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Help ensure a healthy start to school year

It always seems like back-to-school time returns too quickly after the fun and freedom of summer. Yet now’s the time to begin looking toward this busy season when it comes to your family’s health care. Clinic appointments can get filled up, so call early to schedule back-to-school preventive checkups. Most health insurance plans cover an annual preventive visit for every member of your family. If you or your family members have not yet had this visit in 2026, consider scheduling now. This visit is an opportunity to check in with your provider on several points: • Current ...

The pain of painting

The joys of home ownership are infinite. And by “joys” I mean “pain-in-the-patootie maintenance issues.” If a wife says to her husband, “I’m thinking about painting the living room,” what she really means is, “I want you to paint the living room.” The husband might ...

Minnesota’s clean water certification program helping farmers be good stewards

My family farms just under 1,000 acres near the headwaters of the Minnesota River and the Red River on the continental divide. The view out our window is an expanse of fields and sky that spans for miles. Water that comes to our farm through rain and snow eventually ends up in the Minnesota River, flowing into the Mississippi and finally into the Gulf of Mexico. We think a lot about how our farm management affects that water, and how to be the best stewards of that resource. That’s why we were eager to meet with our local Agriculture Water Quality Certification specialist, and ...

War in Iran unleashes clean energy boom, but Trump leaving America behind

Back in the late ’90s, I would meet occasionally with the project manager of the construction of the new Science Museum of Minnesota in downtown St. Paul. She occupied a cramped cubicle just outside the president’s office. Every time I met with her, my eyes were drawn over her right ...

Why Americans soured on higher education

Even colleges can’t fool all of the people all of the time.  Just 38% of Americans have high confidence in higher education, according to a new Gallup poll. That’s down from 57% in 2015. Gallup found the three main reasons for this lack of confidence are political agenda, cost and not ...

Saved by the Boys of Summer: Baseball to the Rescue, Again

Saved by the Boys of Summer: Baseball to the Rescue, Again At my age, I shouldn’t care so much whether the Boston Red Sox win or lose, let alone permit my daily mood to rise or fall accordingly.  It’s only a game. It’s supposed to be a pastime (according to AI, something that ...