By Nancy Bratrud Preston, MN Have you voted yet?  My mother, a first-generation American, told me to always vote!  While I haven’t always done as my mother told me to do, voting is imperative. You may already have voted, taking advantage of the many expanded opportunities to cast a ballot in Minnesota.  My mother would have approved.  I will vote at my local polling place on … [Read more...]

By Tim Penny President/CEO Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation The start of the school year in conjunction with Welcoming Week, a national series of inclusive events, has me thinking about two things: how to ensure children and families’ needs are being addressed this school year, and how to enhance welcoming initiatives in our communities. At Southern Minnesota … [Read more...]

By Aaron Bishop Harmony, MN In response to Col. Gudmundson’s “Climate Crisis?” article: fillmorecountyjournal.com/climate-crisis. Mythconception #11: “CO2 increase is helping farmers produce more... And CO2 is not a pollutant.” -Gudmundson This common mythconception ignores the reality that bigger and faster growing crops doesn’t always equate to better quality food. … [Read more...]

By Jason Sethre Publisher Fillmore County Journal jason@fillmorecountyjournal.com November 8 is just around the corner.  Some of our readers may have already received a mail-in ballot.  Before you cast your votes, you may want to wait a few weeks to see what candidates have to say in writing in the Fillmore County Journal. This past week, letters were mailed to all … [Read more...]

Letter about a woman’s right to choose... To the Editor, I encourage a vote Tuesday, November 8 for the candidate who supports a woman’s right to choose. A woman’s right to choose which means exactly that – including the choice of giving life for the unborn. It is the question of who chooses what’s right for me and others involved in my decision. A woman’s right to choose … [Read more...]

Letter about what’s not to like?... To the Editor, The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been controversial and rejected by a big part of congress. There are so many pieces of this bill that benefit me and my neighbors that I’m glad it passed in spite of the “no” votes. One part of the bill controls insulin costs. A cap was put on the cost for Medicare folks but some were … [Read more...]

By Stan Gudmundson Peterson, MN The Catholic Church has a “devil’s advocate.” His job is to investigate accounts of miracles and rebut them. If he can. There is no counterpart to a devil’s advocate in today’s “climate change” research.  There is virtually no way any researcher could get any federal funding, or little other kind either, to investigate counter global … [Read more...]

By Yvonne Nyenhuis Lanesboro, MN Recently I received an advertisement from a candidate who is running for government office. He proclaimed in bold letters that he is “Pro-Gun”!   I felt suddenly cold  as a chill came over me. Our country  has more guns than people! It has not made us safer!  Doctors in hospitals are overwhelmed treating patients with gun wounds.  The drama … [Read more...]

To the Editor, Maybe, if your household makes over $400,000 annually and you don’t pay the taxes you owe on that comfortable income. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides $80 billion over a decade for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The funding will allow the IRS to bring the agency’s technology into the 21st Century and hire replacements for … [Read more...]

To the Editor, Trump stole top secret documents and lied about it. This criminal act involved thousands of stolen records. There were 46 empty folders that had contained classified documents. These are not the actions of a decent sane person. Were the missing papers lost, destroyed, hidden, or sold? Now he vilifies the FBI and DOJ. On the day of the violent coup attempt, … [Read more...]

By Jason Sethre Publisher Fillmore County Journal jason@fillmorecountyjournal.com Did you see the story reported in the August 16, 2022, issue of the Post-Bulletin about a 65-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man in Rochester, Minn., who wired more than $300,000 of their life savings in an online fraud case?  The police reported that the woman called a phone number that … [Read more...]

I knew it was coming. It was an after-school special. I should have been prepared, but I never was. My young mind had been cast adrift in rough seas and it was easier to don a cloak of panic. “What did you learn in school today?” Mom asked me that every time I came home. Why couldn’t she have asked me what my favorite dinosaur was? That was a lot of pressure. There … [Read more...]

President/CEO Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation Continuing education in a business or profession is critical for growth, but trainings can be difficult to participate in when classes are held far away or are too costly. At Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) we take pride in hosting a variety of high-quality, low-cost training opportunities close to home … [Read more...]

By David Webb, MD Lanesboro, MN With some Americans increasingly willing to embrace violence as a means of achieving their political ends, others predictably respond with renewed clamoring for firearm regulation. Debate quickly devolves into shouting matches, neither side listening to the other, both sides invoking the US Constitution. “What part of ‘shall not be abridged’ … [Read more...]