HOUSTON, Minnesota – The impacts of the Root River Trail System on the communities along it resemble the paved path itself: turns that veer one way, then another.

“It hasn’t been the economic savior people were dreaming about,” said Dick Nethercut, a lawyer based in Harmony who negotiated with area farmers during the 1980s to acquire land for the trail. “Expectations are always too high for something like that.”

And some say the 60-mile bike path’s effects on business in southeastern Minnesota have surprised the trail’s proponents and opponents alike.

Perhaps it’s failed to transform every river hamlet into another Lanesboro, drawing flocks of tourists to their streets. And agriculture remains the core enterprise in these parts. But attractions like the Houston Nature Center, new B&Bs and a Whalan pie shop lure out-of-town trail users. A 2010 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report termed the trail "one of the key attractors of tourists to the area" and also concluded that local folks’ use of the path “grew over time.” 

During the summer of 2009, the path generated about $2.3 million from those who used it, the DNR report said. While overall use of the trail since the mid-1990s has declined 38 percent — to about 112,000 user hours in 2009 from roughly 179,000 in 1997, according to the report – homegrown residents such as Nethercutt’s newest legal colleague, Greg Schieber, are riding it more often.

“I just moved to Canton, about 5 miles from the trailhead,” said Schieber, 28, who grew up in Caledonia, about a half-hour east of Harmony. “I plan to ride the trail twice a week after work.”

Schieber is exactly the type of person Preston farmer John Snyder, 61, described as being critical to solidifying the his region’s economy.

“What makes communities work are the people who live here,” said Snyder, who won a court battle earlier this year against the city of Preston, which tried to seize about two and half acres of his land to expand the River Root Trail System. “You got to put people to work and create jobs. Those are the people who are going to spend money here.”

Snyder emphasized that he has “got nothing against bike trails.” Tourist dollars are beneficial, he said. “Anytime you can bring money in, it’s good,” said Snyder, who raises beef cows and grows corn, hay and soybeans on 200 acres of land that’s been in his family for more than 60 years. “I just don’t think you should put all your eggs in one basket.”

Nethercut agreed. Any economy overly reliant on tourism is inherently fragile, he pointed out. Bad weather, for example, may prevent cyclists from touring the trail. Without their dollars filling shop owners’ tills, small towns can be on the edge, he said.

Plan first floated in early ‘80s

The idea of running a recreational trail through arable land outraged farmers when state officials floated the proposal during the early 1980s, said Craig Blommer, a Parks and Trails Area supervisor for the DNR. Residents and officials of towns from Lanesboro to Rushford weren’t enthusiastic either, Blommer said.

“Landowners felt they should get the land, and most of the towns along the corridor didn’t want anything to do with a public trail coming into town,” Blommer said. “Many thought it was just a poor use of state dollars. There were dire predictions of increased crime, litter and limited use.”

Nevertheless, the state bought 49 miles of an abandoned rail bed in 1981 for $975,000. The 14 miles closest to Austin became protected under a state program that preserves rare resources. The other 35 miles became the Root River Trail.

Development began in 1985. Workers completed the project in 1988. It cost $2 million in state bonds, Blommer said.

Extensions to Harmony and Houston

In the 1990s, state officials extended the trail for $6 million in bonding money. By 2000, the trail reached Harmony to the south, Preston and Fountain to the west and Houston to the east.

People’s earlier concerns about the trail “never came about,” Blommer said.

MinnPost photo by Mike Cronin

Houston City Councilman Matt Schutte judges the soapbox derby competition several blocks south of the Root River Trail.

Former state Sen. Duane Benson, a Republican farmer from Lanesboro, had disagreed with the trail plans so strongly that he campaigned against them while running for office.

“No one had experience with a bicycle trail back then,” said Benson, who served in the Senate from 1981 to 1994. “It was really the abyss of the unknown. We thought we were inviting people to come right down to the middle of our property.”

Today, he understands those fears were unfounded.

MinnPost photo by Mike Cronin

Elizabeth Vaught prepares to bike back to

Fountain from the Root River Trailhead in

Houston.

Once they bike the trail, many of the path’s visitors say they’ll be back.

Elizabeth Vaught, 35, a Burnsville elementary school principal from Minneapolis, said she plans to return after cycling almost 100 miles on the route last weekend.

“It’s really well maintained, with clear mile markers to let you know where you are,” Vaught said, perched atop her bicycle outside the Houston Nature Center. “And there are tons of businesses along the trail that cater to bikers – outfitters, ice cream shops, pie shops.”

One pie place in particular has become a kind of state treasure: Maggie Gergen’s Aroma Pie Shop, which she bought 10 years ago. The confectionary in Whalan – population less than 70 – sits just yards from the Root River Trail.

MinnPost photo by Mike Cronin

Becky Talle eats a piece of Elvis Peanut Butter

Pie at Whalan's Aroma Pie Shop.

Dozens of empty road bikes, recumbent bikes and mountain bikes lined a patch of grass last week between the path and the street. Their owners queued up inside at the counter and sat outside sitting at picnic tables or on the grass eating. A few lucky ones, such as Becky Talle, 34, snagged a seat on the enclosed porch. The Eagle Lake kindergarten teacher is on the trail for the second time in three years and was enjoying a piece of Elvis Peanut Butter Pie.

“Just being in nature, the great outdoors – with no bugs,” Talle said between bites as the reason she wanted to ride the route again.

Repeat customers, aka tourists, are key to small towns without industry, said Matt Schutte, a city councilman in Houston, which has a population of less than 1,000.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve the economy,” Schutte said last week while judging a soapbox-derby competition during his town’s annual Houston Hoedown festival.

Destination: Houston Nature Center

The River Root Trail enabled the construction of the Houston Nature Center, said Karla Bloem, the center’s director. And that provided the impetus for the creation of an annual International Festival of Owls, “which attracts the top owl people on the planet,” Bloem said. “There’s no other owl-festival weekend like it.”

MinnPost photo by Mike Cronin

Karla Bloem, director of the Houston Nature Center, and Alice, a 16-year-old great horned owl, stand at the beginning — or the end, depending on which direction one's traveling — of the Root River Trail in southeastern Minnesota.

Houston and the surrounding area boast “owls everywhere,” states a center brochure that outlines plans to build an International Owl Center at the River Root Trail’s eastern terminus. One of those owls, Alice, a 16-year-old great horned owl, may be seen every day with Bloem, whom Alice believes is her mate, Bloem said.

Other draws: tubing, Amish country and Niagara Cave

But it remains difficult to identify with precision what local attractions spark tourist visits, said Benson, the former state senator.

“The trail is part of it, but by no means is that the sole reason tourism thrives here,” Benson said, ticking off tubing and canoeing on the Root River, tours of Amish country and Niagara Cave, south of Harmony, as other regional draws.

Beyond that, reminds Rep. Greg Davids, a Preston Republican, tourism is seasonal. He’s pleased that hotels and B&Bs have mushroomed in the tiny trail towns; decades ago Davids couldn’t imagine businesses like that existing.

Still, “agriculture is where it’s at,” David’s said, leaving no doubt what drives his region’s economy. “If agriculture is booming, the small towns are booming. If the price of milk and soybeans are down, there’s going to be trouble. If farmers can’t buy hardware, then it’s hard for the hardware stores to stay open.”

MinnPost photo by Mike Cronin

Mark Bishop, proprietor of Niagara Cave, works behind the counter from the store that serves both as gift shop and entrance to the tourist attraction south of Harmony.

CC/Flickr/Dave Baker

The zebra mussel has made its way to Green Lake.

The state Department of Natural Resources found a single, adult zebra musselon a dock post on the southeast corner of Green Lake in Spicer, forcing the organization to designate the lake an infested water body. Tom Cherveny of the West Central Tribune writes that the hours inspectors are scheduled to work at public accesses on the lake will be increased, as will efforts to enforce the state’s laws aimed at controlling the spread of aquatic invasive species. A second power washer is being installed at the boat access on the north side of the lake. After the first mussel was found, subsequent searches failed to find other zebra mussels or the larvae they produce. If an infestation has occurred, their reproduction in large numbers could be two or more years into the future. It took more than two years from their initial discovery in Mille Lacs Lake until they were found in large numbers.

The editors at the Albert Lea Tribune came up with an editorial that goes against common “hang ‘em high” justice and calls for reasonable and prudent thought instead. They agree that Waseca County District Judge Gerald Wolf should have thrown out four charges of first-degree attempted murder against 17-year-old John LaDue: “Let’s remember LaDue did not kill anyone. He did not try to kill anyone and fail. He did not fire a gun and miss or light a fuse that didn’t function. Those acts would be attempted murder. Let’s all remember that the legal burden of proof for prosecutors to prove guilt is beyond a reasonable doubt.” LaDue will face charges that he possessed explosives. Meanwhile, the prosecutor is appealing Wolf’s decision.

In Austin, Trey Mewes of the Austin Daily Herald reports that the city has spent decades cutting services and is in the mood to add a couple back. To do so, they are considering a 4.98 percent city tax levy increase next year. The cash will help pay for a new full-time librarian and to move a part-time building inspector position up to full time. The city cut staff from about 180 positions in the 1980s to about 139 positions this year. City leaders say the exact increase on property owners won’t be known until the county’s tax rate is released in the fall and the city has a better handle on how many new taxpayers there are.

City Council Member Ron Johnson didn’t have a lot of fun at the Lake Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday, writes Zach Kayser of the Bemidji Pioneer. Johnson suffered a “cardiac event” while participating in the races. According to other members of the City Council, Johnson is doing well in recovery.

How about those dragon boat races? Malachi Petersen of the Pioneer reports that the HydraHeads became the first back-to-back winners in the nine years of the festival. They took the Gold Division against the Diggers, the Pine Tree Paddlers and the Wavemakers. The HydraHeads represent Headwaters Canoe and Kayak. Nearly 60 dragon boats raced in a minimum of two races to try to make it to the final heats. Teams from specific industries, such as in health care, banking and manufacturing, competed for traveling trophies.

But it’s not all fun and games in Bemidji. Bemidji Public Library branch manager Paul Ericsson reported to the City Council that there has been an increase in both the number and vehemence of unruly patrons. Smoking, loud music and cell phone calls are the main irritants, and less than 1 percent of the library’s visitors are a problem. “I note right at the top that none of the current issues fall under the poorly named ‘library homeless problem’ that I am too frequently asked to provide comments about,” Ericsson said. Council member Nancy Erickson asked if the incidents were limited to a few people. Ericsson said there are two people who are particularly mean to him and other staff.  He’s compiling a report on the behavior, soon to be sent to the city.

Dan “Dugan” Bjorlin and his son, Josh Bjorlin, have checked a big item of their respective bucket lists: With a visit to Petco Park in San Diego, they have attended baseball games at all 30 major league ballparks, plus two that aren’t around anymore. Louie St. George of the Duluth News Tribune said the trip was sparked by the sterile environs of the Metrodome. In 2007, the Bjorlins began to visit every park. To keep Josh’s interest – his favorite sport is hockey – Dan made sure they had a hot dog in every ballpark, including the Dodger Dog in Los Angeles and Nathan’s in New York. The best? “Nothing can beat the old Dome Dogs!” Josh said. Dan estimates the tour required about 20,000 miles of driving and about 9,200 flying. Of the 32 parks — the 30 current ones plus the old Yankee Stadium and the Metrodome — both Dan and Josh agree Target Field tops the list. The worst? “No doubt about it, Tampa,” Dan said. “It made the Metrodome look like a palace.”  

Courtesy of Hormel

This motorcycle has been retrofitted to run on bacon grease.

The headlines – and the exhaust – are the best things about this. Hormel has created a motorcycle that runs on bacon grease. Trey Mewes of the Austin Daily Herald has the details of the retrofitted 2011 Track T-800 CDI diesel motorcycle that Hormel and marketing firm BBDO Minneapolis are taking from Austin to the International Bacon Film Festival in San Diego, California. They are filming the trip to promote Hormel’s Black Label Bacon product. Under the headline “Pork torque,” the Washington Times had this quote: “The exhaust smells like bacon. So when we cruise past you, you’ll thank us,” the project organizers say, adding “If there were a bacon biodiesel tanker spill in the ocean, the fuel would be safe and mouthwatering fish food.”

Poorly placed construction signs blocked the view of oncoming traffic and caused Hannah Wilson’s death in 2012 in Eveleth, her family says.John Myers of the Duluth News Tribune reports that a court-mediated settlement stipulates that St. Louis County should give her family $100,000. Wilson, 16, of Virginia, was at the intersection of Industrial Park Drive and U.S. Highway 53 in Eveleth when she was struck broadside by an SUV. Wilson’s family said an improperly placed road construction sign blocked motorists’ view of oncoming traffic. The SUV’s driver, the county, the construction firm and the engineering firm were named in the suit. The family’s attorney said the county’s action will trigger a “confidential resolution” with other defendants that will settle the entire lawsuit.

