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Cash for vaccine?

Last week President Joe Biden encouraged states and local governments to up the ante — really! — for getting a COVID-19 vaccination. The Biden administration is recommending paying people $100 for getting the shot. That’s right, a Benjamin. A hondo. A C-note, or whatever slang term you want to use. States have already been offering incentives. In Minnesota you could get free Twins tickets or State Fair tickets, or state park sticker, or fishing licenses, California has given away $116.5 million in gift cards and prizes, the biggest payout pot in the country so far. But still, ...

Thumbs Up/Down

Rec Center preview THUMBS UP: Members of the New Ulm City Council took a tour of the improvements at the New Ulm Rec Center on Wednesday. The center, being expanded and improved through the RENU program, will have a lot more to offer when it is fully open. On Monday the fitness center portion of the center will be open, and it offers a large, bright area for working out. A large indoor playground is being installed, and a new aquatic center will be finishing up in September. It will be a great facility for New Ulm. No smoking zone THUMBS DOWN: All the haze and smoke that has been ...

Suni Lee steps up

We love to look for heroes in the Olympics. Every four years athletes who have been dedicating themselves to training and competition don the colors of their various countries and see who is the best. This year Americans were counting on Simone Biles, considered the greatest gymnast of all time, to be a hero, to bring back the gold in the women’s all around and lead the U.S team to victory. We all know how years of trying to meet high expectations became too much for Biles this week, forcing her to withdraw. But another hero was ready to step in. Suni Lee of St. Paul, who had been ...

One county’s junk…

Brown County is unloading an old junker of a bridge, and saving taxpayers thousands of dollars in demolition costs. On Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners agreed to sell bridge 2110, which spans the Minnesota River west of Fort Ridgely, to Washington County for $1. It is a sterling example of one person’s junk being another person’s treasure. Washington County plans to relocate the bridge, which is no longer safe for the vehicle traffic it has been carrying, and use it as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge in the Lake Elmo park preserve. It would serve that purpose very well, and ...

Biles shows courage in Olympics withdrawal

We are used to seeing great athletes powering through obstacles and setbacks, even physical injuries, on their way to greatness. We celebrate them for their courage. But we rarely see them struggling with mental pressure and self doubt, the kind that can be more crippling than the kneed injury that Tiger Woods had when he won the U.S. Open in 2008, or the badly injured ankle that Kerri Strug had when she performed the final vault to clinch the team gymnastics gold medal for the USA in the 1996 Olympics. On Tuesday Simone Biles, possibly the all-time greatest women’s gymnast, pulled ...

Clean car standards are coming

It’s official. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has adopted the so-called California standard for tailpipe emissions, and will mandate that auto dealers get more zero-emission vehicles on their sales lots. The rules were published Monday in the Minnesota State Register. The rules won’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2024 which gives auto dealers and manufacturers some time to adjust. “These clean cars standards are a win across the board. With cleaner air, more car options, economic growth, and less money spent on foreign oil, every Minnesotan will benefit,” said Gov. Tim ...