Thumbs up to Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell for being named the NFL Coach of the Year.
O’Connell took a team with an uneven playing quarterback that was expected to finish last in the NFC North. But the team lost the championship of the division and the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs on the last game of the regular season with a 14-3 record.
While the Vikings were knocked out of the playoffs in their first game, the season was one of the best ever with a record 14 wins. In O’Connell’s three seasons with the Vikings, he had two with 13 wins or more.
He worked with Sam Darnold, a quarterback who had promise as a high draft pick but never found success with several NFL teams he played for. O’Connell coached Darnold superbly to play for wins and had a game plan that fit the quarterback’s strengths.
It’s a well-deserved honor for O’Connell, and Vikings ownership should be confident they have a winning coach for the long term.
Big expansion
Thumbs up to a plan to invest $35 million in a generator manufacturing company’s Mankato facilities.
The project by Rolls-Royce Solutions America (formerly MTU and Katolight) will bring an estimated 128 new, well-paying jobs.
Rolls-Royce, a descendent of the luxury car manufacturer headquartered in England, now has 419 Mankato employees at its 107,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on Power Drive and is planning to expand that plant by 280,000 square feet. They will also invest in their leased facility on Lundin Drive.
It’s a great project that deserves support. It will bring many higher-paying technology jobs to Mankato, which will help boost the entire region.
The expansion is another sign of a strong local economy and a top-notch, dedicated workforce.
Cutting USAID bad for farmers
Thumbs down to the Trump administration and un-elected power grabber Elon Musk for dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development in one fell swoop and imposing a forced leave on employees.
The group coordinates mostly food aid to war-torn countries and those suffering great poverty and ruin from natural disasters. The program has long had bipartisan support in Congress through decades of its existence.
It’s purpose is not only to feed the world’s hungry but also to make inroads in international relations for the U.S. and build good will.
Musk, without the consent of Congress, stopped payments of the agency and locked out employees. The Trump administration announced its intention to end the program and possibly transfer it to the state department.
But U.S. farmers will be hurt as well. They received some $450 million to provide food to 36 million people around the world. The shutdown also was cutting off fuel to run water pumps that are aiding 1.2 million people in Sudan.
If the administration wants to reform the program, cutting off all aid and cutting almost all employees seems like a bad way of doing it.
End of stalemate
Thumbs up to Republicans and Democrats in the Minnesota House for eventually coming to an agreement on how to work with each other going forward.
A contested election, a court ruling disqualifying a Democrat and a Republican loss at the Minnesota Supreme Court over the definition of a quorum left the body in shambles. It was a circus that went on for too long and the people of Minnesota deserved better.
But cooler and more reasonable heads eventually prevailed and the two parties came to a power-sharing agreement as the House is likely to be evenly split.
once a special election is held in March where the Democrat is predicted to win.