Opinions

It’s a good time to review spring, summer safe driving tips

This week seems like a good time to remind motorists to drive carefully during the spring and summer months. Two major highway construction projects started this week in Dodge County and are expected to continue until late summer. There also has been an increase in farm equipment moving on county...

Legislative Session picking up steam

I hope you had a happy Easter and were able to spend time with family and friends as you celebrated your personal faith tradition. Spring is just around the corner and the Legislature is picking up steam as Committee policy bills are making their way to the floor. I am continuing to approach this...

Family brought hockey to Kasson

Congratulations Wildcats hockey! What a fantastic year for the girls varsity team, making its first trip to the state tournament and battling to a runner-up finish. And equally impressive was the boys team, that fought their way to a runner-up finish in 2020. My dad always said that success breeds...

Committee deadlines near in Legislature

With the legislative calendar ticking and deadlines approaching, the past few weeks at the Senate have been busy with Committees hearing bills before deadlines. Each year, the Legislature establishes deadlines for committee action on bills to winnow the list of topics dealt with that year. There is...

Signs of bipartisanship in the legislature?

Sen. Nelson says in a column on this page, the Minnesota Legislature has gotten off to a fast start for the 2024 session. Some of the first things to be considered seem to be benefitting from at least an attempt at bipartisanship. One of the first things legislators did was to come to an agreement...

State legislators busy during current session

It has been a busy couple of weeks in Saint Paul! This year looks quite different from the previous session, as our massive $19B budget surplus has been spent, and the recent announcement of a projected structural budget deficit looms for 2026-2027. Recently, the office of Minnesota Management and...

Skirmishing around the law provides huge disservice to residents

For the past five months, this newspaper has been battling a thorny issue of legal publication involving mostly a local school district and a pair of newspapers and to a lesser extent some local government entities. We brought the issue to light last November when we exposed Triton Schools for...

Mess around factory farms, water quality is only getting worse

Factory farm water pollution has made headlines in Minnesota for months. Unfortunately, things are moving in the wrong direction. The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture’s twice-a-decade census of agriculture, released in February, finds that Minnesota’s factory farms are raising more animals...

Legislative session is under way

The 2024 Legislative Session is underway. It was great to be back in Saint Paul representing your voice at our Minnesota State Capitol. It was a joy to be joined by my granddaughters, Winter and Piper, my son, Joshua, and his wife, Chelsea, and my husband, Terry, as we gaveled into the 93rd...

Open grants support literacy, and beautification

Since 1986, Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) has invested $56.9 million in grants in our 20-county region. While these grants support a wide range of projects — from providing books to young children to supporting small town growth — they each have had a transformative and...