“It’s a Gobble Time” promotion has turned into being a gobble of generosity.
A few weeks ago our newspaper ran a promotion with various businesses giving away free turkeys just in time for Thanksgiving. It was pretty simple and straightforward: just clip out the entry form and return it to the participating business for a chance to win a turkey.

There is something rather confusing about the time when the hiatus between football games is more than a week. I hardly know what to write about, as there is so much time between contests. Now, however, it is time to get the competitive blood boiling again and psych ourselves into really backing the Awesome Blossoms again, as they prepare for Friday. I am sure a good share of the community will be at the stadium to cheer on the team.

UPDATE FROM DODGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S POSSE (Facebook)
HWY. 14 is currently closed in Claremont. 
The Dodge County Sheriff‘s office and Minnesota State Patrol are currently working a serious injury accident on Highway 14 near Claremont. Please try and avoid the highway 14 and County Road three area until the accident is cleared. 

What's going on behind closed doors at Blooming Prairie High School?
It looks like they are building a house in the industrial arts area located on the south end of the high school.
No, it's not a house; it's an outdoor storage shed that Construction Technology class members are building.

Over the past few weeks we have written several stories, editorials and columns about the Hwy. 14 expansion between Owatonna and Dodge Center finally getting underway after decades of political fighting to find the funding.

Robert James Krell, age 82 of Blooming Prairie, passed away Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019 at Prairie Manor Care Center in Blooming Prairie.
Bob was born Jan. 30, 1937 in Blooming Prairie, the son of Raymond and Nora (Pfiefer) Krell. He graduated with the class of 1954 from Blooming Prairie High School. He was a dairy and crop farmer all his life on the farm his grandparents originally settled on.

Kevin Sherman Simonson, 61 of Glencoe, Minn., died at GlenFields Living With Care on Nov. 10, 2019, after a 28- month battle with a cancerous brain tumor. 
Kevin was born to Beverly (Gieser) and Sherman Simonson at Rapid City, S.D. on Aug. 2, 1958, and baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church at Rapid City on Aug. 23. He was confirmed at Evanger Lutheran Church on May 6, 1973.

Dale E. Helmbrecht, 84, of Merrimack, N.H. and Little River, S.C. passed away on Monday, Oct. 28 at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, after a brief illness.
He was born in Ashland Township, Dodge County, son of the late Willard and Verla Helmbrecht. After high school, Dale went on to serve his country with the United States Army and later with the United States Air National Guard.

One of the more interesting stories I have recently covered for our sister newspaper, the Steele County Times, is how boxing is aiming to slow Parkinson’s disease.
I featured a group of Parkinson’s patients and in many cases their spouses who have taken up boxing and other fitness at the Owatonna Fitness Center twice a week. They are fighters, just not in the boxing ring where most boxers throw their punches.