Viewpoints

One Fourth of July evening several years ago, I woke up around 1 a.m. to a thunderous sound that went something like, “Screech, schwoop, bloop, bloop, bloop.” At the time, we were living in Savage near a sprawling wetland complex that was once part of the Credit River floodplain. Somehow, I knew with absolute certainty that the noise I had heard was the sound of a car driving off the highway and into the wetland. I hurriedly put in my contacts and ran outside, where a neighbor was already shining a flashlight into the fog looking for the car. I called 911, and after assuring the operator that no, actually I wasn’t calling to complain about loud fireworks, I said, “I think that a car just drove off the road and into the wetland.”

Remember standing, waiting for the school bus in the morning with your winter coat unzipped, gloveless hands in pockets, and, certainly, no hat on your head because that would mess up your hair? Buying my first pair of adult-sized snow pants and mukluks, two years after college, was a transformative experience. The world outside was suddenly a playground with animal tracks to follow, snowy hills to climb, and frozen ponds to cross. Adapting for the winter made everything so much better.

This month marks 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on poverty.” There were huge victories in that war during the following decade, but after that, the federal government reversed course, cut anti-poverty programs, and our national government effectively surrendered.

Musician Phil Everly died last week.

When the 2014 Minnesota State Legislative Session begins in February, you are going to be hearing a lot about a “bonding bill” and “capital investment.”
Capital investment is the process by which the state issues bonds to fund public projects that have a state or regional significance. This funding goes towards a variety of projects across the state including improvements to higher education buildings, roads and bridges, veterans homes and trails.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources field staff, resource managers and the DNR Information Center staff answer many questions every day about natural resources topics. Here is one of them:
Q.  How does the winter cold and snow affect deer, and how do they survive Minnesota’s winter weather?

Every new year I like to remind myself and others of a great Benjamin Franklin quote that sums up the idea of new year’s resolutions, “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man.”

Call in sick! That is the advice from the nation’s emergency physicians if you happen to have flu-like symptoms.  Doctors suggest it’s one of the best ways to help prevent the spread of this year’s particularly aggressive national flu outbreak.   
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that as we turned the corner from 2013 to 2014, influenza was “widespread” in 25 states, including Minnesota, and “regional” in 20.