Karen Tolkkinen
Columnist
Greater MinnesotaKaren Tolkkinen is the Minnesota Star Tribune's greater Minnesota columnist. She has more than three decades of experience in local journalism, most recently serving as a reporter, copy editor, and columnist at the Echo Press in Alexandria, Minn. She lives with her husband and son in Otter Tail County, in a farmhouse built by her husband's great-great grandparents in the early 1920s.
Latest from Karen Tolkkinen
Tolkkinen: Bemidji will go on, but dang we’ll miss all those trees
The city and Beltrami County have declared a state of emergency while they recover from hurricane-force winds.
June 24, 2025
Tolkkinen: Rochester bishop joins Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission
Bishop Robert Barron is a well-known advocate for the role of religion in public life.
June 21, 2025
Tolkkinen: Requiem for Minnesota innocence
The violence against our political leaders is a blow to our Minnesota myths.
June 17, 2025
Tolkkinen: Farm dogs are so cute, except for all their disgusting habits
Ours makes me wonder if I truly belong in the country.
June 2, 2025
Tolkkinen: Deep in Minnesota’s Trump country, an artist paints portraits of refugees and immigrants
Vicki Beckendorf says “my head is urban but my heart is rural.”
May 31, 2025
Tolkkinen: From Hmong radio to cannabis, southern Minnesota is adapting to the times
We all make Minnesota into what it is, and what it will be.
May 28, 2025
Tolkkinen: I paid to attend a Constitution conference. But it was an ad for Christian nationalism.
The event, which was supposed to be about the Constitution, barely mentioned our founding document.
May 25, 2025
Tolkkinen: Fergus Falls priest who studied with Pope Leo says he has good hearing ‘to hear everyone’
They each preach compassion for immigrants.
May 21, 2025
Tolkkinen: Deep in Minnesota’s Trump country, an artist paints portraits of refugees and immigrants
Vicki Beckendorf says “my head is urban but my heart is rural.”
May 31, 2025
Tolkkinen: From Hmong radio to cannabis, southern Minnesota is adapting to the times
We all make Minnesota into what it is, and what it will be.
May 28, 2025
Tolkkinen: I paid to attend a Constitution conference. But it was an ad for Christian nationalism.
The event, which was supposed to be about the Constitution, barely mentioned our founding document.
May 25, 2025
Tolkkinen: Fergus Falls priest who studied with Pope Leo says he has good hearing ‘to hear everyone’
They each preach compassion for immigrants.
May 21, 2025