Christmas store hours begin Friday
Holiday Christmas shopping hours in Luverne will begin this Friday.
Beginning Dec. 13, Luverne Chamber retailers will begin staying open until 8 p.m. for the final two weeks before Christmas.
Stores will close on Saturday at regular hours and will close at 4 p.m. on both Dec. 24 and Dec. 31.
If you need a little financial help when your purchases don’t forget the 0% Christmas Loan program the Luverne chamber is sponsoring.
You can borrow between $300 and $1,000 at any of the three Luverne banks and have up to six months to pay it off at 0% interest.
Christmas at the Palace this Friday
Don’t forget to attend"Christmas at the Palace" this Friday.
The Luverne Chamber of Commerce event will serve as a fund-raiser for the Blue Mound Area Theatre Group, which owns the Palace Theatre.
Participants this year will include groups from: American Reformed Church, Grace Lutheran Church, New Life Church, First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, and St. Catherine Catholic Church.
Besides the local church choirs, other local talent will include Joe Dorhout, Carol Zwaan, Luverne High School Brass Choir, Wendy and Heidi Sandbulte and Amy Donth, Jack Leslie, Sue Sandbulte and the Green Earth Players. Dave Knips is also scheduled to perform on the Palace’s pipe organ.
All proceeds from the event will help restore the Palace Theatre.
The event will start at 7:30 p.m., with tickets selling for $5 or $3 with a food shelf donation.
Students 12 and younger can get in for $2. All tickets will be sold at the door the night of the event.
SHARE needs your help
Friday and Saturday are your last chances to make a donation to this year’s SHARE program.
Organizers will collect donations at the Armory from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13., and again from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14,.
Donations may also be mailed to SHARE, P.O. Box 792, Luverne, MN 56156.
SHARE was started nearly 20 years ago to help collect and distribute Christmas gifts and food to people in Rock County who might not have much of a Christmas without them.
In 2001, SHARE provided 121 families with groceries, clothing, and toys for 175 children and 176 adults.
Contact Lona Klosterbuer, Cheryl Cox or Mary Tilstra for more information.
Minnesota on list for narrow gaps in income
Minnesota is on the short list for a state that has the closest gaps in low and high income.
Minnesota was fourth from the narrowest gap, with the bottom fifth average income at $20,245, and the top fifth average income at $154,972.
States with a narrow gap included South Dakota at 7.2 top to bottom ratio, with Utah and Indiana both at 7.0
On the other end of the spectrum, New York had the biggest income gaps.
The average income for the top fifth for New York State was $161,858, while the bottom fifth averaged $12, 639.
That puts Minnesota’s top to bottom ratio at 7.7 and New York’s at 12.8.
Other states with high top to bottom ratios included Louisiana at 11.6, Texas at 11.0, and California at 11.0
Want to send our servicemen an e-mail?
If you are so inclined, visit the U.S. Department of Defense Web page below and sign a brief message thanking the men and women of the U.S. military service for defending our freedom. The compiled list of names will be sent out to our soldiers at the end of the month. So far, there are about 1,300,000 names.
http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html.
It only takes 10 seconds!
The National Debt and your share
As of Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2002, the National Debt clock was at $6,353,118,888,337.31
The estimated population of the United States is 289,089,191. So, each citizen's share of this debt is $21,976.33.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.25 billion per day since September 28, 2001!
Publisher Roger Tollefson can be contacted by e-mail at tolly@star-herald.com