OUR VIEW

Our view: A good effort here could be improved

The public defender’s office in Northeastern Minnesota has 27 lawyers, nine fewer than just 10 years ago. Its annual budget has grown as slowly as the arrival of spring this year. And the office is handling twice the number of cases as it should, according to guidelines set by the American Bar Association.

By Our view , March 17, 2013

Our view: State spending: Offer your input

Gone are those business-to-business taxes that sparked so much backlash. And the new taxes on services like haircuts and advertising.

March 15, 2013

Our view: Join the study to cancel cancer

The first big study found that smoking causes cancer. As no-duh as that seems now, it actually was quite groundbreaking then, a finding that changed our entire society for the fresher. A second big cancer-prevention study linked obesity to the deadly disease, and, again, Americans took note — and took off pounds.

March 14, 2013

Our view: If only we all felt so good about Duluth

George Sherman is a real estate titan responsible for more than $2.8 billion of projects in a select handful of communities from Minnesota to Colorado.

March 13, 2013

Our view: Let Minnesotans vote on marriage for same-sex couples

There’s no denying the momentum building since November, when an amendment was defeated that would have constitutionally — and pretty much permanently — banned gay marriage in Minnesota and when DFLers were swept into control of both the state House and Senate, joining a DFL governor.

March 12, 2013

Our view: Feeling good about Duluth: Optimism spreads everywhere but here

Why do we struggle to see the good that’s right in front of us, that so many others see so easily, while accepting a bad we often have to imagine?

March 08, 2013

Our view: Steer state clear of nursing mandates

Let’s call this what it seems to be, this proposal weaving its way through the Legislature in St. Paul to leave it up to state government to dictate how many nurses are on duty at any given time in Minnesota hospitals and health-care facilities.

March 07, 2013

Our view: Let’s gather again on Duluth schools

Duluth schools officials directed conversation at a chamber-sponsored public forum Tuesday morning toward feel-good visioning and brainstorming. About 50 minutes of the 60-minute event was devoted to a miniaturized version of the district’s recently completed series of “Think Kids” grassroots neighborhood meetings.

March 06, 2013

Our view: Will you go easy or grill Gronseth?

Duluth school district residents have the opportunity Tuesday to talk to Superintendent Bill Gronseth at the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce’s monthly “Forvm” meeting.

March 04, 2013

Our view: Don’t abandon Great Lakes restoration

Funding the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is smart. The benefits come from the thousands of jobs created to complete projects and from the resulting increases in tourism, commercial and recreational fishing, boating and other water activities, home values and more.

March 01, 2013

Our view: Spend more to plug MN as destination

In 1993, voters in Colorado repealed their state’s tourism tax, which, in today’s dollars, was fueling an $18 million-a-year marketing effort to attract visitors. At the time the state was tops in the nation as a summer resort destination.

February 28, 2013

Our view: Unlikely coalition shows mining urgency

While not exactly a team of rivals, the varied interests coming together to rally for precious metals mining in Northeastern Minnesota send an unmistakable message: This budding industry, with its potential to transform our economy and our region for the better, needs to finally be permitted and up and operating and creating jobs and having an impact that’s sure to be felt all the way to St. Paul and beyond.

February 27, 2013

Local view: Mining prospects spread optimism in the Northland

As representatives of the business organization whose goal is business development in Northeastern Minnesota and of the building trades unions best situated to build that development, we are incredibly enthusiastic and optimistic about the future of the Arrowhead. This is in part because of our ability to work together, business and labor, to create a better tomorrow. But today it also is because of the projections of what is next for the Arrowhead and for Minnesota in general, as outlined recently in a University of Minnesota Duluth Labovitz School of Business and Economics study on the incredible opportunities around strategic metal mining in Minnesota.

By Brian Hanson and Craig Olson , February 27, 2013

Our view: Cell alerts work, raise Amber flags

The siren heard around the state last week — blaring from nearly every cell phone from Worthington to Warroad — was a siren that led to a joyous, sigh-of-relief, safe return of an abducted 8-month-old baby boy.

February 25, 2013

Our view: New mysteries emerge in big-lake barrel saga

As much as the Red Cliff Band of Chippewa can be credited for its tenaciousness and for doing all it has to find out, finally, the contents of those mystery barrels in Lake Superior, secrecy and a lack of transparency continue to mar the efforts.

February 22, 2013