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January 6 report is truly necessary

The House committee examining the events leading up to and surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is getting ready to start releasing its findings. The Associated Press reports the committee has interviewed 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and interviewed election officials around the country. Will their findings amount to anything? Right now a vast number of people in this country believe that the insurrection was just a peaceful protest, that if any violence was done it was political expression and should be protected by the First Amendment, ...

Can’t wait to see what Webb telescope finds

In 1990 the Hubble space telescope was launched, and after a few glitches and adjustments, it began showing us the most remarkable pictures of the universe. It has added tremendously to our understanding of the universe and how it is working. With the launch last week of the James Webb space telescope, we are in store for some even closer looks at the beginnings of the universe. The Webb telescope has a bigger mirror with six times the area for collecting light, plus it has the ability to see on the infrared spectrum, giving it the ability to see things hidden from Hubble. It is a ...

Et. Cetera

Grant to help business owners plan The Fairmont Economic Development Authority recently received a $20,000 grant for succession planning. Economic development coordinator, Linsey Preuss, said the goal is to make sure local businesses have a long-term survival plan. This grant sounds like an excellent way to help retain and attract local businesses. Be wise about Omicron The new Omicron variant is spreading quickly across the nation and state. We need to be cognizant of the new variant in our local communities as well. Tim Langer, public health sanitarian for Faribault and Martin ...

Keep Sirhan Sirhan in prison for good

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing a tough choice. But then again, it shouldn’t be a tough choice to decide whether to parole Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin who killed Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in June of 1968. The killing of Robert Kennedy, just 5 years after the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and just a couple of months after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, shook this country, and set the nation on a vastly different path politically. Kennedy was seeking the Democratic nomination for president. After his death, Hubert Humphrey ...

COVID seeped into everything in 2021

As the end of the year approaches, news articles have been taking stock of what happened in the past year. Unfortunately, permeating through most of the major events of 2021 is one common theme — COVID-19. In the economic news, COVID has impacted workplaces, employees and business operations alike. In the world of sports, COVID shortened seasons, forced players out of games for a couple of weeks at a time and has even kept the NHL from allowing its players to compete in the Winter Olympics. In the Summer Olympics, it forced a year’s postponement and forced athletes to compete in ...

Example of acceptance, love on global scale

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died Sunday at the age of 90, was a remarkable man who lived in remarkable times. The first Black Bishop of Johannesburg and later Anglican Archbishop of Capetown, he used his influence to rally public opinion — in South Africa and around the world — against the evils of the South African Apartheid form of government. He had a remarkable ability to advocate for human rights, not only in his own country but around the world. Along with Nelson Mandela, the political leader who emerged from decades of being a political prisoner of the ...