Bloodmobile turnout

Thumbs Up: The Red Cross is facing drastic shortages in the nation’s blood supply, so much that some hospitals are having to ration blood among patients who need it.

So it was important that the New Ulm blood drive, held this week, had a good turnout, and it did. The Red Cross collected 366 on Wedneday, Thursday and Friday., surpassing its 3-day goal by 46 units.

This isn’t going to solve the shortfall by itself, of course, but New Ulm sets a great example for other communities hosting blood drives. If we can all get back in the habit of giving blood, we can save a lot more lives.

Well done, New Ulm donors.

Library seminars

Thumbs Up: Public libraries seem to be developing far beyond places to go and borrow books, though they are still doing a great job there. The New Ulm Public Library has been offering some very interesting and educational programs, not only for kids but for adults. Last fall the library offered a six-session seminar on the Constitution, which was very well received. This month the library is offering a series on evaluating news media, with information on how to evaluate them for veracity and reliability. There’s and old saying, “You can’t believe everything you read in the newspaper,” and we know that’s true for other news outlets as well, especially in this era of 24-7 news channels and social media.

Thanks to the New Ulm Public Library for continuing to develop ways to meet the public’s needs.

Bridle the greed

Thumbs Down: Martin Shkreli is still making news as the poster boy for corporate greed. Shkreli gained infamy in 2015 when his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, obtained exclusive rights to a life-saving drug that sold for $13.50 a pill and raised the price to $750 per pill. He resigned as CEO and is in jail for securities fraud, but still seems to be involved in the company operations while in prison.

A judge has Shkreli to return $64 million in ill-gotten profits and stay out of the pharmaceutical business for the rest of his life. Amen.