I was at a recent author visit at the library, Peg Meier, who said, “Everybody has a story.” That is appropriate in that August marks my 20th anniversary of working at The New Prague Times and in that time I have covered many people’s stories. The vast number of stories have covered a wide range of areas, from their hobbies to beginning new jobs or retiring to how they are helping others to their grievances with others to how their family is dealing with disease or small miracles or tragedies.

New Prague had some visitors from the Czech Republic on Wednesday, Aug. 7. Four university students who are spending the summer working at Valleyfair were in town, hoping to find signs of the community’s Czech heritage and perhaps some Czech food. They stopped by The New Prague Times office, hoping for guidance.
Two of the students - Richard Sramek and Zaneta Paskerova, are from Ostara in the Czech Republic. The other two, Oleksandr Borofskyi and Valeriia Podolian, are from Ukraine, but are attending school in Prague.

This week’s issue of The New Prague Times features our Back to School Section.
The section includes messages from principals and administrators from area schools, talking about all the new and exciting things going on.

Years ago, a sheriff in rural Minnesota often lived and worked in the same building. He was in charge of the jail, and usually lived on-site with his family. His wife would be in charge of feeding prisoners and he was really on duty 24-7. The current Le Sueur County Sheriff’s Office, where Sheriff Brett Mason works, was once the home of his great-grandfather, Sheriff Pat Smith Sr., and was where his grandfather, Pat Smith Jr,. also a sheriff, grew up.

New Prague has a lot to offer, and next week’s Czech Out New Prague event will showcase just that.
The event, to be held from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1, at Memorial Park, will feature more than 50 different businesses and organizations. Area residents are welcome to come to this free event and see what goods and services are available from area businesses and what service organizations offer to the community.

With more than 20 Democrats vieing for the party’s presidential nomination, the 2020 presidential race is already getting plenty of press. While there are a few front-runners, there is no clear-cut favorite and it’s anyone’s guess who will, a year from now, be the party’s nominee.
Regardless, we’d like to offer a few suggestions for both parties in how to stage an honest - issues-based campaign where voters vote FOR a candidate, rather than vote AGAINST one.

Next week, Tuesday, July 16, marks the beginning of County Fair season in the area. The Rice County Fair begins its six-day run in Faribault. The Scott County Fair will be held a week later, starting Wednesday, July 24, for five days in Jordan, and the Le Sueur County Fair will be held three weeks after that, starting Thursday, Aug. 15, for four days in Le Center.
Some elements of the fairs have changed over the years, but for many, it’s a place to gather with neighbors and people from throughout the area, celebrate the rural way of life and find out what’s new.

Next Tuesday, July 16, there will be several celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins’ launch from the Kennedy Space Center and their successful journey to the moon, landing on it and traveling back to Earth.

The spring activities season at New Prague High School came to an end last week, and what an end it was.
On Thursday, June 20, the Trojan baseball team competed for the Minnesota State High School League Class AAAA championship - eventually losing to East Ridge 7-2. The team played in front of a large crowd that weathered a three-hour rain delay, pushing the scheduled 7 p.m. starting time back to 9:30, and the game ended about 11:30 p.m.

As has been reported in this paper and across the state over the past few months, the Minnesota Legislature passed a Hands-Free cellphone law that goes into effect on August 1, 2019. The new law allows a driver to use their cell phone to make calls, text, listen to music or podcasts and get directions, but only by voice commands or single-touch activation without holding the phone.

When did we come to the belief that history should be a pretty subject or a comfortable one? On the flip side of that question, when did we decide that it should be all dark or that one aspect of a person should define who they are throughout history? When you really dig deep into history it can be something of a conundrum. On one side it’s dirty and bloody, full of wars and revolutions. On the other, there are struggles and inspiring stories of people who worked hard for a cause even though they never saw the outcome.

Television news and daily papers have been talking about a series of car break-ins and burglaries that have been occurring late at night in communities around the Twin Cities. One report says that it appears to be an organized burglary ring, with as many as a dozen communities around the Twin Cities seeing a rise in such thefts.

“There’s nothing to do! I’m bored.” With school out for the summer, the nearly 4,000 students in New Prague Area Schools and parochial schools are looking for ways to fill their time.
After nine months of living a structured lifestyle - be in class at this time, eat lunch, go to recess, etc., the youngsters need to find ways to fill their time, and preferably, if you’re a parent, in a way that won’t drive mom and dad insane.

For many people around New Prague, they already know June is National Dairy Month. A time to bring awareness about dairy farmers and celebrate the vast assortment of foods that come from dairy, such as milk, cheese, ice cream, butter, custard, cottage cheese, cream cheese, yogurt and many others.

The Minnesota Legislature finished its business for 2019 last week, with a special session that wrapped up Saturday morning, with all of the necessary budget bills passed and expected to be signed by Gov. Tim Walz.
As noted on this page last week, while a special session was needed to complete the work, it was still done in a timely manner, without much of the vitriol and grandstanding that we had become used to over the last six years.

On Monday, we will observe Memorial Day, a national holiday that honors those who died while serving in the US Armed Forces.