Karen Tolkkinen

Minnesota

Reporter at Echo Press

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Articles

On a three-day northern Minnesota tour, the grit and glory of our state became clear

6 days ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

By Karen Tolkkinen A trip through western and northern Minnesota revealed points of pride and dire need. The Minnesota Star Tribune District Fundraising Coordinator Willie Spelts leads a tour of Rock Ridge High School, now in its second year of classes. The school was built by the Eveleth, Gilbert and Virginia communities that set aside bitter rivalries to build something good for their children.
Brainerd City Council should spend a night, or 30, sleeping outdoors

1 week ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

BRAINERD, MINN. - You might know Brainerd as Minnesota's Playground, the place to go to boat or waterski or pose with Paul Bunyan. The people I hung out with on Thursday, May 1, see a different side of Brainerd. They are the people the city doesn't want. The people who have faced drug addiction or mental illness or rap sheets. The people with no place to call home.
I'm not driving 70 miles round trip for one paintbrush

1 week ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

CLITHERALL, Minn. - Last weekend I started painting a closet we're turning into a bathroom so that we, too, can be a two-holer family. I primed the walls and ceiling, then turned to the window trim and baseboards. Whoops! It required a different primer, and we were out of paintbrushes. No problem, right? Just run to the store and get more.
Rural Minnesota Trump supporters stand by their guy

2 weeks ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

PARKERS PRAIRIE, MINN. - It was a beautiful Friday evening, and at the Parkers Last Stop bar, the open doors let in the sunshine. Not far away, the high school varsity baseball team, the Panthers, was busy shutting out the visiting team from Pillager. Rachel Rustand, a retired chef, was at the Last Stop visiting with old friends, drifting out to smoke and back in to drink. They were all supporters of President Trump and they were all very happy with his first 100 days in office.
As the Republican Party looks to trim Medicaid, rural Minnesotans tally the cost

2 weeks ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

MOORHEAD, MINN. - In a northwestern Minnesota conference room, a small group of about 40 Minnesotans was contemplating how Republican cuts to Medicaid would affect them, their friends, and society as a whole. At our table, three of the Minnesotans were immigrants. One was a county worker who helps low-income people obtain health insurance.
KAREN TOLKKINEN COLUNM: Creating community, one bowl of soup at a time

3 weeks ago | timesdaily.com | Karen Tolkkinen

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — When Rita Nau moved to Fergus Falls during the pandemic, she didn’t know a soul. kAmxE 42? 36 92C5 E@ >2<6 7C:6?5D :? p>6C:42[ 2?5 8C62E6C |:??6D@E2 :D ?@ 6I46AE:@?] qFE }2F 92D 7@F?5 H2JD] x? y2?F2CJ[ E96 7@C>6C C6DE2FC2E6FC 3682? 32<:?8 3C625 2?5 >2<:?8 D@FA 7@C ?6:893@CD[ 7C:6?5D 2?5 7C:6?5D @7 7C:6?5D — C62==J[ 2?J3@5J H9@ H2?E65 E@ DH:?8 3J 96C 9@>6 @? 2 (65?6D52J 6G6?:?8]k^AmkAm“x 766= =:<6 H6’C6 8@:?8 :?E@ 2 G6CJ 5:77:4F=E E:>6 :?
Brainerd City Council tells homeless to sleep outside this summer

4 weeks ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

BRAINERD, Minn. - George Burdette is a poet and father who served eight years in the Army Reserve. He also struggles with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues that have cost him dearly, including a steady roof over his head. He is a veteran of nights on Brainerd's streets, its parks, its wooded trails and riverside encampments. One recent Sunday during a snowstorm, he holed up near a church, wrapped in blankets, waiting for the homeless shelter to open for the evening.
Still miffed at rural areas for voting for Trump? Don't be.

1 month ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

CLITHERALL, MINN. - Remember when you were a kid and some classmates were being noisy so the whole class got yelled at? That's kinda how it feels in rural Minnesota right now.
Rural Minnesota showed up for Hands Off protests on Saturday. What does it mean?

1 month ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

ALEXANDRIA, Minn. - They had the numbers. Nearly half a mile of protesters lined one of Alexandria's busiest streets, carrying signs supporting parks and forests, Social Security and veterans, the Constitution and democracy and Medicaid and Ukraine and trans rights. They were from Alexandria and Forada, Fergus Falls and Wadena and Morris and at least one all the way from Browns Valley next to South Dakota. Some had carpooled. Some met up with people they only knew from social media.
Rural Minnesota teen paralyzed in hockey game finds reason for hope

1 month ago | startribune.com | Karen Tolkkinen

In late January, Erica Drum of rural west-central Minnesota got almost the worst news a parent can receive. Her son, Jackson, had been badly injured in a hockey game in Canada. A slam into the boards had broken the 17-year-old's neck and left him paralyzed. Doctors told them that the fractures in his C-1 and C-2 vertebrae were complete, meaning that he was a quadriplegic and that he might not ever breathe on his own again.