lake, this past week, I was startled to see the lone hardwood tree, already dappled in orange and yellow leaves. Just the one tree. There wasn’t another tree around the entire lake that was changing into its autumnal formalwear. But it was enough to set off a bit of a panic in me. Trees changing color! Wait, what? … But summer has only begun! No, I guess not. We are already into late August, and some kids are back in school. … And, oh my, was that just a couple of geese ...

No need to meet bold carbon free goals

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: This is in response to the 8-8-2025 ‘Nuclear power: Facts and myths.’ Under the notation, ‘Small Footprint, Big Results.’ I learned that one nuclear plant on 103 acres of land can put out as much power as a wind installation that would require 17,800 acres or, a solar installation that needs 3,200 acres. Another advantage (not mentioned) is being able to locate closer to large centers of use like the metro area. This would cut down on the cost of transmission lines going clear across the state; in addition to reducing the number of irritated landowners who ...