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Festival season begins in the city of festivals

Bavarian Blast starts Thursday, but it is also the kickoff for a season worth of festivals and events. For the next few months, New Ulm will either be celebrating a festival or be a few days away from the next city event. Most towns and cities have a local festival to celebrate the community, but New Ulm has several to the point it is sometimes called “The City of Festivals” by visitors. It is a well earned nickname. Look to the schedule of city events. Bavarian Blast starts the festival season, brining thousands of people the fairgrounds each day. Last year, roughly 3,500 ...

Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation

The journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. The CIA subsequently concluded that this was ordered by the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, though he denies it. The murder was so high-profile, and the details so horrifying, that concern about optics prevailed even where moral qualms were not a priority. Prominent business figures dropped out of a glitzy investment conference dubbed “Davos in the desert”. Joe Biden, then running to be the Democrats’ presidential candidate, said ...

Thumbs up / down

MLC graduation The season of graduation is upon us, with Martin Luther College honoring its graduates seniors today, and sending them on to follow their futures. When Martin Luther College students come to New Ulm as freshmen, many of them are far from home and away from home for the first time. Over four years they become a part of the New Ulm community, and when they graduate they will be heading off to schools and church careers throughout the WELS system. We hope they will carry fond memories of their time in New Ulm with them. We wish them well. Fishing opener It looks like ...

Mental Health: Enforce state insurance parity laws

The good news on the mental health front is that the state of Minnesota appears to have for the first time in recent memory actually enforced the state’s mental health parity law against an insurance company that appeared to be violating it. The bad news seems to be such enforcement, increasingly needed, is rare. The Minnesota Department of Commerce fined HealthPartners $150,000 for what it alleges is a violation of the state mental health parity law, which has been in place for decades. It requires companies to pay for mental health services that same way they would pay for ...

Biden’s policy shields largest banks from competition

Regional banks took another market drubbing on Thursday, as the financial panic rolls on despite regulatory assurances that all is well. The turmoil wasn’t helped Thursday when midsize TD Bank and First Horizon Bank called off their merger, blaming regulatory impediments. The merger cancellation followed the Biden Administration’s decision on Monday to give JPMorgan a sweetheart deal to acquire failed First Republic Bank. It’s good to be a really, really big bank these days. Memphis-based First Horizon and TD announced their $13.4 billion tie-up in February 2022, long before ...