Editorials

  While the recent avian influenza outbreak poses a low risk to human health and is not a food safety risk, Gov. Mark Dayton declared a state of emergency to stop the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The declaration by the state’s leader couldn’t have come quickly enough. As of May 1, nearly 4 million birds have been euthanized in Minnesota involving 67 farms in 19…

  With winter safely behind us, the Blue Mounds State Park and Touch the Sky Prairie are seeing an increasing number of visitors enjoying the outdoors. We don’t have lakes or mountains in Rock County, but we do enjoy our prairie vistas with their Sioux quartzite outcroppings, which are beautiful in themselves. To call attention to these natural resources, we will celebrate Life on the Prairie,…