Articles

Hindu community is growing in Farmington

If things work out the way Satya Balroop would like them to, Farmington may soon be a center of Hindu culture in Minnesota. Balroop is the treasurer of a group called Minnesota Hindu Milan Mandir, which has been in the city for nearly a year now, housed in a building that for many years was home to Farmington Lutheran Church.

• Photo: Minnesota Hindu Milan Mandir

Farmington group will honor memory of youth-sports pioneer

Louis Schmitz always believed in the importance of giving kids the opportunity to play sports. Now that he’s gone, the people he reached over the years want to make sure those opportunities continue.

Baldy's Barbecue opens in Farmington

When Brian Wheeler approached his cousin Chick a few years ago about opening a franchise of the family barbecue business, the answer was pretty simple. Absolutely not.

• Photo: Baldy's Barbecue

Column: Learning a sweet lesson

You can learn a lot when you work for a newspaper. You learn things that interest you. You learn things that are of value to your readers. You also learn things just because some public relations person somewhere got ahold of your email address. It’s the professional equivalent of a telemarketing call during dinner.

Facility fees may go up in ISD 192

The cost of renting some facilities at Farmington schools could go up starting in July if the District 192 School Board approves a new fee table Monday.

Teaming up to bring you hidden treasures in Farmington

Before January, Deborah Hanson and Bonnie Heim were strangers. Now, they’re business partners. Things move fast sometimes.

• Photo: Corner Treasures

Easement may create opportunities for Farmington schools

Farmington School Board members are expected to make at least a preliminary decision Monday about whether to sell a conservation easement for as much as half of a property the district owns in Castle Rock Township.

Column: For one weekend, winter won

Were they interested in such things — and I honestly can’t imagine why they would be — historians might record last weekend as the precise point when this seemingly never-ending winter finally broke my spirit.

Farmington man charged with stealing battery cables

Michael Thanghe admitted to police he shouldn’t have been driving when he was pulled over March 28. But that might be the least of his problems. Thanghe, 33, of Faribault, has been charged with possession of theft tools and receiving stolen property after he was found with battery cables believed to have been stolen from Marschall Lines bus company in Farmington.

Celts brings electronic pull tabs to Farmington

Charitable gambling is going high tech in Farmington. Celts Pub last week joined the growing list of Minnesota locations offering electronic pull tabs in addition to the traditional paper variety. It is one of just a handful of locations in Dakota County to offer the devices.

• Photo: Electronic pulltabs

Columns

Column: The great outdoors

I remember one winter several years ago local news outlets ran stories about break-ins at ice houses on Minnesota lakes. I’m pretty sure I felt sorry for the victims.

Column: Comic overload

I read a lot of comic books growing up. I wasn’t a collector, at least not in the sense that I put on white linen gloves to slide the books, still unread and perfect, into plastic bags to be stored in a humidity-controlled vault.

Column: A bunch of dopes on bikes

The Tour de France got under way earlier this month in Belgium, a geographical anomaly I can only assume has something to do with a massive failure on the part of everybody’s global positioning systems. I realize most Americans don’t care much about a bunch of guys in tights half a world away, but if you want to claim to be a serious cyclist in this country you have to at least pretend to know what’s going on.

Column: The great cooling debate

There was a great battle waged last weekend. OK, battle is probably too strong a word. So is skirmish, now that I think about it. I’d say kerfuffle, but that sound a little pretentious.

Nathan's column: Taking shelter from the storm

The popular saying about weather in Minnesota is that if you don't like what you've got, you just have to wait 15 minutes for something different to come along. I suspect this is actually a saying most places, weather being what it is. You're no more likely to get a sudden rainstorm in Stillwater, Minn. than you are in Stillwater, Okla. There probably will just be more antiques to get wet.

Column: A week of good music

I have attended more than my share of gigantic concerts lately. It’s been, like, my share and half the share of some other guy who doesn’t really go to that many live shows.

Column: A word of advice

It has become something of a tradition, this attempt I make each year to impart a little wisdom to another class of graduating seniors. I don’t do it because there is an overwhelming demand. Far from it. I don’t believe anyone has ever actually asked for my advice on the best way to tackle life post-high school.

Column: Spicing up the grocery experience

I’ve never been a big fan of grocery stores. I go there because that's where the food is, and because I don't much care to hunt my own game, and because without them I would quickly run out of ice cream sandwiches, but it's never an experience I actually look forward to.

Column: Progress you can drink

I like progress. Progress means I can watch television on a large, flat, high-definition screen instead of a Buick-sized console that weighs 600 pounds and has a black-and-white screen the size of a goldfish bowl.

Column: Passing time at Target Field

A couple of weeks ago I made my first trip to Target Field for a Twins game. I gather I was about two years too late to catch anything resembling a quality home team, but, hey, the tickets were free. And while it’s not easy to tell from the photo I took, they were in fact in the stadium.