A beef between Moorhead and the owners of a bridge spanning the Red River of the North goes before a judge today, according to Erik Burgess of the Fargo Forum. Moorhead leaders say the owners of the city’s only toll bridge are soaking drivers 75 cents at a time. The bridge owners say even though the 25-year contract between the owners, Moorhead and Fargo is up, they need more time to recoup expenses they incurred when they fixed the bridge after the river flooded. Fargo is on board with the extension, but Moorhead disputes how much the owners owe on the bridge. Mike Nelson, who is representing Moorhead, said he expects the trial to last two days.

A Duluth police officer shot a man he says was armed with a knife, reports Tom Olsen of the Duluth News Tribune. The 34-year-old man is in critical condition. Police said he was shot when he brandished a knife and refused to obey commands to drop the weapon during a domestic dispute early Monday morning. Olsen reports that this is the fifth officer-involved shooting for the Duluth Police Department in just more than four years. In the four previous incidents, prosecutors determined the officers’ actions were justified.

Underdogs Bar & Grill on State Highway 371 in Jenkins is a total loss after a fire Sunday night, reports Chelsey Perkins of the Brainerd Dispatch. Owner Bill Moen said the business closed around 10 p.m., and no one was inside when the fire started. He said the inside of the 100-year-old building is almost completely destroyed. He opened Underdogs 10 years ago in a building that has served various purposes over the century, including as a post office, church and municipal liquor store. Underdogs typically employs 10 people during the summer.

The Fargo Forum reports that a bike rider was bitten by a dog Monday afternoon. The wounded rider needs to know the dog’s vaccinations status so police are putting out an APB. Here’s the description: “The dog, possibly a pit bull or similar looking breed, was described as brown and white with a red collar.” Anyone who can identify this dog can call (701) 241-8284.

The Mankato Free Press gave some ink to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop report, which says Minnesota farmers are making progress on the small-grain harvest. “Minnesota's oat harvest is 54 percent complete, the only crop ahead of average, while 17 percent of the state's barley crop and 6 percent of its spring wheat have been harvested. The state's corn crop is rated 70 percent in good to excellent condition, while soybeans and sugarbeets are rated 65 percent good to excellent.” So that’s pretty good then. 

Speaking of grains, The Brainerd Dispatch ran a piece written by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on the upcoming wild rice harvest. The harvesting season runs from Aug. 15 to Sept. 30. Despite the season dates, harvesters must first ensure the rice is ripe before they knock the seeds into their canoes, the DNR says. More than 1,200 lakes and rivers in 54 counties contain wild rice, with concentrations of rice being the highest in Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing, Itasca and St. Louis counties. Before you go out, the DNR wants you to remember these things: You can only use a non-motorized canoe 18 feet or less in length powered only by a push pole or paddles; you gather rice using two sticks, or flails, to knock seeds into the canoe and the flails can be no longer than 30 inches and must weigh less than one pound each; harvesting licenses cost $25 per season or $15 per day per person for Minnesota residents; you have to process the rice to finish it into its final food product; and the gathering process is labor-intensive. And also, it’s against the law to take any rice from waters within the original boundaries at the White Earth, Leech Lake, Nett Lake, Vermilion Lake, Grand Portage, Fond du Lac and Mille Lacs reservations unless you are Native American or a resident of one of those reservations.

House Speaker John Boehner is coming to Nisswa to raise money for GOP House candidate Stewart Mills III, writes Mike O’Rourke in the Bemidji Pioneer. “A copy of the invitation sent to members of the Gull Lake Yacht Club listed four levels of contributions: gold sponsor, $10,400; silver sponsor, $5,200; host, $1,500; and general reception, $250. Mills is facing off against Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., who benefitted from a fundraiser featuring president Barack Obama in Minneapolis in June.

Jason Mindrup, the former Brownsdale police chief, is in trouble with the law again, reports Trey Mewes down in Austin. Mindrup, 42, was arrested at the Mower County Fair for drunken behavior. He was put on a 72-hour hold because he violated pretrial conditions related to a sexual assault charge. Mindrup has been charged with sexual assault but has yet to enter a plea. Allegedly, in October 2013, “a woman accused Mindrup of sexually assaulting her in his truck after leaving a Waltham bar on Aug. 31, 2013. Mindrup allegedly denied those accusations,” Mewes wrote. Mindrup was fired in November pending the outcome of the trial. Part of his pretrial conditions was to abstain from alcohol.

The Bemidji Pioneer is keeping an eye on 2009 Bemidji High grad Courtney Gunsalus — or Courtney Guns, as she’s now known — who raised $7,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to film a music video for her song “All We Have.” Gunsalus, 23, will start filming next week with help from former BHS grad Harlan Hegna, who is now a freelance director in California. “All We Have” is featured on her CD, "Never Let the Dust Settle," of all original songs. After they film the video and release it on YouTube, she and her band will travel to Nashville. "It's hard to get somewhere with a music career when you live in northern Minnesota,” she said.

After an initial threat of legal action, The National Coalition against Racism in Sports and Media has dropped its opposition to Warroad Public School’s use of an American Indian logo. Brandi Jewett of the Forum News Services reports that it’s all due to a proper education. On Aug. 15, the group sent the school district a letter calling use of the Warrior’s logo a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Immediately, hockey legend Henry Boucha, who is an Ojibwe from Warroad, voiced his objection to the complaint. Coalition members invited Boucha to meet with its board and present the history behind the town and the logo. He told them the town’s name comes from the “war road” the Ojibwe traveled to battle the Sioux, and the American Indian community also helped design the logo. “They immediately felt that they made a mistake and didn’t realize how rich the culture and traditions were in the Warroad area,” Boucha said. In addition, the coalition asked Boucha to serve on its board of directors and he has accepted.

U.S. farm expenses continue to rise, meaning agriculture business management is more important than ever, a new report claims. Jonathan Knutson of the Worthington Daily Globe writes about a National Agricultural Statistics Service report that farm production expenditures nationwide totaled $367.3 billion in 2013, up 2 percent from $360.1 billion in 2012. U.S. farms averaged $175,270 in spending in 2013, up 2.3 percent from $171,309 a year earlier. Minnesota farmers spent $19 billion on expenses in 2013, up from $18.4 billion a year earlier. If crop prices don’t improve, some expenses, such as land rental rates, will come down eventually, experts say. Many farmers are locked into multi-year land rental agreements, but producers should take a hard look at whether to renew agreements, said Jack Davis, crops business management field specialist with South Dakota State University Extension.

The video of police action from Ferguson, Missouri, has renewed interest in what some call the militarization of local police. While the St. Cloud Police Department has taken possession of a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle known by its acronym MRAP, St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson makes no excuses. In an interview with David Unze of the St. Cloud Daily Times, Anderson says, “There's nothing in the rule books that say we have to be outgunned.” Since the federal government offers equipment at little or no cost, it just makes sense to accept it, he said.“We also have a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers, and if we can find a way to address our needs and be fiscally responsible, well, to me, that's a win-win,” Anderson said. Unze writes that the MRAP has been used at standoffs, to serve “high-risk” search warrants, to block targets from potential explosive devices, and to track down a man who had fired shots at a Benton County deputy. Anderson said his department was one of seven in Minnesota to get MRAPs last year.

A fire early Tuesday morning caused damage to a historic building in Duluth, reports Brady Slater of the News Tribune. Firefighters extinguished a two-story blaze that blackened the Oliver G. Traphagen House, 1511 E. Superior St. An initial estimate placed damages “in excess of $150,000.” The Traphagen House was built in 1892. It was designed by Oliver Traphagen for his personal use. Mining magnate Chester Congdon purchased the home five years later and the Congdon family lived there until Glensheen Mansion was completed in 1908. The commercially zoned property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The building is owned by Howard Klatzky and houses HTK Marketing Communications and Ledingham Promotional Advertising. Klatzky restored the building before moving in his HTK Marketing Communications in 1987. The building has been up for sale.

The Wausau Paper Mill site in Brainerd has been sold and the new owner hopes to repurpose it into an industrial center, writes Jessie Perrine of the Brainerd Dispatch. New owner Mike Higgins said the name will be the Brainerd Industrial Center. There will be very little demolition at the site, and the buildings will be leased for light industrial and commercial uses. No tenants have been officially signed on, but there are some "definite maybes," Higgins said. He wouldn’t disclose a sale price. Wausau Paper closed in April.

A bevy of musicians are coming to Turtle Lake to honor the town’s former mayor and music impresario Gary Burger, who died in March. According to Joe Froemming of the Bemidji Pioneer, more than 15 musical acts who have recorded at Burger's studio through the years will perform at the 10th annual Turtle River Day on Saturday. “There are a lot more,” said Maggie Carlson. “He helped and recorded a lot of local musicians over the years.” Burger was also known for his 60s band, The Monks, that some say was one of the first punk bands. On stage, Burger would encourage the crowd to boo them. “It was part of their act,” said his wife, Cindy Burger. “The … tonsures and the robes — it was their act.” Burger was also the only Minnesota mayor to sign the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, an agreement meant to be more effective than the International Kyoto Protocol. “One of the girls in town, environmentalism was her thing at the time, and she went to Gary and said ‘the Bemidji mayor won't sign this, would you?’ and he smiled and said ‘Why not?’ ” Carlson said. 

Rochester’s police chief has brought some Minnesota sensibility to the issue of police militarization. Sure, when the Pentagon was giving away 600 armored vehicles last year, Rochester and Olmsted County teamed up to get one. But there’s a difference between Rochester and the scenes on TV from Ferguson, Missouri – Rochester’s MRAP has never been used and likely won’t be used in similar situations, reports Kay Fate of the Rochester Post Bulletin. Police Chief Roger Peterson and Sheriff Dave Mueller have no illusions about when to use their MRAP, or mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle armored vehicle. “When we're responding to a barricaded, armed suspect, that's when an armored vehicle comes into play directly. That would be an instance when it's appropriate” to use. Peterson continues: “When you need (an armored vehicle), it's really indispensable. It may be hard for people to understand: You have this huge armored vehicle, but you might only use it twice a year. Well, yes, but if you can not have someone shot twice a year, then that's a really good investment.” He says the key is to use the vehicle judiciously. Law enforcement’s job is to keep the peace, and “you don't do that by simply intimidating people or with that overwhelming show of force. That might keep the peace, but then we've defeated our purpose. We're no longer policing, we're actually subduing, and that's a far different thing.”

The LaCrosse Tribune is reporting a spike in methamphetamine use in response to a price hike in heroin.“Local law enforcement saw meth use rise again in mid-2013 when heroin prices ballooned. Heroin can fetch up to $280 per gram; meth sells for as little as $50 to $100 for the same quantity, said La Crosse police Sgt. Andrew Dittman, who heads the department’s narcotics unit. La Crosse police in the first half of this year arrested 113 people for possessing, selling or making meth, up from just 41 arrests during the same period in 2013,” the newspaper reported.

It was move-in weekend at St. Cloud State University, and police, deputies and campus cops made a show of force in the city’s campus area over the weekend, reports David Unze of the St. Cloud Daily Times. The result? Thirty people were booked at Stearns County Jail last weekend on a variety of charges, and 223 were issued citations – an increase from the 59 citations last year. “The bulk of the citations were for underage alcohol consumption, having open alcohol containers in the street and for noise violations and loud parties,” Unze wrote. He printed an exhaustive list of the citations, and here are a few highlights: Under 21 consumption: 100; open container street/sidewalk: 64; possession of alcohol (under 21): 3; possession of drug paraphernalia: 3; noise violation – loud party: 32; failure to leave a loud party: 2; fleeing on foot: 5; urinating in public: 6; obstructing legal process: 9; false information to police: 3.

State archaeologist Scott Anfinson says a site to be excavated in September near Odessa could prove to be one of the earliest occupied sites since the big flood that created the Minnesota River Valley, writes Tom Cherveny of the West Central Tribune. Most archaeological work in the Minnesota River Valley has involved sites atop the river bluffs because the lowland sites are more difficult to find and work, Anfinson said. But using money from the Legacy Amendment, the state can bring in a multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, geomorphologists and paleoecologists to examine the Odessa site. The site was originally discovered in the 1970s as part of survey work involved with the development of the Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge, Cherveny writes, and a fluted projectile point was discovered there in the 1970s. This suggests the site could have been inhabited 12,000 years ago or earlier, when mastodons and other megafauna would have been hunted.

