Watch where you park in Magnolia and Warren Street, Luverne
Rock County is seal coating Warren Street in Luverne and all the streets in the town of Magnolia starting late afternoon today or early Friday morning.
The Rock County Highway Department requests no parking of vehicles on the streets to allow crews to do the seal coating.
Call the Highway Department at 283-5010 if there are any questions.
Blues festival gets its own Web site
If you would like to know more about the upcoming Blues on the Rocks blues festival in Luverne, you can now check out its new Web site.
From the home page, you can go to pages that will tell you about the artists, event and ticket information and learn about sponsors and volunteers.
The festival is scheduled from 2 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, Sept. 7.
The Verne Drive-In will host the event.
The Web site address is www.bluesontherocks.net
Big Buddies reminder
Here's a reminder that the golf scrambler/fund-raiser for the Big Buddies program is Monday.
Registration begins at 4:30 p.m., with a shotgun start at 5:30 p.m.
If you would like to participate, but golf is not your game, you are welcome to come out for the social hour at 7 p.m. followed by a dinner at 8 p.m.
Dinner is $10, golf is $25 and you get both for $30.
All proceeds go the Big Buddies of Rock County Mentorship Program.
Stats from Minnesota
Who's getting locked up?
Minnesota incarcerated 346 people per 100,000 population in 2000. That's less than half the rate nationwide, which is 702 people per 100,000.
For males, ages 18 to 64 in Minnesota, 8.5 percent of blacks, 7.2 percent of American Indians and 0.6 percent of white, non Hispanics were in correctional institutions.
According to Dean Barkley, Director of Minnesota Planning, even though Minnesota has added a large number of prisoners over the last decade, we still imprison a smaller percentage of population than all but six other states.
Life expectancy
Life expectancy rose 1.3 years in Minnesota between 1990 and 2000.
Life expectancy is now 81.5 years for females and 76.5 years for males.
Although we still gained 1.3 years, it's a smaller gain than in previous decades.
We gained 1.6 years in the '80s and 3.2 years in the '70s.
And although women are still outliving men, the gap is getting smaller. Over the past three decades the gain has gone from 7.4 years to 5 years.
The full report, Minnesota Life Expectancy in 2000, can be found at www.mnplan.state.mn.us
New Minnesota laws go into effect August 1st
Beer Kegs: Off-sale liquor retailers will now be required to attach a registration tag to beer kegs. They are also required to record a buyer's driver's license number and keg registration number at the time of sale. The legislation was passed to help prevent underage drinking.
Funeral lights: A driver of a funeral home motorcycle or vehicle will now be allowed to use a flashing red light to warn drivers that a funeral procession is following.
Jail charges: County boards will now be able to charge inmates for room, board, clothing and other correctional services to help defray jail expenses.
Organ donation: A new law will require driver's education programs to provide information about the state's organ donation program.
Emergency vehicles: It will now become a petty misdemeanor for drivers who don't yield to emergency vehicles and a misdemeanor for those who intentionally impede an emergency vehicle.
Publisher Roger Tollefson can be contacted by e-mail at
tolly@star-herald.com