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The U.S. invasion of Iraq, 20 years later

It did not take long for anyone to realize that the Iraq war was the disaster that many had predicted; not much longer than it took to confirm that it was launched on a lie and that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Whatever relief or joy was felt by Iraqis at the fall of Saddam Hussein’s violent and oppressive regime, it was soon subsumed by the horror of what followed. The body count and wider damage have not stopped rising since. When the 10th anniversary arrived, Islamic State (IS), birthed by the war’s fallout, had yet to make its frightening rise to establishing a ...

Moderna’s profits help in developing vaccines

No good treatment goes unpunished for pharmaceutical companies these days, and Bernie Sanders will offer another example on Wednesday when he holds a political show trial of Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. His offense? Cooperating with the government to produce life-saving Covid vaccines. The subject of the Vermont Senator’s hearing is Moderna’s plan to quadruple the price of its Covid vaccine to $110 to $130 per dose when U.S. government purchases stop. Pfizer has said it will charge a similar price after vaccines move to the commercial market, which is expected later this ...

Thumbs Up/Down

Welcome, Supt. Koster THUMBS UP: The District 88 School Board made it official this week, signing a contract with Sean Koster to become the next Superintendent of Schools in New Ulm. Koster was the favorite choice through two rounds of interviews, which ended on Tuesday. At that point the school board quickly settle on Koster as their pick for the position. This is the most important task any school board has, to select the person who will lead the district. The board seems to have a great deal of trust in what Koster will bring to the district, and that is important for the district ...

A campaign to bully election officials

A 59-year-old man was arrested last week for allegedly double voting in the 2020 presidential election. Florida authorities brought the felony charge because of information submitted by Virginia to a national database called ERIC, which is short for the Electronic Registration Information Center. The very same day, Florida pulled out of the fraud detection consortium, along with Missouri and West Virginia, capitulating for political reasons to bizarre conspiracy theories peddled by those who still claim that former president Donald Trump won reelection in 2020. If Republicans are ...

Bud Grant: A coach in Minnesota’s self-image

If it is possible for one person to personify a state of millions, that person was Bud Grant and that state was Minnesota. Harry Peter “Bud” Grant Jr. died Saturday at 95, and even though he last coached the Minnesota Vikings in 1985, he remained to the end a piece of the franchise — he maintained an office in the team’s headquarters, first in Eden Prairie and then in Eagan, and was one of the first people to whom new hires were introduced. He also remained a vital part of the team’s image, even for the generations of fans who came after his era on the sidelines, and by ...

Alarming state of U.S. China relations

Looking back, it is hard to believe that in the Obama era there were serious discussions about whether a “G2” could emerge —with the U.S. and China coming together, never easily but earnestly, and in good faith, to tackle the world’s great problems. The costs of mutual hostility are now greater and clearer than they were back then: the risk of global economic recession, a failure to tackle the climate crisis, and even of military conflict in the future. Yet far from strengthening, bilateral relations have nosedived. The relationship between China and the U.S. is not only at its ...