The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $25 million in funding availability from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase high-speed internet access in rural and tribal communities. The funding is made available through the USDA’s Broadband Technical Assistance (BTA) Program, part ...

“I was one of the lucky ones.” That quote was taken from the Independent special section “Honoring Our Heroes.” (June 29) The section honored military veterans in southwest Minnesota. Gib Christensen of Granite Falls was one of the veterans profiled. He deployed with the National ...

Independence Day: freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower Two-hundred-forty-eight years ago, the Declaration of ...

By now, we all heard the different versions of the upside-down flag outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The apparent dispute between Alito’s wife and a neighbor reached peculiar levels. In short, a neighbor admitted in one media outlet of posting a profanity-laced ...

School for most southwest Minnesota students will be ending soon and a lot of youths will have extra time on their hands for a few months. Unfortunately, many youths will fill that extra time with screen activities — TV shows and social media outlets. While we are not advocating against ...

Another planting season is upon us and that means large farm equipment will be sharing rural roads across southwest Minnesota with other vehicles. The Minnesota Department of Transportation this week reminded motorists traveling on these roads to keep a look out for farm equipment. MNDOT ask ...