Articles

Column: DFL catered to its labor base in unionizing day care workers

There’s no doubt about the best thing the 2013 Minnesota Legislature did: making same-sex marriages the same under the law as other marriages. There’s also no doubt about the worst thing.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Deserved death may be near for Northern Lights Express

A lack of state and federal dollars is likely to put another spike into the heart of the ill-conceived Northern Lights Express high-speed train but, like Dracula, this monster seems hard to kill.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Should America legalize drugs?

Americans should talk about legalizing currently illegal drugs.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Minnesota legislators finally demand answers from U of M

Because the Minnesota Legislatures likely won’t take final action on money issues until next month (and Wisconsin won’t until later), the matters discussed below are all in limbo — but worth considering anyway.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Government works best when projects compete for dollars

Two people at a recent Duluth School Board meeting — one a backer of a certain program, the other a school official — lamented that projects being weighed for the next school budget seemed to be competing with each other for scarce dollars.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Duluth teacher pension fund joins many in seeking cash

Thoughts on four public issues of local interest still under debate...

• Virgil Swing

Column: Young robot makers offer hope for America’s tech future

I recently happened upon high school students in heated competition at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. The DECC was filled with hundreds of cheering fans, teams in uniforms, colorful mascots and an excitable PA guy.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Duluth School Board fails as steward of tax dollars

Duluthians have been badly served by members of our current and recent school boards. The latest example is word (ferreted out by the News Tribune, not announced by the board) that its employee pension fund is woefully short of where it should be.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Big Brother is watching — and other observations

Here are some thoughts on issues that crossed my path in recent days.

• Virgil Swing

Column: Ask U of M officials tough questions before giving tuition-freeze money

University of Minnesota officials say that if state legislators give them an extra $42.6 million over the next two years, they’ll freeze tuition. That has the same appeal as U.S. House Republicans’ offer to increase the feds’ debt limit if President Obama agrees to major budget cuts.

• Virgil Swing

Columns

City’s retiree health-care problem mirrors feds' pension difficulty

Duluth’s obstreperous retired police chief Eli Miletich says the fight isn’t over yet, but the city may have found a partial solution to the humongous finance hole it faced in paying for retirees’ health-care benefits.

• Virgil Swing

Duluth has no right to expect

Don Ness is a hands-on mayor of Duluth. I’m sure his high level of concern for the wants and needs of constituents is a big reason his approval ratings are higher than any politician I’ve ever heard of.

• Virgil Swing

Ultra-partisan lawmakers fail to pass many needed laws

One little-noticed effect of the hyper-partisan attitudes in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., is the lack of laws being passed.

• Virgil Swing

Military veterans deserve respect, but don't call all of them heroes

Widespread respect for military veterans is at the highest level I can recall — at least since I had to register for the draft more than 55 years ago. In almost all cases this respect is deserved.

• Virgil Swing

Postal Service cuts inevitable as e-mail is eating its lunch

VIRGIL SWING: It would probably be easier to close the big U.S. Air Force base in Bagram than to shut down the Post Office in Finland, Minn.

Duluth voters elect spenders but reject school tax hikes

VIRGIL SWING: It’s almost as if two different groups went to the polls in the recent Duluth school election: one voted only on property tax issues and said: “Limit spending” while the other group cast ballots only for candidates and said: “Put big spenders on the School Board.”

Many keep watch on us as others are secretive

I’ve written occasionally about how Americans’ privacy just isn’t what it used to be. A few months ago I contrasted that scrutiny of our lives with an increasing effort by groups to keep their activities secret.

• Columnist

Occupiers’ cause valid, but wrong things blamed

I sympathize with the broad goals of the Occupy Wall Street protesters (and cohorts in Duluth and many other cities), and I hope the protests catch the attention of Washington and lead to change.

• Photo

Virgil Swing: Too many venal doctors now blur ethical lines

Recent decades have seen increasing examples of bad doctoring. I don’t mean the occasional incompetent who somehow made it through medical school. I refer to continuing examples of some doctors — and not just a few — blurring ethical lines that should be sacrosanct.

• Virgil Swing

Virgil Swing: Handicapped parkers treated fairly by city officials

Some thoughts on three local issues in the news lately.

• Virgil Swing