Beyond frustration.
That pretty much sums up my feelings toward the U.S. Postal Service after the past three weeks of our newspapers going AWOL. 

Dwindling enrollment is forcing a long-time education institution in Steele County to close its doors.
St. Isidore School in Litomysl will be shutting down at the end of the school year after providing Catholic education to students for nearly 60 years, church officials announced last week.

She’s always been a farm girl determined to help her parents with chores and other tasks, but Dana Standke has been noticeably absent from farm work lately as she heals from what had been a life-threatening injury.
The Ellendale girl is recovering at home after losing her right arm in a farm accident last fall. Helping out on the farm has been nothing unusual ever since Dana was a toddler, her parents say. 

Last Saturday, Cambryn Rubin became the first Kasson-Mantorville/Triton gymnast to compete at state competition.
The merger with Kasson-Mantorville this season marked the first year of gymnastics for Triton high school. Rubin, an eighth-grader, finished third at the section tournament in Austin, giving her a chance to compete at the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis for the state tournament. 

The dangers of nitrates from fertilizers leaching into groundwater was one of the topics of a workshop dealing with current issues facing feedlot operators in Blooming Prairie last week. The session was sponsored by the feedlot officers of Dodge, Freeborn, Goodhue, Mower, Rice and Steele counties and attended by several dozen area feedlot operators.

Americans have a seemingly insatiable hunger for bacon.
Pat O’Connor, who farms with his family just outside of Blooming Prairie, is one of a number of Steele and Dodge County farmers who are trying to satisfy that hunger.

It can take 15 minutes to change your life. And that is exactly what happened to me.
Between 9:45 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 20 I have no recollection of what happened to me. I had just finished taking photos at Blooming Prairie High School of the drug dogs checking out the school grounds and was on my way to meet with Blooming Prairie Police Chief Greg Skillestad for follow-up information.

After at least 20 years of talking and construction is it possible that Highway 14 will finally be upgraded to a four-lane roadway through all of Dodge and Steele Counties?
It seems like the project has been in the talking stage for almost as long as anyone can remember. The project has gotten a boost in the past two legislative sessions with the Corridors of Commerce legislation.

The completion of the last segments of the Highway 14 expansion project got a boost last week with the announcement of details of Gov. Mark Dayton’s transportation plan.
Highway 14, which is a major east-west roadway across southern Minnesota, has been an issue for years. Work on expanding the entire highway to a four-lane status has been accomplished in small pieces over the years with two major sections remaining.