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GFW’s brave gamble THUMBS UP: The GFW School Board has brought 10 years of discussion and debate to a close in deciding to move ahead with a plan to build a new school building for the district. District voters will vote on a referendum inApril 2023 on a question to raise the $69.9 million the school is expected to cost. The pre-K to 12th grade school would be located in Gibbon, which is located between Fairfax and Winthrop. That creates the biggest challenge in this plan, and the district’s biggest gamble. There is currently a school building in each community, and the two ...

Too soon, Rep. Greene

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has made her political career saying outrageous things, things that fly in the face of common sense and common decency, but resonate with the faction of the Republican Party that still kneels before Donald Trump. Last Saturday, while addressing the New York Young Republicans, Rep. Greene said something not only outrageous, but treasonous. Speaking about the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, “I gotta tell you something: If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would have been armed.” When the ...

Record surplus should spur innovation

Minnesota’s projected budget surplus of $17.6 billion is a windfall that this state may never see again, the confluence of a global pandemic that resulted in massive federal funding, pent-up demand from nearly two years of mostly sheltering in place, and a resurgence of the economy as things move toward normal. … That presents Minnesota with some historic opportunities, but there is a need to weigh options carefully. That money — by far the largest surplus in state history — is enough to allow for state investment that can drive innovation and lay the groundwork for future ...

America’s toxic gun culture

A year ago, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky posted a Christmas photo on Twitter. In it, Mr. Massie, his wife and five children pose in front of their ornament-bedecked tree. Each person is wearing a big grin and holding an assault weapon. “Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo,” Mr. Massie wrote on Twitter. The photo was posted on Dec. 4, just four days after a mass shooting at a school in Oxford, Mich., that left four students dead and seven other people injured. The grotesque timing led many Democrats and several Republicans to criticize Mr. Massie for sharing ...

Senior care should be a state funding priority

In Minnesota, the senior care industry is very muchunder the control of the state. The state determines how many beds a skilled care facility can have, and controls how much they can charge patients, even private pay patients. Over the years, the state has seemed to pay more attention to its bottom line than in the facilities’ ability to provide care for their residents. Now, with a $17.6 billion state fund surplus in sight, it is time for the state to take care of its responsibility. Long-term skilled care facilities are struggling to hire the staff they need to provide better care ...

Other Editors

Iowa caucuses had run their course The Iowa Democratic caucuses had lost some of their charm as a national proving ground. The state party needs a robust debate on what’s next. In moving Iowa from its influential first-in-the-nation spot in the presidential nominating process, the Democratic Party is doing the right thing, though not for all the right reasons. The missing-results fiasco of 2020 was embarrassing. Impatient news media outlets hammered the state party officials who run the caucuses. Before long all Iowans were coming off as bumpkins. But the national party deserved a ...