The Miracle THUMBS UP: Forty years ago today the Miracle on Ice happened in tiny Lake Placid, N.Y. The USA Olympic hockey team, made up largely of Minnesota-grown college hockey players and led by a single-minded coach with a vision of being the best, defeated the mighty USSR team, ...
China’s experience with the deadly new coronavirus labeled COVID-19 has “bought the world time” to plan our own strategies against the disease, the head of the World Health Organization commented a few days ago. Well, yes. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is correct about ...
“Red flag” laws have been suggested by some as at least a partial answer to keeping firearms away from those who might use them to harm themselves or others. But experiences in Florida, which has had such a statute for nearly three years, indicate a variety of concerns about them. “Red ...
The once-a-decade collection of information about Americans may well go down in history as the first digital Census. Let us hope it also is not recorded as an electronic fiasco. Officials at the U.S. Census Bureau will be utilizing tons of state-of-the-art technology in gathering information ...
Projekt Neu Ulm THUMBS UP: Filling those vacant downtown storefronts is one of those things everyone wishes someone would do, but no one seems to know anyone who will do it. In New Ulm, however, a new initiative, Projekt Neu Ulm, is getting underway to take on the problem. Local ...
The Minnesota Legislature opened its session this week, and one of the big questions is what should the state do with the $1.3 billion surplus the state is expecting. We have an answer for at least some of it. It would cost about $90 million to complete the expansion of Highway 14 to four ...
Some other governments spare no effort to gain advantage over U.S. businesses and consumers. Trade barriers such as tariffs and unreasonable restrictions in the name of product safety are examples. But some — including China — are involved in all-out assaults on Americans. Theft of U.S. ...
These days, it seems as if there is an “app” for everything. But the fiasco last week with the Iowa Democratic Party’s presidential nominating caucuses is a reminder that the appeal of new technology needs to be tempered by concern over reliability. Iowa’s caucus process is the first ...
So ... getting more worried by the day about the coronavirus epidemic center in China? Officials report more than 722 deaths among the approximately35,000 patients with the disease, which has spread to 25 countries. Indeed, a few cases of panic have been reported. In one case, a man ...
Hopes for Hwy. 14 THUMBS UP: The Minnesota Department of Transportation is seeking funding this year for expanding Highway 14 from two to four lanes all the way to New Ulm, MnDOT announced on Thursday. If MnDOT can get the $50 million Infrastucture for Rebuilding America grant it is ...
It may be impossible to devise a foolproof safeguard against bias on the part of jurors in criminal trials. Last month, Keith Tharpe reminded us why we need to keep trying. Tharpe, 61, died Jan. 24 in a Georgia prison — still under a death sentence dating back to 1991. He was convicted of ...
The impeachment of Donald John Trump ended Wednesday just as the most casual political observer knew it would. The Republicans in control of the Senate held firm (except for Sen. Mitt Romney) and voted to aquit the president on the two articles of impeachment that the Democrats in control of ...
The Iowa Democratic Caucuses on Monday seem to have run into Murphy’s Law, which states, “If anything can go wrong, it will — and at the worst possible time.” Iowa Democratic party leaders apparently decided to hire a developer to create a new mobile app for reporting unofficial ...
Gov. Tim Walz renewed his party’s push to pass Alec’s Bill, a bill introduced in the past legislative session, passed by the Democratic House but not the Republican Senate, to provide asssistance to diabetics who can’t afford the high cost of the insulin they need to stay alive. The ...
Creative thinking to save school Thumbs up to the Fairfax City Council for offering the GFW (Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop) Board of Education no-charge utilities for the Fairfax school if the board decides not to close it this fall. In addition, the city council approved a resolution to assist ...
There is no doubt that the U.S. Senate will vote against impeaching President Donald Trump. That has been clear from the beginning of the impeachment process last fall. But the Senate is duty bound to conduct the trial of the president, based on the articles of impeachment passed by the ...
A news report this week indicates some legislators are worried that a successful program is getting too popular, so they want to fix it. The state’s local sales tax program allows cities like New Ulm to charge a local sales tax to fund things the state doesn’t want to pay for. In New ...
Monday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in German-occupied Poland by troops of the Soviet Army. Auschwitz has come to be the biggest symbol of the Holocaust, the program Nazi Germany undertook during World War II as the ...
On occasion, politics in our nation becomes an exercise in confrontation. Harsh words are exchanged. Voices are raised. But most of the time, people who disagree keep their distance, recognizing that the First Amendment is no excuse for violence. Recently, a judge in Cincinnati, Ohio, ...
Businesses of the Year Thumbs Up: Congratulations to the two businesses who were selected Thursday at the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet as the Businesses of the Year. 3M was chosen by Chamber members as the Large Business of the Year for 2020, and A to Zinnia Floral & ...