Featured Staff Blogs

Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed two provisions of a bill funding outdoors and arts projects, saying a House committee ignored a citizen advisory panel. The vetoes eliminated $3 million to fight aquatic invasive species that was destined for tribal and local governments and $6.3 million to improve Twin Cities parks. This decision is extremely difficult for me, Dayton wrote to legislative leaders, beca...

Wisconsin's northern zone muskie season opens Saturday, and, despite a late start, the fish are likely to be done spawning in most waters and ready to feed, state fisheries experts say. I think the muskie will be largely done spawning by the weekend, says Steve Avelallemant, longtime Department of Natural Resources fisheries supervisor for northern Wisconsin. It took a while in coming but we w...

My knowledge of French agriculture is limited. I know France is Europe's biggest ag producer and that it's a major player in wine and dairy. I also know that the Limousin cattle breed originated in a French province of that name. If I (or you) want to learn more about French ag, there's a new web site to go to. The Agricultural Department of the Embassy of France in the United States, which em...

The National Sunflower Association is suggesting farmers battling drought to plant you guessed it sunflower. Farmers considering abandoning winter wheat and attempting a late-seeded cash crop can get specifics at http://igrow.org/agronomy/profit-tips/soil-moisture-and-water-thrifty-crops/ The sunflower water use threshold is 50 percent of the corn water use threshold, the NSA says in its S...

  So you've been writing your blog for awhile...everything is fine. But there's something missing. The magic is gone. Cue the melodramatic music. Okay, I won't go that far. But the fact is, sometimes we roll along and blog the way we always do and end up feeling like it could all just be a little bit better. Well, then along comes help in the form of a fabulous man named Shane Mercer. ...

FARGO, N.D. Five Forum Communications Co. papers won more than 270 awards during the North Dakota Newspaper Associations 2013 convention held recently in Rapid City, S.D. Papers received recognition in categories as varied as news, opinion, website design, advertising and photography, and all entrants were judged by the Oklahoma Press Association. This was the first-ever time that the NDNA hel...

Shannon Flammond I'm nominating my sister Shannon. Many people may already know her because she has made it her goal to help teens and I mean any teens. On December 12 2010 she lost her son Forrest to suicide. It was not something anyone saw coming. Her boys were and are still her life. She has managed to keep pushing through and surviving for her family. She has made it her own personal goal ...

It can be a challenge cooking for two. When I made a big batch of Baked Garden Vegetable Stack the other day, I had a lot of tender vegetables left over. I turned them into creamy soup in 30 minutes. The thin slices of potatoes and tender ribbons of cabbage seemed to demand caraway, that distinctly flavored seed typically found in rye bread. I used to love ladling my mom's sauerkraut dotted ...