The Mille Lacs County Times

By LESLEY TOTH At Random On Monday morning, Feb. 13, President Obama sent to Congress his federal budget for fiscal year 2013, a sort of wish list of White House spending priorities. The proposal calls for raising taxes on the wealthy, spending cuts in certain areas of government and increasing the budgets of infrastructure projects [...]

By LUTHER DORR From Luther’s Dorr Step I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve gotten a quizzical look from a waitress or waiter when I answered “No” when asked if I wanted coffee while I waited for my food. Then I could buy at least part of a ticket for a Super [...]

By JAN BROWN The Wandering Mind There’s a mystery of sorts haunting my apartment. My front door has the kind of handle that opens by pulling up or pushing down on it. From the inside, this action also unlocks the door. It’s the easiest kind of handle and lock for doors in buildings meant for [...]

By LESLEY TOTH At Random As unbelievable as it still seems, last week marked my one-year anniversary at the Mille Lacs County Times. It seems to me that it wasn’t that long ago that I began working for my hometown newspaper. My first day on the job that January day I was greeted with 20-below [...]

By JERRY HANSEN A school board’s primary commitment is to provide students with a quality education that prepares them to compete for good jobs and for life after graduation. Since 2004, due to insufficient state funding and failure of multiple local operating levies, the Milaca School Board has implemented over $2.6 million dollars in budget [...]

By KRISTA McFARLAND It costs each of us when a kid drops out of high school. A cost savings solution is community-based youth intervention programs. These programs are putting kids on the road to becoming productive tax paying community members as adults. And the programs are a smart use of our money. Economists in Minnesota have [...]

By CYNTHIA MOORTHART Following the rancor of last year’s legislative session that shut down state government, Minnesota lawmakers returned to St. Paul this week chastened and pledging “unity.” That new mood lasted all of minutes. In their first act, Senate Republicans voted to slash $444,400 from the DFL staff budget, potentially forcing the elimination of [...]

By DANNY SANDBERG Milaca VFW Commander A couple of months ago I attended a meeting at our Mille Lacs County Courthouse. It was an informational meeting put on by our County Veterans Services Officer Mike Bina. I was accompanied by three of my fellow VFW members, but unfortunately there were only four others there and one [...]

By JAN BROWN The Wandering Mind (Warning – soap related acronyms ahead.) About seven months ago, I wrote about my dismay at the cancellation of two of my soap operas. Not long after that, we fans of “All My Children” (AMC) and “One Life to Live” (OLTL) were led to believe that our soaps would [...]

By LESLEY TOTH At Random As an avid political junkie, I have never cast a vote without listening/watching/reading everything I can about the candidates. The past year provided me with plenty of opportunities as the debates between the nine-person pool for GOP nominees whittled that group down to five. And it looks like I will [...]