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A festival of sail

Columns

My wife and I knew we were in the right place because embossed on our hotel room’s throw pillows were the words, “I like big boats and cannot lie.” As if to drive that message home, a mighty air horn blared outside our hotel. Even though it was a quarter of a mile away, the horn was loud enough to loosen your toenails. I watched in awe as a 1,000-foot-long ore boat slid beneath the aerial lift bridge at a speed that could be nautically described as “super-duper slow.” Big boats indeed! And that was just an appetizer. We were in Duluth, Minnesota recently for the city’s ...

Affirmative Action the reason for lack of experience in top-level positions

Letters

To the editor: I recently read a news article about why things went wrong in the performance of U.S. Secret Service at the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Trump. It was noted that “pre-existing issues in leadership and training created an environment” in which the failures could occur, like giving significant responsibilities to Secret Service personnel with little to no experience in advanced planning roles. It also noted a lack of coordination and planning between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners.”  In my employment experience, “little to ...

Thumbs up/down

Editorials

THUMBS UP State Park passes at library The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has expanded its library park pass program to include New Ulm Public LIbrary. The New Ulm library has three passes available for checkout. The passes are available on a first-come first serve basis. Place the pass in a vehicle dashboard, and users can have free access to any state park in Minnesota for seven days. This program began in 2018, but has only been available through New Ulm’s library since July 1. It is a great benefit for local library patrons; especially since Flandrau State ...

Stolen from my father’s grave

Letters

To the editor: To the person who stole the cardinal solar light from my dad’s grave at Soldier’s Rest in the New Ulm Cemetery on Memorial Day: You didn’t just take a garden ornament. You took something deeply symbolic, a light placed with love, in remembrance and honor of my dad. The moment I saw it was gone, I felt sick. That light wasn’t expensive, but it had deep meaning. A cardinal — a symbol of hope, presence, and love – chosen specifically for my dad. Stealing from a veteran’s grave is beyond disrespectful. It violates not only the memory of the person buried ...

‘The centre cannot hold’

Columns

I have friends who say they try not to pay attention to the news, for their own sanity. I am a news addict, so I can’t do that. Some days I enjoy being informed. Then there are days that are overwhelming and make me want to crawl in a hole. June 14 was one of those. We were months into the chaos fueled by the election of a man who relishes disruption and anger. The military had been called to confront American citizens in Los Angeles, a step fraught with dangerous precedent. Masked agents were abducting people off the streets in something that felt more like 1930s Germany than ...

There’s a Bill in Congress to make voting harder for everyone

Columns

Under current US law, it is illegal for non-citizens to register and vote in federal or state elections. Additionally, we have robust processes already in place to ensure that only eligible voters are casting ballots. However, Congress is about to vote on a bill that requires all eligible voters to provide citizenship documentation to register to vote.  This bill is called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, and despite its innocuous name, it would do far more harm than good. This law would be both unjust and unnecessary. It is unjust, because it would deprive ...