After a shaky 3-6 start, the Triton softball team has won four straight games, propelling itself above .500 for the first time all season.
 “It was a great week for Cobra softball,” said Coach Laura Strandell after the third win.
After a 19-0 loss at Zumbrota-Mazeppa on Thursday, April 23, the Cobras hosted Lake City for a double-header. 

There is a lot of controversial issues and breaking news going on in Steele County or close to Steele County in the case of the feedlot dilemma in Westfield Township. 
I’ve worked at larger city newspapers, and at times have been inundated with tough issues and decisions that boards and others have had to make. I have also been involved in covering disaster stories.

It doesn’t take much to figure out that the world is changing around us, and not always in a positive way.
I like to consider myself a “half full glass” kind of person and not dwell on the negative aspects of life. But sometimes it becomes important to focus on the negative things in an effort to create something more positive. 

Thomas P. Remker, 46, of Owatonna, died Monday, April 27, 2015, at his home of natural causes.He was born June 16, 1968, in Rochester, the son of Robert and Judy (Tollefson) Remker. Thomas graduated with the class of 1986 from Blooming Prairie High School where he was very active in sports. He then attended college in Albert Lea. Thomas married Dawn Hinz on Sept. 4, 1993, at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa.

Most families who own a family business put all of their time and energy into making it work. However, for Brian and Paula Deml it has become double duty because they run two family businesses side-by-side. 
The Demls own Deml Heating & Air Conditioning in Owatonna and help Paula’s dad, Don McDonald, run Alpha Aviation in Owatonna and Burnsville. 

Busy and chaotic is how Ellendale Elementary School third-grade teacher Stacy Stork will say her life is like. “Managing the schedule and having to be at four places at once isn’t always easy,” she said. “They keep life interesting and fun for us.”

It only takes seconds for lives to be ruined.
Screams of horror, blood, lifeless bodies, mangled cars and rescuers frantically working set the stage for that harsh reality to be driven home to teenagers at Medford High School last Wednesday morning. It was all part of a mock car crash used to illustrate the dangers of drinking and driving just before the prom and graduation seasons.

UPDATE 4/30/2015:
 
The Times has learned that the bird flu has swept through a turkey farm in the northeastern part of Steele County. 

Doris (Larson) Kraay, 90, of Owatonna, died Sunday, April 26, 2015, at the Owatonna Hospital Doris was born November 12, 1924, in Riceland Township, Freeborn County, the daughter of Nels and Hannah (Peterson) Larson. She was raised in Lerdal, Minnesotan and graduated from Alden High School. She was united in marriage to Jochem “J.C.” Kraay on May 22, 1943, in Clarks Grove. J.C.