the

This school year I am hosting two foreign exchange students who are both Muslim. They are seniors at Perham High School. They are here to learn about America and to inform Americans about their countries, culture and religion and promote better relationships between us. Their experience...

To the residents of New York Mills, Perham, and the surrounding areas: We would like to say 'thank you' for the huge amount of support we've received since our daughter Eva was diagnosed with a pontine glioma (brain stem tumor.) The attendance at the benefits was more than we could've...

The shallowness of Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen's analysis of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is disturbing. (See last week's letter to the Perham Focus. Ingebrigtsen is wrong to impugn the integrity--by questioning the sincerity of their oaths of office - of those...

Commencing with the 2020 Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last week proposed dropping wrestling as an Olympic sport. The world-wide wrestling community is certainly not going to take this proposal lying down. Indeed, the members of the IOC should be careful of finding...

Some people take their job very seriously, and on Sunday I witnessed this in person. With the snow falling and accumulating at a good pace, there was the Contact shopper delivery guy out on the unplowed roads, making sure his route was being done even in the terrible conditions. I...

I am writing today, for those that haven't heard, about some very extreme bills that have been introduced in the Minnesota Legislature. HF 241,242, and 243 are horrible bills that would turn good and decent Minnesota gun owners into felons if they refuse to turn in their property...

As a former sheriff and current state senator, I was sworn to uphold the Constitution of the State of Minnesota and the United States. I take this oath seriously. Unfortunately, it is apparent that some do not. I have noticed Freedom of Speech, under the 1st Amendment, continually...

I would like to thank you and your staff for keeping myself and the rest of the citizens of Perham informed and amused on activities in our area.

John Minge's letter published in the Dec. 20 East Otter Tail Focus does a great disservice to the Catholic Church in characterizing its social teaching as endorsing wealth redistribution. You cannot cherry-pick a few quotes and pretend you have covered the subject. The church vigorously...

I was watching the news yesterday and there was a Texas rice farmer explaining how important the farm bill and crop insurance was to him. He explained that if he were to put in a crop and it failed (like because of drought), he could lose as much as $1 million (I assume that includes...

This Christmas, 66 families (a record), were served by Santa Anonymous. Forty-three elderly were also remembered. This was all possible because of the generous support of time and money by many, many people in this area.

We Christians are on the cusp of celebrating our god's birth from the Virgin Mary. Yes, the second person of the Trinity took on human flesh in the womb of his mother to become one of us. Christians confess that in Jesus all things are made new and all life is sacred to be protected...

I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning and got to thinking about "White Christmas," and what a wonderful experience it was. And what a monstrous team effort it was. Hopefully, the 2,500 people who attended the five performances these past two weekends enjoyed it as much as the 100-or-so...

It is clear that Merle Hexum is opposed to the proposition that there should be some measure of "wealth redistribution" in this country. He should have included the Catholic Church in his list of villains, as that body has been openly discussing and encouraging to varying degrees...

Even though the U.S. Supreme Court stated in 1974 that a newspaper is not constitutionally required to be "a passive receptacle or conduit for comment" and even though the preferred approach seems to be that "letters to the editor should not be platforms for diatribes against groups,"...