A lightning strike blasted the back of a brick building on Superior Street in Duluth Sunday night, causing the chimney to collapse and allow copious amounts of rain into the building, writes Brady Slater of the Duluth News Tribune. The building houses Architecture Advantage. Its’ owner, Melissa Graftaas, said rainwater “filtered through apartments on the second and third floors,” and described it as “raining” over the company’s work stations on the main floor. The water never reached more than half-inch to an inch deep, but dozens of carpet tiles were ruined. A half-dozen computers probably were ruined, but two others survived. The company’s main computer server was OK, and backup systems keep updated data saved nightly. 

White-nose syndrome is killing a lot of bats, and it soon may chill Minnesota’s logging industry as well.Crystal Dey of the Bemidji Pioneer writes that experts may place the Northern Long Eared Bat on the federal endangered species list. Richard Moore, Beltrami County Director of Resource Management, said white-nose syndrome has spread to 25 states. Bats produce one pup a year with a span of two weeks to a month where they can’t fly. If the Northern Long Eared Bat is added to the endangered species list, killing one of the bats would be illegal. Loggers will need to inspect any tree 3 inches in diameter or larger for a maternal bat colony before harvesting the timber between April and September, adversely affecting the industry's already short season. The Northern Long Eared Bat nests in at least 35 species of trees. “It would affect everyone in the forest product business,” Moore said. A decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be made in April. Public comments are being accepted through Aug. 29 online at www.regulations.gov.

Here’s an entry from the Brainerd Dispatch. Let’s just quote it verbatim: “INTOXICATED - A report at 2:47 p.m. Sunday of an intoxicated man sitting on a barstool in the middle of Centre Street in Royalton holding a sign and impeding traffic. Deputies responded and the man eventually admitted that he was sitting on a barstool in the middle of the road holding a picture of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. He said he was protesting because he believed Stewart retired from NASCAR after he recently hit and killed another race car driver. The man was advised to not do it again.”

Emily Welker of the Fargo Forum has the story of a Moorhead woman who is “accused of breaking into the home of her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s girlfriend and, with the help of several other people, beating up all the people who were there, including her husband’s girlfriend.… One of the women told police the three came back to the apartment for breakfast after an evening out, and that a woman, Nicole Denise Longoria, 28, and several of her friends were there. … The woman dating Longoria’s estranged husband said Longoria came into the apartment, breaking in the front door, grabbed her and started punching her in the head with her closed fists. Other people were stomping on her head with their feet, she told officers.” Court documents say one of the victims shot a cellphone video that “allegedly shows Longoria grabbing one of the women, throwing her down on the kitchen floor, then kicking her in the left side of the head three times before turning on the other woman and punching her several times in the head. Moorhead officers interviewed Longoria, who allegedly at first told them she was intoxicated at the time of the incident and didn’t remember anything. She then told officers she ‘just snapped’ that night, admitting to officers it was her in the video assaulting the two women, according to court documents.”

CC/Flickr/Clint McMahon

In 1964 the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) was officially made a wilderness.

Although hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Northeast Minnesota had been set aside in the early part of the 20^th century, it wasn’t until 1964 that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) was officially made a wilderness. And even that act wasn't definitive when it came to contested details. John Myers of the Duluth News Tribune has a long but well-written essay on the conflicts that arose while making the BWCA and how they were settled. In a nutshell, everyone was on board with the idea of keeping the area pristine, but while some wanted a pure wilderness, others thought limited use of motorboats and snowmobiles, mining and logging was acceptable. Rep. Jim Oberstar fought hard for northern jobs, while Rep. Don Fraser fought hard for an untouched environment. Copious town hall meetings and op-eds ran on until the mid-'70s when, as Myers explains it, “several powerful lawmakers in Washington laid down an edict: The BWCA debate was among Minnesotans, and Minnesotans needed to settle it — once and for all. Two Minnesota attorneys — environmentalist Chuck Dayton and Ely City Attorney Ron Walls — were picked to hammer out a compromise that, in large part, set the boundaries and rules for the BWCAW as they stand today. On Oct. 21, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the compromise into law — the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act, formally adding the second ‘W’ to the title.”

It would be easy to overlook a small item like this if it weren’t for all the talk recently about the militarization of the nation’s police forces. A story headlined “Swiss military vehicle reported stolen” appeared in the Mankato Free Press. This is what it said: “A Swiss military vehicle was stolen from a Lafayette business sometime between 9 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday, the Nicollet County Sheriff's Office reported Saturday. The1975 Pinzgauer 710M is black in color and has a custom cloth top that is red in color, according to the sheriff's office.” No word on whether it had a corkscrew or a fingernail cleaner.

Need to leave Rochester in a hurry? Now you have more options.Jeff Kiger of the Rochester Post Bulletin reports that Delta Air Lines (nee Northwest Orient Airlines) has begun daily nonstop flights to Atlanta and Detroit. Atlanta, as some might know, is the world’s busiest airport so Rochester boosters hope this means more growth. What about cost? “A round trip ticket on Delta's Rochester-to-Atlanta flight on Tuesday costs $1,058 or $1,066 compared to $1,058 or $1,078 for the Minneapolis-to-Atlanta flight. The same holds true for the new Detroit flight. Booking a round trip from Rochester to Detroit on Tuesday lists at $1,220, compared to $1,206 in Minneapolis,” Kiger writes. Delta will continue to offer two flights daily to Minneapolis.

Everyone knows it costs a lot to go to college, but this time of year is a good time for a reminder, which is what Nathan Hansen of the Winona Daily News gives us. He focuses on Cassandra Habhegger, 24, a single mother of two who is in her third year of studying at Southeast Technical College to become a nurse. She gets thousands of dollars in state and federal grants, she works part-time, she gets money from her parents, but she will still be at least $25,000 in debt when she finishes school. Low-income students are those coming from a family that has less than $30,000 of income each year. Even with the additional financial aid such poverty provides, Hansen’s research shows “even the poorest students are expected to cover more than $12,000 of the cost at Winona State, nearly $14,000 at Southeast Tech, and more than $15,000 at St. Mary’s University.”

Speaking of needing money, the Brainerd Police Department warns that there’s a spate of counterfeit $100 bills floating around, according to the Brainerd Dispatch. The bills are about the same size and appearance as genuine $100 bills, but have a smoother texture. Other giveaways, according to the report: The counterfeit bill states, "This note is not legal, it is to be used for motion pictures;" The counterfeit bill reads, "For motion picture use only" in several areas, most noticeably in place of "The United States of America" and "Federal Reserve Note;" Benjamin Franklin is depicted as pursing his lips with a raised eyebrow; Instead of "One Hundred Dollars," the top of the bill reads, "One Hundred;" The portrait watermark of Benjamin Franklin, located on the right side of the bill, is not visible on the counterfeit; blue strip down the middle is printed on the counterfeit, rather than the reflective ribbon that is woven into the genuine bill.

You know it’s a slow news week when a story like this gets ink: Carolyn Lange of the West Central Tribune reports that a kid in Atwater got a couple of chickens and ducks for his birthday. It’s against city ordinance to keep fowl on city property, but the kid kept them penned up and well fed. Unfortunately, one chicken kept escaping and making a mess. A neighbor complained. The kid’s mom was told to get rid of the birds, which she didn’t do. So the police chief gets another complaint from the neighbor, goes over to the house, sees the free-range chicken, gets a shovel and decapitates the yardbird. He removes the carcass, but somehow the head falls near the coop. The chief says he’s sorry about the head, but he was just doing his job when he killed the chicken. “I still feel he owes my son an apology and he owes us a chicken,” the kid’s mom says.

And then there’s this: An 80-year-old man allegedly groped a retirement home employee, reports the Austin Daily Herald. Roger Thomas Jennings has pleaded not guilty to fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Mower County court. According to police reports, Jennings first told an employee at the Primrose Retirement Community that she had a “nice rack and a nice body.” A couple days later he allegedly gave the victim a note containing his phone number and a $5 bill. The next day he sneaked up on her in the freezer and groped her. The day after that he made an inappropriate comment when the employee was wet from a rain storm. Jennings will next appear in court on Jan. 23. Unfortunately, it’s too late for him to launch a bid to join the U.S. Senate.

CC/Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM

Albert Lea's location at the junction of I-35 and I-90 make it a prime spot for sex trafficking.

Albert Lea, which sits at the junction of Interstates 35 and 90, is a prime spot for sex trafficking, reports Sarah Stultz of the Albert Lea Tribune. A new report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs Diagnostic Center looks at the issue so Albert Lea police can be more effective fighting the crime and educating the community. To thrive, sex trafficking needs to be near metro areas where services are desired, have easy transportation, and have places to traffick. The report said Minneapolis-St. Paul, Mankato and Rochester are known human trafficking hubs. Between the two interstates, about 19 million vehicles move through Albert Lea each year. The city has almost 170,000 hotel rooms available and an annual occupancy rate of 50 percent. Looking forward, the authors said that while there is not a huge volume of sex trafficking in Albert Lea, the community needs to be prepared to react if the problem grows, including having resources to help human trafficking victims. The study was free to the Albert Lea Police Department.

A drop in water pressure last week meant mandatory testing of Brainerd’s water supply, and one of the tests came back positive with coliform bacteria. That means Brainerd residents are under a water-boil order for all drinking and cooking water, reports Jessie Perrine of the Brainerd Dispatch. The city will test the water again this week and if it comes back clean, the water-boil order will be lifted but the state requires the city to add chlorine to the water for 30 days to make sure no one gets sick. That’s a bit of a problem because Brainerd has been fighting water chlorination for many years and residents are none too happy about having the chemical in their water, even for a short time. Perrine writes: “Brainerd has the largest unchlorinated drinking water system in the state. For more than three decades, the state has been trying to get city officials to change that. The state can't force Brainerd to permanently chlorinate its water, but (the Minnesota Department of Health) strongly recommends it. … (Brainerd) has chlorinated the water system at least twice in the past, once in 2009 following a positive test.”

Winona-area barge traffic last month reached the highest amount for August in 13 years, writes Tesla Mitchell of the Winona Daily News. “Total barges stopping through Winona on the Mississippi River — whether to park, load, or unload — reached 176 in August, according to city of Winona statistics released Monday. The last time traffic reached that level was in August 2002, when it reached 170.” Mitchell writes that the total was helped by the closure of the commercial canal for a week in July while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged the river. Also, lower crop prices means lower demand for barges to haul grain, so the number of barges coming through Winona most likely will see a sharp decline in September.

The Bemidji City Council has decided to quash all requests to dress up the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues on the shore of Lake Bemidji. In the past, community groups would petition the city to dress the icons to promote an upcoming event, such as putting a fez on Paul to promote the upcoming Shrine Bowl football game and parade, writes Zach Kayser of the Bemidji Pioneer. But on a 6-1 vote, the council decided to end the practice. “How are you going to say ‘no?’ ” asked Councilor Roger Hellquist. Allowing non-controversial costumes may make it difficult to deny more risqué ideas in the future, the council argued.

The state Department of Natural Resources says the pheasant population is up over last year,writes John Myers of the Duluth News Tribune, despite a long winter and a rainy June. Myers also notes that the pheasant count is still “58 percent below the 10-year average, and a whopping 71 percent below the long-term average. The state has been conducting the survey since 1955.” While weather has been a factor, the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland under the federal Conservation Reserve Program has had the biggest effect. High crop prices have encouraged farmers to take their land out of the CRP and plant crops. Myers writes that Minnesota has lost nearly a quarter-million acres of grassland since the Conservation Reserve Program peaked in 2007, and stands to lose another 290,000 acres in the next three years, the DNR predicts.

PrideFest in Mankato has always had an “us against them” quality as the LBGT community used the event in years past to pursue their rights, writes Josh Moniz of the Mankato Free Press. But now that same-sex marriage has been legal in Minnesota for more than a year, this year’s event was different. “Other years, there has been these clouds looming over the event, like the marriage amendment or (opposition) to the Safe School bill," said Jessica Flatequal, director of the LGBT Center at MSU. "But this year, it feels like we can just be out there and have a good time." The event drew some protesters: Jesse Morrell, a missionary with the national organization Open Air Outreach joined three activists from outside of Mankato with signs that read "Repent or perish" and "You have sinned against God." PrideFest drew about 500 people for the parade down Riverfront Drive while the event at Riverfront Park drew several thousand, Moniz reports.

The always-helpful DNR has produced its annual map of where and when to find the best fall colors.The Fargo Forum writes that the wet, early summer means the display will be beautiful but quick. The site updates each Thursday. Colors typically peak from mid-September to early October in the northern third of Minnesota, from late September to early October in the central third and from late September to mid-October in the southern third. Peak fall color typically lasts about two weeks, but that can vary widely, depending on location, elevation and weather. Go here for more information or call 888-646-6367 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

While hundreds of people enjoyed the Dragon Boat Festival races on Lake Bemidji several weeks ago, City Council member Ron Johnson was having the time of his life – literally. Johnson suffered a heart attack while rowing one of the dragon boats, writes Zach Kayser. Johnson was a late fill-in on the Lakeland Public Television boat. He had biked to the races and planned to only spend a minute there but chose to row instead. Now he says it was a blessing because he had no indication of arterial blockage before, and if he had had a heart attack when he was biking alone or somewhere far from medical help, he could have died. Instead, he was surrounded by emergency responders who worked hard to get his heart started again and was close to a hospital that could repair his heart.  "In a way, it was a blessing," he said.

