Articles

Column: City officials wrong to create a First Amendment Zone

Perhaps the unknown person in Duluth City Hall who created a “First Amendment Zone” in a parking lot outside Bentleyville was inspired by Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Embracing MOOC mania puts college prestige at risk

I really wouldn’t want to be a top college administrator these days. Higher education is changing quickly, and there’s no clear evidence where it’s heading.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Next step: Overturn state’s law against gay marriage

There’s no doubt the effort to define marriage as between a man and woman was the biggest issue on Minnesota ballots. Yes, defeat of the amendment still leaves a state law narrowly defining marriage, but that law should be overturned in the 2013 legislative session.

• Virgil Swing

Column: 8th District campaign ads featured many distortions

Here’s some post-election commentary written before the election was held. Because of the deadline for my column, this was written before votes were counted.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Vote no on amendment to ban gay marriage in Minnesota

America needs all the marriages it can get. That’s one of several reasons Minnesotans should reject the effort to define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman and to put that definition in the state constitution.

Column: State Supreme Court fails in House District 7B ruling

The Minnesota Supreme Court screwed up in granting a Duluth write-in candidate for a state House seat the right to replace a disgraced, party-endorsed candidate on the ballot.

• Virgil Swing

Except for Lakewalk smoking ban, City Council has done well lately

VIRGIL SWING: I stopped smoking more than 60 years ago after a six-month experiment. I’ve supported every government action since then to limit where this filthy habit can be practiced. But Duluth city councilors crossed an unfortunate line in voting to forbid smoking along the Lakewalk.

• Virgil Swing

UW ‘life experience’ credits: cost cutter or ‘college lite’?

I’ve always wondered why Arnold Schwarzenegger became a Yellowjacket. That’s right, five years before the Austrian strongman became the Terminator, he was a University of Wisconsin-Superior grad.

• Virgil Swing

Primary election illustrates need for major reforms

Fewer than one in 10 registered Minnesotans bothered to vote in the Aug. 14 primary, despite spirited contests in two congressional districts.

• Virgil Swing

University of Minnesota reform needs work

VIRGIL SWING: It’s good to see signs of financial realism continue at the University of Minnesota, the latest being the university regents’ vote to limit the huge rewards that have gone to some folks leaving administrative posts.

• Virgil Swing
• Educational evolution

Columns

Virgil Swing: As Americans lose privacy, government adds secrets

I’ve written a few times about all the ways our actions and movements are monitored by others, including both public and private groups, making privacy a sometimes scarce quality. In Duluth the most common forms are all the cameras taking our pictures as we drive along I-35, walk near the Lakewalk, or visit businesses and government agencies. There are probably more I don’t know about.

• Virgil Swing

Virgil Swing: Schools, University of Minnesota ignore reforms

The outgoing president of the University of Minnesota describes the budget for the next school year as “dismal,” and the regent representing Northeastern Minnesota calls it “the least objectionable of a number of poor choices.”

• Virgil Swing

Signs of big changes afoot for government employees

These needed changes will be painful as workers lose benefits they’ve come to think of as entitlements and public officials endure strikes. But these changes must be made to protect key services and limit layoffs of public employees.

• Virgil Swing

Signs of fall: beer cans and illegally parked cars

College housing issues are also in front of us as Duluth planners write a new zoning law for the city. That effort is to end next summer with new rules to replace ones more than 50 years old.

Virgil Swing: Minnesota Power demands deserve to be heard

Virgil Swing: Only doctors oppose doctors working on salary

Virgil Swing figures most Americans are way ahead of Congress on what is needed to make healthcare in this country work again.

Virgil Swing: Be wary of Big Brother, naked sunbathers

The recent proposal from U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar to raise federal dollars by keeping track of our car travels and charging us for each mile we drive got me thinking.