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Putin blames the wrong people

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that the Ukrainian state was in jeopardy, and he knew just who to blame — the Ukrainians themselves, or at least the democratically elected Ukrainian leaders who have pushed poor Vlad into sending his troops into their country, and refuse to accept their presence by defending their country. Putin has been spreading lies and manufacturing offenses to give him an excuse to invade Ukraine. Now that the Ukrainian resisstance is slowing him down while the world unites against him, Putin continues his lies by blaming his ...

Thumbs Up/Down

Heart to Home THUMBS UP: Heart to Home Furnishing has been doing a lot of good for people in the past several years. The volunteer organization takes donations of good quality used furniture and distributes it to families in need, families that need beds, tables and chairs to make their residence into a home. This week Heart to Home partnered with the Sertoma Club of New Ulm and Gag Sheet Metal to send a truck full of furniture and toys to Kentucky, which had been hammered by deadly tornadoes in December. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, and hundreds of families lost all their ...

Baseball strikes out

If anyone thought baseball owners and playes would gain some wisdom this week and come to an agreement that would allow the season to start on time, they don’t understand the history of sports labor negotiations. Talks broke off on Tuesday, the owners’ deadline for ending their player lockout in time to start the season on time. Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the opening day and the first two series for each team were cancelled. It’s all about the money. The owners, who have it, want to keep as much as they can. The players, who get paid plenty, want to get paid more. They ...

Highway 14 is really going to happen

We who live at the far end of the Highway 14 expansion project have lived for a long time with the doubt that this worthy project will ever reach New Ulm. Even when the funding was announced last year and assurances were given, there were some lingering feelings that we shouldn’t believe it will happen until it happens. Now, however, things are starting to happen. The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that preliminary work is scheduled to begin this coming Monday. MnDOT crews will begin cutting down trees and clearing away vegetation in the work area. The ...

Putin’s plans for Ukraine are failing

We’re not sure how Vladimir Putin intended his invasion of Ukraine to go, or what plans he had for the country are, if the invasion is successful. But we doubt the current situation is what he had in mind. Putin no doubt expected the Russian military might would steamroll over the Ukrainian military opposition. So far, that’s not happening. Perhaps he expected the separatist attitudes in eastern Ukraine were widespread throughout the country, and the Ukrainian people would welcome, or at least accept the Russian occupation. But the Ukrainian people are united in opposition, and ...

Surplus still growing, but still chancy

Minnesota’s latest state economic forecast shows the state’s whopper of a surplus is getting even more whopping — instead of $7.7 billion, it could be as much as $9.25 billion. But at this point the state budget forecast is, as the old saying goes, counting chickens before the eggs hatch. The forecast that came out Monday is based on a lot of projections and assumptions that could change drastically in the months ahead as the effect of Russia’s invastion of Ukraine spreads throughout the world. Economic sanctions designed to punish Russia could raise inflation rates and fuel ...