Breaking News

Editorials

Russia appears ready to move

Much of America’s military intelligence capacity is focused now on the Russia-Ukraine border, where Russian troops are massed, and ready for President Vladimir Putin to give the order to attack. Day by day, the Biden administration and NATO allies have warned that a Russian incursion into the Ukraine is imminent, that the attack could come any day. Putin has denied that, and announced that the troops amassed for military “exercises” would be pulled back on Sunday. Sunday came and went, and the troops remained in place. Intellligence reports indicate that the Russian military ...

Thumbs Up/Down

Rep. Jim Hagedorn Pointer: 1st District representative Jim Hagedorn died Thursday at the age of 59, after a battle with kidney cancer. The staunch conservative Republican serves as an embodiment of the old sayin, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try againg.” Three times he took a run a Rep. Tim Walz, losing each election, but the last one he lost by a few percentage points. When Walz ran for governor, Hagedorn stepped in, touting his conservative credentials in a district that was ready to embrace them. He had the misfortune of being a minority member of Congress during the ...

Olympic dreams

Olympic athletes dream of winning a gold medal, standing on the top step of the platform and hearing their national anthem played. That’s not happening for participants in the team figure skating event in the Beijing Olympics. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team took the gold, and the U.S. skaters the silver, but no medal ceremony will be held while Olympic doping officials check for possible performance-enhancing drug violations by Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, age 15. Valieva continues to compete until the investigation is completed. The outcome of her investigation ...

Canada goes tyrannical

This week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the lightweight, unpopular elected leader of a country with a 93% vaccination rate for those over 60 and a total vaccination rate of 84%, announced that he would invoke the Emergencies Act in order to crack down on the Freedom Convoy -- a group of protesters opposed to government vaccination mandates for truckers. Trudeau breathily announced that invocation of the law was in fact “reasonable and proportionate.” His public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, said that the actions were required thanks to “intimidation, harassment, and ...

And what vax rate do we need?

To the editor: The February 14th Editorial “Canada protests send clear message” ends with the sentence “These protests would not be necessary if more people took advantage of the protections provided by the vaccinations.” This statement is essentially placing the onus back on the citizenry for providing the catalyst for these protests. Canada currently has a vaccination rate of 85%--ranking it the 2nd highest in the world of all countries with a population over 20 million. Citation attached. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations If the Editorial Staff at The Journal ...

Redistricting map changes 1st, 2nd districts

Minnesota’s new congressional district maps were released Tuesday, and Minnesota’s First and Second Congressional Districts are trading some territory. According to the maps drawn by a five-judge panel appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Second District, represented now by Rep. Angie Craig, will cede Goodhue and Wabasha counties on the east to the First District, while the First District, represented by Rep. Jim Hagedorn, will give LeSueur County to the second. The change will add more population to the First District, which has seen rural population declining. The two ...