Editorials

BY TOM DENNIS Forum News Service In the debate about the safety of shipping Bakken oil, there are trade-offs at every turn. That’s the lesson of the conditioning vs. stabilization debate, the pipeline vs. railroad debate and every other debate that has surfaced around the issue. And...

As policy debates get more partisan and the media hosts more voices of the hard left and far right, one source of centrism remains: newspaper editorials. At most newspapers, editorials represent the views of the editorial board, not just one person. Further, because board members...

The initial reaction to Rep. Paul Marquart’s, DFL-Dilworth, oil train safety proposal is Republican anti-tax boilerplate. While giving lip service to the need to improve rail safety as it applies to oil trains rumbling through Minnesota communities, Republican leaders in the House...

Identity theft is not one of the big city problems. It happens in our area all too often. One big reason is because the Internet is providing identity thieves with another window of opportunity that knows no physical boundaries. But there are ways to shut that window. The Minnesota...

At some point, Minnesota needs to bite the bullet and fund its roads, bridges and byways. That day is upon us. Lawmakers need to stop carping about the costs and suck it up.

The IRS is now processing tax returns, and the agency continues to emphasize the convenience and security of their online services for taxpayers. Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota offers some helpful tips for the public as tax season kicks into gear. “Most of...

If you’re sick, stay home. That’s the advice from state health leaders. With the state in the midst of a particularly tough influenza season, health officials are urging Minnesotans to protect themselves and others by staying home when they are ill. The latest weekly influenza...

While it was refreshing to see Congress pass the recent bipartisan spending bill to keep the government operating for another year, the 1,600-page budget bill contained some surprise provisions that were a gift to big banks and could come back to haunt the economy. One of the most...

The Minnesota State Patrol reported dozens of vehicle crashes and vehicles that went off the road in the northern part of the state. When it snows and the roads become slippery, Sgt. Neil Dickenson, Minnesota State Patrol NE Region Public Information Officer, wants to remind all...

Going to a hospital is getting safer: The chances that U.S. patients would pick up infections, get the wrong drug or dose, or be hurt in other ways, ranging from falls to bed sores, fell 17 percent between 2010 and 2013. But there is still a lot of room for improvement. A progress...

If you needed a reminder of what season it is, Sunday and Monday did the trick. The region’s first real cold snap moved through, with lows forecast in the single digits to below freezing, and coupled with the wind chill, you had actual temperatures in the 20 below range and colder...

The 2014 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey found that the percent of high school students who smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days dropped from 18.1 percent in 2011 to 10.6 percent in 2014. This decline in cigarette smoking, the steepest ever recorded by the Minnesota youth survey,...

An interesting quirk about North Dakota and Minnesota is that comparatively few young people from these states wind up enlisting in the Armed Forces. “According to data provided by the Department of Defense, people between the ages of 18 and 24 from Florida, Georgia or Maine are...

Nearly 41 percent of all motorists killed in traffic crashes on Minnesota roads during the last three years were not buckled up, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety. This statistic is another alert for motorists to buckle up every seat,...

Every week in Minnesota, more than 100 babies are born with a greater risk of developing brain damage. All because their mothers decided to drink alcohol during their pregnancies. It’s a tragic, preventable problem that begs for more awareness, action and solutions. And now is...