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Opinion

Free health care for illegal immigrants: At what cost to Minnesotans?

Columns

A concerned constituent recently sent me a text message regarding the escalating cost of providing medical care to illegal immigrants in the State of Minnesota. Here’s what’s currently in place: In the 2023 Health and Human Services budget bill, illegal immigrants were granted free coverage under MinnesotaCare. The estimated cost for this over the next four years is $220 million, and the number of estimated enrollees was just over 5,000 individuals. Alarmingly, in the first three months of enrollment, over 17,000 individuals qualified, more than three times the original ...

A day at the circus

Columns

It was a rainy, gloomy spring day that didn’t seem good for much of anything. My wife turned to me and asked, “Would you like to do something different?” “I’ll try anything once!” I replied eagerly. And so, we went to see a circus. This is hard to admit, but I had never attended a circus. During my first 40-some years, working on my family’s dairy farm kept me far too busy for such falderol. Then I spent more than two decades working as a newspaper writer and ad salesman, a job that consumed most of my bandwidth. My wife and I have now reached the WC stage of life, ...

No sense in protecting claim sharks

Columns

The Minnesota Commanders’ Task Force — a collaboration of The American Legion, AMVETS, DAV, JWV, Marine Corps League, MOPH, PVA and VFW — calls on Minnesota state lawmakers to pass the anti-fraud measures to stop claim sharks taking advantage of our veterans. The time is now. Our veteran service officers across the state and at the federal building at Fort Snelling see claim sharks take advantage of our veterans over and over and over. Claim sharking is a classic numbers game. The sharks typically work under the name of an important-sounding consulting company with the word ...

Thumbs up/down

Editorials

THUMBS UP MN Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony held Friday, The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame (MMHF) officially inducted six new members. Marv Nissel, Augie Garcia, The Castaways, Herb Pihofer, Mark Kreitzer and Myron Muehlbauer will join over 200 other inductees since the hall opened in 1989. Each of the new inductees will receive a new display at the MMHF located at 27, N. Broadway. The new displays can be seen during the special 2025 Inductee Showcase from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. THUMBS UP Weather forecast looks good for prom night in New Ulm Expect to see a lot of well ...

Encourage Congress to safeguard the Older Americans Act

Columns

While Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are being reported on daily about potential changes from the current administration, one topic that is not being discussed is the Older Americans Act (OAA). The OAA has been around longer than Medicare and Medicaid but not being discussed. Which is disappointing, as the OAA supports core programs in our communities. The programs that the OAA supports include congregate meals (senior meals, meal sites are a few names they are known by), home-delivered meals (meals-on-wheels), chore services, transportation, caregiver services, and many ...

Time for “I told you so” drawing near

Letters

To the editor: It’s too bad that our justice system couldn’t mete out judgments and punishments for our current president, the convicted felon, as swiftly as he’s tried to fast-track deportations and imprisonment for innocent U.S. citizens. As we near the completion of the administration’s ineptly inconsequential yet devastatingly incompetent and disastrous first 100 days with the inmates running the asylum, the loyalists are being exposed for their glaring inadequacies. For example, Pete Hegseth tries to run the Department of Defense with his wife (Is she his sponsor?) ...