Considering last May’s state revenue forecast, the new projections announced Tuesday are absolutely rosy. From a $2.4 billion shortfall in the current budget to a $641 million surplus is good news indeed. Even a projected $1.3 billion shortfall in the next budget is a welcome figure, compared ...
COVID-19 has been an enormous challenge to the nation’s public school system. It has forced tens of millions of students to stay at home, often for months at a time, rather than go to class. Give educators credit for doing what they could with “remote learning.” Thrown suddenly into a ...
To the editor: In times of distress, we naturally turn to our family and loved ones for comfort. As the Nursing Home Administrator at Oak Hills Living Center in New Ulm, I have witnessed how COVID-19 has sadly upended all sorts of family gatherings this year. My co-workers and I are doing ...
To the editor: For years my husband has put out displays for Halloween, Christmas, etc. for children to enjoy. We expected vandalism to happen in early spring when we put out the American Flag and some Trump items. On Nov 20 the vandalism amounting to $100 took place. Now its not the money, ...
Unless members of Congress find some way to compromise and give Americans an early Christmas through a new round of COVID-19 relief funding, the holiday season will be grim for tens of millions of people. President Donald Trump can do little about that — but he can do something. Among many ...
What did you do on Thanksgiving?
Wreaths look nice THUMBS UP: The Christmas wreaths lining Minnesota Street are a nice substitution for the traditional garlands that have graced downtown New Ulm during the Christmas season for decades. In truth, the number of garlands had dwindled over the past several years, becoming ...
To the editor: In WWI soldiers were given a mask to protect them from the gas that might be in the air they were breathing. Masks were issued to soldiers in WWII for the same purpose, so they could put them on to protect themselves. All my life I have been told if I’m working in dust I ...
President-elect Joe Biden is being urged by some to include a Native American in his Cabinet, possibly as secretary of the Interior Department. If he does that, the person named would be the first Native American ever to serve in the Cabinet. Proponent of such action have a person in mind: ...
What a year in which to have an opportunity to purposefully gather our thoughts and be thankful. We need this day, which like so much else this year is different. We need this reminder to look toward what is good, and that for which we can, still, be grateful. Some have been blissfully ...
I was talking to Dale, a former farm kid. I was telling him how harvest was going. Dale tolerated me a while, and then said, “You corn and bean farmers. You’ve got about as much to do as me mowing my lawn. You get your machinery out a few times a year like I get my lawn mower out.” My ...
New Ulm Public Schools has over 2,500 staff and students spread out in four buildings every day, 7- 8 hours per day. Based on the numbers involved, we have been extremely fortunate with the lack of COVID transmission in our buildings. The issue we have experienced for the past month is one ...
Federal CARES Act assistance has been invaluable for many American families and businesses. Without it, what appears to be a record-setting recovery from the financial crisis caused by COVID-19 would not be occurring. Millions of families with laid-off breadwinners would be in desperate ...
U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials and scientists are in a raee against death. It is one they must undertake in a cautious sprint. Two COVID-19 vaccines appear nearly ready to go. Before doses already on the production line can be distributed, the FDA has to approve ...
How are you keeping entertained as pandemic shutdowns increase?
Dealing with COVID THUMBS DOWN: No one is happy about the new restrictions ordered in by Gov. Tim Walz this week, not even the governor. But neither is anyone happy about the rise in COVID-19 cases that precipitated these restrictions. The chart of the cases per month prepared by Brown ...
To the editor: “Silence is Golden” until it is not. There is no leadership coming from the top of the Republican Party, not from Vice President Pence, nor from Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell or from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and certainly not from President Trump’s ...
To the editor: Is The Journal aware that COVID is raging in Brown County? Aside from a little blue box with State and County statistics, there is no information about how the virus is affecting Brown County. News is information that is directly useful to people, and we are all concerned about ...
To the editor: I just finished two especially difficult weeks caring for patients at NUMC hospital. My training has made it possible for me to help people in my community with different health problems. Most recently we at NUMC have been dealing with a surge of COVID-19 patients. I work with ...
We have learned — at the cost of tens of thousands of possibly preventable deaths — that COVID-19 finds nursing homes to be good hunting grounds. At one time earlier in the epidemic, more than half the nation’s deaths from the disease in many state were among residents of long-term care ...