Opinion

Handless operation

ASK A TROOPER Question: I was wondering, with the ads on television showing people driving with their hands off the steering wheel, is that legal in Minnesota if your vehicle has that capability? Answer: I believe you are asking about autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars, which are capable of sensing their environment and operating without human involvement. Minnesota law states that every driver is responsible for becoming and remaining aware of the actual and potential hazards that exist on the highway and must use due care in operating a vehicle.

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New books

@YOUR LIBRARY April showers bring May flowers. Does that include snow showers? I am ready for green and spring and growing things.

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Pause the process

We urge members of the South Koochiching- Rainy River School Board to give more time to consider unique options or alternatives to the closing of the Indus School before taking any more steps in that direction.

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Senior Sting

Majestic Pines, comprehensive senior living facility nearly North of Highway #2 at once-grand rapids of dandy Mississippi, is a fine, comfortable senior camp. Recently, a little tarnish may have dulled that label just a bit.

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Music as a means of detecting a heart

At least once in your long and delicious life you owe it to yourself to go hear Olivier Messiaen’s “Turangalîla-symphonie” and don’t wait until you’re 80 as I did but finally last week went to hear the New York Philharmonic take us on this wild 90-minute roller-coaster ride in which Catholics are kidnapped and Baptists go Buddhist and you think in French and fly in a formation of geese and get a taste of molecular physics as horses go galloping down the aisles, and in the gorgeous slow passage “Garden of Sleeping Love” you will fall in love forever with the person next to you so be very careful where you sit.

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ABOUT HISTORY

Corinne Jonson It was March of 1923, Corinne was 9 years old, her brothers, 5 and 2. Their parents decided to emigrate, and they left their homeland Dalarna, Sweden, on what she termed as a “stormy voyage” from Gothenburg that lasted almost three weeks before they arrived in New York City.

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Trailer ball hitches

ASK A TROOPER Question: I read your article last week about trailer safety. I would like more information on trailer hitch ball sizes and why they have different sizes? Answer: There are four different trailer hitch ball sizes.

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Junior room books

@YOUR LIBRARY Happy April! It has been a while since we talked about new junior room books. Help your child finish the school year strongly and prepare them for summer reading.

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Mirriam, 1935

At one time Fairland, Minn., was among other area communities that were considered for the county seat when Koochiching was formed. Mirriam Ollikkala’s first year of teaching was 1935-1936, The Fairland School was located about 25 miles south and west of Loman on the Black River Road.

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