We can’t afford to let our guard down

April 5, 2021

We recently celebrated the fact that the state recorded zero deaths from COVID-19 on Monday, March 22. It was an encouraging sign, we said, but we expected that more deaths and more cases would come in the future. On Thursday, the state reported a daily new case count of 2,140 cases, the first day since Jan. 10 that the states new cases topped 2,000. And since that death-free day on March 22, the state has recorded 78 more deaths. So, the battle against the COVID-19 virus is far from over. The state is making headway in the number of vaccinations — 1.6 million people in Minnesota ...

Et Cetera

April 3, 2021

Art Scholarship A new scholarship available through the Martin County Preservation Association (MCPA) is looking to help students further their education in the visual and performing arts. This is a great idea and a good investment. We agree with the MCPA that it is not enough to preserve the past, we must also invest in the future. Art is not only an expression of the individual artist but a window into society as a whole. Everyone benefits when their fellow human beings find ways to preserve culture, history and create new works to be enjoyed. Allowing students in Martin County an ...

Those trillions add up

April 2, 2021

President Joe Biden, fresh from signing his nearly $2 trillion COVID-19 relief law, is now proposing another $2 trillion package to rebuild and expand the nation’s infrastructure. The late Illinois Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen is often quoted as saying of the federal budget, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it begins to add up to real money.” So it goes with Biden’s proposals. The U.S. national debt has zoomed past $28 trillion — that’s $85,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. Heaven knows the U.S. infrastructure is in need of help, and those ...

Let’s have some normalcy

April 1, 2021

Gov. Tim Walz promised that “normalcy is on the horizon” during his State of the State speech on Sunday. Speaking from the classroom where he once taught social studies at Mankato West High School, Walz said “brighter days are ahead,” thanks to the increasing number of COVID vaccinations and businesses starting to reopen. So, what is normalcy? Here are some ways you can tell normalcy is here: – Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature quit yelling at Walz about his emergency powers declarations and go back to yelling at him about high taxes and excessive state ...

We can see it for ourselves

March 31, 2021

The murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis police officer who kept his knee on the neck of George Floyd last May for over nine minutes, until Floyd died, is different from any other trial held in Minnesota up to know. It is being live-streamed. We can all watch and listen as the attorneys make their cases, as the witnesses testify, as the judge rules on motions and objections. Previous to this, cameras and recorders have not been allowed in Minnesota courtrooms, except recently when cameras have been allowed in the sentencing phase of a trial. In a case that has ...

No one’s stopping them from moving

March 30, 2021

Rep. Jeremy Munson, R-Lake Crystal, has introduced a bill in the Minnesota Legislature that would allow some western Minnesota counties to secede from Minnesota and join up with South Dakota. Well, isn’t that special? We’re not sure what those counties would gain from joining South Dakota. There are tax breaks, to be sure. South Dakota doesn’t levy personal income tax, its sales taxes are a point lower than Minnesota’s, though property tax rates are higher than Minnesota’s according to the Tax Foundation. South Dakota doesn’t require you to wear a face mask, it didn’t ...