editorials

Recent economic news has been broadly reassuring. Retail sales are strong, November saw the best job gains in three years, the federal deficit is shrinking, the stock market is robust, and the Fed is expressing enough faith in the economy that an interest rate bump next year is considered...

For the second time in nine months, the immediate response was wide-eyed greed. The Minnesota state budget has a $1 billion surplus, and even before it was announced on Dec. 4, advocates for housing and the homeless, long-term care activists, University of Minnesota officials and...

Cheers to Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, which just celebrated its fifth year in operation. The advocacy group Conservation Minnesota recently marked the five-year anniversary by highlighting some of the accomplishments brought about by the funds. As part...

While it was refreshing to see Congress pass the recent bipartisan spending bill to keep the government operating for another year, the 1,600-page budget bill contained some surprise provisions that were a gift to big banks and could come back to haunt the economy. One of the most...

The last words out of the mouth of strangling victim Eric Garner are actually a metaphor for how libertarians feel about the entire welfare-warfare state under which modern-day Americans have been born and raised. Don’t his words express precisely how we libertarians feel? Leave...

Before Minnesota Nice and North Dakota Nice, there was (and still is) Norway Nice. But don’t underestimate the Norwegians. The Germans did that in World War II; the result was Operation Gunnerside, in which Norwegian commandos secretly gained entrance to a heavy-water factory...

For more than 50 years, the United States has embargoed Cuba and its Castro regime. Today, Cuba and its regime are still there, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. The embargo has not in recent decades done much to resolve the political stalemate between our two countries or...

Cheers to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who helped lead the charge on successful bipartisan legislation to increase breast cancer awareness among young women. The bipartisan bill, which passed the House last week, would extend the EARLY Act, which created an education and outreach campaign...

The Minnesota State Patrol reported dozens of vehicle crashes and vehicles that went off the road in the northern part of the state. When it snows and the roads become slippery, Sgt. Neil Dickenson, Minnesota State Patrol NE Region Public Information Officer, wants to remind all...

We are one glum country. Trust in the federal government is at historic lows, according to Gallup. More than half of the respondents to an October Rasmussen poll think our best days are behind us. And just a few weeks ago, an NBC/Wall St. Journal poll found that the one thing Americans...

Oh, the dreaded inaccuracies of the Internet! A few times a week, we get emails or Internet clippings from readers who are convinced that the information is the truth, yet in reality it’s distorted, outdated or an out-and-out lie. We don’t know how to make this advice any...

With the Christmas shopping season upon us, most everyone is trying to decide on gifts for our loved ones — friends, family and co-workers. While you’re at it, be sure to consider those who may not be as fortunate. Local giving organizations are in great need this time of...

Sen. Al Franken sums it up best: He issued the following statement after the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s so-called “torture report” on the CIA’s interrogation program: “This report is a sobering reminder that torture is immoral, and it’s not who we...

If you’re shopping for gifts on the Internet, use caution; instead of getting a bargain, you could be getting into trouble. The FBI is reminding holiday shoppers to beware of cyber criminals who are out to steal money and personal information. It’s always a good idea to...