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

Columns

Tolkkinen: By going after Canada, Trump shows he doesn’t understand friendship

Or maybe he’s jealous that Trudeau is better looking.

March 7, 2025

Greater Minnesota

Tolkkinen: Democrat Keith Ellison visits Trump country

Republican reticence to hold town hall meetings in rural Minnesota has prevented most rural Minnesotans from meeting statewide or congressional elected officials face to face. Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison bucked this trend by visiting with farmers in rural, conservative Stevens County.

March 6, 2025

News & Politics

Tolkkinen: My column on transgender athletes drew insults, outrage and applause

Some readers were scared to go public.

March 1, 2025

St. Cloud

Tolkkinen: Surrounded by crops in Minnesota farm country, but with little to eat

Very little of what is grown in farm country stays there. And when it returns in packages of ground beef or cartons of milk, it is increasingly unaffordable.

February 26, 2025