Bruce P. Bechtold St. Joseph Last year I retired from the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office after service for 32 years (the last 14 as chief deputy sheriff). During my career I had the opportunity to work with numerous law enforcement officers including all of the current candidates for Sheriff. I have considered the qualities of each of these men
‘Nobody’ wins when you don’t vote
Do you want to overthrow the government? Or maybe you think things are going just fine. Either way, Tuesday’s primary election is the time to take a stand. Midterm elections generally attract a low voter turnout. Primary election turnout is historically even lower. Voting is always the most important action of civic engagement, but because of a unique set of
Trump brings back memories of Piggly Wiggly
Donald Trump’s recent speech in Tampa got me thinking about Piggly Wiggly. Trump again argued for requiring voters to show a photo ID to guard against voter fraud – one of the many myths Trump likes to rant about. Photo IDs are required for many transactions, even buying groceries, Trump trumpeted. “You know, if you go out and you want
Trump’s groceries gaffe makes point
At a campaign rally in Florida, President Trump made a claim that you need an ID to buy groceries, but not to vote. While you do not need an ID to buy groceries in most cases, in our country you are not required to have an ID to vote in almost any cases. With the widespread distrust in our voting
And all I got was this lousy T-shirt
Summer is beginning its wind-down, and I scream at the fading light. I love summer so much so that perhaps I am in love with summer, but that’s a different column. Instead, I wish to ruminate some fine local summer vacation activities my family and I have enjoyed this year. My family and I haven’t taken a proper vacation in
Reader encourages to vote Bentrud for sheriff
Lowell Nielsen, St. Cloud We are having a primary election on Aug. 14 for Stearns County sheriff. We really need to have citizens get out to vote because like all midterm election years, people have a tendency to believe these times are less important. However, in the primary election on Aug. 14, we have Dave Bentrud as our Stearns County
New ruling opens courtroom doors just slightly to cameras
An open-government debate that has gone mostly unnoticed for the past 30 years cleared another milestone in early July. The Minnesota Supreme Court filed an order permanently opening up Minnesota’s criminal courts to cameras. The decision comes after a 2-1/2-year pilot program on camera access to criminal proceedings. The permanent rules take effect Sept. 1. The U.S. Supreme Court held
Dollars, demographics point to soccer success
We had gathered for a picnic, enjoying grilled hot dogs and hamburgers before heading to Target Field to celebrate a friend’s 50th birthday by watching a Twins game. But instead of gathering in the backyard around the grill, most of the group, white guys in their 50s and 60s, huddled around a TV indoors on a beautiful Minnesota Sunday morning, watching