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THUMBS DOWN Microsoft Outlook outage a reminder of how much we are dependent on Big Tech Anyone using Microsoft Thursday is likely aware the company experienced a global outage around noon. One of the systems hit hardest was Microsoft’s Outlook email service. Anyone using this email system was unable to access documents. This was a significant problem for any business or organization relying on Outlook email for work purposes. Even companies that do not use Outlook email struggled to conduct business as normal because communication with any individual using Microsoft was ...

Why do farmers support Trump?

Columns

I was on the tractor tilling corn ground. I got a call from a college buddy. I answered. Kevin has always been wonderfully blunt. Before I could say hello, Kevin said, “Randy, why do farmers support Trump?” I stumbled around that question for a couple minutes before we switched to talking about our wives and kids. I don’t have a good answer to Kevin’s question. I don’t even have a bad answer. A lot of us have burned up brain cells trying to understand the affection for Donald Trump. We just completed the most expensive and loudest election in our history. For sure, the ...

So easy, even a caveman can make choices

Letters

Anyone who’s watched enough “Law and Order” is familiar with the notion that a district attorney can easily manipulate a grand jury to indict anyone, even, as Sol Wachtler criticized in 1985, an inanimate object like “a ham sandwich.” After our recent midterm election, I looked over those results for southwestern, west central, and western Minnesota. It appears that the DFL candidates, regardless of their credentials, were doomed to receive only about a third of the votes cast. Those are figures that are usually matched in bastions of Republican strongholds such as Texas or ...

Boxed out

Columns

The ancient pine box had probably sat in the upstairs closet of my parents’ farmhouse since the Late Mesozoic Era. At least that’s how it appears. The box’s wood has oxidized into a deep nut-brown and bears more than a century’s worth of scars. It reminds me of a grizzled old cowboy ...

Extra, extra read all about film society screening

Columns

NEW ULM – In 1992, musical fans missed out on a great scoop with “Newsies,” but modern audiences are carrying the story and running with it. The New Ulm Film Society (NUFS) will screen “Newsies” as part of its musical film series, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 at the New Ulm Public Library. “Newsies” is the rare film musical not based on a previously existing stage musical; however, it is loosely based on a real-life event. The plot of the film is lifted from the New York City news boy strike of 1899. At that time, major publications depended on an army of young kids to ...

MAGA lost the meaning of Christianity

Letters

I have waited a few days for my excitement on the election results to subside prior to commenting on what took place. Let’s start by affirming that I am a U.S. Navy retiree, I am a patriot, I deeply love my country and none of these things are mutually exclusive to one political party or ideology. For the past few years some people within the Republican Party attempted to make people believe that you could not be patriotic, love your country, or be Christian unless you were a Republican. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my view what occurred across the country was a ...