Hormel sends meals to Sandy victims

The Austin-based Hormel Foods Corp. is reaching out to Hurricane Sandy victims, the Austin Daily Herald reports.  The company is sending two semitrailers of Hormel Compleats microwave meals — about 110,400 meals — and two semi-trailers of Hormel pizza-toppings white chicken cuts — approximately 156,000 packs, the story says. The donation will go to Feeding America food banks. Hormel Compleats are 10-ounce meals with chicken, beef or turkey, as well as vegetables and pasta, potatoes or rice. They do not need to be frozen or refrigerated and can be microwaved or eaten straight from the package for those without access to electricity. The chicken cuts are fully cooked and can be added as a protein source to a variety of meals.

Several musicians were added to the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame last Friday at the 24th Annual Induction Ceremony and Banquet in New Ulm. Fritz Busch of the New Ulm Journal was there. The inductees were folk and blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover; accordionist Leonard “Skeets” Langley; the late country-western guitarist LeRoy Glazier; concertina and accordion virtuoso Jerry Minar; the Chord-Ayers; and the country-rock band Canoise. Here’s a little about each: “Spider” John Koerner, Dave “Snaker” Ray, and Tony “Little Son” Glover were described as a driving force in the urban folk music revival of the 1960s. Langley won a world accordion title in 1963 in Baden-Baden, Germany. Glazier played classic country-western music in and around St. Cloud for 40 years. Minar taught, recorded and manufactured concertinas. In 1993, he was invited to perform for President Bill Clinton’s Inauguration in Washington, D.C. The Chord-Ayres are a 35-member men’s chorus from West Central Minnesota. Canoise, from St. Cloud State, opened for The Dave Clark 5 and Paul Revere & The Raiders and performed in a Battle of The Bands on the national TV show, “Where the Action Is,” besides singing with Elton John and Chuck Berry in Hawaii.

Willmar-area law enforcement officials cited 75 people for seat-belt violations during the extra Click It or Ticket enforcement patrols Oct. 12-26, reports the West Central Tribune. The Atwater, Benson and Willmar police departments and the Kandiyohi County and Swift County sheriff’s offices participated in the patrols as part of a statewide campaign. They also cited five parents and caregivers for child seat violations. More than 400 unbelted motorists were killed in the last three years in Minnesota, representing 43 percent of the total motorist deaths. In a crash, odds are six times greater for injury if a motorist is not buckled up.

Winona Lighting faces nearly $100,000 in fines after the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency discovered more than 30 years of air-quality violations, reports Nathan Hanson of the Winona Daily News. MPCA discovered Winona Lighting had operated equipment including paint booths, sandblasting equipment and a degreaser dating back to 1978 without obtaining proper environmental permits. The agency said it discovered the lack of permitting in 2011 when the company applied for new air-quality permits. The agency also discovered Winona Lighting did not submit required air-emission inventory reports for each year of operation, and documented violations of transportation and storage of hazardous wastes. These violations potentially increased emissions of several regulated air pollutants, including particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and other hazardous air pollutants, which can cause respiratory irritation in humans.

The world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, returned to its home port for the last time on Sunday. On board are two Rochester Century graduates, writes Ken Hanson of the Rochester Post-Bulletin. “It’s crazy to me to think that this ship is older than my parents, commissioned when my grandparents were kids, and it still operates the way it does,” wrote Correy Bushman, 23, a 2007 graduate of Century High School, in an email to the Post-Bulletin. Alex Jacobson, from northwest Rochester, will also disembark. Jacobson works on the ship’s nuclear engines. The Enterprise will be towed at sea to Washington state, going around South America because it’s too large to get through the Panama Canal. The Navy plans to remove the ship’s eight radioactive reactors and fuel before cutting it up for scrap.

A Winona woman was on track to hit the Guinness Book of World Records in a way that makes most women cringe: Last week, Jessica Marish delivered by Caesarean section a son and two daughters with a combined weight of 17.5 pounds, reports Mike Tighe of the Winona Daily News. Jackson Ronald was 7 pounds, 1 ounce; Emilie Rae 5 pounds, 9 ounces; and Alaina Ann at 4 pounds, 3 ounces. That’s only about a pound less than Guinness world record for living triplets of 18 pounds, 11.48 ounces to a girl and two boys born Oct. 13, 2011, in Raleigh, N.C. The Marishes are the first triplets born at Mayo since Dec. 17, 2009. It helped that Marish was able to carry the trio to 36 weeks, said Dennis Costakos, neonatology chairman at the hospital. He also credited the couple’s obstetrician, Dr. Modupe Omole, for providing “cool obstetrical hands.” The triplets have an older brother, Rylan, 4.