Felony child abuse charges made against former county Human Services Director
Four pending charges, including two felony charges, have been filed by the state of Minnesota against former Health and Human Services Director Josh Beck. Beck resigned as Cook County Health and Human Services director on July 21. One of the felony assault charges alleges a past pattern of child abuse. On August 1 Beck was charged with domestic assault by […]
MPCA asks for mercury reduction in town’s water
Since receiving notice in the summer of 2016, the city of Grand Marais has continued its talks with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) over the agency’s request that the city keep its effluent below 1.3 nanograms per liter of mercury in its treated water. Grand Marais is one of 12 communities whose treated water goes into Lake Superior. All […]
Hospital board keeps levy at $800,000
North Shore Health (NSH) board members received quite a bit of good news at their Thursday, August 24 board meeting. The new hospital rooms, emergency department and procedure room are complete and now being used. After the final in a series of surveys, the Survey and Certification Division of the Minnesota Department of Health granted occupancy certification for the new […]
A celebration of Labor Day
My father, I believe, felt that Labor Day should rightly be celebrated by working twice as hard on that day as on most days. He liked to work. No, he loved to work. He celebrated in his lumberjack ability to work smart while working incredibly hard, and Labor Day was right up his alley. But for most us, Labor Day […]
Stargazing
As a young boy I would often sit at night on the front steps of our home in Bloomington, MN with my Dad and gaze at the stars. This was back in the day when Bloomington wasn’t the expanded metropolis that it is today, most notably with the addition of the Mall of America in 1992. In the “swell” ’50s, […]
Puzzled by how your actions can affect others?
Sometime, or maybe it is most of the time, we don’t realize when and how we touch another’s life. I’ll admit I was less than enthusiastic about the statuary that was erected in Library Park. Maybe it felt a bit too flashy or too “mod” for my Cook County taste, but I understood and accepted its intent. Not until a […]
Property tax levy
As a seasonal resident of Cook County for over 40 years, I have an interest in the current levy discussions going on locally. I cannot vote on this matter, but as a property owner and not a full-time resident I will live with the consequences of the decisions made, as I do now. It appears to me that the consequences […]
Writer suggests “a modest proposal”
Looking back over the last 10 years, I find that my household income has been increasing at less than two percent per year (less than the real inflation rate). In short, I seem to be losing financial ground. Over that same 10-year period, I see that my county property taxes have been increasing at a rate of 29 percent per […]