Looking back while racing toward retirement
KEVIN PATES: Thirty-five years of covering Grandma’s Marathon for the News Tribune comes to a close Saturday.
RELATED CONTENTIron Ranger's view: NRA’s two sides on gun safety are hypocrisy of the worst sort
My wife and I are both licensed to conceal and carry a firearm. For that I thank the National Rifle Association.
Local view: Thank goodness for substitute dads
Filling in as an emergency father — to protect, advise or just make things OK when the biological parent is not there — is behavior worth acknowledging and honoring on Father’s Day.
National view: IRS will vet your religion and your medical records
In news from the absurd, the Internal Revenue Service has resolved the question of when and whether to tax tanning beds under the Affordable Care Act.
National view: On DNA, Justice Scalia was right
The Supreme Court’s ruling last week, allowing police to compel DNA samples from persons arrested for serious offenses, will solve cold cases around the country. But despite this, the court’s 5 to 4 ruling was wrong.
RELATED CONTENTNational view: Fix NSA domestic spying program, don’t abolish it
The National Security Agency’s recording of U.S. phone data does basically the same thing as the Postal Service when they record “mail cover,” i.e., what’s written on the outside of an envelope.
RELATED CONTENTHidden treasure gets better with road closure
Robin Washington column: One of Duluth’s hidden treasures is Seven Bridges Road. One of the reasons is three sets of Jersey barriers — at the bottom, about a third of the way up the hill, and at the top.
RELATED CONTENTSaturday with Mitch: A father’s long last good-bye
Fathers are often bad at good-byes. Some find them awkward. Some find them silly. Some just figure, in their work-focused way, that there will always be time for one later.
Newman still feels at home on a ball field 
JON NOWACKI: Al Newman, who was a member of two Minnesota Twins world championship teams, is back in baseball as coach of the Alexandria Blue Anchors of the Northwoods League.
RELATED CONTENTUnruly fans make referee retention a chore
BEVERLY GODFREY: As parents take their kids to fields across the state this summer, I’ll be joining them as a soccer mom of a different sort. The kid I’m dropping off wears a yellow jersey and whistle.
RELATED CONTENTCultural shift for Vikings 
JIM SOUHAN: For decades, when you left the Vikings’ Winter Park facility, you needed a long shower. Maybe even a luffa.
Monday with Mitch: A teens-and-gun tale that doesn't end with a funeral 
He walks in the room with a plastic helmet over his head. He sits. He takes off the helmet. You can see the damage on the right side of his head. Sixty days earlier, he had gone to a best friend’s party, things got out of hand, and as the party was breaking up — with some kids cheering “East side” and some “West side” — a gun was fired, and Balaal Hollings went down.
RELATED CONTENTNational view: Verizon records case hints at the end of privacy 
Someday, a young girl will look up into her father’s eyes and ask, “Daddy, what was privacy?” The father probably won’t recall.
RELATED CONTENTNational view: Amtrak bill gives dogs their due ride 
For reasons that remain mysterious, Amtrak allows only service dogs. This, despite the fact that domestic pets are more than welcome on airplanes for a fee. But four House members have proposed the Pets on Trains Act of 2013 to allow people to travel with their domestic pets.
RELATED CONTENTNational view: Obama’s inaction dooms Syrian rebels 
The United States has lost all legitimacy as its bystander president weakly declares the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria must go, but won't commit to stopping it.
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