Concordia College in Moorhead had an enrollment average of between 2,700 and 3,000 for the past 20 years, but the enrollment has dropped from 2,626 in 2011 to 2,398 this year. Grace Lyden of the Fargo Forum writes that Concordia officials note there is a statewide trend of smaller freshmen classes – first-year enrollment at all Minnesota higher education institutions is down 21 percent since 2004. They also note that the school’s German Institute was an enrollment driver in the 1990s but was eliminated about 10 years ago. The recession has something to do with it, they say, as does the fact that minorities make up the largest growing segment of freshmen, and Concordia has not marketed itself to minority students very well. The officials hasten to add that the college is well funded and has not cut back on staff, meaning the professor-student ratio is better now than it was several years ago.

CC/Flickr/Ruin Raider

1 in 88 Minnesotans will hit a deer this year.

John Myers of the Duluth News Tribune got ahold of a report issued by State Farm that says 1 in 88 Minnesotans will hit a deer this year. The report says Minnesotans will collide with 37,549 deer in 2014. That’s the 8^th-highest rank in the states – Wisconsin has a 1-85 chance, or 7^th in the nation. Hawaiians have the worst odds – 1 in 10,281. Last year, Minnesota ranked 6^th and officials say the drop is due to fewer deer. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says the deer harvest peaked in 2003 and has been declining. The buck harvest is down more than 27 percent in the same period.

Sam Cook of the News Tribune reports that raptor watchers on Hawk Ridge counted 6,622 raptors Monday. The numbers peak in mid-September. Here’s what Cook wrote: “On Monday more than 5,500 broadwings were observed, bringing the broadwing season total to 13,385. That’s nowhere near the single-day record for broadwings at Hawk Ridge. On Sept. 15, 2003, nearly 102,000 broadwings coursed over the ridge. Also on Monday, the count included 876 sharp-shinned hawks, 57 bald eagles, 45 American kestrels and numerous other species.Through Monday, this fall’s total hawk count is at 19,331. Counting began in mid-August, and 18,771 hawks have been counted in September so far.”

Carolyn Lange over at the West Central Tribune writes about a new business in Renville County that uses drones to monitor agriculture production. The drones have two cameras and monitor plant growth, weed identification and disease patterns. Early flights help farmers analyze soils, tillage, tile, drainage and residue while later flights show emerged crops, weed observations and nutritional needs of the soil that can be overlaid with other precision agricultural data the farmers may use, like planting data from tractor monitors, fertilizer application, digital tile maps and yields, Lange writes.

A website has named Rochester the second-most livable small or mid-sized city in the U.S., just behind ol’ Madison, Wisconsin, according to a report in the Rochester Post-Bulletin. The web site is Livability.com and the other cities in the top five are Arlington, Virginia; Boulder, Colorado; and Palo Alto, California. The cities in the poll have populations of between 20,000 and 350,000 and were judged using more than 40 data points. The site says Rochester has a vibrant business and arts culture as well as a high average income and low average housing cost. The site warns that fast growth can stall a city’s vibrancy, but Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede says that probably won’t happen and also that it’s a pretty good problem to have.

Here’s one that elicits an “oh my God” response. The Winona Daily News reports that deputies were called to a Kwik Rip where they found “Nathan Jon Barbian, 27, of Minnesota City coming out of a stall in the women’s bathroom with a backpack and a zippered case, according to the department. Deputies entered the bathroom and discovered a drinking straw with one end melted, matches, a broken pair of scissors, a used syringe and drops of blood, according to the department. Barbian admitted he was melting the straws so he could fish used needles out of the sharps container in the bathroom, which he would bleach and then use again, according to the department. While questioning Barbian, deputies noticed anti-theft tags on his clothing, and Barbian admitted that the clothes were stolen, according to the department. He also admitted there was a syringe and other drug paraphernalia in his backpack, and deputies additionally found a capsule in the backpack that contained morphine sulfate, according to the department.”

The Bemidji Pioneer must pay by the word because Crystal Dey wrote a loooooong report on the city dog pound. She talks to Bemidji Police Officer Tom Charboneau, who oversees the pound. The pound is where officers put stray dogs and cats until they are retrieved by their owners or are sloughed off to an animal rescue agency. There are usually one to four or so animals in the pound on any given day. It costs the city about $4,000 a year to run the pound, including food and maintenance. Animal registration fees cover most of the cost.

A businessman wants to open a hydroponic marijuana growth near Bemidji,reports Zach Kayser of the Bemidji Pioneer. Jake Chernugal wants to put “Headwaters Health Center Medical Cannabis Manufacturers” in Bemidji. The pot will be grown and distilled on site into oils and pills and then be distributed by the local MedSave Family Pharmacy, which Chernugal said is owned by his father. One problem: The state prohibits cannabis manufacturing or distribution facilities within 1,000 feet of a public or private school. Leech Lake Head Start operates a facility next door to the proposed indoor cannabis farm on Fifth Street NW. Chernugal said he just learned about this and will figure out a solution. 

CC/Flickr/Fargo-Moorhead CVB

Bearson's disappearance set off a search in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Searchers in Moorhead found a body Tuesday morning believed to be that of Tommy Bearson, a nursing student at North Dakota State University who had been missing since early Saturday morning, the Fargo Forum reports. The announcement was made at a 1 p.m. news conference at Fargo City Hall. The story quotes Fargo Police Chief Keith Ternes saying that the body, found outdoors at about 11:20 a.m., matched the physical description of Bearson and clothing matched what he was last seen wearing. When Bearson missed a planned trip to Sartell, his family reported him missing at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. He was a standout basketball player at Sartell High, where he graduated last spring. UPDATE: The body has been positively identified as being that of Tommy Bearson, the Star Tribune reported on Wednesday.

Tragedy struck a Renville County family twice last week, reports Tom Cherveny of the West Central Tribune. “Ken Novotny, 53, of Germantown, Tennessee, died Wednesday when he was attacked by a grizzly bear while hunting southwest of Norman Wells, Northwest Territories, Canada. Keith Novotny, 59, of Appleton, died Sunday. Friends said he was waiting for a kidney transplant. Their mother, Marjorie Novotny, learned the news of her second son’s death after reaching Tennessee to be with Ken Novotny’s family,” writes Cherveny. Ken Novotny was hunting along the Northwest Territories' border with the Yukon when he was attacked by the bear. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police received a call for assistance at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Darkness and weather conditions prevented help from reaching the remote site that night. A helicopter reached the site the following morning and the coroner ruled that Novotny had died at the scene. The bear was found and killed on Saturday, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported. DNA testing is being done to confirm that it was the bear that attacked Novotny.

Hunters should see no shortage of waterfowl when the season opens just before dawn on Saturday, Sept. 27, reports Suzy Rook for the Janesville Argus. “The number of breeding ducks this spring was very high based on the continental duck breeding population surveys,” said Steve Cordts, DNR waterfowl specialist. “In addition, recruitment, or the number of young ducks that hatched, was also good this year.” Cordts said the breeding population of all ducks combined was more than 49 million ducks, which is 8 percent above last year and 43 percent above long-term averages. Expect an increase in ring-necked ducks and mallards, as well as Canada geese. “If you haven’t been duck hunting in a few years, this may be a good year to get back out in the marsh,” Cordts said. “Hunter numbers have been very low compared to historic averages.”

Voters in Mankato were privy to a sight few see: nuns on a bus promoting voter registration, writes Dan Linehan of the Mankato Free Press. The nuns are part of NETWORK, an organization formed in 1971 by 47 Catholic sisters. The group is on a 10-state, 75-event bus tour promoting the importance of civic virtues. "This is all about making sure that the 100 percent vote," said Sister Simone Campbell, one of the group's leaders. "We do not have big money, but we do have the right to vote," she said. "Corporations don't have vocal cords," she said.

A woman who has been at odds with her neighbors has been sentenced for harassment after she violated a restraining order by sending them a Christmas card, writes Emily Walker of the Fargo Forum. The restraining order was the result of conflict that started as complaints between Sharon Lavonne Rousseau, 65, and her neighbors over a fence. Judge Galen Vaa called the relationship “complicated” with a “long history of discord between these neighbors.” Clay County prosecutor Pam Harris asked the court for 90 days in jail for Rousseau, with all but two days suspended. Vaa accepted the prosecution’s recommendation, adding that the card might reasonably be considered “a very sinister method of carrying on” the discord between the two parties.

The Mayo Clinic has announced a new partnership with the National University Ireland Galway to "focus on adult stem-cell therapy, gene therapy, biomaterials and biomedical engineering,”reports the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Student and staff exchange will also occur. Dr. Anthony Windebank,Mayo deputy director for Discovery at the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine, said “this is a unique collaboration which emphasizes the translation of laboratory discoveries into regenerative medicine therapies for patients."

Hormel Foods of Austin is debuting the first ad campaign for Skippy peanut butter, reports the Austin Daily Herald. Research told the company that for the Skippy brand, consumers across the world believe peanut butter is fun. This led the company to use the beloved Skippy brand to spread yippee to peanut butter lovers everywhere. The simple joy of eating peanut butter will be brought to life across various brand platforms, from marketing to product innovations, and in the new multimedia advertising campaign.

Well more than 1,000 mourners gathered in Sartell Monday to remember Thomas Bearson, the 18-year-old North Dakota State student whose body was found Sept. 23 in Moorhead. The report in the St. Cloud Daily Times quotes the coroner’s report that Bearson died as the "result of homicidal violence." But forget all that. Mourners Monday remembered Bearson’s love of basketball and his easy way with people. His mother, Debbie Bearson, recalled Thomas' blue eyes: "Most parents can't wait for their newborns to sleep, but I couldn't wait for him to wake up." She also recounted how, once as a child, he refused to eat Reese's Pieces so he could still give his mother kisses despite her peanut allergy. "Tom had a heart of gold," Debbie said.

The City of Duluth had a few extra dollars lying around after the new $17 million law enforcement center came in under budget, so it will spend $2 million on renovations to the 89-year-old city hall, writes Peter Passi of the News Tribune. Erik Birkeland, Duluth’s property and facilities manager, said each of the four floors will be tackled one at a time, so work will likely in 2016. When done, the finance department will share the first floor with the information technology department. The biggest change is to the city attorney’s office on the fourth floor where currently, the only way out back through the lobby area. The city will build an alternate back-door route that could be used in the event of a violent intrusion.

There are big fish and there are big fish. David Ramm may have broken a state record when he pulled a massive muskie out of Crane Lake on Sept. 11, reports Sam Cook in the Duluth News Tribune. Ramm, of Blue Grass, Iowa, was fishing with his father, Gary, when he caught and released a 58½-inch long muskie with a 28-inch girth and a likely weight of 57 to 58 pounds. The state-record muskie, caught on Lake Winnibigoshish in 1957, weighed 54 pounds and was 56 inches long with a 27¾-inch girth. Ramm was using a St. Croix muskie rod with 80-pound-test line and a 130-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. He was casting a black fire Double Cowgirl bucktail spinner in about 5 feet of water. Ramm said he had no intention of keeping the fish: “I don’t want to be the guy who’s got his name down for a state record and for killing that fish.”

Rochester police are continuing their investigation into a riot that occurred at 1:40 a.m. Sunday in the 300 block of First Avenue Southwest involving between 40 and 60 people, reports Derek Sullvan of the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Capt. John Sherwin says the riot encompassed the entire block and involved both men and women. She said the participants were mostly Asians and blacks. The Rochester Police Department responded along with the Olmstead County Sheriff’s Office and the state Highway Patrol. Officers were struck but the worst that happened was one officer had his glasses broken. When officers finally got the upper hand in the melee, the crowd dispersed quickly and only two arrests were made: Tony Sengphet Banloungghong, 22, and Tishea Kay Hook, 24, both from Rochester. In an earlier report on the riot, Sherwin said police didn’t know what caused the riot although officers reported hearing that one group "disrespected" the other. "I think it's just a chance encounter," Sherwin said. "Egos and alcohol."

A Mankato couple has had their solar panels installed and they plan to be off the grid soon, writes Tim Krohn of the Mankato Free Press. Gene Biewen and Noel Van Tol hired Tim Zinniel of Sleepy Eye solar to put in the system. Using federal and state tax credits and rebates, the solar system should pay for itself within six years. Zinniel said a residential solar system costs $15,000 to $20,000 with no incentives and $5,000 to $12,000 with the incentives. He said good systems have a 25-year warranty. Biewen said they don't run their air conditioner much unless it's very hot outside, so they are hoping they will be able to generate extra electricity, which will go back out on the grid and Xcel will pay them for it. 

