The phrase you never want to hear as much as our family has in the last couple months.
B eginning on June 24, members of our community may receive a phone call asking them to participate in a survey about Shakopee Public Schools.
You’ve been hearing about them for years. Many people are saying electric vehicles are the future. Nearly every major manufacturer either has at least one electric model available or has made an announcement about producing one or more in the near future. If you’re thinking about purchasing …
Imagine taxing middle-class families to help rich folks buy luxury cars. Doesn’t sound very fair, does it?
Our community is a strong supporter of our schools. As school board members, we’ve seen this support in many ways. We have a strong volunteer program. We have community members and parents who serve on committees and councils. We have huge participation at our fine arts and sporting events. …
Hot take: I love mathematics. From basic addition to multivariable calculus, learning and discovering the intricacies of how math works is absolutely fascinating. My late grandmother was a mathematics professor in Turkey, and so I was taught to admire and respect numbers from a young age. No…
May 30, 1868 was the first official Decoration Day. The day was declared by General John A. Logan and observed at Arlington National Cemetery. Volunteers that day decorated the graves of more the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers.
The latest story about Rod Thompson should not be the end of the questioning by the newspaper.
I’m writing our neighbors here in Shakopee to alert everyone about the insane moves by Brad Tabke since he was elected to the Legislature.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The purpose of the month is to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of mental illness. Through research, it is known that mental illnesses come from genetic, biological, psychological and/or environmental factors. It is not a personal choice or a charac…
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon is actually correct, but deceptive, when he says Minnesota lags behind other states in doing what is necessary to protect elections. Forty-seven other states have what Minnesota does not: provisional ballots.
I’ve learned the lessons of depression the hard way. It’s something I experienced first in my late teens and then again in my 30s.
Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate and His Support of HF 1500: Driver’s Licenses for Non-Licensed Illegal Immigrants
Air is all around us. We feel this air in everything we do, and it’s moving right now through your nose, into your lungs and back out. This air makes up the skin of our planet. Our planet’s skin is thinner comparatively than the skin of an apple. From your backyard, it may look infinite, but…
A budget can serve as a roadmap to a person’s values and priorities.
At a recent rally on the steps of the state capitol, dozens of Minnesotans braved freezing winter temperatures to speak out for themselves and for the millions of other Americans with diabetes who find themselves in a life-and-death struggle to afford insulin, the only medicine that keeps th…
It’s that time of year again when valleys flood, bridges close, and Highway 169 becomes the main vein across the Minnesota River for many commuters in our region, if it wasn’t already.
On March 28, the Minnesota House of Representatives voted to approve additional funding for the state’s disaster contingency account. This account is critical to making it possible for the state to act quickly when natural disasters strike — providing aid to local communities in the event of…
There is growing awareness that sexual exploitation and trafficking is a tragic reality in our society.
I have been working in the recovery community, with addicts for the past four years, and run two meetings in the Minneapolis metro area.
Tonight, I had the opportunity to watch something rather wonderful. I wasn’t alone, we all viewed what represents the identity of who we are, how we represent, what is truly special about our school district.
Being a newer resident to Shakopee I wasn’t here to vote for our state representative last November. Frankly I was completely unaware as to what type of person Representative Tabke was.
I have seen some government officials fighting President Trump on border security and I didn’t understand why right away. Now the blurry southern border is starting to make sense to me. I know Congress voted on border security for the last three presidents. They are all on video also saying …
Nearly 200 scientific organizations and national academies of science acknowledge the climate is changing, that humans are responsible and that some form of action should be taken to address the risks to people and the planet, by NASA’s count.
Gov. Tim Walz was clear when he asked me to be the chair of the Metropolitan Council — he wanted a mayor for the job.
Gov. Tim Walz recently released a two-year budget proposal that reflects the message he carried throughout his campaign: We are One Minnesota and no matter where they live, everyone should have access to opportunities to build a better life for their families.
