Articles

Man charged with sexual assault

A 32-year-old Brooklyn Park Man faces felony criminal sexual conduct charges after he reportedly had sex with an acquaintance while she slept at a Farmington home.

Farmington High School trails state on ACT results

Farmington High School students did worse than their peers statewide but better than the national average on this year’s ACT test. FHS principal Ben Kusch presented results from the 2010 ACT at a school board meeting last week. The average ACT score at FHS this year was 21.8, compared to 22.9 statewide.

Cool treats and community

Two Farmington churches are doing what they can to bring neighbors together, one cool scoop at a time. Ever since the weather turned warm, Light of the World Church and Farmington Lutheran have teamed up for an event they call Ice Cream Summer. All summer long, the churches have encouraged their members to invite neighbors out to enjoy a frosty treat and spend a little time getting to know each other.

• Ice Cream Summer
• Serving

Residents happy with parks as they are

Farmington residents appear to be happy with the parks and trails they have, but uninterested in paying more taxes to expand their options. The city’s parks system got generally good marks on a resident survey conducted this summer. 74 percent of residents reported using the city’s trail system and another 74 percent reported using neighborhood parks. Of the residents who have used the city’s parks, 79 percent rated them either good or excellent.

City project was the source of cloudy water in Vermillion

Dewatering work being done to allow the reconstruction of Walnut Street has been identified as the cause of cloudy water discovered earlier this summer in the Vermillion River.

• Cloudy water

Night out ends in gunshot, charges

An early-morning argument after a night on the town landed a Farmington man in trouble with the law after he reportedly fired a shot into the air.

Bargain shopping in overdrive

In the world of bargain shopping there are sales, there are coupons and then there’s the kind of mysterious retail magic Alison Hequet works every time she walks into a store.

• Alison Hequet

School board chair resigns

In a matter of days, District 192 School Board chair Bob Heman went from board candidate to former board member. Heman, who served 11 years on the board in two separate periods, announced plans last week to resign from the board. Board members officially accepted his resignation at their regular meeting Monday night.

New team takes over Farmington coffee shop

Between the two of them, David Hartnett and Kirk Zeaman figure they have everything they need to run a successful coffee shop. Hartnett is the creative one. Zeaman, who has a master of business administration from the University of Minnesota, knows the ins and outs and running a business. Hartnett drinks coffee. Zeaman prefers the other drinks on the menu. And both are committed to creating an atmosphere where Farmington residents can sip a cup of coffee or drink an iced tea, have some good conversation, maybe even listen to some music.

• Dunn Bros.

Woman faces drug charges after search

A 34-year-old Farmington woman faces a felony drug charge after Farmington police and agents from the Dakota County Drug Task Force found evidence of drug use in her home.

Columns

Column: Things you think about in Fargo

Thanks to a two-day trip for meetings called by people higher up than me in the Farmington Independent’s parent company, I spent Monday night in a hotel room in the outskirts of Fargo, N.D. Which, as you might guess, meant I had a lot of time to watch television in my room.

Column: Lessons learned at the fair

The Dakota County Fair is a remarkable event. It’s one of the rare opportunities in this world to indulge guilt-free in massive quantities of artery-clogging food, ogle livestock and cheer as strangers ram headlong into each other in an event that is the daydreams of any driver trapped in rush-hour traffic sprung to violent life.

Column: Judging and being judged

Every year around this time community newspaper employees from across the country sort through the best work they’ve done over the past 12 months and send off entries to compete for recognition as some of their state’s best journalism of the year.

Column: A wild ride

The Tour de France finally rolled to an end last weekend with some foreigner most Americans probably have never heard of narrowly edging out another foreigner most Americans couldn’t identify even if he rode past them on his bike yelling “Vive le tour!” which I believe is French for “Watch out for the drug tests!”

Column: For the love of stuff

We all develop attachments. To people. To places. To memories. Even in some cases to cast members from hit MTV reality TV Jersey Shore. Not, you know, in my case. But I’ve heard.

Column: Plan to have no plan

Up until about 9 p.m. Monday I had a pretty good idea what this column was going to be about. I was going to write about being unusually tall. And about buying a new bike. And about the challenges that arise when those two things come together. It was going to be funny and observant and, had circumstances allowed, it would have included a brief but tasteful nude scene.

Column: Hot times at home and work

Last Friday the air conditioning went out in the Independent offices. As the thermostat climbed to 80 degrees and above, things got a little bit uncomfortable. It was the most you’ll see modern journalists sweat in a situation that didn’t involve either a deadline or the words “about those circulation numbers.”

Column: Do you want to pet my ant?

I’ve had my share of pets in my life, and I understand the appeal. I’ve had dogs I could run and play with, birds that chirped pleasantly and cats that ... well, the cats all kind of did their own thing. But they would occasionally acknowledge my presence with a not entirely unpleasant reaction.

Column: A Saturday filled with hills

From time to time I like to write about riding my bike. It’s possible you’ve noticed. Usually when I do this it’s to talk about the difficulty of some upcoming ride I have foolishly planned. This is a common tactic in sporting activities. It’s like the football coach who talks up an inferior opponent to keep his team from becoming complacent.

Column: Soccer fever more like a cold

The soccer World Cup kicked off last week, sending sports fans around the world into frenzies of patriotic pride and leaving millions of Americans wondering where the heck their baseball highlights are.