A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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Character matters to me when I vote in elections. I read in various media outlets about state Rep. Jeff Dotseth’s domestic abuse incidents. As a board member of an area domestic abuse program, I know about the destructive patterns of domestic abusers. Physical violence in particular leaves actual and emotional scars that don’t go away. Victims are left traumatized forever. Rep. Dotseth has denied some of the allegations, but the records show that an arrest occurred, and that Dotseth had supervised visits with his daughter. Those are the fac...
How long do we look away? Our current representative in the Minnesota House has sworn affidavits from his former wife and stepson that he terrorized them for a decade with physical abuse. He even beat the family dog, with his daughter begging him to stop. He copped to a lesser plea in court and was barred from owning weapons for a year. This guy actually not only has a license to conceal and carry, he has a license to teach and certify others to carry a gun. No wonder he voted against the red flag laws in Minnesota that take guns out of the...
With election season come more letters to the editor, most of them revolving around one or another political candidate or party. While we aren’t changing our regular rules for letter writers — including a requirement to be factually correct, avoid libel and not attack other letter writers — we feel the need to add a few additional rules especially for the season. Rule No. 1: Stick to local politics. No more letters about presidential or vice presidential candidates. We fact check all our letters as much as possible and we are a local paper...
I attended the West End Flourish on Saturday, Sept. 14. While there, somehow, I lost a set of keys and didn’t realize it until I got home. I returned and asked a few people if they had seen or heard of anyone finding some keys. No luck. I am not on Facebook, but a friend who knew I had lost the keys is on Facebook and saw a posting of some lost keys that were found. I was put in contact with the finder and was able to give her a full description of the keys, which verified to her that they were mine. I gave my address and the keys were r...
First, we wish to thank Dick Brenner for being our Carlton County commissioner in District 1 for over 32 years. Dick did an exceptional job, and his representation of the community was outstanding. Now that Dick is retiring, our focus turns to who should represent District 1. We submit that Sarah Plante-Buhs would carry on the tradition of exceptional representation and would be a stellar county commissioner. Sarah possesses high morals, values and ethics and her authentic, down-to-earth personality makes her approachable and reliable. Her...
There were 5,488 bills introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives last session. Some ideas were good, a few were real doozies. Our State Representative Jeff Dotseth might have the distinction of putting forth the biggest head-scratcher. On March 7, he introduced HF 4687: “Harmful atmospheric activity prohibited, and penalties provided.” The bill talks about “cloud seeding,” “stratospheric aerosol injection,” “xenobiotic agents,” and “electromagnetic radiation.” These are all references to chemtrails, a discredited conspiracy theory t...
After watching Tuesday’s presidential debate, we’d like to propose that moderators abide by soccer rules if there is a next one and award “added time” at the end of the debate. In soccer that means extending the game past regulation time to make up for lost time due to injuries, substitutions, disciplinary penalties, arguments and other delays, a common practice. In a debate with clearly defined speaking limits, moderators should have the ability to award added time to a candidate who received less speaking time because their opponent did not...
Like many other Carlton County veterans, I take offense at the way some Republican leaders, especially Donald Trump, have disrespected veterans over the years. John Kerry ran as a presidential candidate against George W. Bush 20 years ago. Kerry, a combat veteran who received several military honors, including three Purple Hearts, had his military service falsely discredited repeatedly by Republican “Swift Boat” ads, contributing to his defeat in the 2004 election. In 2015, Donald Trump criticized John McCain’s military service in the Vietn...
Since our eldest son, Doug, died by suicide 17 years ago this month, September has been a difficult time. But it’s also a month that gives me hope, because of how many things have changed since then, nationally and in our own county. Doug’s death was devastating to our family and friends. At the time, things were kept pretty “quiet” about suicide deaths. We really didn’t have much direction on where to go for help or support after his death. It was more of a taboo subject and wasn’t talked abou...
Pine Knot News accountant Janis Fairbanks is also the chairwoman of the Fond du Lac Reservation Language Advisory Board. So who better to ask about community feedback on the showing in Cloquet and Duluth of "Star Wars: A New Hope" in Ojibwe the past week? Janis says it's part of her life's mission to "support the survival of the Ojibwe language." She had been to the Premiere Theaters showings three times by mid-week and was planning to go again before the run ended Thursday. "I can't get...
Jen Schultz has the capability of being a great representative. U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber comes from a good family, has a good family and he is probably a decent man, but he is a poor representative. We need a representative that will actually try to make the families in the district have a better life in some way, a representative that will think about us. Pete Stauber has voted against everything that would do better for the people of this district. He voted against getting the Blatnik Bridge repaired, he voted against the Inflation Reduction Ac...
We’re almost to Labor Day and what is traditionally considered the heart of election season. It’s the moment, according to political lore, when most Americans start paying attention to electoral contests. This may or may not be true, but here’s one thing I think we can count on: This is when politicians seeking office are most eager to understand the mood and concerns of the electorate. There’s a widely held belief that campaigning is a one-way street: Candidates for office tell us what they th...