Last week, the Education Finance Committee took a road trip to Windom High School for an official field hearing.
The Star Tribune recently ran an opinion piece by James Lefestey, who advocated for an increase in the gas tax to finance infrastructure improvements and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but cautioned lawmakers to keep rural Minnesotans in mind when crafting this policy.
I am quite disappointed in Brett Martin’s most recent column discussing the success of Shakopee sports.
As the director of The Food Group, a regional nonprofit that partners with 170 food shelves and meal programs across Minnesota and Wisconsin, the new year usually offers me a prompt to look brightly at the year ahead. The darkest days are behind us and the lightest are yet to come. It is har…
As the new year begins, I look forward to another legislative session in St. Paul. The 2019 legislative session brings many changes and new faces to the state capitol.
R ecently, the world learned yet again that inadequate investment in infrastructure — roads, bridges, tunnels, and railways — can have tragic consequences.
I was first introduced to the Saber Showcase in ninth grade, after I spent nearly a month preparing my presentation on the reverse engineering of a staple gun.
I’m a senior at Shakopee High School and currently studying in the Academy of Engineering and Manufacturing.
My wife and I live in Prior La ke with our two wonderful daughters. Our youngest is in middle school and our oldest in high school. Their future is incredibly important to me. I don’t know how many children you have or how old they are. I know this: The time is at hand to enact national poli…
There are many faces of mental illness. People with mental illness are our neighbors, co-workers, friends and family members.
There are many faces of mental illness. People with mental illness are our neighbors, co-workers, friends and family members. It is a brain disease, an imbalance in the brain’s chemistry. Furthermore, mental illness doesn’t discriminate on the bases of age, ethnicity or gender. Mental illnes…
I recently accepted the role as the interim superintendent for Shakopee schools. I accepted the role because I care deeply for the students and adults in our school community, and I love this district.
After reading columns by City Administrator Bill Reynolds, Joe Ditto and Councilor Matt Lehman, I feel I need to present my take on TIF.
While I can appreciate the Sept. 20 article by city Administrator Bill Reynolds named “TIF: Fact vs Fiction,” this topic requires a broader scope and explanation.
As a relatively new resident of Shakopee, there are many beautiful sites and locations I have found. The accessible parks are great for my kids, the riverfront area is a lovely place to take a stroll, and the downtown area is as exciting as it is welcoming.
After reading City Administrator Bill Reynolds' opinion piece last week entitled "TIF: Separating fact from fiction," I was compelled to write a response to correct some factual inaccuracies in the article. I have a background in real estate and general contracting having previously held sta…
There has been a lot of discussion recently about Tax Increment Financing or TIF and whether it is something the city should use. The concept can be confusing, especially since not all TIFs are created equal.
I grew up in rural America for much of my childhood. My grandfather farmed beans and rice and worked as a farm foreman until the farm crisis in the 1980s forced the farmer who employed him — and many others — out of business. He spent the next few years repairing John Deere tractors for thos…
I’ve been a columnist for this paper for about 10 months. I’m given latitude to write on any topic I choose and submit columns as frequently or infrequently as I want. It’s a nice opportunity to share some thoughts and ideas. I’ve covered a variety of topics with a goal of writing content th…
“This is your mission, if you choose to accept it.”
President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel from multiple countries will raise consumer prices for lots of products. And one of them is gasoline.
In business, “moonshot thinking” is a revolutionary, non-traditional approach used to accomplish something that’s never been done before. It’s the type of thinking that enabled people to go to the moon.
We are rapidly approaching the three weekends of Aug. 17-Sept. 3 that finds Shakopee’s Joe Schleper Stadium in Tahpah Park home to the 95th Annual Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament.
On March 14 of this year, students across the U.S. left class for 17 minutes – one minute for every person killed in the Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School massacre. It is a bit disheartening to realize that, if the students had instead chosen to stay out of class one minute for every pers…
