By Gene Policinski

George Carlin is gone, but the kinds of free-speech conflicts he skewered in his comedic routines live on. So does the national debate over where First Amendment protections end and government regulation begins on broadcast speech and speech in public.

Not all such conflicts directly involve First Amendment consideration — some are more involved with the “spirit” of free speech than with statutory definitions. But all encompass a kind of national question: “Can you say that?”

Cheers to Legion Post 96 for their sponsorship of the kids to attend Legionville Camp in Brainerd. Legionville Camp is such a wonderful place, safe and fun for the kids to learn about safety and leadership skills. The kids all had a great time and Hutchinson's crosswalks are safer because of their training.

Ronald Kalenberg,
parent of Stephen Kalenberg, Hutchinson

Cheers to the Hutchinson Junior League Baseball Association for a great season and wonderful baseball tournament. It’s such a great thing for young boys that love to play baseball and be with their friends during the summer. I’m sure there is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into the planning and coordination of the season and the tournament — we just wanted you to know it didn’t go unnoticed. We had a great time!

Mike and Tammy Gohl Family
Hutchinson

From Tim Lux
Eden Valley

Recently my grandpa, brother, cousin and I camped by the river in Hutchinson. We all had bikes and we stayed for four days. We spent a lot of time biking around town. We really enjoyed the great bike trails and underpasses.

We want the people and organizations responsible to know how much we enjoyed biking on such great roads and trails, and (how much we) liked our camping event. I look forward to camping with Grandpa again.

From John Korngiebel
Hutchinson

I disagree with the Leader’s editorial of July 17 regarding the proposed school plans by the School Board.

I quote your article as stated: “We also encourage the campaign to be wary of advice from consultants employed by architects and contractors. Their advice didn’t work in 2006, and there’s no reason to believe it will work today.”

Widely regarded as one of history’s military great commanders, Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Napoleon gave the French people hope. He is credited with establishing the Napoleanic code, which laid the bureaucratic foundations for the modern French state.

He also gave them 17 years of wars, as many as 6 million Europeans dead, a bankrupt nation and France’s loss of overseas colonies. Not much of a leader, you say?

Members of the Hutchinson Fire Department conducted a Fire Cause Determination class Monday evening just north of Hutchinson.

“It was just a training exercise,” Hutchinson Fire Chief Brad Emans said.

Explaining how the class works, Emans said the department lights random fires to depict an accident or arson. Then the firefighters have to put out the flames and examine the scene. They also have to determine how the fire was started, if it was an accident or arson, and then interview people, and determine the cause.

Bryan Bluhm, 51, of Plymouth, son of Roger Bluhm and Adelaide Bluhm, died Tuesday, July 22, at his home in Plymouth.

A memorial service will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Hutchinson.

Visitation will be one hour prior to the service Saturday at the church.

Arrangements are with the Dobratz-Hantge Chapel in Hutchinson. Online condolences may be directed to www.hantge.com. Click on Online Condolences.

Gloria "Buffy" Stuber, 48, of Buffalo Lake, died Wednesday, July 23, at Hutchinson Community Hospital in Hutchinson.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 26, at Zion Lutheran Church in Buffalo Lake. Interment will be in Swedlanda Cemetery in Palmyra Township, rural Hector.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 25, at the Dobratz-Hantge Funeral Chapel in Hutchinson, and will continue one hour prior to services Saturday at the church.

Arrangements are with Dobratz-Hantge Funeral Home in Hutchinson. Online condolences may be directed to www.hantge.com.

By David Nicolai, University of Minnesota Extension

Most of the drier areas received a welcome rain. This is important as we go into the critical seed-set and pod-fill periods. Some areas with heavy rain, wind and hail have root-lodged and above ground-lodged corn. Poor root systems can be caused by several reasons: rootworm feeding, genetics, disease and poor seedbed conditions are equally likely. Rootworm Bt hybrids only protect against one of these. Corn has an easier time righting itself when lodging occurs before tasseling.

Its work force isn’t large at this point, but Customer Elation, the latest company to come to Hutchinson’s industrial park, is ready for growth when it comes.

