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Under pressure

We all have pressure in our lives. Too much pressure can be disastrous, but the same can be said about too little. I have a family member who has been experiencing pressure problems for the past several years. OK, so she technically isn’t an actual family member or even a human being. But she feels like family to me. Dad purchased our family’s 1947 John Deere “A” tractor when I was a little kid. I couldn’t wait until I was deemed responsible enough to take the reins of our farm’s mightiest steed. I was the proudest farm boy in the world when that day finally came. ...

NU Film Society shine a light on “What We Do in the Shadows”

By Clay Schuldt NEW ULM – The New Ulm Film Society will drive a stake into its mockumentary series with a screening of “What We Do in the Shadows.” The screening begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8 at the New Ulm Public Library. The film was released in 2014 and was created by a New Zealand cast and crew. The film is set in Wellington and is about a documentary crew following four housemates who are all vampires. Though the film features supernatural elements, the movie is not considered a horror movie. It is a comedy. Specifically it resembled a situation comedy. The movie is ...

Harvests, fall color and migration: three of nature’s greatest features

Fall is a great time of year, a time when nature is at its zenith, a time to enjoy things we know well and a few things we don’t completely know about. The harvest is very familiar to anyone who has ever farmed. We have the crop varieties that are equipped with everything from drought resistance to pest damage prevention. Plus we have the modern machinery that plants and harvests at a fast pace. What used to take several weeks now only lasts for several short days. Even people who don’t work in agriculture know that farming is important. It’s vital not just for rural regions ...

Better days ahead

I could tell at the beginning of my tonsil cancer treatment that this was not going to be a fun experience, much in the same way that having root canal is not a fun way to spend time with your dentist. My oncologist laid out his proposed plan of action. This plan had been agreed upon by a tumor committee who had reviewed my case. I had never heard of such a thing as a tumor committee; it just goes to show how bureaucracy has crept into every facet of modern life. Anyhow, the oncologist recommended chemotherapy combined with radiation treatments. His chemotherapy drug of choice ...

Major win in fight to bring down drug prices

For far too many Americans, high drug prices can force difficult choices like whether to ration meds or pay for groceries. This has been true even for seniors covered by Medicare. Medicare is the biggest payer of prescription drugs in the country. If our free market system was working the way it’s supposed to, that would give Medicare some serious bargaining power. But up until two years ago, a provision in federal law written by Big Pharma companies prevented Medicare from getting better prices for seniors and taxpayers. That’s why for years, I led the legislation to allow ...

Lecture on Vietnam offers thought provoking look at war’s events

I attended a Southwest Minnesota State University Gold College class this past week that went all the way back to my childhood. Bill Palmer gave a very comprehensive lecture on the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1975. It included video clips of events such as Operation Rolling Thunder, Search and Destroy, the Tet Offensive, and the My Lai massacre. As one of the younger class members, I don’t have many firsthand memories of the Vietnam era. I remember seeing war footage on television, but I didn’t know much about Vietnam or why there was a war. My most detailed memory was the fall of ...