Who’s afraid of the big, bad debt? Not this economist. The debt is a necessity to improve our poor standard of living. By Jacqueline Murray Brux OK, we get it: The Star Tribune Editorial Board believes federal government budget deficits and the national debt are big and bad (“Fix U.S. budget for short, long term,”… Read More

Stoneage Ramblings By John R. Stone The Federal budget deficit is and should be a big topic in any election. The numbers are now so large that they are hard to comprehend. We’re talking in trillions. A trillion is 1,000 billion. A billion is 1,000 million. Up through the year 2000 deficits were small and their… Read More

The Outdoors By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist I don’t normally have a lot of time to watch television, but this past weekend my gal was out of town and I had all weekend to pretty much do as I pleased.  I had all sorts of ideas leading up to the weekend, but when the weekend came… Read More

Growing Green By Robin Trott, Extension Educator Winter burn poses a threat to various evergreen species, including boxwood, holly, fir, pine, arborvitae and juniper. It affects plants in open, unprotected areas exposed to harsh winter conditions, particularly those that are marginally hardy. The consequences can be severe, leading to plant death or extensive damage requiring replacement…. Read More

View From The Cab By David Tollefson, Columnist My guest columnist this week is Paul Freeman, local farmer and longtime promoter of corn and soybeans through national, state and county ag groups.  Here is his column: What is this country coming to? It is coming to the middle America for needed solutions NOW. This past December, I, Paul… Read More

View From a Prairie Home by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist It’s just a date, I tell myself. Just a date, like Christmas, Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. A date, a holiday. It can be ignored, I tell myself. It doesn’t have to hurt, because I can just pretend it is another date and not January 18th. Patrick… Read More

From Where I Sit By Pat Spilseth, Columnist This column is on the importance of neighbors and  who touched others to recall memories. Enjoy this story from my husband, Dave. Memorial Day 1961, I was 15 and my brother Don was 9. We lived on a dairy farm 4-1/2 miles south of the little berg of Kensington, population… Read More

Publisher’s Perspective By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune January hasn’t been a good month for our family. It was January 23, 2012 my brothers and I lost our Dad.  Then, 10 years later, on Janary 4, my wife, Kim, and her siblings lost their Mom.  Now, two years later, on January 7, my… Read More

Stoneage Ramblings By John R. Stone It is interesting how financial transactions have changed over the decades. Mary and I got married back in 1967. I got drafted five months later and by the fall of 1968 I was in Germany. Mary joined me around the start of 1969. There were no credit cards there. Not… Read More

The Outdoors By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist We just had our first snow of the season and it did not take very long to start wishing we had missed the snow for the entire winter. The cold temperatures expected later in the week would have gone a long way to creating safe ice for all of… Read More