Nine out of 20 partners in the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System may be left high and dry if the federal government continues to renege on its promise to finance the project, reports Steve Browne of the Marshall Independent.  The Lewis and Clark project was started in 2003 to supply water to 20 communities in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Eleven members in South Dakota and Iowa will start getting water later this year, but lines to the rest -- including Worthington, Luverne, Lincoln-Pipestone Rural Water, and Rock County Rural Water – are unfinished. Executive Director Troy Larson said the three states agreed to pay 10 percent of the project cost and the members another 10 percent, with the federal government agreeing to pay 80 percent. The states and members have paid their share, but the fed has fallen down because of the battle over earmarks.

Congress banned earmarks in 2011, and when it came time to approve the 2012 budget, turned the responsibility for allocating funds to the Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation. The bureau allocated $493,000, which was upped to $5 million after senators and representatives from the three member states met with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. According to Larson, that's enough to get the next scheduled connection about half-way to Rock Rapids, Iowa. "We'll be connected to a corn field," Larson said, adding that the delay in construction will add $8.5 million to the project for 2012 due to inflation.

Meanwhile, communities are losing money. Luverne Mayor Pat Baustian said the city is spending $700,000 for two new water wells and a reclamation basin that wouldn't have been necessary if the city had been hooked up in 2012 according to schedule. Glenn Thuringer, director of economic development for Worthington, said he knows of expansion plans by the local meat, grain, soybean and ethanol industries put on hold because of the lack of a reliable water source, costing possibly up to 200 jobs.

The Cloquet School Board will cut 10 instructional days from the 2012-13 school to save money, compensating with slightly longer school days, writes Jeff Papas of the Pine Journal.  The school board expects a budget deficit. “This isn’t a good thing because we have 10 days less contact with students, but if we didn’t do this we would need to find an additional $200,000 in savings,” Superintendent Ken Scarbrough said. Cloquet High School’s day will be about 10 minutes longer, which will save about $300,000 in transportation costs. The district faces a shortfall of $686,000 for the current school year.

Southeastern Minnesota farmers are a little better-off than their statewide peers when it comes to ground moisture, reports Nathan Hanson and Chris Hubbuch of the Winona Daily News. While most Minnesota fields are suffering from a moderate to severe drought, much of the Winona area is better off, with parts classified only as dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The National Weather Service predicts the area will receive either normal or above-average rainfalls into spring. Parts of the region are from 3 to 5 inches below normal precipitation since May, said NWS meteorologist Todd Rieck. Last year, Winona dairy farmers Jim and Gary Sobeck faced fields covered in snow and a wet spring delayed planting until May. This year, the fall and winter has been dry. If the weather holds, the Sobecks will get an early start on planting. But if spring doesn't deliver moisture once the ground thaws, there could be trouble. "The key is to plant it early and hope it stays wet enough to sprout," Gary said.

Allegiant Airlines and the Bemidji Regional Airport are talking about adding non-stop service between Bemidji and Las Vegas, reports Bethany Wesley of the Bemidji Pioneer.  The talks are in preliminary stages and Harold Van Leeuwen Jr., the airport manager, said he expects to know more by the end of April. Allegiant, an all-jet service, travels from regional cities such as Fargo, Grand Forks and Duluth to cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, and Los Angeles. If Allegiant does expand to Bemidji, it would not affect services to be provided soon by SkyWest. SkyWest, flying under the Delta Connect flag, will begin providing Bemidji’s commercial air service in March. The recent renovations to the Bemidji Regional Airport and its terminal are the catalysts. “It’s just one of those things that is going to make Bemidji a more attractive place” in recruiting business to the area, said Ron Johnson, an Airport Authority member.

More than 200 Sibley East Public School elementary and junior high students in Gaylord were absent Thursday due to an illness suspected to be norovirus, reports Fritz Busch of the New Ulm Journal. The Minnesota Department of Health called it a norovirus, Principal Mari Lu Martens said. There were 211 students absent Thursday, and 178 were confirmed absent Wednesday. Enrollment is 622. Eleven staff members were also sick. Symptoms included vomiting and diarrhea. Martens said school custodial staff is cleaning every door and locker handle and every desktop, among other surfaces, with QT-TB, a disinfectant designed for hospitals, nursing homes, veterinary clinics, offices, schools, motels and hotels.

Inez Honderich, who died on Feb. 8 at age 92, had the singular honor of being the first “Spam Queen,” writes Chris Schad of the Austin Daily Herald. A 1937 graduate of Austin High School, she worked for Hormel Foods, selling copies of a publication called “Squeal!,” according to Gina Gage, her oldest granddaughter. In 1939, Hormel decided to hold a contest in which the woman who sold the most copies of “Squeal!” would be named the Spam Queen and represent Hormel in ads for the canned meat. Honderich won and appeared in several ads in the Saturday Evening Post, Life, the Ladies Home Journal, Time, and other publications. “We had no idea she was the Spam Queen until we were in our 40s or 50s.” said her son John Clark, owner of Johnny’s Main Event in Austin. “She was kind of ashamed of being the Spam Queen because at that time, people who worked at the Hormel plant were known as ‘Pack Rats.’ She was afraid of being ‘Queen of the Hogs’ so she never told us. … She never smoked; I think I saw her drink a glass of wine once, and she always saw the good in everyone.” I am very thankful to have had her in my life.”

A Farmington woman risked it all in Final Jeopardy and ended up with a wild-card entry into the semifinals of the Teachers Tournament on the televised trivia game show, reports Christa Lawler of the Duluth News Tribune. Kathryn Wendling, a 1991 graduate of Duluth East, was the only contestant on Monday’s episode of “Jeopardy!” to correctly ask “Who is Monet?” in the finale. The social-studies teacher from Burnsville High wagered her entire $9,600. She didn’t win the episode. Instead, Wendling advanced to Wednesday’s show as one of four wild-card picks because she earned the most money of the tournament’s runners-up. When she saw the Final Jeopardy category — the identity of a French painter who said he was good for nothing except painting and gardening — Wendling said she thought she was done. “In my head, I was basically waving goodbye to Alex Trebek,” Wendling said. “I just came up with every French painter I could think of. I knew Monet painted flowers. Everyone thinks (the answer) has to be something tricky. That was the obvious answer.” Wendling, who lives in Farmington, Minn., was on “The Weakest Link” and won $67,500 in 2001, and she won $50,000 on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” in 2005.