Industrial and health care jobs are going wanting because of the lack of qualified workers, Moorhead businessmen told Sen. Al Franken on Monday. According to a story by Josh Francis in the Fargo Forum, employers are worried about filling the demand for labor. Employers such as Sanford Health, D&M Industries and American Crystal Sugar said many of their employees are nearing retirement and there’s no influx of younger workers looking for the jobs. Tom Boyle, president of Moorhead-based D&M Industries, said employers are competing with each other for skilled workers and the workers they do find are new to the area. The employers agreed technical education is a solution to their problem, and Franken announced that $2.47 million in grant funding will be put toward job training programs in the Minnesota State University System.

Bemidji cops have put an APB out for anyone using a large number of quarters to make a purchase, according to a report in the Bemidji Pioneer.  Just after 6 a.m. Monday, approximately $600 in quarters was taken along with their container, a five-gallon bucket that says "Ridgeway 2" on it, police said. Local businesses are asked to call the police if someone tries to make a large purchase using only quarters.

Giving a new meaning to the term “turkey trot,” northbound traffic at Interstate 35 and Highway 60 in Faribault was delayed Monday afternoon while authorities took care of an overturned truck carrying live turkeys, reports the Post-Bulletin. The crash was reported to the State Patrol at approximately 3:10 p.m. as the truck overturned on the northbound I-35 on-ramp from Highway 60. 

A Sewartville dad is in hot water after bringing a gun onto school grounds, according to the Associated Press. A 29-year-old man was escorted off the grounds of Bonner Elementary after a bus driver noticed he was carrying a concealed weapon. The driver notified school officials who then notified county deputies.  Olmsted County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Claymon said the man had a permit for the handgun, but all guns are prohibited on school property.

Well, this is unfortunate. An 18-year-old man from Wayzata had to be forcibly ejected from the Willmar homecoming game Friday, reports the West Central Tribune. The boor, who appeared to be intoxicated, was “reportedly engaging in obnoxious behavior and making advances on female students,” the Tribune says. The chap first refused to cooperate with directions to get out of the stands, then attempted to evade officers when they came to remove him. One officer was hit in the face and police finally used a Taser to stop the kid from fighting officers. The suspect now faces charges of disorderly conduct, underage consumption, obstruction of the legal process and fourth-degree assault on a peace officer. Score!

The price of unleaded gas has dropped below $3 a gallon at several stations in Duluth,the News Tribune reports. “If everything goes smoothly, buying gas for less than $3 per gallon should be refreshingly common in many parts of the country this winter,” Avery Ash, AAA director of federal relations, told the newspaper. AAA says the national average was $3.29 a gallon on Monday but prices of less than $3 could be found in at least 26 states. Generally, drivers are seeing the lowest gas prices since 2010, the organization said. Plus, fracking the guts out of North Dakota and Texas, combined with the lack of a major hurricane last season and so far this season, has helped keep prices down.

So you think everything is peaches and cream? You’re WRONG! Sam Cook up in Duluth reports that high winds are causing a high mortality rate among migrating songbirds. That’s right – “at least 68 songbirds have been killed after flying into windows in the Duluth area recently, including nearly 50 at the Duluth International Airport,” Cook writes, ghoulishly adding that “many more migrating birds probably have been killed in collisions with cars in Duluth and along Minnesota Highway 61. … Why are so many in Duluth? “Counters at Duluth’s Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory reported counting more than 65,000 migrating nonraptors — most of them songbirds such as robins, warblers and sparrows — from Friday through Sunday. The birds were pushed toward Lake Superior by strong northwesterly winds. To avoid flying over the lake, the birds follow the North Shore toward Duluth before continuing their migrations to Mexico, Central America and South America.”

Mower County farmers are expecting to begin harvesting a bumper crop this week, writes Eric Johnson of the Austin Daily Herald. “We’re looking at a pretty good crop coming in. … Overall, it looks like as good a crop as the last three to four years,” said Lyle area farmer Ron Frank, who has corn and soybeans. The crop may be good, but prices are down thanks to what will likely be a record harvest in some other states. “It’s going to hammer us,” Grand Meadow farmer Marlin Fay said.

A two-minute video shown to world leaders at a recent United Nations summit in New York featured a cameo from Bemidji State University student Rachel Munson, writes Maggi Stivers of the Bemidji Pioneer. The video asked people to submit their answers to the question, “What kind of world do you want to live in by 2030?” The video project was conducted by ONE, which Stivers describes as a global organization of activists and advocates working to raise awareness of poverty and preventable diseases. Munson is president of the ONE Campus Challenge on the BSU campus and she wants to focus attention on poverty in Beltrami County. 

Speaking of the homeless in Bemidji, the City Council took up the issue Monday after two homeless people died recently, reports Zach Kayser of the Pioneer. The city hopes to work with Mike Bredon, the chair of the Nameless Coalition for the Homeless, and may build an emergency shelter at the west end of the rail corridor.  "We can do a lot more than we're doing," Bredon said.

About 10 days ago, Brandie Joel, 17, left her home in Brainerd en route to a friend’s house where she planned to spend the night. Now she is missing, reports Renee Richardson of the Brainerd Dispatch. Her friends say instead of going to the girlfriend's house, Brandie got into a white car with two other girls. She reportedly stayed at a different friend's house and then was dropped off at Brainerd Cub Foods the next day where she was seen at about 4 p.m. Her last Snapchat post was that same day, in which she wrote “I majorly (expletive) up and I don't know what to do." Her family says Brandie’s mood was upbeat despite going through a break-up, recently being fired from her job, learning she has to undergo another surgery to her injured knee and having started ADHD medication earlier that week. They said she had goals for school and was meeting them. Brandie Joel has blue eyes and long medium blond hair. She is 5-feet-10, 160 pounds and wears glasses. She may be walking with a limp. Anyone with information can call the Brainerd Police Department at 218-829-2805.

North Mankato needs to triple its road maintenance budget, city officials learned Monday.Dan Linehan of the Mankato Free Press writes that city engineer Dan Sarff recommends about $3 million in new spending on road maintenance over the next five or seven years.  The seven-year plan would call for increasing the streets maintenance from this year’s budgeted amount of $152,000 to $564,000. The higher amount could begin in 2016 and run through 2022. After that, spending would level out at $386,000 a year through 2027. Much of the money would be spent on mill and overlay. The council did not address where it would get the money for the road works.

Creative Commons/Andy Melton

As farmers in Southwest Minnesota continue the harvest, they are uncovering soil damage from the heavy June downpours that had been hidden by the crop canopy. Julie Buntjer of the Worthington Daily Globe reports that the series of June storms that dumped as much as 20 inches of rain on area fields created huge gullies and erosion that will affect future harvests. Normally, farmers would seek financial help from the state after such a disaster, but the Legislature did not go into special session after the flooding. “We usually seem to be the forgotten area of the state. The farther you get away from the metropolitan area, there seems to be less interest,” Nobles County Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Ed Lenz told the Globe. Doug Bos, assistant director of Rock County Land Management, agreed, telling Buntjer “apparently because it’s an election year, no one wanted to have a special session.” Bos said silt washed onto lower plains, in ditches and filled waterways. “Along Beaver Creek and the Rock River, there are guys that have acres of sand across their field — it’s a mess,” he said.

Dana Melius of the St. Peter Herald put a Nicollet County-specific spin on the weekly crop report, stating that the soybean harvest was moving apace but wet conditions have the corn harvest about two weeks behind the norm. Melius reports that statewide, farmers are averaging 42 bushels of beans per acre, but in Nicolette County some are getting as many as 58 bushels per acre.

This story gets a little confusing, so stay with us. An internal investigation is under way in Freeborn County after a sheriff’s deputy who is running for sheriff reportedly got into an altercation with someone sporting some negative advertising on his lawn. The story, from Sarah Stultz of the Albert Lea Tribune, says that deputy Kurt Freitag, who is running for sheriff, was off duty on Sept. 30 when he stopped by Albert Lea resident Jim Bronson’s home to complain about a sign on Bronson’s property. The sign was one of Freitag’s that had been modified with a circle and a slash. Freitag claimed that since his campaign printed the sign, he owned it and could remove it. Freitag says that as he got hold of the sign, Bronson tried to “chest bump” him, which caused him to drop the sign. Bronson picked up the sign, took out the wire support, crumpled up the sign and tossed it on the ground to be retrieved by Freitag’s wife, Cheryl. Bronson, however, said the sign was placed on his property without his consent, and when the Freitags came to claim it, Kurt Freitag “chest butted” him and Bronson was forced to push Freitag back. Then Cheryl Freitag tackled Bronson from the side. Bronson fell on the sign and the couple wrestled with him until Kurt Freitag got hold of the sign. At this point, an officer and a detective arrived and mediated the incident, after which the Freitags left with the sign and no charges were filed. 

Someone broke into the concession stand at Trojan Field in Worthington on Monday, reports the Worthington Daily Globe. Coolers and a popcorn machine were damaged, and food and drink items were destroyed.

If that weren’t bad enough, a woman was pressed for change while she was washing her clothes in an Austin laundromat, reports Jenae Hackensmith of the Austin Daily Herald. Apparently, a woman entered the Maytag Laundromat at midnight and asked a woman doing her laundry for a cigarette. Since the victim didn’t have any cigarettes, the woman asked for money. She gave her the $3 in coins she had on her person. The woman ordered her to look in her car. The victim went to her car, locked the doors and called 911. Police arrested the woman, and the victim’s $3 was returned. No word on the status of her laundry.

The St. Cloud prison, that granite behemoth south of St. Cloud on Highway 10, is turning 125.David Unze of the St. Cloud Daily Times says that the 400 people employed at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud consider themselves to be a family. Employees tend to work there a long time and socialize together when they are off duty. The prison has a budget of $28 million and houses about 1,000 inmates. Rich MacDonald, an economics professor at St. Cloud State University, says the 400 employees likely add another 150 to 200 other jobs in the community. The prison is the state’s intake facility, where male inmates sentenced to prison report for processing and testing to determine which facility they'll be sent to for the remainder of their sentence.

Speaking of institutions, Kevin Allenspach of the Daily Times put together a piece on the last days of Sleepy Hollow Farms, a pumpkin patch in St. Augusta owned by Utley Kronenberg. The 76-acre parcel has been in Kronenberg’s family since 1865. Joseph settled the land, which was farmed by his son, John. Barney Kronenberg lost his arm in a corn shredder. Utley Kronenberg Sr. wanted to create seven trout ponds on the land in the late 1960s, but that idea never penciled out. Neither did his idea to parcel out the property for trailer houses. Utley Kronenberg Jr. says that of the 79 acres, about 40 are tillable, so in the early 1980s, his father decided to plant pumpkins and let people come and pick them in the fall. The idea worked and 20 years ago Utley Kronenberg Jr. bought the land from his father and has been running Sleepy Hollow Farms ever since. Now that the kids are in high school and the Kronenbergs are in their 50s, they want to have their Octobers free. Utley will likely rent the land out to someone who wants to plant corn or beans. As for his wife, Patty? "I guess I'll be getting a job," she told the Times.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is visiting Willmar’s Jennie-O Turkey Store processing plant this week after 24 workers began coughing and vomiting last Friday, reports Nicole Hovatter of the West Central Tribune. The employees were taken to Rice Memorial Hospital in seven ambulances and a bus. Wendy Ulferts, chief nursing officer at Rice, said only one of the 24 was admitted overnight. Work at the plant restarted after no presence of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide or ammonia was found. The incident is classified as a catastrophe by OSHA because it involved the hospitalization of more than three employees. OSHA plans to close the inspection within a few months.

Riley Louis Swearingen, 24, of Goldsboro, North Carolina — on leave from the Air Force to attend a friend’s wedding in Mankato — saw a police officer talking to the driver of the “drunk bus” at 2:20 a.m. Saturday and thought it would be hilarious to put one saliva-drenched index finger in each of the officer’s ears in a maneuver commonly known as a “Double Wet Willie.” The story, by Dan Nienaber in the Mankato Free Press, indicates that the police sergeant (who was not identified) turned around and heard Swearingen tell friends “I just gave the cop a wet Willy.” This led to his arrest on felony charges of assaulting a police officer with bodily fluids, as well as fifth-degree assault and disruptive intoxication. Alcohol might have been a factor. Police records show Swearingen's blood alcohol level was .18, more than twice the legal limit of .08 for driving. Before a judge Monday, an apologetic Swearingen quickly agreed to a deal that would drop the felony charges if he agreed to the misdemeanor charge of disruptive intoxication so he could return to his duties as an air traffic controller at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

This year’s deer harvest is going to be smaller than previous years, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says in a story picked up by the Brainerd Dispatch. Firearms deer season opens Saturday, Nov. 8, but because hunters can only harvest bucks in some places and fewer antlerless permits were offered, the 2014 harvest will fall significantly from the 170,000 deer harvested in 2013. Leslie McInenly, big game program leader, said the deer harvest may be about 120,000, “a level not reported since the early 1980s.” A one-deer bag limit is in effect over most of the state. The lower harvest reflects not only last year’s rough winter, but also the effectiveness of previous harvests. The DNR says that “with a return of more moderate winter weather, future seasons will not be similarly lean.”

