By Ruth Koehler Special to the Dispatch During my high school years, our family were members of the Apostolic Lutheran Church in Sebeka, Minnesota.  Although we didn’t attend every Sunday, it was our church for weddings, funerals, anniversary celebrations and other gatherings.  Sebeka is part of the Finnish Triangle, of Menahga, New York Mills, and Sebeka. During my… Read More

To the Editor, People have talked to me with concern about the Satanic holiday display in the Minnesota State Capitol. It appears to be a phoenix with a pentagram, suspended overhead. Governor Walz says such displays are protected by the First Amendment. “Minnesota Satanists applied through the Department of Administration, which manages the capitol grounds, to… Read More

To the Editor, End of another brutal election cycle and gearing up for the next with lessons to be learned and new strategies to adopt. Don’t see much hope of getting both parties to at least try to work together to put our country and our democracy above party and individual interests. Been saying that for years. … Read More

The Prairie Spy Alan “Lindy” Linda This young Marine popped into sight out of the Vietnam jungle, maybe 50-60 meters out and away from me, where I sat watching a peaceful tropical morning appear from the top of my sandbag bunker. It was a tranquill morning. And then it wasn’t. I had a locked and loaded M14… Read More

Ask A Trooper Sgt. Jesse Grabow With the holidays upon us I wanted to share a message about distracted driving. Here is some information we recently shared on our Department of Public Safety blog. “It was supposed to be a routine trip for 20-year-old Megan Severson. On Oct. 17, 2019, Severson was driving from Preston in southeastern Minnesota… Read More

The Prairie Spy Alan “Lindy” Linda Every few years, a new device that is a “guaranteed unbelievable breakthrough in energy savings” comes along. Back in the sixties, a “new breakthrough in the dynamic viscosity of hydraulics” was the latest heating “discovery.” This device, which as I remember weighed quite a bit, like around 30 or 40 pounds, bragged… Read More

By Bev Johnson Master Gardener Petunia has always envied her Mother in Law’s ability to grow Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus. They are huge, the size of a bushel basket and she gets them to bloom at the proper time. Petunia finally got up the courage to ask Alma (she is quite a formidable woman) if she… Read More

To the Editor, My colleagues at West Central Initiative often smile when I say, “Donor Advised Funds are the coolest thing,” because they know that this mantra of mine is so very true. Not only do Donor Advised Funds help the donor with charitable giving throughout the year, but what our donors do with these funds… Read More

The Prairie Spy Alan “Lindy” Linda As time goes by here on the farm, we have been watching my Amish neighbor handle a crop of corn on acreage which he has rented from me. Finding just a mere one or two words to convey how both entertaining and instructive this viewing has been is difficult. What of course… Read More

To the Editor, Rural small business owners and agricultural producers can decrease energy costs through energy efficiency measures and the installation of renewable energy systems such as solar, with the help of the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).  Grants are now available for up to 50 percent of eligible project costs, and guaranteed loans are available… Read More