07/22/10: This week's Minnesota news from other media

While some land-grant universities are aiming to save money by selling off their livestock, North Dakota State University is going against the trend, the Fargo/Moorhead Inforum reports. Farm Operations Manager Gerry Erickson told the paper, "We're actually holding the same and even increasing. It looks pretty promising this year." The article says NDSU has "about 2,000 cows, sheep and pigs, as well as about 1,400 acres used to grow feed."

"Counties in west-central Minnesota didn't see their economies skyrocket during the boom times that preceded the recession, but neither did the bottom fall out when the economy turned sour," writes Anne Polta in the West Central Tribune. "A new analysis by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development shows that while the recession resulted in job losses all across the state, rural counties on average were hit somewhat less hard," the article says. "Kandiyohi, Swift and Yellow Medicine counties lost less than 3 percent of their total employment. Meeker, Pope and Renville counties lost between 3 and 5.9 percent of their employment."

"Students and staff at schools in Two Harbors and Silver Bay will likely proceed as usual this coming school year - it's expected they will have five days of classes a week after a second denial of the Lake Superior School District's application for a four-day school week," Matt Suoja and Mike Creger report in the Lake County News-Chronicle. The story says, "The latest Minnesota Department of Education denial is likely the fatal blow for the school board proposal as it hoped to save as much as $250,000 with the shortened week."

"Improving the state of one of the most endangered rivers in the country brought leaders from two states together in Austin last week to swap ideas," writes Jason Schoonover in the Austin Daily Herald. According to the article, Cedar River Watershed District (CRWD) leaders and state Sen. Dan Sparks met with officials from Iowa's Cedar River Watershed Coalition to discuss ways to improve the Cedar River's water quality and to prevent flooding. "The conservation group American Rivers recently named the Cedar River the fifth most endangered river in the country due to outdated flood management and poor watershed planning," the story says. "The two groups are looking to address those issues in the future."