Next Palace movie has added significance, due to Challenger tragedy
"October Sky", will be showing this weekend at the Palace Theatre.
The movie is a true story about Homer Hickam, a coal miner’s son, who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father’s wishes.
Homer and three friends are determined to build their own rocket and help get America back in the "space race."
After the first couple of rockets cause some damage, they move their experimenting into the woods, so their parents won’t know about it.
With the help of a machinist from a local mine to build a rocket casing and some moonshine from some local stills, they continue in their efforts.
Hickam, who wrote the book that the movie was based on, later went on to work on the Shuttle program at NASA.
A movie review from Roger Ebert gave the movie a 3.5 star rating, out of four and the IMDb.com rated it 7.8 out of 10.
How will Minnesota’s budget crisis affect rural Minnesota
That is a good question, and I’m not sure anyone knows the answer yet.
However, a nonpartisan coalition of citizens, consisting of private and public sector leaders, employers and employees, community and faith-based organizations, are going to get together to talk about their budget concerns.
The group is called "Take Back Minnesota," and according to their mission statement, their goal is to "increase public awareness of the effects of the budget balancing proposals on our local rural communities by presenting clear and concise facts."
To accomplish that goal the group will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4. in the Luverne High School Little Theatre.
Representatives from local schools and government agencies will be on hand to present information and answer questions.
Should seniors get
tax credits for drugs?
Senator Dayton thinks so. Dayton recently introduced legislation that would provide federal tax credits to senior citizens for their prescription drug cost.
According to Dayton’s office the new legislation, "Rx Relief for Seniors Act," would provide a credit on federal income taxes for 100 percent of unreimbursed prescription drug costs for senior citizens with no taxable income
A married couple with $50,000 in taxable income would get a tax credit equal to 50 percent on their unreimbursed drug costs.
A married couple with $20,000 in taxable income would receive a tax credit equal to 60 percent of unreimbursed drug costs.
For all seniors, regardless of income, all unreimbursed drug costs which exceed 10 percent of taxable incomes would be fully covered by the federal government.
Prudence at the Palace was a success
Approximately 150 people showed up on a very cold Sunday afternoon, to see Prudence Johnson perform at the Palace Theatre.
According to Ben Vander Kooi, the turnout will encourage the group to continue to look for other forms of talent to use the Palace stage.
Johnson is currently a solo jazz artist who was formerly with the jazz group "Women that Cook."
Publisher Roger Tollefson can be reached by e-mail at tolly@star-herald.com
