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Needless risk with guns in films

Guns have been a part of Hollywood moviemaking since cowboy star Tom Mix rode the silent movie screen. Last week, a tragic accident showed once again why live ammunition and even blanks should be banned in filmmaking. Actor and producer Alec Baldwin was filming a scene last Thursday in a film he is producing and starring in. He was handed a gun, which he was told was not loaded with live bullets. The person who gave him the gun was mistaken, and he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her. With today’s ...

Redistricting solution

With the 2020 Census finally in the books, state legislatures throughout the country face the task of redrawing congressional and legislative district boundaries to balance out the populations in each. This ensures that each citizen in each district will get equal representation — one person, one vote. But the process of redistricting has also come to be known as gerrymandering season. Political parties who control legislatures have been known to redraw district boundaries in their favor — to bring together distant groups of one party into an octopus-shaped district, for example, ...

Et. Cetera

Girl Scout project helps Humane Society Local Girl Scouts Avril Wiens and Madison Sokoloski made and donated items to the Martin County Humane Society for their Girl Scout Silver Award project. Girl Scouts is a great program that teaches responsibility and the importance of community service. We thank these girls for their genoristy, and we’re sure the Humane Society does as well. Kinship Raffle has local focus Kinship is currently putting on a fall raffle for the first time. The raffle serves as a fundraiser for the organization and the prizes given come from local businesses. ...

Deal-making in D.C. among Democrats

President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan is undergoing some contractions this week. The $3.5 trillion spending bill is down to about $2 trillion. Biden met with groups of Democratic senators on Tuesday, hoping to sell them on a reduced plan that will still carry some of his top priority items. It was a tough sell, we’re sure for the progressive senators he met with first, who think we should be spending even more than $3.5 trillion. Biden wants to salvage some remnant of his climate change plan. To do that he will have to mollify Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who ...

Walz’s record

Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday he will seek re-election to a second term. This sets up an interesting race that will focus on his record and accomplishments. Walz and his Republican opponents will try to interpret Walz’s record in vastly different ways. On the state’s COVID response, for example, Walz is touting the state’s actions as life-saving measures that have helped bring the virus under control. Republicans have been painting Walz’s use of executive emergency powers as an abuse of power that damaged the economy and cost people jobs. On law enforcement reform, Walz ...

The COVID solution is sitting unused

Human Services of Martin County issues a weekly report of new COVID-19 cases and deaths in the county. When they have come out lately, the reports are not encouraging. Martin County has passed the 3,000 COVID cases mark. We sit at 3,218 total cases with 112 new cases recorded last week. The total number of COVID-19 confirmed related deaths is 35 since the pandemic began. It is discouraging that in the second year of the COVID pandemic, we are dealing with numbers of cases that rival the height of last year, and this at a time when we have the means to protect ourselves. ...