Winter Fun Thumbs Up: It hasn’t been much fun to be outside this past week, with the temperatures and wind chill in the downright uncomfortable, if not dangerous, zone. But there’s supposed to be a warmup this weekend, and plenty of opportunities to have fun outside. Sleepy Eye Area ...

For years, Minnesota school districts have swallowed the cost imposed on them by unfunded state and federal mandates — rules and programs the government says they must provide, but for which the government provides little or no funding. One of these mandates, in particular, is the cost of ...

David Durenberger, the former Republican U.S. senator from Minnesota, died on Tuesday, nearly 30 years after he left office. After three decades, he stands more now than ever as an example for politicians on how to serve their constituents. Over his 16 years in the Senate, Durenberger made ...

Appalling, disturbing, shameful. Those are the words that jumped to mind when we read about Republican election commissioner Robert Spindell crowing about what he said were successful efforts by the GOP to tamp down minority turnout in Milwaukee in the 2022 mid-term elections. Spindell, who ...

No decent citizen could fail to be appalled by the video, released Friday, showing Memphis police officers beating a 29-year-old Black man, Tyre Nichols, so badly on Jan. 7 that he died three days later. No feeling citizen could fail to be moved by the anguish of his mother, RowVaughn Wells, as ...

Among the interesting jobs I’ve held over the years, one of the most interesting was working as a security guard for the Minnesota Fighting Saints hockey team during their inaugural year in the World Hockey Association. That first season the city of St. Paul was in the process of building ...