Breaking News

Local Columns

Why do farmers support Trump?

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 ...

AI, data centers create need for technology regulation

The expanding national debate over technology’s future was spotlighted very effectively last week in a Family Circus comic strip. Dolly (the little girl) was praying on her bed. She asked God to deliver us. Instead of saying “deliver us from evil”, she asked God to “deliver us from email”. I thought it was prophetic. Email and texts are fine for person to person communication, but we definitely should be delivered from spam and e-marketing. It’s just one of many issues involving electronic technology. The development of AI has made it much worse. I read a recent ...

Jones grew up community-focused; expects higher education changes

Back in late August I attended the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event at the suite level of the Schwan Regional Event Center. The event was hosted by the Southwest Minnesota State University Athletics Department. After all the speeches and updates by athletic ...

Vietnam War – Greg Taylor – Growing up a Taylor

Greg Taylor was born Dec. 11, 1947, to Mildred (Ayrhart) Taylor and David B. Taylor at the Anna Maria Memorial Hospital in Marshall. Greg was the second of the Taylors’ three children. The eldest, David Michael, was five years older than Greg. Their sister, Terri Lee, was five years younger ...

On the Porch

For this column, I often share social news or the gossip columns from the old newspapers. The social news is always fascinating to read and a lot can be learned of local people and events from the communities in Lyon County. For this article, I’m going to share the classifieds from one of the newspapers. The classifieds are interesting to read as well. Here are a few from the News-Messenger of Lyon County on Nov. 10, 1922: CHARLES C. VICKERMAN, Taxidermist. Birds and heads mounted. Light hides and furs tanned. Leave work at Blanchette’s Store, Marshall, Minn. CAR APPLES on ...

Headed into halftime

Into the southern breezes my lab and I set out, the final hours of the first half of upland hunting before us just ahead of the noon start of North Dakota’s 16-and-a-half-day firearms deer season. Though tag numbers are down, and gun hunters likely wouldn’t be out in the full, orange-clad ...