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Bird flu a concern for agribusiness

Seven years ago, the state’s poultry producers had their flocks decimated by bird flu virus, a disease that poses little threat to humans, but can run rampant through poultry flocks. Around 9 million turkeys and chickens had to be destroyed, at a cost of $650 million, in order to contain the disease. The flu virus, officially known as the H5N1 HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) virus, is making a comeback in neighboring states, and the state has confirmed it has appeared in three flocks. Over the weekend, cases were confirmed in a commercial turkey flock of 289,000 birds in ...

Thumbs Up/Down

Businesses honored THUMBS UP: The New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce has selected two of the city’s finest businesses as its Businesses of the Year for 2022. Chamber members voted at the annual meeting on Thursday to pick KNUJ-SAM Radio as the Small Business of the Year, and Windings, Inc. as the Large Business of the Year. Congratulations to both. KNUJ has been a vital part of the New Ulm community for many years. It’s on-air personalities are like old friends for its listeners, and it provides entertainment and information, from covering sporting events to up-to-date weather ...

Zero death days are good COVID news

On two days this month, the state of Minnesota Department of Health recorded no deaths from COVID-19. On March 12 and March 16, zero deaths from COVID were reported. That is good, heartening news on the COVID front, but it carries a caution. Since a lot of reports to the DOH are delayed as cases and lab results come in, it is possible a death could be reported late, but the numbers for the past week have been encouraging. Since the 16th, 12 deaths have been reported — five on the 17th, but no more than three since then.Compare that with the 33 a day during the last week in ...

Let the Ukrainian flag fly in Byron

Students in a Byron high school classroom wanted to show their solidarity with Ukraine recently, after Russian troops attacked that country. So they asked their teacher if she would display a Ukrainian flag in the classroom. The flag went up and, incredibly, the high school administration told her to take it down again. Seems the district has a policy about what can and cannot be displayed in classrooms. Byron Public Schools Superintendent Mike Neubeck said the district’s attorneys are reviewing the policy, and he told Minnesota Public Radio he’s concerned that allowing teachers ...

New Highway 14 questions

For years, whenever the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) held a hearing or public meeting on the Highway 14 project in this area, the main question was, “When are you going to start it?” MnDOT held another meeting in Courtland on Tuesday to answer questions about the expansion of Highway 14 from two lanes to four from Nicollet to New Ulm. We suspect the big question would be, “When are you going to be done?” Yes, the Highway 14 expansion project that we have all been waiting for is going to start this spring, as soon as the weather allows. And for the next ...

Time to get tougher on catalytic converter theft

The theft of catalytic converters from cars has been growing over the past few years. The converters, part of the emissions control system, are coated with a variety of rare and precious metals to convert unburned hydrocarbons in exhaust into carbon dioxide and water. Thieves found that with a little practice and an electric saw they can slide under a car, take out the converter and be gone in a couple of minutes. They can sell the converters to salvage shops and recyclers for a few hundred dollars. They also leave the car owner with a very expensive repair bill. It can cost around ...