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U.S. security at stake in Afghanistan

In less than a month the U.S. will mark the 20th anniversary of the disastrous September 11 attack by al-Qaida on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. We went to war in Afghanistan to drive out the terrorists based there and oust the Taliban government that harbored them. 20 years. The cost has been high: according to U.S. News & World Report, 2,448 American service members were killed in Afghanistan through April, along with 3,846 U.S. contractors; 66,000 Afghan national military and police and 47,245 Afghan civilians. We have spent $2 trillion on the ...

Afghanistan was lost before we could leave

America is pulling out of its longest war, the 20-year excursion in Afghanistan. Our enemy, the Taliban regime that we supposedly ousted in 2002 for hosting the Al Qaeda terrorist group, has not waited for us to pull our troops and civilian support people out of the country. They have mounted a comeback, taking over province after province with almost no resistance from the Afghan government forces we have been training and equipping for the past two decades. On Sunday, the Taliban was reported to have taken over the presidential palace, and President Ashraf Ghani had fled into ...

It took a long time to produce it, but the U.S. Census Bureau has released demographic data and statistics that tell us a lot about what’s happening in America. Primarily, the Census data will be used to set congressional district and legislative boundaries across the country. Redistricting legislation will be argued, appealed and in many cases decided by judicial orders. That is most likely what will happen in Minnesota, where Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate. Minnesota was able to hang on to its eight congressional districts in this census, but they ...

Et Cetera

Britney Kawecki Hats off to Britney Kawecki for her dedication to promoting Fairmont. Utilizing professional drone footage, Kawecki is in the process of making a series of videos to highlight all that Fairmont has to offer. We appreciate that she is making the videos open for all to share, which is sure to lead to far more coverage than any one entity could provide. We also like that Kawecki is focusing on all the different aspects of our community. The videos will cover not only recreation but will highlight things unique to Fairmont and Martin County, such as the Martin County ...

State workers put on path of safety

Gov. Tim Walz announced on Wednesday that state workers would be required to show they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to work, or take weekly COVID tests to prove they are COVID negative. It’s a move that is being made by companies, schools and states across the nation, in some states at least. In others, governors are banning mask mandates, to the consternation of school districts that fear the resurgence of COVID cases due to the fast-spreading delta variant virus. In Texas, Utah and other states where the mask mandates are banned, school districts are ...

Infrastructure done; harder road ahead

Infrastructure done; harder road ahead Give the United States Senate credit for doing something that hasn’t been seen in Congress for years. On Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats alike came together to pass the trillion-dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. By a vote of 69-30, the Senate gave President Joe Biden n essential piece of his agenda for the country. The infrastructure bill is huge, with $550 billion in new spending over five years for roads and bridges, for shoring up our power grid against cyberattacks, for boosting broadband in remote areas. It will help ...