HowieHanson.com Section
In public education, trust is built through repetition — of performance, transparency and follow-through. Wayne Whitwam’s style reflects that understanding. He has avoided the temptation to overpromise, resisted reactionary pivots, and kept the district’s focus on instruction, people and systems.
Home ice is there for the taking. The Bulldogs will either take points from Denver, survive North Dakota, and handle their business against Miami and Colorado College — or they’ll finish fifth, look back at a missed weekend or two, and tell themselves they were close.
The loudest voices warning that artificial intelligence will “destroy journalism” are almost never talking about journalism. They’re talking about control. Newsrooms are entering
Minnesota’s strength, historically, has been its preference for problem-solving over posturing. That tradition is being tested now. This is not the moment for reflexive outrage or performative reassurance. It is the moment for clarity.
Minnesota does not need more outrage. It needs clearer accounting. It needs fewer slogans and more follow-through. It needs to revisit old assumptions with open eyes and accept that a reputation earned decades ago does not guarantee results today.
Ten search warrants were executed. Twenty-four people were arrested. Cash, drugs and guns were taken off the streets: $28,609 in currency, more than 330 grams of methamphetamine, nearly 140 grams of fentanyl, close to 80 grams of cocaine, and an illegal firearm.
Walz connected emotionally with parts of the Democratic base in a way Klobuchar never has. Progressive activists tolerated him because he felt authentic, grounded, unpretentious. Klobuchar does not inspire that same patience. Her politics are transactional, not aspirational.
In an era when public trust in institutions is fragile, Hermantown Schools has earned its credibility the old-fashioned way: by respecting taxpayers, confronting reality, and governing with integrity.
This is a bet that Hughes ages cleanly, that his body cooperates, that the cap continues to rise, and that the surrounding cast can be managed without suffocation. It’s a bet that Minnesota can finally pull off the superstar contract that doesn’t end in regret.
Twelve games per team. A defined start in April. A defined finish in July. Balanced home-and-away slates. Built-in byes. Repeat matchups that suggest geography matters again. It reads less like a marketing flyer and more like an operating plan.
Duluth’s most significant population story of the last 60 years is not growth — it is survival. That alone deserves credit. But it does not justify the current narrative.
The City of Duluth now spends roughly $1 of every $7 in the general fund on debt service. That’s money that can’t pave streets, fund libraries, or expand housing programs. And yet the answer to each new challenge is the same: another bond.
Awal was among the councilors who supported restoring annual funding for Duluth’s mental-health crisis response team after Mayor Roger Reinert proposed eliminating the city’s share of the program’s budget.
Reinert enters 2026 with two failed endorsements hanging around his neck, a lost council majority, a newly emboldened progressive bloc, a budget minefield, and a downtown recovery that needs more than slogans and cheerleading.
The question in 2026 isn’t just “Do you like Tim Walz?” It’s “Can he still make this particular map work one more time?” Right now, the answer is probably yes. But for the first time in his governorship, that “probably” comes with a real map of places where he can lose this thing.
Hermantown is playing a schedule that looks like it handed the AD a crayon and told him to circle every team that makes teenagers cry.
