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Rougher days ahead for workers

The Labor Department reported Friday that the economy created 261,000 new jobs in October, which beat Wall Street’s expectations. Upward revisions for September added to the evidence that the job market is holding up despite rising interest rates. But hold the confetti. The labor market also showed the beginning of some cracks, as the unemployment rate rose to 3.7% from 3.5% and 328,000 fewer people were employed. The labor participation rate fell for the second month in a row, and unemployment ticked up for nearly every demographic group except teenagers. This evidence suggests that ...

Go vote!

Today is Election Day. Hopefully by the time you picked up the morning paper and read this editorial you have either already voted or getting ready to head out the door and drive over to a polling station to cast your vote. If voting wasn’t on your original plans for the day, please reconsider. We realize everybody is sick and tired of the all the political ads flooding TV screens for the past couple months. While these ads put the spotlight on Minnesota’s gubernatorial and other statewide and federal races, don’t forget there are other races that have direct impact on our ...

End harmful rhetoric making rational political debate nearly impossible

The tirade of intemperate political invective tied to 2022 midterms that’s been hitting our email inboxes, flashing across our TV screens and filling our mailboxes isn’t just negative campaigning gone viral. It’s more dangerous than that — a worrying symptom of a political system pulling itself apart into warring camps where compromise, rational debate and civility are seen as weak. Instead, a zero-sum game of total domination becomes the goal, pushing both political parties to extremes. Already we see suggested in the hammer attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband ...

Don’t forget the importance of flu prevention

With so much attention over the past two and ahalf years on COVID-19 and the importance of taking steps to minimize its spread and the harm it can do to people who are infected, there’s been less focus on another infectious disease that can cause major problems for communities. Influenza, however, is still a public health concern. And unlike the past two falls and winters when there were varying levels of COVID-19 restrictions in places that had the secondary impact of limiting flu transmission, there’s few if any measures such as indoor masking or social distancing in place ...

Help for retirees: Larger than normal COLA increase coming

Senior citizens will see a larger than normal cost-of-living adjustment in their Social Security retirement and disability benefits in 2023. The 8.7 percent increase comes at a critical time with inflation soaring. The cost-of-living adjustment is the largest that Social Security recipients have seen in more than 40 years. With the 8.7% boost, average checks will increase by an extra $140 a month beginning in January. However, much of that extra income may be eaten up in part by the higher cost of everyday living. Inflation is still raging at a 40-year high, and the cost of ...

The problem with Biden’s use of Title 42

More than 25% of Venezuela’s population has fled the country since the authoritarian policies of Nicolás Maduro plunged the South American country into economic free fall and social unrest. The humanitarian emergency is believed to be the largest mass displacement of people in recent Latin American history, with most of the approximately 6 million migrants relocating to 17 countries, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration. But those who come to the United States seeking asylum are being turned away using the deceptive cover of a Trump-era COVID-19 ...