The Bloomington-based in-bound, customer service center opened its 22,200-square-foot facility along Fifth Avenue Southeast last week. It currently rosters about 10 employees, but has room to eventually have 325 computerized work stations, president and co-founder Peter Hainey said Thursday.

From Katie Winkelman
Sartell

Too much of a good thing, is not a good thing — animal shelters are overflowing.

Right now, we are in the middle of “kitten season.” You’re probably asking, “what is ‘kitten season’?” Well, it’s not actually an addition to the four seasons — it’s the time of year when cats give birth, flooding animal shelters across the nation, including our local Heart of Minnesota Animal Shelter, with homeless litters. “Kitten season” is really three seasons in one, starting in spring, peaking in late spring or early summer, and ending in fall.

From Linda Klitzke
Hutchinson

In the July 10 letter to the editor about evening County Board meetings, the writer asked county taxpayers to weigh in to why the meetings are at 9 a.m., when most of McLeod County taxpayers are at work. This McLeod County taxpayer’s opinion is that the board meets at 9 a.m. so that McLeod County taxpayers cannot attend. Let me explain my opinion.

On Thursday, your Leader will contain a new publication titled Health. It contains a variety of stories, some about health care and medicine, and others about lifestyle changes to help you lead a healthier life.
Health will be published twice a year: in July and January. We’re already looking for ideas for our January edition. If you have a suggestion, or wish to comment on Thursday’s edition, please call us at (320) 587-5000 and ask for Doug or Matt.

Maintaining or improving our health and managing health care costs are important to most of us. Some things we can control ourselves:

Edwin J. “Ed” Ballard, 85, of Hutchinson, formerly of Winnebago, died Friday, July 18, at his home in Hutchinson.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, at Spencer Owen Funeral Home in Winnebago, with Larry Ballard and the Rev. David Ballard officiating. Burial will be in Rosehill Cemetery, Winnebago.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, at Spencer-Owen Funeral Home in Winnebago.

Memorial services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, July 24, at Riverside Assembly of God in Hutchinson.

Arrangements are with Spencer Owen Funeral Home in Winnebago.

David Ruzicka, 79, of Lake Minnie Belle and formerly of Glencoe, died Friday, July 18, at his home.

A memorial Mass celebrating his life will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 23, at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Glencoe.

A time of gathering will be from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Wednesday at the church.

Interment will be in the Glencoe Catholic Cemetery.

Arrangements are with Johnson-McBride Funeral Chapels.

Chris Dane Judd, 58, of St. Paul, died Saturday, July 19, surrounded by family, after a valiant struggle with multiple myeloma cancer.

Services will be at the Roseville Memorial Chapel, 2245 Hamline Ave. N., Roseville, (651) 631-2727, with visitation at 9 a.m. and a celebration of Chris’ life at 10 a.m., followed by interment at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, 383 Main Ave., Norwalk, CT 06851.

Levi Joseph Fallon, 97, died Friday, July 18, at Cedar Crest Residence in Cosmos.

A Mass of Christian burial is at 10:30 a.m. Monday, July 21, at the Church of St. John in Darwin. Visitation is one hour prior to the service at the church. He was laid to rest in St. Anastasia Catholic Cemetery in Hutchinson.

Arrangements are with Johnson-Hagglund Funeral Home in Litchfield. An online guest book is available at www.johnsonhagglund.com.

Judith Lee Joslin, 68, of Burnsville, died July 18. She is the mother of Lynne (Jeff) Bennin, of Hutchinson.

Visitation is 9:30 a.m. Thursday, July 24, followed by a service at 10:30 a.m. and a light lunch, all at Washburn McReavy Wemess Bros. Funeral Chapel, 2300 Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington, with internment at Fort Snelling National Cemetery shortly thereafter.

Memorials can be made to the Animal Humane Society.

William Paulson, 71, of Hutchinson, husband of Ardelle Paulson, died Sunday, July 20, at Birchwood Hospice House in Hutchinson.

A celebration of life will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 26, at Faith Lutheran Church in Hutchinson. Interment is in Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis.