Bemidji State University saw a minor drop in enrollment this year– down 46 students, or .9 percent, reports the Bemidji Pioneer. In 2013, BSU had 4,952 total students. There are 4,906 this year. Enrollment at Northern Technical College dropped by 9.6 percent, from 1,203 to 1,088. Enrollment in MnSCU institutions has dropped by 3.6 percent. The only university experiencing higher enrollment is Southwest State, which grew by 41 total students, or .6 percent.

After a negative cash flow last year, the Rice County Fair made a $25,000 profit this year, reports Camey Thibodeau of the Faribault Daily News. First-year executive director John Dvorak said good weather played a big part, as did splitting up the midway into adult rides on the west end and more kid-friendly rides on the east end. He was pleased with the take from grandstand shows featuring bull riding, enduro races and demolition derby, while lawnmower racing didn’t bring in as many fans.

The Carlton and Wrenshall school districts are considering consolidation, reports Candace Renalls of the Duluth News Tribune. Both school districts face declining enrollments. Carlton currently has a high school and an elementary school building with about 470 students last school year; Wrenshall has one school complex for its elementary and secondary students, with 325 students. 

Mankato Marathon participants didn’t let a thing like a bomb threat stop them from racing, writes Josh Moniz of the Mankato Free Press. Brian Mechler was arrested Saturday on charges of making terroristic threats. Police said Mechler, 56, told dispatchers four bombs had been placed along the marathon route. Mankato police called on the expertise of the drug and explosive sniffing dogs from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and swept the marathon route. No threat was found. Even so, organizers added public safety officers as an extra precaution.

The Department of Agriculture said on Monday that the state’s corn harvest is 41 percent complete compared with 16 percent a week earlier, reports the Associated Press via the Albert Lea Tribune. Minnesota’s soybean harvest continues to run ahead of normal at 94 percent complete.

But things aren’t so good in some areas. Dana Melius in the St. Peter Herald interviewed Christian Lilienthal, the Nicollet County extension educator, who said the county’s corn harvest is worse than expected. He estimated corn production is down about 25 percent, which most likely will affect farmland rents next season. An acre in Nicollet County averaged $276 per acre this year and Lilienthal said that figure could drop to $200 next season.

Looking for a nice place to retire? Think Northfield!Grace Webb at the Northfield News writes that MONEY Magazine named Northfield the best city in the U.S. for a well-rounded retirement. Editors first chose the top 12 states for housing prices, taxes on pensions, job opportunities for older workers, potential retiree income, Medicare reimbursements and available Medicaid. Then they looked at cities in those states that ranked on the magazine’s “Best Places to Live” study, which includes crime, green space, job growth and health care. Then they interviewed residents. Northfield came out on top, with Bellingham, Washington, and Manchester, New Hampshire, rounding out the top three. Northfield offers a college-town feel, low cost of living, and proximity to a major metro area and proximity to the Mayo Clinic. MONEY Magazine says the downsides include high taxes and cold winters, but apparently the taxes aren’t so high and the winters aren’t so cold as to affect its rankings.

A little bit of Tinseltown came to Zumbrota last spring when Scott Thompson filmed “His Neighbor Phil” over several weeks in the town, using local color and casting townspeople around his leads, Stephanie Zimbalist and Daniel Roebuck. The movie premiered last weekend in Zumbrota and Kay Fate of the Rochester Post Bulletin was there with all the details. The 96-minute film tells the story of Mary (Zimbalist), who has early onset Alzheimer's disease, and her husband, Harvey (Roebuck), who suspects his neighbor, Phil, may have once loved Mary and now doubts the strength of their marriage. Thompson, of Gilmanton, Wisconsin, cast Mazeppa craftsman Bob Bird as the titular Phil. Bird just wanted to help out backstage but Thompson pegged him as a natural actor. Bird loved the experience: “It's the first job I've ever had where everybody wanted to be there,” he said. And the town’s reception after seeing the movie? A standing ovation.

When tragedy strikes, there’s not much you or anyone else can do. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. John Weiss of the Post Bulletin tells the story of Amber Bishop, who was hit by a drunken driver on Sept. 20. The crash killed her 9-year-old nephew and has paralyzed her 7-year-old son, Jeramiya, from the waist down. Rubber wristbands with the inscriptions William Never Forget and Jeramiya Stay Strong are on sale at the High Plains Coop Cenex station on Minnesota Highway 42 in Plainview, where Bishop lives. Bishop said the wristbands can't change what happened, but she hopes it can change things in the future. "Something has to change," she said. Gerald Anthony Mohs, 57, of Rochester, entered a Norgaard plea of guilty to four of the charges against him, which means he's unable to recall the facts of the case due to intoxication. Mohs' driving privileges have been canceled since 1979. A preliminary breath test indicated his blood alcohol concentration was 0.172.

Jon Hamm, star of the TV series “Mad Men,” was the feature attraction at a campaign rally for Sen. Al Franken Monday in Duluth, writes Jana Hollingsworth of the Duluth News Tribune. The actor supports Franken’s efforts to curb student loan debt. Also speaking: Gov. Mark Dayton’s running mate Tina Smith, U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Crosby, Duluth Mayor Don Ness, and Franken. But the star was Hamm. “Seeing him was inspirational,” said Kelsey Keegan of Duluth.  

An anonymous donor gave $250,000 to support the Cancer Center and Long-Term Care Services at Essentia Health-St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd, the Dispatch reported. Officials say the money will be used to advance cancer diagnostic and treatment capabilities in the area. It will also be used to improve care coordination for patients who may utilize home care and long-term care services. "We are so fortunate in this community to have such a generous supporter and believer in the care we are providing to our patients with cancer. It means the world to be able to offer patients top-notch care right in the community where they live," said Dr. Laura Joque, oncologist at the Cancer Center at Essentia Health-St. Joseph Medical Center.

CC/Flickr/Clint McMahon

Several Bemidji-area residents reported seeing the late-afternoon meteor shower.

Space rocks – likely from the Taurid shower – fell across the Bemidji area between 4 and 4:55 p.m. Sunday, producing bright flashes and sonic booms,reports Bethany Wesley of the Bemidji Pioneer. Reed Olson said he saw a meteor for about seven seconds before it broke into three big fragments. A sonic boom followed about 20 seconds later in the form of a rumble that lasted about 35 seconds. Evan Hazard, who writes the Northland Stargazing column for the Pioneer, said the Taurid shower is composed of rocks rather than dust: “They're not that big — but they're big enough to get so hot that they explode and that's why you get a fireball.”

Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever said last week that someone was digging around in the computerized Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office files, reports Sarah Stultz of the Austin Daily Herald. He wouldn’t say how the data breech was discovered, what was accessed or whether it had any link to the Freeborn County Sheriff’s election. Stultz offers this coda: “The Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office has been rife with controversy and even an anonymously defamatory website, which also is under investigation. It’s unclear whether the data breach is related.”

The state Department of Health and Tim Krohn of the Mankato Free Press expended some ink Saturday reminding people in southern and western Minnesota that naturally occurring arsenic can be found in their well water. One in 10 new wells in the state have high arsenic levels, a number that jumps to one in four in some counties, the DOH says. A map of the state shows where high arsenic levels occur.  Arsenic can cause cancer and other serious health conditions, but the water is easily treated with either cartridge filters or reverse-osmosis systems.

Does this qualify as a bad day at the office? Samantha Maranell of the Waseca County News writes that two Waseca High grads — Erik Felsheim, 22, and James Atkinson, 21 — were pulled over in Lancaster County, Nebraska, with $67,000 in cash in a gym bag. Deputies accuse the pair of being en route to Colorado to buy 17 pounds of marijuana. Atkinson also was found to have 0.3 grams of ecstasy in a wallet. So now, Atkinson is charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of money to be used to purchase drugs and aiding in the consummation of a felony. Felsheim faces charges of possession of money to be used to purchase drugs and aiding in the consummation of a felony. Both men have been released on bond.

If that story bums you out, try this one: Marcia Ratliff of the Winona Daily News writes about how Sherry Mehren, an accountant at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, sent 1,700 pounds of confidential papers to the Winona Occupational Rehabilitation Center for shredding. Workers there open envelopes looking for items that can’t be shredded, like plastic cards or metal paper clips. When Dana Frasch opened one envelope, she found something quite different: $2,000. Then she told her manager and they reported the find to Mehren. After some tracing, Mehren discovered the money was meant to be deposited in a priest’s bank account in 2005, but the money was set in a box where it lay until last week. Mehren gave Frasch and her supervisor, Amanda Asche, flowers and cards and said her actions reflect well on Frasch’s character.

Nearly 40 people got sick after eating at a YoungLife banquet at Willow Creek Intermediate School in Owatonna, the state Department of Health says. The likely culprit is novovirus, writes Kim Hyatt of the Owatonna People’s Press. Torey’s Restaurant catered the event but no employees reported being sick. About 70 YoungLife volunteers handled ice at the event, and the prevailing wisdom is that one of them was sick.

Here’s a report you don’t see often. It comes from the Winona Daily News and we’ll just run it verbatim: “According to Deputy Police Chief Tom Williams, a person or persons unknown forced their way through an unused basement access chute to gain entrance to Baker Shoes, 123 East Third St., sometime Thursday night or early Friday morning. Once inside the thief or thieves made off with a number of women’s dress shoes and a small amount of cash, leaving the back door open when they left. The stolen shoes, Williams said, were all solely for a right foot.”

Speaking of making a big footprint, a Sioux Falls developer is ready to move forward on plans to build a $15 million apartment complex near downtown Rochester along with another, equally large complex on the city’s northwest side. Jeff Kiger of the Rochester Post Bulletin reports that Stencil Homes has completed purchase of three buildings across from the Olmsted County Government Center and Rochester City Hall. The company plans a six-story apartment complex with 3,100-square-feet of retail space on the main level and underground parking for residents. They said the project was in the works before Rochester and the Mayo Clinic announced the Destination Medical Center development plans, but that development didn’t hurt their plans for the facility. They also have broken ground on an 83-unit apartment complex across U.S. 52 from the new Menards. Work will begin on a third, 96-apartment project just after Thanksgiving.

WE Fest, Minnesota’s home-grown country music festival near Detroit Lakes, has been sold to Connecticut-based Townsquare Media, reports the Fargo Forum. The festival started in 1983. Townsquare Media is the third largest radio company in America with 311 stations, including 24 in Minnesota markets St. Cloud, Duluth, Rochester and Faribault/Owatonna. Details of the sale were not disclosed.

Here’s another “Minnesota makes good” story: Madden's on Gull Lake has been ranked number 53 on Conde Nast Traveler's “Top 100 Hotels and Resorts in the World: Reader's Choice Awards 2014,”according to the Brainerd Dispatch. Madden's is the only Minnesota property to make the list; it will start its 86th season next April.  

CC/Flickr/Jake Bellucci

American veterans are notoriously close-lipped about their service, especially if they saw heavy fighting. Veterans Day provides the media with the opportunity to allow a veteran to share his experiences and remind people about the horrors of war and the reality of life as a soldier.

Dale McKenzie of Bemidji recalls the Japanese kamikazes swarming ‘like bees’ through the U.S. armada bearing down on the home islands, writes Zach Kayser of the Bemidji Pioneer. He served as a corpsman aboard the hospital ship U.S.S. Rescue. The ship endured a hurricane and a typhoon, as well as a hole in the side from a bomb. McKenzie helped transport patients between ships via a gurney suspended by rope over the ocean. When the Japanese surrendered, the Rescue liberated Allied POWs from Japanese prison camps. McKenzie still has photos of the gaunt, tired POWs he cared for. The Rescue later ferried passengers between Pearl Harbor and San Francisco and McKenzie re-upped for several more tours. After the military, he and his wife, Fran, moved to Bemidji and raised their family.

