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Donate to Lakeside Cemetery To the editor: Lakeside Cemetery is celebrating 150 years of providing a beautiful and peaceful resting place for those who have passed and friends and family who come to visit. We are extremely proud of the services we provide. Although we receive income from the sale of plots and burials, this income is small compared to the expenses incurred for on going maintenance. We are working on a fundraising campaign in association with the generous contribution of The Rosen Family Foundation who have pledged to match all cash donations up to $150,000 through the ...

Let court decide on vaccine mandate

The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals put a hold on the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate ordering businesses with over 100 employees to have them vaccinated, or get weekly testing. The mandate was to take effect Jan. 4, but the appeals court paused the rule, saying it raised “grave statutory and constitutional issues.” The government argued on Monday why the stay shouldn’t be made permanent. The government claims it is “a matter of life and death,” that delaying vaccination mandate will lead to thousands more people getting sick or dying of COVID. That may be ...

Hope for moderates?

Politics in America has become so polarized in recent years that one wonders if there an effective bipartisan government is going the way of the passenger train and 25-cent a gallon gasoline. Can we have a government where representatives debate, listen to each other, come up with compromises, or are we fated to have more of what we have today, where politicians get elected by appealing to the most radical wings of their parties, where moderate members who don’t toe the party’s new line are jettisoned? It is true for both Democrats and Republicans. Donald Trump holds such command ...

U free tuition plan bold move for equity

The University of Minnesota has taken an important and bold step toward creating equity in education by offering free or discounted tuition to many of its Native American students. Much of Minnesota belonged to Native Americans before the white settlement of the 1800s. Treaties to trade land for goods and food between Native Americans and white settlers, such as the Traverse des Sioux Treaty, were fraudulent and deceptive. At one time, federal law required Native Americans be vanquished from the state. While white society can never pay reparations equal to harm done to Native ...

Status quo won’t cut it for MPD

The Minneapolis Police Department remains in place following Tuesday’s Minneapolis city elections. A ballot question to dissolve the MPD and replace it with a Department of Public Safety (whatever that would look like) was soundly defeated by Minneapolis voters who, apparently, prefer the devil they know than the one they don’t know. The ballot question was vague and contained no plans for how the city would protect its citizens, and it deserved to go down. But the election should not be seen as a vote of confidence for the Minneapolis Police Department. The department is in need ...

Drug price deal important for seniors

As the Democrats in Congress worked on the final draft of the $1.75 trillion domestic policy bill, one of the parts that fell by the wayside was legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Fortunately, a deal announced Tuesday brings it back into the bill, smaller perhaps than before, but still an important win for the nation’s seniors . According to Sen. Chuck Schumer, for the first time Medicare will be able to negotiate prescription drug prices in its Part B and Part D programs. There is also a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket costs for those older Americans with the Part D ...