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‘A climate superfund’ only hurts Minnesota families

Affordability is not an abstract policy debate in Minnesota; it is a daily reality. Consumer prices have risen nearly 2 percent over the past year, and while inflation has cooled from its peak, that offers little comfort to families still paying far more for groceries, utilities, insurance, and housing than they were just a few years ago. The cumulative impact of inflation has permanently raised the baseline cost of living, and many households have not seen wage growth that fully offsets it. Yet at this exact moment, when Minnesotans are tightening their budgets, Democrats in St. ...

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

Thumbs down Daylight Savings springs forward again At 1 a.m. Sunday, March 8 clocks are set to spring forward an hour to 2 a.m. as part of Daylight Savings. We effectively lose an hour that we won’t get back until fall. Studies confirmed that taking away this hour has a negative impact on sleep health and yet, it continues. The justification for Daylight Savings is to shift schedules to get better use of the time when the sun is out, but who is really asking fof this? Polling consistently shows that Americans do not want to change the clocks twice a year. How long will it take before ...

The remarkable power of healing and forgiveness

I recently got to watch something up close that is remarkable. Healing. If you saw me a few weeks ago and noticed my heavily bandaged left thumb, I joked, “Oh that? I was trying cut my thumb off.” It wasn’t intentional, but I did slice it pretty good. It occurred while I was performing that most treacherous of tasks: washing dishes. I’ve washed a million knives in my life. But for some reason, I was wiping the blade of one this time and cut into my thumb, near the top, opposite the nail. It’s a new knife, so it was sharp and effective for gouging flesh. Before the dishwater ...

A film on the greatest president by one of the greatest directors

NEW ULM – The New Ulm Film Society’s next screening will take the audience back to a time when America was more divided than ever and how the right man at the right time reunited it. The film is 2012’s “Lincoln” and is the fifth movie in the film society’s Steven Spielberg director series. The screening is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March. 10 at the New Ulm Public Library. “Lincoln” is one of the handful of Spielberg-directed films that is based on actual events. In this case, the movie tackles the final months of President Abraham Lincoln’s life as he works to pass the ...

Be aware colorectal cancer preventable and treatable

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the time of year when you’ll see lots of reminders about colon health and the importance of getting screened for this type of cancer – screenings that can prevent the second leading cause of cancer deaths. In fact, new data now reveals colon cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women under 50 years of age. Colorectal cancer is common with more than 150,000 new cases found each year. Colonoscopy is the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening because physicians can not only identify cancer in its early ...

Choosing my next chapter

Dear Annie: My children are trying to move me into assisted living, and I feel like I’m being slowly erased. I am in my early 80s, and I still live in the home where I raised my kids. It is not fancy, but it is mine. I know every creaky stair. I know which window sticks in the winter. I have neighbors who check in on me, a routine that keeps me grounded and a life that feels familiar and dignified. Here is the part that makes me feel misunderstood. Last Sunday, I hosted what I have hosted for years, coffee and banana bread after church. Nothing glamorous. Just a few neighbors at my ...