As I toured the new ceremonial Big Drum hall, Gimanidoowichigemin Gwaaba'iganing, last week in Sawyer, I felt the importance of the community efforts to see that this place was built, bringing Nimishomis (our grandfather, as the drum is called) home. Listening to speakers who delivered their comments in Ojibwe was an uncommon opportunity to hear the flow of the language as it must have been in community gatherings before the boarding school era, which deliberately attempted to destroy the...
TThumbs up to another great Carlton County Fair. The 4-H projects and other exhibits were well done, the grandstand events were highly entertaining, the music was wonderful. As usual, it was wonderful to see so many people of all ages just out enjoying themselves and exploring everything the Barnum fairgrounds has to offer. Of special note: kudos to the fair board and director for the attention paid to the new additions at the fair. In addition to regular live music we have the Little Italy promenade and its snazzy neon signs, plus the...
I magine teenagers in Esko classrooms staring blithely, wantonly, perhaps a bit of drool forming at the corner of the mouth. But it’s not a window daydream accompanied by mesmerizing clouds forming into creatures or a squirrel running up a tree limb. They are fixed on those pouches. Filled with those tiny devices we all are so tethered to. This summer, the Esko school district decided to do something about phones in school, part of a movement across the country to reduce distractions during the school day. Now, when an Esko teen enters a c...
We cherish the natural beauty of our community, and were disgusted this week to see the desecration of the public bridges and walkways along the Willard Munger State Trail and in Jay Cooke State Park. Painting ugly political messages, including crosshairs that are meant to intimidate, harms us all. If you know anything about these crimes, please report it to the local authorities so they can investigate and prosecute those who are spreading hate. Barbara A. Frey, Carlton...
This was a big week in local politics, although it passed quietly enough. During Tuesday’s primary, voters in District 5 whittled down the number of county commissioner candidates to two — Dan Reed and Alex French — who will advance to the General Election in November. Countywide, we also voted for judicial candidates in a rare local race with no incumbent. Shawn Reed (an Esko grad) and Gunnar Johnson advanced to the general election in that race. But Tuesday was also the final day to file as a candidate in seven local school board races with 2...
If you’re at all like me, it probably feels like we’ve already been through at least three different presidential election years so far this year. And given the pace of events, it’s a good bet that between now and November, there’s more to come. The presidential contest has so thoroughly dominated our attention — not to mention news cycles — that even the Senate and House races have pretty much disappeared from view. In this environment, the central role that ordinary Americans play — except as...
A person can’t work for the FBI or CIA with felony convictions and yet they can be the president of the United States and have 34 felonies on their record. Some things must change regarding this policy, as it opens the door for felons to be commander in chief of our military. Many religious leaders and people who call themselves Christians will vote for the candidate who appointed justices to the Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the woman’s right to choose, and yet will vote for a womanizer, liar, convicted fel...
I’m jazzed about an event coming to a Cloquet church this month. It’s just what we need in these fractured political times. Our Savior’s Lutheran Church will be the venue for a “Respectful Conversation” about this political season, sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Churches, at 6 p.m. on Aug. 28. It’s designed to allow space for people to explore their feelings about candidates and issues minus the “my way or the highway” responses. A church is a good place to hold such a conversation. People tend to drop their defenses, and perhaps most ve...
It is nice to know the funding provided by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program will finally be put to use. As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in November 2021, there has been a significant gap between authorization of funds and the actual implementation. As one of the few owners of an electric vehicle living in Carlton County, I have noticed a lack of charging infrastructure north of Grand Rapids and the northern arrowhead region. When driving along the major traffic corridors of Interstate 35 and Inte...
FinnFest, starring Carlton County! Although that’s a slight exaggeration, I saw more people I knew at FinnFest Saturday morning than I usually see at the local grocery store. I hadn’t even made it to the ticket booth when I bumped into Anja Bottila, she of the mojakka cookoff and the Carlton County Historical Society. Next it was then Mandi (Huhta) Rosebrock, working the registration desk. Near the tori — Finnish for “marketplace” — I bumped into Mary Lukkarila, former Cloquet library director a...
Nearly every person in Minnesota, and, for that matter, everywhere, has known a close friend or relative who has had some form of cancer. My good friend, Gary "Moose" Pastika, a few years back, tested positive for colon cancer. His best chance for recovery was to have his colon totally removed. He recovered, went back to work, played golf well, and after several years was deemed cancer-free. But, as it often does, the cancer returned, he got sick, and the disease won, ending his life. He died...
One of Carlton County's premier used bookstores resides in one of its least populous towns, where roughly 5,000 titles of inventory is more than 10 times the resident population. "As my son would say, 'We're a hidden gem,'" said Janis Martin, who was working the desk at Twice Told Tales in downtown Mahtowa last week. Twice Told Tales has been around since 2006, and moved into its charming cottage of a bookstore in the spring of 2023. A brainchild of Mahtowa Covenant Church's mission and outreach...
THUMBS UP to Carlton County and the city of Cloquet for staying competitive when it comes to pay for law enforcement officers. Both jurisdictions saw their board and council, respectively, approve pay increases recently aimed at keeping wages comparable to those of surrounding departments and the local labor market. Nobody likes budget increases that stress tax levies. But, the alternatives are stark — losing peace officers to better-paying outfits and leaving our communities vulnerable. “The bigger issue is, if we can’t get qualified law e...
