Benning Printing & Publishing

It’s that time of year—time for the annual banished word list—and I bet you know which annoying word took the top spot! Lake Superior State University Announces 50th Annual Banished Words List It’s time for a golden anniversary. Celebrating five decades of linguistic commentary, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) presents the 50th annual Banished Words List, a tradition highlighting the importance and evolution of language. What began as a whimsical New Year’s Eve party

It’s a new year. 2026. I never thought I would see it. But here it is with all its potential for being the best year yet! Every year has this potential. It’s like January arrives and we suddenly are filled with all the ideas and thoughts about things we want to accomplish in the new year. And then, about a week or a month later a whole lot of people either forget about their goals or simply do not have the drive or ambition to carry through with their plans. According to Dr

To the Editor: The U.S. Postal Service­—what a mess. I sent a package to my brother from Deer Creek to Annandale on the 16th of December. It never got there. I had this package tracked several times. Seems it gets sent from one post office to another over the state. The address is very readable and correct—machines make mistakes—AI for you. Find a new way to ship folks. Never, never again. Lloyd Kirscht Hewitt

The month of chaos has finally come to a close, and with it, another year slips into the history books. Many people will say 2025 was a dumpster fire of epic proportions. I won’t argue that it was easy—but I also won’t say it was entirely terrible. Violence continues in Gaza. The war between Ukraine and Russia grinds on. Mass shootings still scar communities. Fires, floods, and storms remind us daily of nature’s raw power. It’s unfortunate how this is our “normal.” But it wa

In the blink of an eye, Christmas is here. The past few weeks have been a blur—busy schedules, endless errands, and the familiar realization that I’m still shopping for gifts. This time of year always makes me think about where our traditions come from and how they change over time. When that curiosity mixes with my love of mythology, folklore, and the paranormal, it leads me to stories far older—and far darker—than the holiday season we know today. Long before Santa’s sleig

The final book club selection of the year was Mad Honey, co-written by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. The novel centers around Asher, an 18-year-old accused of murdering his girlfriend, Lily. The story unfolds through two perspectives: Asher’s mother, Olivia, in the present as she navigates the trial, and Lily’s voice in the weeks leading up to her death. This is not a clear-cut case. Asher is the one who discovers Lily’s dead body and is quickly identified as the

To the Editor: #1. 2026 will be another tough year for residents and businesses. It started last spring when valuation notices went out. If you had Commercial/Business property you probably saw a very large increase in your valuations. Or if you had land that was previously classified as AG Homestead and changed to Residential Homestead, the tax on your land doubled from .5 to 1.0. Or in the city of Sebeka, because of sales, your valuation increased 30% in one year. THERE MA

A few years ago, I wrote about my friend Stacey Kananen. She and her family lived in the Clarissa area, and we were classmates for a few years—from about second grade until around fifth or sixth grade. After Stacey and her family left without saying a word (her mom, Marilyn, had worked in the office at the Central Todd County Care Center), we kept in contact for a while, but eventually we lost touch. Another friend helped me reconnect with Stacey years later when Jerene (Pe

December 1-7 is Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week—an annual reminder of a daily reality millions of people quietly live with. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are often invisible. They don’t always come with symptoms the world can see, and because of that, many people underestimate how serious and unpredictable these conditions can be. I know this firsthand. I have Crohn’s disease, and while I’m fortunate to be in

I turned 60 on Sunday. For the most part it was just like every other day of the last year it just had a different name. What was different was the mindset that came with the event that wasn’t very eventful. I spent a lot of time thinking and pondering what, if anything, turning 60 meant. Was I supposed to have some big epiphany and suddenly see clarity? Was I supposed to evaluate my entire life and my decisions and come to some groundbreaking conclusion? Turns out, 60 is