Editorials

When Sen. Greg Clausen was elected last fall it was clear education would be a focus. The former Rosemount High School principal has experience in the area, and he knows how important a good education is. One of his focuses was state funding for all-day kindergarten. He authored...

Contrary to what you might gather from shows like MTV's 16 and Pregnant, young people have a lot to offer their community. We see evidence of that every week as we get into local schools. We see students starting clubs to help others. We see things like Farmington High School's Youth...

Farmington and Rosemount residents have a long history of serving their country, and both cities have developed strong traditions of paying tribute to those who lost their lives in service. Those traditions will continue Sunday and Monday with a series of ceremonies. Activity starts...

A garden can be a wonderful thing. It is a way to get outside, to connect with the Earth, to bring more healthful foods into your day-to-day diet. It can also be much more than that, a fact that is becoming clearer all the time in Farmington and Rosemount. The trend started a few...

Food drives don't get much easier than the one that will take place this weekend in Farmington, Rosemount and cities all across the country. Depending on where your mailbox is, you might not even have to leave your house. The impact can be significant, though. Each year mail carriers...

There was some concern in recent weeks about what our extended winter weather might mean for Farmington's annual park and pond cleanup event. Would people sign up, knowing it was possible the trash they were meant to collect would be buried under snowdrifts? Would everyone need to...

The Farmington School District's selection as an innovation zone is exciting. Probably. It's hard to say too much about the designation at this point, because nobody seems sure exactly what it means. In theory, it will lead to a loosening of some regulations if it appears the rules...

The Farmington City Council approved a new set of goals Monday night. That's a good thing. A city should have a plan for where it wants to go in the coming years. Listed among those goals is a desire to maintain good communication with residents. That is also good, but it doesn't...

Emergency workers in Farmington and Rosemount are equipped to handle a lot. They're well prepared to take care of the kinds of situations they are likely to encounter on a day-to-day basis. Every once in a while, though, something out of the ordinary comes along. Like a man getting...

There is more to school than what goes on in the classroom. Turning out good students takes more than pencils and books. Students learn lessons every day that will never show up on a standardized test. There are two good examples of that in this week's issue, and they take place...

By this point you've probably noticed there is something different about your local paper. It's bigger. Its layout has changed. And, oh yeah, there's a whole new city's worth of news in there. In some ways, this is a big change. The Farmington Independent and Rosemount Town Pages...

If you visit enough classrooms at Farmington High School you'll probably see some pretty pedestrian uses of the iPads that became standard equipment for students and teachers late last December. You'll find teachers who use them sparingly if at all. You'll find students who are as...

Farmington got a lot of attention last week thanks to the actions of one high school hockey player. The reaction is not a big surprise. The video of Austin Krause's abrupt departure from the ice Feb. 12 was striking, and for many it played neatly into an ongoing narrative about...

Every few years the city of Farmington starts to talk about economic development, and every time they do, we have pretty much the same reaction: It sounds great, if anything ever comes of it. Past efforts have led to a few promising things here and there, but for the most part things...

Innovation has been a big word since Jay Haugen took over as superintendent in the Farmington School District. Haugen talked early and often about the need to look at new ways of teaching students and -- maybe more important -- of helping them learn on their own. The most obvious...