editorials

The Minnesota Legislature’s regular session will end May 23. That’s in less than three weeks. Here’s what the lawmakers must do between now and then: Compromise on a transportation bill.Compromise on a bonding bill.If the lawmakers do those things, the session will have been...

Bathrooms. Without going back into the archives and confirming, this is very likely the only editorial we’ve written on the subject, but apparently there is a first time for everything. Target really stirred up the hornets’ nest when it implemented a policy to allow transgender...

“America has been the intellectual battleground of the nations.” – R.Bourne “All authority belongs to the people.” – Thomas Jefferson What is missing in the 2016 election cycle and why the imbalance in our current debates in both political parties and the general public?...

The scourge of heroin, formerly lurking in the shadows, now is raging in plain sight as the toll in lives lost or ruined keeps piling up. The erosive effects of the epidemic on the community have become painfully obvious: at least five deaths in recent weeks — including three in...

Kari Hunt of Marshall, Texas was going through a tough time. She was separating from her husband of ten years. And she had three children under the age of ten to take care of. On a winter day a few years back, Kari agreed to meet her then-husband in a Texas hotel in the neighborhood...

So important is the office of the president that Europeans often say they wish they could vote in U.S. elections. That won’t be happening anytime soon, of course. But it helps explain what’s happening in Minnesota right now, as the Legislature comes closer to scrapping the presidential...

Spring is here and — oh, look at that bird outside — and now is a good time to think — who is that walking by the office — about the dangerous — wow, is it 4:30 p.m. already — consequences of — what’s for supper tonight — getting distracted. Annoying, isn’t it?...

It appears Minnesota’s small businesses will not get tax relief this session of the Legislature. Despite a projected $1.2 billion surplus and nearly $2 billion in reserves, Gov. Mark Dayton seems disinclined to push for reasonable changes in business taxes. The Democrat-controlled...

The news business isn’t always everything we young, aspiring journalists hoped it would be as we sat wide-eyed and enthusiastic in our mass communications classes in college. We did not yet know how it would really be. Our work and every little misspelling and mistake is literally...

As the new president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, a top personal priority has been to hit the road. For six months, I’ve been crisscrossing our great state, asking questions and listening. It’s been both encouraging and energizing. I’ve gained an even greater appreciation...

Spring cleaning is under way! Homeowners throughout Minnesota are spiffing up their homes and yards with a variety of improvement projects. Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones cleaning up — so are crooks and con artists. Last week, the Alexandria Building Department received...

When U.S. Representative Collin Peterson, who represents the 7th district - including this area - announced he would vote for Bernie Sanders if he attended the Democratic National Convention as a superdelegate, he caught some flack. Peterson may be a democrat, but he is known as one...

Unfortunately, child care is not thriving in too much of Greater Minnesota. With the fourth-highest cost in the nation for infants and 4-year-olds, according to a recent survey, high-quality care in Minnesota is unaffordable for too many working families. A state-federal subsidy program...

Gridlock has become synonymous with Congress. But despite the deep divisions among elements of the U.S. House and Senate, the first session of the 114th Congress (2015), to the surprise of many observers, got some good stuff done. Surely some big things were left undone, including...

I was watching a Republican presidential debate as my eight-year-old, John, sat next to me. Donald Trump, the front-runner, looked left and ripped Ted Cruz as a “liar” before seamlessly pivoting right and skewering Marco Rubio as a “sweating choke artist.” “Lying Ted!”...