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Chauvin’s guilt caught on video

Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday on all three counts of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd last May.Chauvin’s guilt was decided by the 12 jurors in the Hennepin County courhouse, but it was established last May, when video shot by a bystander showed Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, unmoving and unmoved as Floyd, his hands handcuffed behind him, struggled to breath as Chauvin and two other officers held him down on the pavement. The video captured his gasps of “I can’t breathe,” his calls for ...

Caution called for in vaccination program

The COVID-19 vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson is being held back this week while government health experts look into the possibility that six cases of rare blood clotting was caused by the vaccine. While the six cases of blood clotting came after nearly 7 million vaccinations means this is a statistically rare incident, but an abundance of caution is called for. The public needs to have trust that the vaccines being used to combat COVID-19 are safe. There is more than enough misinformation being spread about vaccines already. These negative results, which may or may not have ...

Et Cetera

Fairmont area students At their most recent meeting, the Fairmont School Board discussed the failure rate of students. Board member Mike Edman said that the fail rate or about to fail rate was around 30 percent. He further stated that did not meet his expectations, and we agree. The Governor is responsible for shutting things down totally. In-person learning is the way to go, and those opting out of that aren’t being held accountable. Overall, the fact is that parents and students are more responsible than teachers or the administration. Campground The Fairmont City Council ...

Keep hands off the Supreme Court

President Joe Biden signed an executive order last week setting up a commission to study changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, specifically to study expanding the court or creating limited terms for Supreme Court justices. We think the administrative and legislative branches should keep their hands off the Supreme Court. It is about the only part of the federal government that works the way it is supposed to. The Supreme Court is supposed to be free from political influence. Justices are appointed, not elected, and they are lifelong appointees. No need for re-election campaigns and ...

Police shooting seems senseless

As Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said at a press conference, the shooting on Sunday of Daunte Wright, a Black man, by one of his police officers could not have come at a worse time. With the Derek Chauvin trial in full swing, tension between the police and the black community is high. This shooting, based on the information available, seems senseless. Wright was pulled over for a traffic stop. A routine check revealed he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor. As he got back into his car to apparently pull away, an officer yelled she was going to use her Taser. ...

Fighting For Our Local Papers

(Editor’s Note: We turn our editorial column today over to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who writes on an issue vital to newspapers and their readers.) On May 7th of last year, the Hastings Star Gazette printed its last issue. The paper’s first issue as The Hastings Independent was published in 1857, a year before Minnesota gained statehood. Generations relied on papers like this for local news—they told you who was born and who died, whose daughter just broke the county record for the 400-meter freestyle, whose Holstein won a surprise ribbon at the State Fair, and how your local leaders ...