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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 Sportsmen’s Club is sponsoring an ice fishing contest on Sleepy Eye Lake on Sunday. On Saturday, the River Valley Dutchmen Snowmobile Club will hold its Snowmobile Hill Climb, starting at 10 a.m. at the Golden Gate Campground north of Sleepy Eye. Even if you aren’t into ice fishing or snowmobiling, ...

Time for state to pick up special education costs

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 providing special education. School districts are required to provide — rightly so — educational programs for special needs students. Those programs may require extra teachers and aides, special materials and curricula, separate classrooms and facilities. These cost money, and over the years the ...

Durenberger an example for today’s Republicans

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 friends and forged alliances with senators on both sides of the aisle. He was a moderate, a progressive politician who believed in government making life better for people where it could. He wanted people to have affordable health care. He wanted disabled people to live without discrimination in ...

Spindell’s crowing is despicable

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 served as a fake Republican elector for former President Donald Trump in the hotly contested 2020 presidential election, sits on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which is charged with overseeing the fair conduct of state elections. He said he was merely touting efforts by the GOP to counter ...

Violent policing happens once again

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 she eloquently described her grief at losing a young man, himself the father of a 4-year-old, who cried out for “mom” as he absorbed the assault. And no concerned citizen can fail to be impressed by, and appreciative of, the way in which those who justifiably protested Mr. Nichols’s death ...

Bobby Hull treated fans to great hockey, and more

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 the new St. Paul Civic Center when the WHA season opened, so for a few weeks the Fighting Saints played in the old St. Paul Auditorium, home of the old minor league St. Paul Saints. They dressed the old auditorium as best they could, replacing the chicken wire above the boards with plexiglass, for ...