JoAnne Payment of Two Harbors was going through a box of her deceased father’s belongings when she found a letter thanking Pvt. Leo La Gesse for his service in World War I. The signature at the bottom of the letter belonged to John J. Pershing, commander of American forces in Europe during the war. The Duluth News Tribune writes that Payment’s father enlisted when he was 16 and was as an anti-aircraft gunner at ammo dumps near Paris. When officers discovered he could speak French, he also became a clerk. He was one of a crew that shot down a German zeppelin making a bombing run near Paris, which earned him and 11 other men the Croix de Guerre on Nov. 1, 1918. Pershing’s letter says, in part, “Your part in the world war has been an important one in the sum total of our achievements. … It is with pride in our success that I extend to you my sincere thanks for your splendid service to the army and to the nation.” Her father never talked about the war, Payment said. After the war, La Gesse married Edna Noble of Superior and they raised their family while he worked as a switchman with the former Great Northern Railroad, retiring in 1966.

In the fall of 1943, Robert Fritz overheard his parents talking about the financial problems they were having on their farm outside St. Kilian. Robert decided he could help by joining the Army – one less mouth to feed and if he died, the family would get $10,000 and could keep the farm, he reasoned. Julie Buntjer of the Worthington Daily Globe wrote that Robert jumped at the chance to make an extra $50 a month in hazard pay by being a paratrooper. He shipped out to the Philippines and New Guinea, where he participated in many low-altitude drops. The southern Minnesotan described New Guinea as “the damndest place you ever seen. They don’t wear clothes — they run around naked as a jaybird, things sticking in their nose and in their ears.” He and his comrades ate bananas and coconuts and cooked an animal “that looked more like a rat than anything.” In early 1945, he participated in the liberation of 2,100 prisoners at the Los Banos prison camp in the Philippines. He also participated in the occupation of Japan, where he saw firsthand the devastation of nuclear war. Robert returned to Minnesota, married, moved to Worthington and worked at the Campbell’s Soup Co. while raising a family. Now 91, he still has nightmares from his military duty, and he has had three major surgeries on his back which he attributes to the low-altitude jumps he made in the Army.

Samantha Schwanke of the Owatonna People’s Press writes about Carl Braaten, a veteran who expressed his thoughts about wartime through poetry. Braaten, who lived for a time on Owatonna before settling in Osceola, Wisconsin, is dead now, but his brother-in-law, Gerold Johnson of Owatonna, wanted to share some of his poems on Veteran’s Day. Braaten was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge and was marched to Stalag 4A in Zittau, Germany, where he was liberated by Russian troops. Braaten did not talk much about the war, Johnson said, but “he would have dreams and then wake up in the morning with the poems in his head,” Johnson said.“When he was released he weighed 110 to 120 pounds and didn’t think about home, just something to eat,” said Johnson. “Some [of Braaten’s poems] are pretty intense and they tell you exactly what he lived through.” The People’s Press published one of his poems, “A Walk Through Hell,” which can be accessed at the link above and is reprinted in full at the bottom of this column.

Meanwhile, smaller than expected corn and soybean yields are doubly troublesome for Minnesota farmers because yields are greater than normal elsewhere, driving the price of the commodities down. That means less money for fewer crops, the Associated Press reports. Some farmers are storing their crops in hopes that a weather problem somewhere in the world could reduce yields and boost prices. Michael Wojahn in southern Minnesota saw a yield about 8 bushels below normal. He's expecting a small profit: "I can pay my bills on the farm, but what it's coming down to is how well my family can eat," Wojahn said.

The Kids Count study shows that children and teens in the Bemidji area are worse off than most in the state, writes Crystal Dey of the Bemidji Pioneer. Children in Beltrami County are maintaining higher than state averages in child poverty, teen births and high school dropouts. Becky Schueller, the executive director of Evergreen Youth and Family Services, said "child poverty has been an increasing upward trend since 2004. Often what we have is children growing up in families that have been in poverty for multiple generations." Teen girls between 15 and 17 are three times more likely to give birth in Beltrami County than in the state as a whole. "It's concerning because teen pregnancy is the single (most accurate) predictor of lifelong poverty for women," Schueller said. The county is also two times higher than the state in terms of dropouts.

In Winona, a similar survey found that while smoking among teens has gone down, the use of e-cigarettes has skyrocketed, reports Abby Eisenberg of the Winona Daily News. The study found that the number of high-school students who smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days dropped nearly by half in the last three years. However, nearly 13 percent of high school students and 3 percent of middle school students had used an e-cigarette in the last month. Winona Senior High School assistant principal Dave Anderson said he doesn’t catch many students smoking traditional cigarettes at school, but that “e-cigarettes have taken off dramatically” since the end of the last school year. It’s illegal for minors to possess e-cigarettes and against school rules to have them on school property.

Somebody at Cloquet High is in big trouble after a skit meant to rally the school for a big game is being described as insensitive to Native Americans, writes Jana Peterson of the Duluth News Tribune. At a pep rally prior to Cloquet’s Class AAAA state quarterfinal game against the DeLaSalle Islanders, a student dressed in a paper crown and war paint, then attacked Cloquet Coach Tom Lenarz with a swimming pool noodle before being overcome by the Cloquet High School Lumberjacks mascot and dragged out of the gymnasium, Peterson wrote. Some local Native Americans didn’t think the skit was so funny. Veronica Smith, a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, asked the Cloquet school board “how could that happen? There’s supposed to be an adviser working with the students.” Cloquet High Principal Warren Peterson said the skit was not intended to be offensive and the Islander was not depicted as a Native American, although he understood how it might have looked that way. Superintendent Ken Scarbrough said the district has had numerous staff in-service meetings and discussions with students about cultural relations. “This shows we still need more improvement,” he said.

"A Walk Through Hell"

What once was a full Company

Now only nine remained,

We had fought for six long days

Over cold snow-covered terrain.

We had no winter clothing

Only summer fatigues to wear,

We’d had no food for four long days

Our ammunition belts were bare.

The German soldiers captured us

At night asleep in the snow,

We had stopped for just a moment

To decide which way to go.

In a war torn Belgium village

They gave us some “sawdust” bread,

And put us to work digging graves

To bury the village dead.

Christmas Eve in an empty building

Sitting on a cold hard floor,

We thought of home and loved ones

And Christmases gone before.

Christmas morning we were handed

A slice of “sawdust” bread,

And begin the march in to Germany

To a prison camp miles ahead.

We started our march in freezing cold

In the winter of forty-four,

They said it was the coldest one

They had ever had before.

The fighter planes got some of us

Bombs got their share,

And the ones that fell beside the road

They were too weak to care.

For twenty four days we walked,

On twenty four slices of bread,

We had walked four hundred miles

But the worse was still ahead.

The first camp was at Mulburg

On Germany’s other side,

But to a labor camp we had to go

And a train we had to ride.

When the train stopped at the prison

They pushed seventy of us in a car,

Some had to stand so some could sit

They said it wasn’t far.

Five long days and four long nights

We tried to stand the pain,

For the doors were never opened

By the guards who rode the train.

We ate our four potatoes

We licked frost off the walls,

And prayed that God would listen

As we made our feeble calls.

The ones that were too weak to move

Were frozen to the floor,

We cursed the ones crawling over us

To use the bucket by the door.

When the train pulled into Zittau

They opened up the doors,

We thought our suffering was over

But learned there would be more.

The soldiers that died along the way

Will be enshrined forever more,

They made the greatest sacrifice

They died a “Prisoner of War.”

By Carl Braaten ex-POW at Prison-Stalag 4A Zittau, Germany.

CC/Flickr/Doug Wallick

The Willmar City Council is quite naturally interested in finding out what sent 24 Jennie-O Turkey Store employees to the hospital on Oct. 17. They may not receive an answer, writes David Little of the West Central Tribune. All the workers were released from area hospitals the same day except one who was released the next day, and all returned back to work. Insurance is handling many of the claims, and Jennie-O has said it will cover any costs not covered. Jennie-O and the Willmar Fire Department couldn’t find a cause. Since no cause could be determined, there won’t be a report. OSHA said it will take months before its final report is ready.

The snow may be slippery on the roads, but it ground this season’s harvest to a halt, writes Heather J. Carlson of the Rochester Post Bulletin. Farmers managed to harvest 95 percent of the state’s corn crop, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Lisa Behnken, an extension educator with the University of Minnesota, said the snowy weather may have stopped farmers from making corn stock bales or tilling their land. Behnken said corn yields varied across the state from as low as 90 bushels per acre to 300 bushels per acre. Dave Heins, who works at All-American Co-op in Eyota, said the corn price of $3.25 per bushel is better than some analysts were expecting. “We were expecting a lot lower because there’s a big crop,” he said.

Greater Mankato Growth is ready to move forward on a plan to make Southcentral Minnesota identified with agribusiness the same way Silicon Valley is identified with technology, reports Tim Krohn of the Mankato Free Press. The GMG is committing $370,000 over the next three years and will hire an executive director to focus on four areas: promoting agribusiness, public affairs, education, and developing a support system for existing business and marketing for new ag-related businesses.

Nine hospitals in the Arrowhead region have banded together to form Wilderness Health, reports Peter Passi in the Duluth News Tribune. None will lose their independence, said Cassandra Beardsley, executive director of the new alliance. Members include St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, Bigfork Valley Hospital, Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, Cook County Hospital in Grand Marais, Cook Hospital in Cook, Fairview Range in Hibbing, Lake View in Two Harbors, Mercy Hospital in Moose Lake and Rainy Lake Medical Center in International Falls. “So for us, the challenge is: How do you meet all of the tenets of health care reform as a small facility, and you really have to have partners to do that,” said Mike Delfs, CEO of Mercy Hospital and the vice-chairman of Wilderness Health. “This is a vehicle that allows us to remain independent, and we’re with a bunch of independent, like-minded hospitals. We’re really trying to partner together to do the things we need to do to care for patients better, while at the same time maintaining our independence.”

When Jennifer Theisen, a programmer/analyst at Bemidji State University, heard about the Girls Who Code clubs, she knew Northern Minnesota was ripe to take advantage. She founded the Northern Minnesota Girls Who Code Club in Bemidji with the hope that maybe 10 girls would join and learn how to write computer programs. She now has at least 50 girls in 6^th through 12^th grade at each meeting, reports Bethany Wesley of the Bemidji Pioneer. "They're soaking it up like a sponge," Theisen said. "I can show them just a handful of things and then tell them to go ahead and do it on their own. ... They'll take what I've shown them and they'll take it to the next step, which is so awesome to see.” The students are working with Scratch, a free online program that allows them to create a character and choreograph its movements. 

Ask any newspaper editor and they will tell you, there is no more harrowing experience involving newspaper readership than changing comic strips. Such is the case at the Faribault Daily News, where readers are being asked to choose among four choices to replace “Better Half,” which will be discontinued at the end of the month. The four choices are “The Lockhorns,” “Pardon my Planet,"“Take It From the Tinkersons,” and “Family Circus.”

A group of Carlton College students is pressing the Board of Trustees to divest any holding is has in the fossil fuel industry, reports Kevin Krein of the Northfield News. The Carleton Climate Justice Coalition has been pressing the issue for more than a year and found support from faculty, students and alumni when the college administration held a town hall meeting to discuss the divestment effort. The next step is to approach the college board of trustees with this information. "It's a small percentage of the endowment," said group leader Brent Murcia. "It could be safely reinvested. Our focus is on climate justice and I'd hope we could get the trustees to do this within a year or two." Faculty member Bob Dobrow points out that the investments are not malicious on the part of the college. "The energy industry is a pillar of American capitalism," he said. "It is almost impossible to escape. But for a college and a faculty who are in the business of preparing students for the future, how can we do that when we are involved with an industry that is going in the exact opposite direction?"

CC/Flickr/Philip Chapman-Bell

Hormel's sales increases were “fueled by… branded, value-added product portfolios.”

Hormel Foods Corp. announced a record $9.3 billion in sales in fiscal 2014, up 6 percent over the previous year, reports the Austin Daily Herald. President and CEO Jeffrey Ettinger said the company also notched a record $2.5 billion in sales for the fourth quarter. Net earnings were a record $602.7 million, up 15 percent from last year. The increases were “fueled by our branded, value-added product portfolios,” Ettinger said in a press release.

Lakes in northern Minnesota are freezing over nicely, but lakes are still dangerous in the rest of the state.Brad Phenow in the Faribault Daily News reports that there’s only a thin layer of ice on lakes in central and southern Minnesota. This severely affects ice fishing so the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources urges anglers to use extreme caution during this time of year. “A few days of cold temperatures don’t create ice strong enough to hold a person,” said Maj. Greg Salo, operations manager in the DNR Enforcement Division.

The Rochester Post Bulletin reportsan increase in the number of students sick with influenza-like illnesses. Fifteen Rochester schools had above-normal absences from schools, and symptoms reported by parents matched those of influenza: high fever, cough and sore throat. Olmsted County Public Health advises “getting vaccinated against the flu (it takes about two weeks to build immunity after the vaccination), cover your cough, wash hands often and stay home from work or school if ill.”

