Gov. Mark Dayton’s attempt to horsewhip the House Republicans back to the negotiating table on the tax bill failed in its first legal challenge this week. Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann ruled on Wednesday to restore the funding for the legislative operations that Dayton had ...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to table a health care reform bill was a matter of simple mathematics. With Democrats solidly against the measure and a few Republicans joining them, McConnell, R-Ky., simply did not have the votes to pass the bill. But the setback has ...

Talk among the politicians in Washington often seems to focus on why the government needs to spend more. If the justification is not national security, it probably will be health care. There seems to be precious little thought given to a serious, growing threat to both our welfare and ...

Sometimes it’s hard to be accommodating. Tolerance can only be stretched so far, especially when someone is determined to stretch it past the breaking point. And so it is that the Belle Plaine City Council is likely to take away the public forum area at its Veterans Memorial Park. The area ...

Corruption is the elephant in the room on U.S. defense spending. An investigation into an Air Force unit nicknamed Big Safari may be just the ticket to at least wounding the pachyderm. An Air Force unit called Big Safari, formerly known as the 645th Aeronautical Systems Group, is involved in ...

Health care reformers, not to mention tens of millions of other Americans who understand money does not grow on trees, are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The rock is this: President Barack Obama’s signature health care takeover law encouraged states to expand the ...

Promise unfulfilled THUMBS DOWN: There is an interesting note on The Journal's 50-year-old news page today (page 3B). In July 19, 1967 article on a meeting about Highway 15 being rated as an expressway, the article states: “REP. C.A. (Gus) Johnson of Mankato and Carl (Red) Wyczawski of New ...

This weekend is Bavarian Blast, the city’s biggest annual festival. It is a showcase for New Ulm and an event that draws people from all over the state and the country. The Bavarian Blast committee has been working all year to put a good festival together, with old favorite bands, new bands ...

Stories of courage exhibited by people helping others in danger are gratifyingly common. Normally, however, they involve only a handful of good Samaritans. More — many more — got into the act a few days ago at a beach in Florida. A couple of boys became trapped in a rip tide offshore. ...

It is not enough, and it took them far too long to get to this point, but federal officials finally have taken action that will help remove some of the opioids allowed to flood the market. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration asked pharmaceutical company Endo to pull Opana ER, or ...

Let us hope Omar Khadr never gets to enjoy a dime of the $8 million the Canadian government has awarded him, or gets to send any of it to his terrorist chums in Afghanistan. Khadr, a native of Canada, was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops battling Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan. ...

Gov. Mark Dayton no doubt meant well last week when he suggested a new state law enforcement training fund be named for Philando Castile. Castile was the victim in a police shooting in Falcon Heights last July, and while the St. Anthony police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, was charged with second ...

Even the leaders of China and Russia, surely not the United States’ best friends, seem to have recognized that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is pushing his luck in his military buildup. To that end, the two countries have offered a formula they say will reduce tension over Pyongyang’s ...

Cart ordinance THUMBS UP: The New Ulm City Council advances the issue of people being permitted to drive golf carts and other types of vehicles on city streets. We are happy to see that the councilors are insisting that anyone driving a vehicle of any kind on city streets have a driver’s ...

If there ever was a time when North Korea’s bullying militarism could be curbed without great loss of life, it probably passed decades ago. That should not blind world leaders to the reality that the regime’s lethality grows by the week — and cannot be ignored forever. A new North ...

It would be difficult these days to find a member of Congress not concerned about acrimony in politics spurring a few crazies to commit violent acts. Even Montana Rep.-elect Greg Gianforte, convicted recently of assaulting a reporter, is calling for more civility. But some of the very people ...

A measure of the problems with the so-called Affordable Care Act which was adopted during former President Barack Obama’s administration can be seen in legislation Congress is considering now to replace the ACA — Obamacare, as it has come to be known. Throughout the country, insurance ...

“There is no ‘Republican,’ no ‘Democrat,’ on the Fourth of July, — all are Americans.” —James Gillespie Blaine It is important to remember the quote above as we celebrate the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the day the Second Continental Congress served notice on King ...

President Donald Trump’s blue ribbon voting fraud panel is getting a rocky reception from states after asking for detailed information on every voter in the U.S., so it can undertake the president’s charge to unearth the massive “voter fraud” that kept him from winning the personal vote ...

Offender in chief Thumbs Down: When is the responsible adult in President Donald Trump’s life going to ground him and remove his cell phone privileges? His latest Tweet blast, trashing MCSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and especially Mike Brzezinski, have been blasted on all sides as ...