Grand Portage Tribal Chairman Norman Deschampe leaves 45-year legacy


More than 400 people attended a Celebration of Life held Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the Grand Portage Community Center for the much loved and respected Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa leader Norman Deschampe, who passed away Saturday, Feb. 9. The Stone Bridge Singers opened with the Honor Song, and John Morrin delivered a prayer, saying he was humbled […]

North Shore Visitor Guide sold


The popular North Shore Visitor Guide published by Cook County resident Nina Simonowicz for the last 20-or-so years has recently changed hands. Melissa Dressely and her company Do North Marketing, has just printed the 2019 edition. The new easy-to-read 64-page guide has been re-named North Shore Explorer and has been redesigned with a fresh new look, but it still follows […]

Adam Dorr is a 2019 ExCEL award winner


Sometime during the first week of February, I.S.D. 166 athletic/activities director and K-12 assistant principal Mitch Dorr received the good news that a Cook County student had been selected to receive an ExCEL award, believed to be the first ever for a CCHS student. It was a great honor for the student, for the school and for Mitch and his […]

Grand Marais Park Board plans for summer


The Grand Marais Recreational Park Board met for the first time this year on Tuesday, Feb. 5 and touched on quite a few topics in about an hour and a half, with much of the discussion centered on the Gunflint Hills golf course. New city councilor Craig Schulte was welcomed as the liaison between the city council and the park […]

School board hears about vaping


At many high schools across the country, cigarette-smoking rates have fallen, but a recent report by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) suggests kids have replaced smoking with vaping. That seems to be the case at I.S.D. 166 as well. At the I.S.D. 166 February school board meeting Mitch Dorr, assistant K-12 principal, gave an update about vaping and e-cigarettes […]

Writer speaks her peace

When will I be able to have dialogue with my commissioners? “My” because I consider all five representing my county and my taxes. Will you consider “Speak your Peace” as tool to remind us of an ideal? Implement it by reminding those present of its basics in a 30-second commercial the same as you do for the Public Speaking section […]

Writer thanks the generous people who gave to provide for K9 defender Eddy

To date, 69 generous, gracious folks have donated $7,693.20 in amounts large and small, and all appreciated, to support Eddy, our K9 defender who works with Cook County Deputy Paul Spry and other members of the Sheriff ’s Office to keep county residents and visitors safe. The latest donations came last week, when Pat Zankman donated $1,000 in her First […]

Writer shares ideas about how to achieve low cost housing

Our family has been seasonal residents of Cook County since 1936. I am a retired public and health care administrator and I have a few thoughts on housing and taxes. Much of my working life was spent in communities of 1000 where I enjoyed serving many organizations and governments, and I get the rural challenges. I lived in Pipestone County […]

Injured Humanity— Part 3


Just as many in our country’s history were “conditioned” to find slavery acceptable, we, today, are being conditioned– increasingly coerced–into accepting abortion as the “cultural norm.” Southern slaveholders would even co-opt Bible passages to justify slavery. Read the Rev. E. W. Warren’s small volume Southern Slavery and the Bible, published in 1864 as “a scriptural refutation of the principal arguments […]

As I See It

The realities of child sexual abuse

Submitted by the Cook County Violence Prevention Center It is difficult to speak about child sexual abuse for a multitude of reasons, especially if it affects our own lives or the lives of those we care about. It is an issue that makes people extremely uncomfortable, because it hurts to think about anyone harming children. Unfortunately, the reality is that […]