Karen Tolkkinen

Columnist

Greater Minnesota

Karen 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.

Karen 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.

Contact

Karen.Tolkkinen@startribune.com

612 673 4007

Latest from Karen Tolkkinen

Greater Minnesota

Tolkkinen: Slow down, Pete Stauber. There’s only one Boundary Waters.

Allowing mining near the cherished wilderness won’t help any future bid for statewide office.

February 21, 2025

News & Politics

Tolkkinen: 65 years ago, city girl met farm boy

When Judy and Bob Schindler married, they blended city and rural sensibilities forged in economic hardship, war, and the optimism of the 1950s.

February 15, 2025

Greater Minnesota

Tolkkinen: Saying goodbye to the last of our cattle

Living on a farm means you eat what you raise. Everybody knows that, but it doesn't make it easy to send livestock off to the meat locker. The steer was the last one to go.

February 11, 2025

News & Politics

Tolkkinen: Lawmakers need to look again at paid time off laws

Minnesota schools say they’re burdensome, expensive, and add to their administrative costs.

February 8, 2025