Opinions

On the fast track to summer

With Easter over it looks like we are now on the fast track to summer. Or if not summer at least to the end of the school year. The spring sports season is under way. Triton has already had their Prom and Byron and Hayfield Proms are this weekend. Kasson-Mantorville Prom is scheduled for May 3....

Legislators working to complete bills in committee

It has been a very active couple of weeks at the Capitol, working to complete the policy and budget bills in committee. It was nice to get your emails and calls giving your input. I also had the opportunity to meet with several groups and hear directly from Minnesotans about the issues that matter...

Putting students first means getting back to what matters

As a former teacher and former chair of the Senate Education Committee, I’ve spent years working to make sure young learners succeed. This work has always been deeply personal to me. And right now, I believe Minnesota’s K-12 system needs a reset. Despite historic increases in education funding, we’...

An ‘A’ for Mrs. Giese

Every once in a while, something happens that causes one to pause and look for answers. While I realize that we do not live in an era when you have superintendents like the late Fred Harapat and Arlen Johnson spending the bulk of their careers at Kenyon, you know that when an unheard number of...

Powered by Hope, Strengthened by Prevention: A Promise to Our Children

Each April, we come together as a nation to recognize Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time to shine a light on the urgent need to protect our children and uplift the systems and people working to keep them safe. This year, we unite under the powerful theme: “Powered by Hope, Strengthened by...

Social media rhetoric needs to simmer

About a decade ago I sat in a lecture hall at my college, with the rest of my track and field teammates, for a team meeting. This was when social media really began taking off and our coaches were concerned what kind of trouble a bunch of mostly 18 and 19 year olds could find themselves in. The big...

Minnesota transplant discovers he’s connected after all

As many readers of the paper know, I am not from Minnesota, and instead from Rhode Island, a state that takes the same time to go from one end of it to the other as it does from Rochester to Owatonna. Combined with the fact that the state has approximately one million people in it, there were often...

Be careful what you wish for

A lot of people are celebrating the Trump Putin sledge hammer and MuskOx chainsaw that are doing their best to play whack-a-mole with our economy, our government services, our humanity, our foreign relations, our health, and any regulation that is perceived to stand in the way of big business....

Wildcats story meant for Hollywood

I write an estimate of at least 500 bylines a year. Over the course of a decade-long career…well it’s a lot of stories! Like most reporters, there are some stories I don’t remember, or forget all of the details. Then there comes along stories made for Hollywood, likely never to be forgotten. In...

Congratulations to Triton BPA, Hayfield Citizen of the Year

Congratulations are in order this week to the members of the Triton Business Professionals of America (BPA) Chapter and to Kasey Krekling, teacher and coach at Hayfield Community Schools. Triton’s BPA Chapter historically has done very well at the State and National events but this year they have...