Thumbs up to fall festivals
Thumbs up to the Covenant Church and other groups who hosted fall festivals for kids on Friday night. The Covenant Church was wonderfully decorated, they had many different carnival games and sold pizza and hot dogs cheap. It was a fun and safe environment for the kids to play in and just have a great time. Thumbs up to those who donated their time to make it all happen.

Thumbs down to no local service
Thumbs down to utility companies like Minnesota Power who don't have local repair personnel in International Falls for outages. During a weekend localized electrical outage, technicians had to travel from Chisholm to restore power. What happens in the winter when road conditions are bad? What if a larger outage happened in an entire neighborhood? Would service, including heat, be out for many hours because there is no one in town to fix the problem?

Thumbs up to McCain
Thumbs up to Sen. John McCain who called President-elect Barack Obama his president and offered to help lead the country into the future. McCain showed great wisdom and grace when he called for unity as the nation moves forward.

Thumbs up to Israel trade mission
Thumbs up to Gov. Tim Pawlenty for announcing that he will lead a trade mission to Israel in December to help Minnesota-based companies increase exports to the country. This mission can only help the area wood, paper and other industries to build strategic relationships and explore new business opportunities with a region of the world that lacks the abundant resources of borderland.

Thumbs down to shunning parties
The excitement of high voter turnout and the election of a dynamic, charismatic leader is now overwhelming people that are eager to look forward. This is to offer a thumbs down to the manipulation of the two party process and the exclusion of the third party candidates that sought to force the major parties to embrace platform issues in an open election. The fear of losing an election sacrificed core values for winning centrist strategies. The low vote result is in part to blame for the lack of exposure with the major campaigns and media.

Thumbs up to Koochiching County
Thumbs up to the Koochiching County Board for bringing in a biologist to study the water quality of Rainy Lake. The study sought to show whether the county’s sewer project made a difference in the water quality.

Thumbs down to technology
Thumbs down to CNN having a correspondent report via hologram. It resembled a scene from Star Trek more than a newsroom with the reporter having a glowing outline around her — we wouldn’t have been surprised to hear the words “Beam me up, Scotty!” rather than the news from her. Just because the technology exists doesn’t mean it needs to be used.

Thumbs up to analyst
Thumbs up to political analyst David Gergen for consistently expressing both fair and bipartisan observations in the political world. Gergen is commentator, editor, professor, public servant and author; and has served in the White House as adviser to four Presidents — Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. His demeanor is both respectful and non-threatening, which is rare in politics, and he has proven that his subtle but keen perceptions are often on target. Gergen has been an active participant in American national life for several decades.

Thumbs up to L-BF voters
Thumbs up to those Littlefork-Big Falls voters who, even though the verbiage was complicated, made a decision which allows the L-BF district to locally use monies made from a one-day bond refinancing for improvements at the school.