I hope everyone is enjoying the July 4th holiday. The DCI is arriving a little late this week as the postal service is not delivering mail on the holiday. Still many of you are probably enjoying some vacation time, whether it is just taking Friday off or scheduling your summer vacation for this week.

Friends and neighbors, it’s that time. It’s a time of fireworks and festivities as we recall our country’s long battle to cast off the shackles of colonial rule and emerge as a free nation. My maternal ancestors fought in the American Revolution for the freedoms we hold dear today. These freedoms have endured through generations and their principles have guided our nation since its founding.

As we mark the Fourth of July, we honor our country’s founding and come together to celebrate democracy and the promise of the American dream.
Throughout the centuries, Americans have fought and given what President Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion” for our unalienable rights and freedoms. These rights and freedoms — and our constant drive to create a more perfect union — are what define our nation.

If we can say one thing about this summer, it is that the weather, all over the country has been unusual. Extreme heat waves, tornadoes, tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico and the heavy rains, winds, heat, and humidity that we have seen here in Dodge, Olmsted and surrounding counties.
Publisher Rick Bussler’s Hot Pursuit column elsewhere on this page, talks about his cat.

Let’s be honest nobody has enjoyed my house over the past 20 years more than my daughter’s cat, Ginger.
The queen cat had free reign of the house all the time. She definitely lived a life of leisure. Typical day: meow her heart out until someone finally fed her in the morning, sleep most of the day and howl for attention in the evenings.

President Biden’s Investing in America economic agenda is strengthening small businesses, while catalyzing once-in-a century generational investments to grow America’s inclusive economy, increase equitable fair market competition, tackle climate change, and reshore domestic manufacturing.