The Wells City Council has suspended a city police officer for two weeks without pay following an investigation, reports Josh Moniz of the Mankato Free Press. Steve Seipp has been on paid administrative leave since Aug. 22 while he was the subject of an internal investigation. Wells officials have declined to provide details about the misconduct, including the specific city rules he broke. The city did say Seipp did not face a criminal investigation and that Seipp had no prior disciplinary incidents. Wells Police Chief Jim Ratelle said the investigation has been a strain on the department of four full-time officers and five part-time officers. "We all learned a valuable lesson in this process," Ratelle said, although he too declined to provide any details on Seipp's unspecified misconduct.

Newsweek has named Bemidji High School one of the top 500 best schools in the country for low-income students.Bethany Wesley of the Bemidji Pioneer writes that the school ranked No. 412 in Newsweek's “Beating The Odds 2014 -- Top Schools For Low-Income Students” in which the schools were selected based on scores for college enrollment, graduation rates, counselor-to-student ratios, test results and keyed it into the school’s poverty rate. Bemidji Area Schools Superintendent Jim Hess presented a plaque to recognize the school, its students and staff for their efforts.

Here are the Minnesota schools on Newsweek’s list with the rank and poverty rate: 17, Twin Cities Academy High School, 44.23 percent; 92, Face to Face Academy, 89.71 percent; 94, Woodbury Senior High, 14.46 percent; 106, Mound-Westonka High School, 22.26 percent; 144, Orono Senior High, 6.81 percent; 189, Southwest Senior High, 35.93 percent; Ubah Medical Academy Charter School, 88.64 percent; 199, Mounds View Senior High, 11.12 percent; 237, Wayzata High School, 15.72 percent; 336, Mahtomedi Senior High, 7.16 percent; 391, Central Senior High (St. Paul), 55.38 percent; 412, Bemidji Senior High, 40.42 percent; Luverne Senior High, 27.68 percent; 465, Rushford-Peterson Senior High, 36.84 percent; 495, West Central Area Secondary, 37.31 percent.

A task force says by 2024, Moorhead will need a new high school, a second middle school and another elementary school, writes Helmut Schmidt of the Fargo Forum. The Moorhead School District’s facilities master plan task force joined with the Cuningham Group out of Minneapolis to determine that the high school will be outdated by that time. Enrollment increases will require another middle school and elementary school. School Board member Matt Valan said the district’s growth is welcome but has a cost. “The good news is we’re bursting at the seams,” he said. “The bad news is we’re bursting at the seams.”

John Weiss of the Rochester Post Bulletin writes that the when the towboat Sheryl B. Reeves pushed six loaded barges through the Genoa, Wisconsin, Lock and Dam 8 at 3:40 p.m. Sunday, the commercial navigation season in this region ended. The end of the season is earlier than normal because a mid-November cold snap iced up the river. In fact, the Reeves was pushing so much ice in front of it that the Corps of Engineers operators had to move the ice through the lock before it was able to get the tow through, said lock operator William J. Nissalke. It was the earliest end to a season in 45 years, according to the Associated Press.

Brainerd has been having a problem with cats in its storm sewers, reports Jessie Perrine of the Brainerd Dispatch. Animal Control officer Don Hannahs said feral cats in the storm sewer system is pretty common. It's warmer and safer for them there. The problem in Brainerd intensified when some residents heard meows in the drains and dropped cans of cat food to help the felines. That only draws in more cats, Hannahs said. City Engineer Jeff Hulsether said the cats don't cause any harm to the system. "A lot of people are saying (the cats) are stuck or stranded," Hulsether said. "That doesn't appear to be the case. They just don't want to leave."

Duluth is crowing that it has the cheapest gas in the state. The Monday price of about $2.49 per gallon of unleaded regular, according to minnesotagasprices.com, is nearly 40 cents per gallon cheaper than last year at this time. In fact, this is the cheapest gas has been at Thanksgiving since 2009. The statewide average Monday was $2.68 per gallon and $2.80 across the U.S. The News Tribune noted that this year, a 350-mile round trip to the Twin Cities will cost about $6 less than in 2013 if your vehicle gets 25 mpg. The cause of the lower prices is a bigger surplus of domestic oil coupled with Americans who are driving fewer miles in cars that have better gas mileage.

Albert Lea school leaders wanted to know what teachers thought about changing the school calendar, so they whipped up an anonymous, online survey and sent it to the faculty. Unfortunately, they received 317 responses from the district’s 279 licensed teachers, invalidating the results.Tim Engstrom reports that Superintendent Mike Funk suspected some teachers voted from multiple computers, or the link to the survey was spread to non-teachers. In fact, the newspaper found links to the survey posted on Facebook. For the record, the survey showed 139 in favor of the plan to adjust the calendar and 178 against. In June, a survey found 123 supported it, 36 opposed and 74 neutral, Engstrom wrote.

By itself this story is only mildly interesting, but it illustrates why Minnesota is a unique, wonderful place to live. Last summer, gardeners In Duluth wanted to share their heirloom seeds, so they set up a spot in the public library where folks could drop off packets of home-grown seeds and others could pick them up. Unfortunately, Minnesota law regarding seeds is set up to keep an eye out for shenanigans by companies like Monsanto and Con-Agra. Peter Passi of the Duluth News Tribune notes that the state Department of Agriculture notified the library that the seed-sharing program was out of compliance. The library needs a seed-labeling permit, which costs $50 and requires the holder to include “seed lot numbers from each gardener sharing seed, documentation of any noxious weeds that might contaminate the seeds, plant variety, seed origin and the percent of seed that can be expected to germinate. An official germination test typically involves about 400 seeds,” Passi wrote.

This is clearly beyond the reach of the sharers who drop off packets of 20 or 30 seeds. Library Services Manager Carla Powers says the one-size-fits-all approach won’t work, and Stephen Malone, supervisor of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s seed, biotechnology and grain programs, agrees. “For those lots where they may only have 20 seeds, honestly you can’t do a 400-seed test on that, but maybe you can at least do a few that will tell me at least these are live,” he said. Jamie Harvie, executive director of the Duluth-based Institute for a Sustainable Future, says, “The state is just enforcing the law. But when laws are not working, laws need to be changed,” so he’s working with Duluth City Council President Emily Larson to draft a resolution to adjust state law to loosen restrictions on seed sharing. 

It was a cold, snowy month up in Stearns County. Stephanie Dickrell of the St. Cloud Daily Times puts it in perspective: Between 1998 and 2013, there were six days in November when the daily lows dropped below zero. There were five in 2014. Bob Weisman, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at St. Cloud State University said St. Cloud’s November was the ninth coldest and eighth snowiest on record. November’s 17.6 inches of snow was 8.7 inches above average and pushed 2014 to the sixth wettest year on record.

Over in Moorhead, Grace Lyden and Josh Francis of the Fargo Forum joined reporter Don Davis to put a local face on the medical marijuana story. Brett Solum, a 13-year-old in Moorhead, has 45 to 100 epileptic seizures each day. His docs at the Mayo Clinic say medical marijuana will definitely give him some relief so his parents, Amber and Paul Solum, are happy Moorhead will likely be one of the sites for a medical marijuana dispensary. Soon, Brett will be able to take cannabis in pill, oil or vapor form. “Even to lessen one of his different medications that he’s on would be fantastic,” his mother said.

Town leaders in Bemidji are closer to attracting a YMCA, writes Bethany Wesley of the Bemidji Pioneer. Supporters are in the process of securing 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and completing a feasibility study, and are looking for cash to complete both projects. The YMCA board thinks $30,000 should accomplish both goals, and Tina Johnson said they have “a good chunk” of the amount but need more, although she wouldn’t say how much of a chunk they already have in hand. Interestingly, the proposed Bemidji YMCA would be a branch of the Duluth YMCA because independent Ys are no longer being chartered and new sites have to be branches of an existing YMCA.

And for your offbeat story of the day, Jenae Hackensmith of the Austin Daily Herald informs us that the annual Merry TubaChristmas will be at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6, at Oak Park Mall in Austin. Last year there were about 30 performers, and this year more than 40 have already signed up, she wrote. Any tuba, sousaphone or euphonium players who would like to participate are welcome. Registration starts at 11 a.m. Saturday and is $10. This will be followed by rehearsal, lunch, and the 13-song concert, all in the Oak Park Mall. Musicians should bring their own instrument and a stand and “can be decked out from tuba to toe with holiday cheer,” Hackensmith wrote.

CC/Flickr/Doug Kerr

The New Ulm Medical Center has a plan for reducing emergency-room visits in the city.

The New Ulm Medical Center hopes to cut down on emergency-room visits by hiring two registered nurses and a social worker to focus on patients who have chronic diseases, writes Nate Gotlieb of the Mankato Free Press. The new employees will target patients who might not be seen on a regular enough basis to address their issues. They will pay particular attention to patients with chronic conditions, as well as screenings for breast and colon cancer. The employees will be paid through a $366,312 grant from the Minnesota Department of Health and a $275,000 grant from the South Country Health Alliance. The rest will come from the center’s operating budget. The center has more than 1,200 patients with diabetes, including about 600 who are not at optimal care, officials said.

An investigation into the death of Winona State student Brooke Baures found that the dumbwaiter she died in was functioning properly at the time of her death, reports Abby Eisenberg of the Winona Daily News. Baures, 21, died Dec. 1 when she became trapped in a food-service elevator at the WingDam Saloon and Grill in Fountain City, Wisconsin. Fountain City Police Chief Jason Mork said he and several state of Wisconsin elevator inspectors examined the food elevator. It was functioning properly and didn’t seem to be damaged by the incident, he said. Mork has received a preliminary autopsy report but hasn’t released any findings because he hasn’t yet had the chance to discuss it with the Baures family.

The FBI will most likely be called in to help investigate the theft of about $500,000 in jewels from an Interstate 90 rest area near Rochester, reports Kay Fate of the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Here’s the blow-by-blow from her story: “Officials with the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office and the Minnesota State Patrol were called at 12:07 a.m. (Monday) to the Marion rest area on Interstate 90 between Eyota and Rochester. There, they learned that a vehicle carrying seven people on the way home from a jewelry and diamond trade show in Chicago had pulled into the rest stop to use the facilities. Two people stayed with the vehicle. A van pulled up behind their vehicle, said Capt. Scott Behrns, and at least four people — believed to be males — got out of the van, smashed several windows on the victims' vehicle and grabbed three or four traveling suitcases filled with gold and silver jewelry and loose diamonds. The loss is estimated at ‘a minimum of $500,000,’ he said."

A 19-year-old Iron River man tried to shoot a deer from his vehicle but instead struck an elementary school. Now he’s facing criminal charges, reports the Duluth News Tribune. The Iron River Police Department received a report about 8 p.m. Saturday of a gunshot heard in the area near Iron River Elementary School. On Monday, a bullet was discovered inside the school. It had traveled through the front door and struck a cement wall inside the lunchroom. The school was unoccupied at the time of the gunshot and there were no injuries. Police said there was no threat against the school.

Winona County Sheriff Dave Brand is retiring after 16 years and has had many successes, but his impact is best reflected in the effect he has had on victims and others during tragedy, writes Tesla Mitchell of the Winona Daily News. Brand made sure he brought tragic news to the family’s doorstep so he could do it in a way that showed there was care and compassion for their situation. He attended nearly every funeral, spent days and nights searching for missing persons and often would cry alongside the family. “Dave wears his heart on his sleeve,” Winona County Attorney Karin Sonneman said. “He will be missed for sure.”

An Austin man who often harangues the city and schools has been upbraided by Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm after recent comments during the open comments period at a City Council meeting, reports Trey Mewes of the Austin Daily Herald. Here’s how Mewes describes the man: “Matthew Simonson has called for schools to teach more of Benjamin Franklin’s philosophies, has railed against the Austin city government and has compared Hormel Foods Corp. to the National Socialist German Workers Party at government meetings for years.” At the recent council meeting, Simonson alluded to the fact that the mayor’s house burned down last summer and claimed the city wanted to evict low-income citizens. Though Simonson can still speak at council meetings, Stiehm said he would cut him off if he attacks individuals.

While a dump-truck driver broke the law, perhaps we can all sympathize with his situation. John Myers of the Duluth News Tribune recounts the story of an unnamed driver who didn’t stop for a Minnesota State Patrol commercial vehicle inspection outside Duluth. Instead, he led troopers on what appeared to be a chase on Lavaque Road near Fish Lake. Then he pulled into a gravel pit and parked next to a portable toilet. Troopers called the driver on his cell phone while he was inside the porta-potty. The man eventually came out and was apprehended. “Charges will be pending against the driver. And yes, he was arrested after he came out of a porta-potty,” said Sgt. Neil Dickenson, State Patrol spokesman in Duluth.