Columns
April 08, 2026I follow. I research. I investigate. I cross reference. I consult multiple sources and when I am all done, I can’t say for sure what, if anything is going to happen with gun laws in Minnesota this session. I can certainly remember the old adage, “don’t believe everything you hear and only half of what you read.” Today I have changed that saying to, “don’t believe absolutely anything you hear and…
April 01, 2026Question: I just purchased a pull behind camper. I have never owned or pulled one before. What do I need to know? Answer: If you pull a camper or trailer with your vehicle, you must maintain at least 500 feet of following distance from other vehicles. When loaded, 10 to 15% of the trailer’s weight should be balanced on the hitch between the trailer and vehicle. When correctly loaded, the…- By Lori SorensonApril 01, 2026After we sent pages to press last week for our March 26 edition, I began the familiar process of second-guessing AP (Associated Press) style choices, editorial judgement and potential errors and omissions. It’s a press day curse shared universally by newspaper editors around the world. This week, the bothersome word choice was “unchartered.” I had quoted our Rock County Land Management…
By Scott Rall, Outdoor ColumnistApril 01, 2026It’s really hard to balance a person’s conservation dedication against all of the other issues in the nation today. I am an adamant supporter of public lands and the recreation that they provide. Especially, considering they are the only places for many rank-and-file outdoor users to hunt, bird watch, photograph or just exist to drown out all of the white noise in our lives. In my neck of the…
By Scott Rall, Outdoor ColumnistMarch 25, 2026I attended an important meeting while I was at the 2026 National Pheasant Fest and Quail Classic a few weeks back in Minneapolis. There was a lot going on in the Minnesota metro area over the past few months, but it did not seem to interfere with the attendance greatly. The Minneapolis location normally has about 32,000 visitors, and this year it was 28,500. I thought that was pretty good…
March 25, 2026It’s nearly April! Spring is officially here. We’re all going to pretend there’s no possibility of any surprise snowstorms. April has one of my all-time favorite programs: Ag Trivia Night. This year it will be at 7 p.m. April 9 at Take 16. It’s the same format as regular Trivia Night: bring your team of four to play five categories with 10 questions apiece. However, Ag Trivia Night is all…
March 25, 2026I was on Day 4 of Gramma duty. I had just finished logging my Kentucky granddaughters into their online Zoom class. With swiftness and confidence, I signed them in, adjusted their cameras and renamed them in their participant profiles. Check. Check. And check. All systems were a go. Until. Until, I glanced out the window and noticed a backyard chicken sauntering across the lawn. …
By RIck Peterson, general managerMarch 25, 2026The weather and basketball have dominated conversations at the office, at coffee and just about everywhere else. This column is about a little bit of both. The past week to 10 days has been one for the record book as far as the weather is concerned. On Saturday, March 14 we had single-digit temperatures, high winds and a snowstorm. Seven days later we had 85-degree temperatures, calm winds…
By Nicole RonchettiMarch 18, 2026It’s difficult to describe what it feels like to taste a familiar family recipe. Every person has one, something that their mother or grandmother made that instantly transports them back to their childhood home, even 60 years later. It’s a mixture of comfort, and memory, and nostalgia. This year will be the first time I’ll be spending a major holiday by myself, and as a result I’m going to be…
By Greg Hoogeveen, sports editorMarch 18, 2026What an exciting winter sports season it has been this year — for both Luverne and Hills-Beaver Creek athletes. Two teams, LHS girls’ hockey and H-BC boys’ basketball qualified for state competition. The Luverne girls’ hockey team upset Marshall 3-2 in the section championship, after falling to the Tigers three times this season, to qualify for the state tournament. The girls had to overcome…
By RIck Peterson, general managerMarch 11, 2026It’s been a while, but I am back at the keyboard hunting and pecking out my first column in over a month and a half. Over the last six weeks I have had two emergency room visits, one at Sanford Luverne and two days later at Sanford Sioux Falls. I have been through two surgeries, two different hospital stays, seven weeks of daily IV infusions at the local hospital, countless blood draws and…
By Lori SorensonMarch 11, 2026According to Wikipedia, “knocking on wood” is a superstitious tradition to avoid “tempting fate after making a favorable prediction or boast, or a declaration concerning one’s own death or another unfavorable situation.” I’m here to tell you, dear readers, knocking on wood did nothing to help my fate after I recently declared, “Gosh, I haven’t been sick in years. In fact, I can’t remember the…
By Scott Rall, Outdoor ColumnistMarch 11, 2026I sure wish I could explain why one of my dog’s teeth are super white with no tartar or build-up and the other one’s teeth are kind of yellow and need veterinarian dental attention. The very last thing a dog owner wants to spend a lot of time or money on is dog dental work. It truly is one of those areas that most dog owners pretty much ignore. You can ignore it but, in the end, you will likely…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMarch 04, 2026It does not happen very often in my neck of the woods, but when you are making a trip of any distance you can see from time to time a batch of elk or deer behind some pretty tall fences. Deer farms are more common than elk farms but their futures in Minnesota have been dramatically changed over the past few years. With the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease these operations have been put under a…
By Brenda Winter, columnistMarch 04, 2026My friend said it so casually you might have missed the poetry of it. We were chatting on the phone when she mentioned her husband had ended his attempt at growing out his hair. After going more than a year without a haircut, he came home with a crisp new look. She said, “He looked great!” Then she added, “But he’s handsome no matter what he looks like.” I laughed and thought “That’s not how…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianMarch 04, 2026The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on March 19, 1942. It was May, 1874, in Winneshiek, Iowa, and several young men were busy tightening all loose parts on their covered wagons, greasing them where needed, repairing ox yokes and mending broken straps. Thrilled with the thought of going to a new, rich country on the morrow, they no doubt raised their voices in happy song as they…
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