A gathering of family and friends will be one hour prior to the service Saturday at the church.

Arrangements are with Dobratz-Hantge Funeral Chapel in Hutchinson. Online condolences may be directed to www.hantge.com.

ST. PAUL — Minnesota gained jobs for the second consecutive month in June, with employers adding 3,400 positions on top of the 2,500 jobs that were created in May, according to figures released last week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Those increases came after Minnesota employers trimmed 10,100 jobs in April. However, overall the state has added 1,900 jobs through the first half of the year, compared with a U.S. loss of 438,000 jobs during that period.

National Night Out is Tuesday, Aug. 5, and Hutchinson Police Services is seeking residents to help host block parties in their neighborhoods.

Anyone interested in being host or seeking more information about the event, may call Sgt. Eric Kilian at the police station, (320) 587-2242.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)

The University of Minnesota Extension of Carver County will be hosting a “Farmer to Farmer” Field Day on from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 30, at Engelmann Dairy, 11664 County Road 9, Plato.
The event is free and no registration is required. Lunch will be served courtesy of the Carver County Dairy Core Team.

Easements onto rail authority property requested by the cities of Hutchinson and Lester Prairie are the major agenda items for a meeting of the McLeod Regional Rail Authority planned at noon Tuesday, July 29.

Chairman Sheldon Nies also is expecting an update on progress in the preservation of the former Dakota Rail-Great Northern depot in Hutchinson.

The meeting takes place at the Hutchinson VFW Post, 247 First Ave. S.E.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)

An alleged near mid-air collision and resulting on-the-ground altercation could leave a 40-year-old Hutchinson man facing fifth-degree assault charges.

According to Hutchinson police, a 51-year-old Waconia man told them on July 2 that another plane almost struck his Cherokee aircraft while making his landing approach at the city-owned airport south of Hutchinson about 6 p.m. June 29. The man, a regular visitor to the Hutchinson airport, was accompanied by his 22-year-old son.

A 20-year-old Lester Prairie man has been charged with a felony drug charge after being arrested Tuesday, July 15, for allegedly shoplifting computer game equipment from Wal-Mart.

Hutchinson police were called to the store at about 4:15 p.m. on a report that a man tried to shoplift items worth $122. Andrew Jon Woodall was arrested. During the arrest, police allegedly found him in possession of a substance believed to be methamphetamine.

Charlette Taylor, 93, of Hutchinson, died Thursday, July 17, at the Birchwood Hospice House in Hutchinson.

A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Monday, July 21, at Shalom Baptist Church in Hutchinson. Interment will be in Oakland Cemetery in Hutchinson.

A gathering of family and friends will be one hour prior to services Monday at the church.

Arrangements are by the Dobratz-Hantge Funeral Chapel in Hutchinson. Online condolences may be directed to www.hantge.com.

Cheers to all who helped make the annual Junior Master Gardeners Day Camp a huge success. The children really enjoyed learning about our wonderful world. Special thanks to the speakers Linda Sederstrom for showing us the importance of bees, Eric Dubbelede for teaching us about the water we use and Ryan Frietag for telling us how to be good caretakers of the earth.

This is our favorite community service event we do for children and we appreciate all who participate and donate for this event. We look forward to seeing you all again next year.

McLeod County Master Gardeners

From Shari Colvin
Hutchinson

This week is National Parenting Gifted Children Week.

All children are special gifts and all children have special gifts. However, only a small percentage of children are gifted and have special parenting and education needs. These are children who may as preschoolers teach themselves to read or master multiplication concepts. They may use logic and advanced vocabulary to argue like a lawyer, or construct an elaborate fantasy world. They may fill every room of the house with their collections or experiments.

From Sgt. Jacalyn Sticha
Minnesota State Patrol, Mankato District

When someone is starting something new, and they are inexperienced, young, going in a million different directions emotionally and physically, distracted and the thing they are starting is the most dangerous thing they will do on a daily basis, doesn’t it make sense to move them into the task slowly? Shouldn’t we graduate them into the complexities as they become more experienced, focused and mature.