A 7-year-old boy drowned in a pond in rural Dodge County Tuesday night.
Sheriff Scott Rose said the name of the boy is being withheld pending notification of family.
Emergency crews responded to Naylor’s Pond on 160thAvenue north of Highway 14 around 4:18 p.m. Tuesday. The sheriff’s office received a report of a missing boy who had been swimming with friends and had been missing for about 10 minutes.

When Kasson police chief Kent Berghuis became aware of the allegations of sexual misconduct against one of his officers, he knew it was going to be a black eye on the agency. 

Mark Douglas Westphal, 56, of Kasson passed away unexpectedly on July 5, 2018. 
He was born in Austin on Dec. 12, 1961. He graduated from Kasson-Mantorville High School in 1980 and married his high-school sweetheart, Sara, on March 26, 1983. They shared three children and spent 35 happy years together. 

Colby Michael Head, 43, of Holcombe, Wisc., and Kasson passed away Sunday, July 1, 2018 at Mayo Clinic Health System–Luther Campus in Eau Claire. His death was sudden and unexpected. 

The voices of millions of Americans who feel government employees should decide for themselves whether to financially support a union have been heard. In a case with far-reaching implications for the profession of teaching and education reform, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1977 decision that forced government employees to pay agency fees to a union. 

A follow-up seems to be in order on my Hot Pursuit column from last week regarding the mass shooting at a newspaper in Maryland.
I tried to steer away from making my observations tied to our president, but a reader and another area newspaper publisher pulled me right into it all with some comments of their own. 

Don’t ever be fooled into thinking things are status quo at the state’s oldest county fair.
When the Dodge County Free Fair opens its gates next week in Kasson, there will be new adventures awaiting fairgoers. The fair, which is in its 161styear, runs July 18-22.

While most 4-H’ers will be showing their animals at the county fair next week, the dog project has already finished its competition. 
Members in the dog project had their judging this past Saturday. One night earlier in the week they were busy preparing on the Dodge County Fairgrounds for their dog show by practicing obedience and showmanship. 

Spreading patriotism around Kasson has come in many forms over the years, but perhaps not in as unusual of a way as what the Kasson Legion is currently embarking on.
The Freedom Rock—a 9-foot boulder—has been placed outside the Legion clubroom on Main Street awaiting an artist from Iowa to paint a mural on it. Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II began working on the project Tuesday. It is expected to take him two weeks to complete the mural.