By Davian Koren Today, girls have begun to dress in a manner more and more revealing. Whether it be crop tops, booty shorts, skimpy dresses, or thong swimsuits, we’ve been moving further and further away from letting clothes perform the function they were made for: covering our bodies. Why does modesty matter? And why shouldn’t we dress more revealing? First of all, … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – The Fasts We Keep
By Rev. Anders Nelson Mabel-Henrytown Tri-Point Parish - Mabel First Lutheran Church, Scheie Lutheran Church and Henrytown Lutheran Church This last Sunday, the scripture texts from the Revised Common Lectionary included a passage from the prophet Isaiah as the prophet was calling God’s people in the midst of exile into a better understanding of what it means to take up a … [Read more...]
Journal Writing Project – World Solutions Inspired by Nature: Biomimicry
By Madison Lile In Western society, humans tend to view nature’s patterns through a lens of rationalism. Author Guiles Hutchins explains that “rationalism seeks certainty in our uncertain world and repeatable experiments under controlled conditions.” In the context of design, this means that much of the world’s science, architecture, and technology has been built on human … [Read more...]
2025 MNA Awards
By Pailey Gordon Graphic Designer Fillmore County Journal In late January 2026, the Minnesota Newspaper Association hosted their 159th Annual Awards Banquet and Conference in Brooklyn Park. Ellen Whalen and I had the privilege to represent our newspaper and attend the three day conference. Big conversations over the weekend were about how important local news is and … [Read more...]
Honoring the Past, Building the Future
By Benya Kraus President & CEO Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation January 22, 2026 – Our state is going through a lot right now. Crisis after crisis has put Minnesota in the national spotlight. What feels even more fraught is the way these crises seem to be tearing apart much of the social fabric that has knitted us together as Minnesotans for decades: a … [Read more...]
Journal Writing Project – Is Modern Culture Ruining Childhood?
By Alleen Erchoff-Costet Whether you’re an adult or a teenager, are you aware of how often you check your phone every day? According to a study by Adolescent Brain Cognitive Devel-opment (ABCD), teens pick up their phone 100 times a day, which is far more than what adults do. As new generations grow up, we can see the excessive amount of screen time and its impact on how … [Read more...]
Vote YES for the Rushford-Peterson School Referendum
By Kristin Gudmundson Peterson, MN Living in rural Minnesota, we often hear about the challenges of declining population when a school referendum is discussed. But according to the website https://center-for-rural-policy.shinyapps.io/Atlas_2025/ it is projected that Fillmore County’s population will remain basically steady looking out as far as 2035, with a change of +0.0 … [Read more...]
Letter about immigration…
To the Editor, Whatever your stand on immigration, there’s probably another aspect worth considering. I just finished reading the book “Milked,” by Ruth Conniff, which gave me a new perspective on the global economic forces affecting the Midwest farm bankruptcies and the contentious politics around immigration. What’s so captivating about the book is the stories. Stories from … [Read more...]
Letter about Rushford school referendum…
To the Editor, Hello, my name is Greg Smith. I am a graduate of Rushford High School. I was on the Board of Directors of the Rushford-Peterson School District. I was on the Board for eight years prior to building the new school. We qualified for state cost share on building a new school because of the damage from the August 2007 Flood to our tax base. As part of the … [Read more...]
Journal Writing Project – Teen Stress is Taken Less Seriously Than Adult Stress
By Savanah Huffman When the topic of stress is brought up, people usually think of adults. Adults get stressed over jobs, bills, and responsibilities, and that stress is almost always taken seriously. Teen stress is often brushed off as “just being dramatic” or “part of growing up.” Many adults believe that because teenagers are younger and have fewer responsibilities, their … [Read more...]