Almost 30 years ago, I changed jobs and put the first house that I had ever owned up for sale. Unfortunately, interest rates at the time were around 12 percent and nobody was buying. The house sat for 33 months. During that time I learned that I was not cut out to be a landlord. Read more »
Six months ago, I wrote in this space about the passing of my aunt, at age 98, an extraordinarily selfless person who spent most of her work career with a government intelligence agency and then retired to become the family caregiver to, first, her parents, and, then, her siblings. She never married, and is survived Read more »
Back before the Great Recession began, one of my neighbors would get a new car or a new boat or build a new house, and the Secretary of the Treasury at our house would invariably ask me, “Now how can they afford that?” Well, as the recession revealed, not all of them could. When the Read more »
Weather is everybody’s favorite icebreaker, but it always amazes me how little we remember of the day-to-day ups and downs. A tornado stays in hearts and minds for a lifetime, but only the worst blizzards are recalled for more than a few years. So it was that I could not recall when we had a Read more »
A perfect storm is brewing on the horizon, and I’m not talking about the environment. It’s “perfect” in several ways, but from a political point of view the Democrats and Republicans may secretly go for it because it gives them both an out — they can blame the other side, just as they have been Read more »
The key to this fall’s election will be, as it usually is, prosperity — or the lack thereof. So it was, that the ECM Publishers Editorial Board sat down with state of Minnesota Economist Tom Stinson March 20 to get his take on the economy. Stinson doesn’t smile much; even his jokes are told deadpan. Read more »
When I was 10 or 11 years old, on the Sunday after the state high school basketball tournament ended, I went to church. During his prayer for the congregation, the minister said, “Forgive us, O Lord, if our thoughts have been more with Williams Arena than they have been with thee in recent days.” At Read more »
If you think Minnesota’s state government may be somewhat dysfunctional, I may have stumbled upon a contributing factor. On March 16, I joined 10 other members of the ECM Publishers Editorial Board for a day at the Capitol. We spent 45 minutes of quality time each with DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, Senate Majority Leader Dave Read more »
University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler, writing in the St. Cloud Times March 10, pointed out what a tremendous asset the University of Minnesota is to the state. There’s no question about that. With 25,000 employees, he noted, it is the state’s fifth largest employer, and even has 54 employees living in St. Cloud. Read more »
I should have known better. A week ago Monday morning, I walked out on the fishing pier in Venice, Fla., on the Gulf Coast. I looked like a true snowbird — sunglasses, straw hat, a Minnesota Gophers T-shirt, shorts and a suntan as pale as the living dead. No sooner do I get to the Read more »
Help Wanted: Senate District 9 has an opening for a leader of mankind to serve in the Minnesota Senate. Term: This is a temporary position. The successful applicant will begin work on approximately Jan. 2, 2013, and be guaranteed employment until early January, 2017. Compensation: To be determined by the current Legislature, which has set Read more »
Why are business people becoming more interested in kindergarten readiness? It’s not because they want to roll back the child labor laws. It’s because they realize that in the high-tech economy of the 21st century, the jobs will go to the adequately educated — and the odds of achieving that status grow longer for every Read more »
The trouble with having a love life is that all relationships end. Either you break up or one of you dies. And yet, almost all of us aspire to share our lives with someone who will accept us for who we are, warts and all, even knowing that heartbreak waits at the end. The simple Read more »
I think I understand it. Robin Hensel thinks Little Falls is discriminating against her by inconsistently enforcing the city’s sign ordinance. What I don’t understand is why everybody needs to look at this issue through a political prism. The city made Hensel take down the dozen-plus signs she had stuck all over her yard and Read more »
Over the years, I have written a number of editorials and columns encouraging folks to attend their precinct caucuses. For those who think I’m a hypocrite, this would be the leading example. I probably haven’t attended a caucus as a participant in 30 years. Newspapers have enough trouble maintaining their credibility without actively participating in Read more »
