Opinion

Wisconsin workers and families cannot sustain themselves on $7.25 per hour, which has remained unchanged since 2009. Even surrounding states, such as Illinois and Minnesota, have raised their minimum wages. At $7.25/hour, a Wisconsin worker brings home $15,080 per year, which is below 100% of the federal poverty level.

Mr. G from LaValle took offense at my FACTUAL description of the person I referred to as “F.A.” “Slim Jim” should be acceptable. 

Thanks to the Trump administration, according to Fortune Magazine, during 2025, 92 more billionaires were created in the USA and the country’s richest individuals added 2.2 TRILLION dollars to their accumulated wealth. How are you doing?

Art Naebig

La Valle

As I write to you, I am sitting by the sea, watching dolphins have breakfast. In front of me, the ocean stretches forever to infinite horizons.  The pelican family is putting on a show of diving and splashing, gobbling and then effortlessly taking flight again.

The River Valley Area Community Gardens Inc. has successfully completed its 10 th growing season.

We will become enslaved, but instead of the chains being on our hands because we have to work FOR them, they will be on our tongues and minds. Paraphrased from the 1943 movie "Keeper of the Flame' Some say it can be interpreted as a warning against facism in our country.

I believe the Independent Star News does a fine job of following its guidelines while not stifling free speech. I enjoy the balance of letters from Bruno and Gorak.

If a person is obviously overweight, he is going to get some blowback from calling people “Piggy.”

Some people might even say, “Look in the mirror.”

When President Trump labeled Somali immigrants “garbage,” he weaponized presidential power to diminish an entire community. As novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warned in her TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story,” power lies not only in the ability to tell another person’s story, but to make it the definitive story of that person.

Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, were said repeatedly this holiday season. Wishing all the best is a long American tradition. Under the greetings should be a realization that all people deserve a fulfilling life.

I spent the weekend before Christmas evicting my mother's old suitors from the basement. Emily was visiting and working her organizational magic on the hundreds of boxes of treasures that have washed up in our basement over the decades.