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Mediation a bust

THUMBS DOWN: The mediation session between Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican legislators who sued him for stripping their funding from the state budget bill has gone nowhere. After two days of behind closed doors talks to try to work out their difference, the two sides declared the effort dead.

Gov. Dayton issued a statement basically calling legislators liars for saying they will run out of money. He says they have enough in a couple of other funds to keep them going until the next session starts in February.

Republicans are calling on the Supreme Court to restore their funding.

This situation is untenable. We don’t know what the legal term for smacking both sides upside the head is, but that’s what the Supreme Court should be doing.

Road project over

THUMBS UP: The Highway 15 repaving project in in New Ulm and Brown County is now completed. It was a long summer, but people managed to get where they needed to go without too much trouble. Now we all have nice, smooth roads on Broadway and down toward Searles to drive on.

We have to marvel at the planning and coordination it took to make this all work so smoothly.

We hope everyone will be able to enjoy the smooth roadways for a while before the snow flies and makes driving miserable once again.

Maria’s aftermath

SIDEWAYS THUMB: What Hurricane Harvey did to Texas, what Hurricane Irma did to Florida, Hurricane Maria has done to Puerto Rico. It has ravaged the island, destroying its power system and infrastructure and leaving its people in a very tenuous and dangerous situation.

As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico deserves all the concern and assistance we can give it. We know FEMA and the U.S. Military are responding to help with their needs. But it will be months, it is said, until their power system is restored. We should not let time and distance make us forget their needs.

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