Articles

Weese appointed to library board

Despite opposition from some residents, the North Hudson Village Board voted to appoint Curt Weese to the Hudson Library Board of Trustees.

DAY BY DAY: The time has come to talk openly about suicide

Opinion
At the Star-Observer, we generally don’t use the word suicide unless the person dies in a very public place, is a person in the public eye or if the circumstances surrounding the suicide endanger the public. But maybe that should change.

Jury doesn’t buy Schaffhausen insanity defense

The jurors said that while they believed Schaffhausen, 35, suffers from mental illness, he knew what he was doing when he murdered his daughters by cutting their throats in their River Falls home in July 2012.

• Jessica Schaffhausen

Meyer tangles with North Hudson police again

North Hudson police came upon a familiar face recently when they stopped a driver for speeding in the 500 block of Sixth St. N.

Prescription painkillers can lead to addiction

Heroin is becoming a primary drug of choice in the Hudson area based on the clients they are seeing at Programs for Change, the drug treatment program for Hudson Hospital and Clinic.

• Heroin in Hudson: not just in big cities anymore

Heroin in Hudson: not just in big cities anymore

When baby boomers think about heroin and who uses it, it is unlikely that young adults in Hudson come to mind. But that’s exactly who is using the drug these days according to Hudson police.

• HPD Chief Marty Jensen, left, and Det. Sgt. Geoff Willems
• Prescription painkillers can lead to addiction

Hudson businesses support Turningpoint

Turningpoint, the domestic abuse shelter that serves St. Croix and Pierce counties, may be physically located in River Falls but support for the work they do extends much farther.

• Hudson Insurance Co. and First National Community Bank show support for Turningpoint
• Junior Girl Scout Troop 53205 of Hudson
• St. Patrick’s Faith Formation students with “Everything but the Kitchen Sink” kits

Love resigns as HHS principal

After three years leading HHS, Principal Laura Love has resigned to take a position with the Middleton-Cross Plains School District. She says an imbalance of negative public criticism played a part in her decision to leave Hudson.

• HHS Principal Laura Love

HHS play ‘Rumors’ promises to be fun-filled farce

If the weather and the slow arrival of spring has dampened spirits this year, the Hudson High School play just may be an antidote. “Rumors,” by award-winning playwright Neil Simon, gives a talented cast of 10 plenty to work with.

• Rehearsal scene from HHS production of Neil Simon's "Rumors"

DAY BY DAY: Age, wisdom and a whole host of other myths wasting on the young

Opinion
What a difference a year can make. When I turned 60 last April, it was hard on me. I usually don’t mind birthdays but that one made me think about what it would be like to be young -- well at least younger.

Columns

Day By Day: Wall Street protest isn’t something to fear

What’s that old phrase – “paranoia runs deep in the heartland?” It appears to be running in the pages of this newspaper as well -- at least in this space.

Day by Day: If you have your health, you must not be over 50 yet

I know it is only the end of September but I won’t be sad to see the end of 2011. What was it Queen Elizabeth called it when Charles and Diana very publically spiraled into a couple off Jerry Springer -- her “annus horribilis.”

Day By Day: Come Tuesday, only the insiders will count

You’ve read some interesting things in this space over the summer. By some accounts our district has been invaded by everything from illegal migrant workers to union organizers to out-of-state liberals and conservatives of the most rabid kind.

Day By Day: If I were graduating from high school this year…

First off, I don’t think I’d want to be 18 again. The first time around wasn’t that great. I was just out of all-girls boarding school and didn’t know if I wanted to be Barbara Walters or a nun.

Day By Day: Geriatric pregnancy - What man thought that up?

In a world awash with weird labels, I have found a new favorite —“geriatric pregnancy.” A young friend, better than 20 years my junior, recently told me about a tour she took of a prominent hospital where they were escorted through the geriatric pregnancy department.

Day By Day: You meet the best people in the basement

As I write this my seven weeks of radiation treatment for breast cancer is coming to an end and I am glad. It isn’t over by any means.

Day By Day: This year Christmas goes on a diet

With my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, firmly implanted on my hips and elsewhere, it is time to move on to the happy and hectic end of the year festivities and already I have fallen short.

Day By Day: With the fall comes what else — thoughts of food and flies

For some people around here the end of summer is signaled by Pepper Fest. For others it is the state fair over there, and for the half-empty crowd, everything just speeds by to the start of school following Booster Days. I think it starts when the first tomatoes show up at the farmers’ market and flies come inside.

Day By Day: Not all pain is the same, but a pain just the same

I am in pain as I write this so I can’t be held entirely responsible for what follows. I threw my back out on Sunday and if I could have thrown the rest of my body after it I would have.

Day by Day: Thanks to those who made it happen—our new Lakefront Library

The opening of the new Hudson library just goes to show ya’ — just when you think nothing ever happens in this town — something does, something really good.