Articles

New Farmington business pitches fitness on foot

Shannon Herrera knows how therapeutic a good run can be. She credits running with helping her stay sane after her fourth child was born eight years ago, and these days she runs eight miles every day. Now, she wants to help other women discover running’s benefits for themselves.

• Photo: Moms on the Run

Weekend Futsal tournament brought 73 teams to Farmington

With snow still thick on the ground in mid-March, teams that typically play outdoors might be getting a little cabin fever. Last weekend, the South Metro Futbol Club gave at least a few of those athletes an opportunity to let off some pent-up energy.

• Photo: Futsal tournament

Column: Putting in a personal request

Hello, Winter. It’s me. Nathan. I think we need to talk. I can appreciate what you’re doing, Winter. You got a bit of a late start last year, and now that you’ve dug in, you don’t want to go. You’re like a tick that way, and I can appreciate it. But Winter? I don’t much care for ticks.

Farmington Rep. Garofalo aims for smaller legislature

If Rep. Pat Garofalo gets his way, the halls at the Minnesota State Capitol will feel a lot more spacious a decade from now. Garofalo, a Republican from Farmington, introduced legislation March 7 that would cut the size of the Minnesota’s legislature by more than half starting in 2023.

Column: A sort-of exciting proposal

Language is an ever-evolving thing. Our fast-moving culture requires some terms fall out of favor while others arise to take their place. Just as the modern teenager likely has little idea what a phonograph or a talkie might be, there are things we need words for today that never would have occurred to us even just a few years ago -- like email or smartphone or Bieber.

This time, Farmington’s St. Michael’s mission looks inward

Usually when a church talks about doing mission work, it is making plans to go out into the community and help people who are in need. This weekend, though, St. Michael’s Catholic Church is looking inward.

Rosemount woman charged in Empire roundabout crash

A 50-year-old Rosemount woman faces felony charges of criminal vehicular operation after a Friday night accident in which she lost control in a roundabout at Highway 3 and 190th Street and hit another car head on. The woman, Elizabeth Dawn Nelson, was seriously hurt in the accident. Three others received minor injuries.

Column: A few feats worth watching

There are many reasons to watch sports. Sometimes it’s for the drama of the games, the thrill of two teams engaged in a close competition down to the final seconds before, if Twitter is to be believed, the referees totally mess things up for one or the other.

Barbecue up next on Farmington’s restaurant menu

Brian Wheeler’s next step toward creating the barbecue business of his dreams is going to bring him to Farmington. Wheeler, who opened Baldy’s Barbecue in Lakeville 3 1/2 years ago is in the process of turning a former Burger King into his restaurant’s second outpost.

• Photo: Baldy's Barbecue

iPads everywhere in Farmington schools

It’s hard to get away from iPads at Farmington High School. Walk into a classroom and they’re propped up on nearly every desk. Stand in the hallway, and you can watch students walk from class to class with their eyes fixed on the glowing screen.

• Photo: iPads

Columns

Column: It’s not just Santa making a list

With 2011 coming to its inevitable end, publications both printed and digital are dedicating a lot of space to lists of things. The year-end list is a venerated tradition in the publishing business. Some will claim it dates back to Benjamin Franklin, the editor of one of this country’s first newspapers, who is believed to have published a list of the 10 best Founding Father sex scandals in the 1931 year-end issue of his Pennsylvania Gazette.

Column: A lot is riding on the rider

British singer Adele has become something of a sensation over the past year. Her big voice, well crafted songs have won her fans all over the world. And while her music isn’t exactly my style, I can see the appeal.

Column: The mulching of America

I spent part of last Saturday morning using my lawn mower to mulch the leaves that remained in my yard. The mulching mower, as you perhaps know, is the lazy man’s rake. But that’s not really the point. The point is, as I watched those leaves disappear under my mower only to be chopped to tiny bits, I couldn’t help but think about Black Friday.

Column: Finding a little place in the country

Life takes you funny places sometimes. Every once in a while you look up and wonder about the decisions that led you to where you are. Why are you do you live where you live? Why do you work the job you work? Why are you sitting in a casino theater surrounded by teenage girls screaming for an American Idol winner and a country star who looks like he might have shaved for the first time right before the show?

Column: The end of the fairy tale

I’m not proud of the fact, but sometime early Monday evening I found myself reading a newspaper story about the end of the marriage between former Gopher basketball player Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian, who so far as I can tell rose to prominence for having a large rear end and making a video of an activity most people choose not to broadcast to a world audience.

Column: A list to clarify the carry-ons

Thanks to my recent travels, I’ve been thinking a little bit more than usual about airport security. It can’t be easy to be an airport guard in these days of heightened terrorism concerns. Every day you have to make decisions about what people are allowed to carry on an airplane and what constitutes a potential threat. You have to determine, for example, that the full-size tube of toothpaste I packed is acceptable for the duration of my trip, but that the shaving cream I had in the same bag was only good for the three flights prior to the final leg from Amsterdam to Minneapolis.

Column: Another year without the fair

The Minnesota State Fair wrapped up another crowded, cholesterol-laden run on Monday with one last crowd pushing through the gates to take in clucking chickens, braying asses and oversized pigs. They also probably checked out some of the animals.

Column: Monkeying around with money

There’s an old adage that an infinite number of monkeys working on an infinite number of typewriters would eventually produce all of the works of Shakespeare. They’d ask for an infinite number of laptops, but then they’d probably waste all their time playing solitaire.

Column: Perforated in the name of beauty

We’ve long known people are willing to go to great lengths in the name of physical beauty. From corsets so tight they cut off the flow of oxygen to injections that deaden nerves in the name of reduced wrinkles, it seems there are few lines we’re not willing to cross in our never-ending pursuit of a spot on People magazine’s annual list of the 50 hottest ordinary people whose name nobody actually knows.

Column: Fantasy land

The National Football League’s lockout has come to an end, and across the country hurried preparations are under way for the season that’s about to begin.