Opinion

In a field of milkweed, Rob Perez sits with Mary the Monarch Butterfly. Rob Perez: Mary, thank you for taking the time.

Cookie salad has become my go-to dish to bring to potlucks or picnics – it seems to be a crowd pleaser, gives me a chance to eat my favorite dessert and the opportunity to share a story about a fiasco I had at a chain restaurant’s salad bar! I was thinking about how what I have to share this week will be a bit like a salad bar, a variety of services and programs and hopefully something that looks good to everyone.

It’s been a busy week. Aren’t they all? And I’m still reliving all the fun I had at the reunion. On my way home, I spied a turtle in the middle of the highway. I didn’t want it to get run over, so I stopped. There was a big field sprayer coming from the other way, so I watched as he made sure he didn’t hit it. Thanks to whoever you are. Then I got out of the car and ran and picked it up and pitched it across the road into the water. I hope that was the direction he wanted to go. Better the wrong side than smushed.

Last week, you may have noticed a QR code appearing in the newspaper. This has been an idea I’ve been working on for a little while, to provide an even more immersive experience to some of the news we share.

I don’t remember specifically that March went out like a ‘lamb’, but certainly, the approach to the official beginning of summer has barged in like a fire-breathing dragon. Our recent hot spells may be a grim reminder of what to expect in the next few months.

Coffee by my side, I sit on the dock, overlooking North Arm Bay of Lake Minnetonka. It is 6:02 a.m. Everyone who writes about these sorts of times describes it as quiet and peaceful. They deliberately ignore the Hitchcockian quantities of birds hellbent on their morning song. It’s loud out here. A family of geese paddle somewhere slowly, honking. A loon calls someone, maybe his mother. I face east which means the sunrise is directly in front of me, just above the horizon. Sunrises are a bit like the Minnesota Vikings, best enjoyed with a gaze that I’ll call indirect. I do not wish to be the guy wearing sunglasses at six a.m., but I suppose we all have a cross to bear.

Summer is a time for kids to kick back, take a break from routine, and enjoy lazy days. It also, in many cases, is when learning loss-aka “The Summer Slide” can take place. Summer setbacks are nothing new regarding academics and the phenomenon has been researched by educators since the beginning of time. On average, student achievement can decline over the summer by up to a third of a prior year’s learning gains. Loss is usually greater in mathematics than in reading, and higher grade leveled students are more noticeably affected than younger learners. The summer slide can be measured in both social skills and classroom discipline, in addition to academics.

The time has come for my Grandma’s last shipment of cookies to land somewhere overseas. For the entirety of my son’s deployment, my Grandmother has been on a mission. It started with her sending a batch of cookies to him, as she had been sending to him since his arrival at Fort Drum. Upon receiving his first shipment of “Grandma Cookies” overseas, he promptly distributed cookies to as many soldiers as he could, wanting to spread the grandmotherly love to boost morale.

Can you believe that fraud, errors, and abuse cost Medicare more than $60 billion last year? Medicare fraud is one of the most rampant forms of fraud in the US. There are a variety of ways it is committed and ultimately all taxpayers end up paying for the dishonesty of others. The Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) began in 1997 and this year, for their 25th anniversary, they named June 5th as the start of National Medicare Fraud Prevention Week. The following suggestions come from their web site at smpresource.org.