Splash pad coming THUMBS UP: The City of New Ulm is getting a splash pad through the generosity of Barb Haroldson, who is donating the water feature for a city park. The New Ulm City Council decided to place the splash pad in North Park, at 16th North and Broadway. This park already gets a ...

The Minnesota legislative session ended on Monday in typical fashion for a budget-setting year. Its main piece of business — a two-year state budget — was unfinished. It will require overtime — a special session — to finish the job. This has become standard operating procedure for the ...

Israelis understand that, at least under President Donald Trump’s administration, they have a staunch, valuable ally. Now it is time to make it clear to the Palestinian people that Washington wants to help them, too. Many enemies in the Middle East desire to wipe Israel off the map. The ...

Any number of individuals, organizations and even nations in the Middle East would not be displeased in the slightest at a military conflict between the United States and Iran. Islamic terrorist groups, for one, understand that would divert U.S. assets from targeting them, to at least some ...

The state’s down to the wire budget deal was announced Sunday. Gov. Tim Walz, the House DFL leaders and the Senate Republican leaders came up with a plan where everybody wins some and loses some. That’s how compromises work. Walz gave up his 20 cent per gallon gasoline tax. Republicans ...

Some wars are ignited not because they were planned, but because what could have been contained confrontations blew up in everyone’s faces. That should not — cannot — be permitted to happen between the United States and Iran. Since President Donald Trump pulled this country out of the ...

Republicans in the Minnesota Senate have made a strategic move with the passage of “lights on” bill that would fund current state operations for two more years at current projected levels, which would increase spending by about $1.9 billion, which is what Republicans had proposed all ...

Graduation time THUMBS UP: The graduation season is upon us. Martin Luther College is sending its seniors off into the world today. Sleepy Eye and Springfield High Schools held their graduations on Friday. Between now and June 2, all of our area high schools will have completed the celebration ...

Whether to have children is an intensely personal decision for women and couples. But it is becoming a social, economic — and political — issue, too. Birth rates in the United States have dipped to historic lows. Last year’s rate was the lowest in 32 years. And analysts point out that ...

After generations of foolish failure to understand the contributions women can make to national defense, the U.S. armed forces finally seem to have awakened to the previously untapped potential. Important issues regarding how females can serve the nation best in uniform may remain to be worked ...

Minnesota’s political leaders are locked in a standoff over the state budget. A week ago Monday, they missed a self-imposed deadline for setting overall budget targets, from which they could shape their negotiations. On Sunday, with one week left to make a deal, talks between Democratic ...

If, as U.S. officials insist, last week’s test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile had nothing to do with events elsewhere in the world, it was a fortuitous coincidence. On Thursday, North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the sea off its coast. It appears the rockets ...

Today we celebrate mothers everywhere, and why not? Where would any of us be without them? Motherhood is indeed the most basic of human experiences. The act of harboring a growing, developing human being is one that only a mother can truly understand. The men involved can only marvel, as ...

Fishing opener THUMBS UP: Whether the walleyes are ready or not, it’s fishing opener weekend. The late, cold, wet spring doesn’t bode well for fishing up north, so Gov. Tim Walz took his Fishing Opener about as far south as you can get, in the Albert Lea area, barely ten miles north of the ...

Once again we have been reminded of the commonplace heroism that so many people hold quietly at the ready out of their compassion for others. Two armed teenagers bent on carrying out a massacre invaded STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado on Tuesday. Life-saving courage enough was shown ...

With time starting to run short in the Minneosta legislative session, the state appears to be heading to yet another special session, or another government shutdown over the state budget impasse. Budget talks at the state capitol fared no better with the new faces in the room — Gov. Tim ...

It is inevitable that some of the 8 million or so species of plant and animals on our Earth will go extinct within the next few decades. Some will die out this year. In many ways, nature is no guardian of biodiversity. Human activity is accelerating the rate of die-offs, scientists warn. They ...

The last men and women who saw the horrors of the Holocaust with their own eyes will pass away within just a few years. No more elderly women will be left to tells about mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters sent to death camps, never to return. No more white-haired veterans who liberated the ...

Among the most important federal programs very few people have heard of is the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Ensuring it has enough money is the proverbial no-brainer. Doing so will require action by Congress and approval by President Donald Trump, however. Lawmakers and the president ...

Let us hope the name of the man who shot two people to death and wounded two others at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte fades quickly from the public’s consciousness. If notoriety was part of his goal, it ought to be denied to him. Riley Howell should be remembered. When the ...