editorials

For the first time in more than half a century, Forum Communications Co. declines to endorse the Republican candidate for president of the United States. It does not follow, however, that the endorsement goes to the Democratic candidate. This year, we suggest none of the above is...

When Farmington and Rosemount opted out of the granny pod ordinance last month, I thought maybe I should rethink my retirement plan. And then I laughed and laughed. What's a retirement plan? Apparently I'm not alone. Time magazine reports that one in three Americans have saved nothing...

Our house, being a semi-rural property, attracts a lot of bugs. My husband, who claims utter contempt for all things insectoid, has turned our property into a hellacious final resting place for the creepy crawlies. The chicken coop attracts its share of flies. And with the flies come...

Getting called for jury duty is a learning experience. I learned how to follow hand-drawn signs down ripped up roads to the appropriate parking ramp in St. Paul. The construction had my Google maps girl arguing with herself. I learned a lot about my fellow jurors, who for whatever...

There was some ugliness last year when the Muslim American Society of Minnesota announced plans to turn a former Rosemount bowling alley into a mosque. Residents of Rosemount and other nearby cities let loose with hateful, unsupported rhetoric against a group that, like the members...

The Miss Farmington pageant has come a long way since its early days. It has grown, become more complete. Being named MIss Farmington isn’t just a quick path to a scholarship. It’s a commitment to represent your hometown for a year, and it’s an invitation to learn more about...

The challenge of Highway 3 as it runs through Empire Township is, while the problems are easy to see, they are far more difficult to fix. Growing populations have meant an increase in traffic on the road, and all that traffic moving at highway speeds means getting onto and off of...

If the idea of the Farmington School District’s iPad initiative was to inspire students to learn on their own, then sending the tablet computers home at the end of the school year is the next logical step. Superintendent Jay Haugen has called the iPads a key in his effort to identify...

Automated external defibrillators are quickly becoming the modern equivalent of the fire extinguisher. You find the devices, which can provide a lifesaving jolt to a heart in sudden cardiac arrest, in an increasing number of places. If everything goes the way it’s supposed to, you’ll...

There are some disappointed seniors at Farmington High School this week. We know because we heard them at Monday’s school board meeting, and because many of them took to Twitter when they couldn’t convince board members to adjust their timeline for construction work at Tiger Stadium...

If ever there was a good excuse to ignore conventional wisdom about playing with your food, 360 Communities’ Pie in the Face Challenge is it. The nonprofit, which runs a food shelf and provides school support workers in Farmington and operates the Family Resource Center in Rosemount,...

It didn’t take long after Earl Wetzel’s death Monday night for the tributes to start pouring in. People who had learned from him, whether in the classroom or on the football field, talked eloquently about the impact he had on their lives. As varsity football coach at Farmington...

This is an exciting moment in our local school districts. Successful bond referendums in November have both the Farmington and the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan districts filling up construction schedules with projects. They’re not all glamorous. In Farmington, much of the early...

It’s only natural to look back this time of year, and in growing cities like Farmington and Rosemount there’s always something to reflect on. Farmington and Rosemount both saw the completion of major construction projects in 2015. Farmington, after months of traffic inconvenience,...

You don’t have to spend long talking to Ben Januschka to understand how much he loved his job. Januschka, the Farmington Elementary School principal who is retiring at the end of the month, has never been a classroom teacher. But he loves to watch students learn. He talks excitedly...