Sunshine is gaining strength, but it's still cold out! and CHICK DAYS in Regal is underway

The full sunshine feels incredible today, even as the temperatures hover in the upper single digits across the Bonanza Valley area.

The Belgrade city council meets tonight, and their meeting agenda can be found at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog: https://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com.

It's time to advertise CHICK DAYS in Regal!
Jerry Fischbach, the kind-hearted, down-to-earth Regal Elevator owner, is promoting Chick Days for the 2026 season. Regal Elevator is now offering discounts on all chicks and chick feed. Supply your own eggs! Call for livestock feed AND pet feed at Regal Elevator; phone number 320-243-4220. Website: http://www.regalelevator.com.

GAME NIGHT! In Benton County (VIDEOS*)

We make the trek once again over to Foley high school for the Sub-Section 5A-East playoffs. The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team will face top-seeded Braham in the subsection championship with a 7 p.m. tip-off. The game will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. (Thanks, Brady!)

I'm guessing the Minnewaska boys play tonight...so 107.1 FM will have their game tonight instead. I'll see what I can find out about the radio stations that are here in Foley.

If you want to get caught up on local events, click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website's community calendar: BBEareaEvents2026.

Here's a video featuring the end of the Swanville game:


That video above begins with about 1 minute, 8 seconds left in the game.

Here's a video starting with just over 5 minutes left against Swanville:


When that video started, the Jaguars led 41-36. They outscored the Bulldogs 10-3 in those final 5 minutes.

Tonight's opponent, Braham, is 22-6 overall while seeking their first state tournament trip since 2012-2013. In that season, Braham went 32-1 and lost a heartbreaker 60-59 in the Class 2A state title game. The Bombers are ranked No. 14 in the most recent QRF rankings, while the Jaguars are No. 17.

UPDATES:
With just under 3 minutes left, Braham senior guard Bridget Golly drained a deep three-pointer for a go-ahead basket by the Bombers. This shot lifted Braham to a 25-24 advantage. HALFTIME: Braham 30, B-B-E 26. At the break, Mya Worms has 8 points, Macey Roering has 6 points, and Kacey Fischer has scored 5 as the leading scorers. Braham's sensational junior guard Morgan Rysdam is leading the Bombers with 11 points.

With 1:25 left, Rysdam drained a clutch three-pointer just before the shot clock expired. This three put Braham ahead 28-26 after Mya Worms scored to lift B-B-E ahead 26-25. The second half is starting at about 7:42 p.m.

**With 7 minutes left in the game, the Bombers are ahead 52-40.

The final score will be posted in a new blog post.

In the other subsection, Cass Lake-Bena and Pine River-Backus are playing in overtime.

Two-hour late start on Tuesday, January 21

It was no surprise when parents got the call tonight.

Due to the bitter, bone-chilling weather, classes will start 2 hours late on Tuesday, January 21 at B-B-E. As of 19:30 tonight, the temperature in Brooten hovers around 22 below zero. It's supposed to get down to -24 with a high of 8 above for Tuesday.

More updates...and more to come (UPDATES, VIDEO)

Another round of updates have taken place at the B-B-E/Bonanza Valley area community calendar that is on the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. You can find that calendar by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/eji1T. The last 48 hours have been extremely busy. A terrific church event was hosted by Grace Lutheran Church and the Big Grove/Crow River/Grace Lutheran parish on Wednesday night. I wrote about this in this week's newspaper, and you can find that on page 5.

This week, I've tried dealing with a snafu we have going regarding Bonanza Valley Days. The official BVD Facebook page that was set up years ago by my late editor, Jennifer Murphey, is not available for posting...this is because I do not remember who she provided administrative access to. The last post on this BVD Facebook page was made by Jennifer on the day she died...June 13, 2023. As it was, the Facebook page served us well for the 2023 BVD celebration. Jennifer had the BVD poster added and also had BVD grand parade registration information posted there. We rode the coattails of the work Jennifer put into it. This time around, however, it has been a heavy lift to replace the work that Jennifer did on behalf of BVD. She continues to be missed by her friends and family and Brooten in general.

Tonight, we had the Brooten Farmer's Market and the Belgrade Economic Development Authority concert in the park. That's all I've got, as I am hopeful to get some last-minute gardening done at sunrise tomorrow before thunderstorms hit. The storms may arrive as early as 5 a.m., but I hope that is wrong. I managed to get a fair amount of garden planting done today in spite of the ground being very wet. I'm at the point where I am desperate to get plants and seed in the ground. It appears we will be getting more rain across Friday and Saturday. That will be followed by what I'll call a "mild" heat wave of temperatures in the 80s next week. This is prime gardening season, and July and August are months where the bulk of garden produce is grown.

How's your family's garden coming along?

Friday updates...
This is exciting! I just learned this morning that the B-B-E Jaguars 17-U fastpitch team swept another regular season series in a doubleheader at Minnewaska Area last night. The Jaguars won by scores of 4-3 and 4-2.

Yesterday, Thursday, I learned about an exciting Little Dipper game in the Stearns County League. On Wednesday night at Spring Hill, the Elrosa Saints Little Dipper team defeated the host Chargers in 10 innings! TEN innings! Crazy. I didn't hear the final score, but I heard that this was Spring Hill's first SCL loss of the season. Playoffs are not far off for the SCL Little Dipper League, with the quarterfinals scheduled for Sunday, July 7.

Here's a short Bonanza Valley Voice web article with a video from the Redhead Creamery's Curd Fest held last Saturday: https://shorturl.at/yPAYC. The Bonanza Valley Voice website has been updated a couple times on Thursday and Friday.

Below, here's another video recorded at Curd Fest...


Tonight, Friday, we have the Elrosa Saints Elite 8 baseball tournament getting underway. The first game features the New London-Spicer Twins in a 6:30 p.m. game. The Elrosa Saints follow with a game under the lights against neighboring rival Spring Hill. The Chargers (5-2) currently lead the SCL-North division by a half game over second-place Greenwald (5-3).

And here's the agenda for Monday's Brooten city council meeting: https://shorturl.at/Dx0jo.

Good Friday worship (VIDEO)

Multiple area churches held Good Friday worship services today, including Lutheran churches, the Christian Reformed church in Brooten plus the Catholic church community.

At Trinity Lutheran church in Brooten, they hosted a joint parish Good Friday service with West Lake Johanna Lutheran church.

Here's the church choir singing tonight at Trinity in Brooten:


A busy weekend is underway. There's Easter bunny-related activities in Brooten and Elrosa on Saturday. According to the 10-day forecast, the snow should be a memory by around April 10. Fingers crossed!!

This is Holy Week (VIDEOS)

Holy Week started like a lion with a major snowstorm ripping across the Bonanza Valley area last Sunday and the days that followed. It was something to take in. I failed to heed my own caution, and I scooped too much of the heavy snow. No, I didn't have a heart attack, but I did wear myself out. I over-did it in a big way. I've needed the past two days to recover. It's amazing how having too much energy can get you in trouble!

Here's a video from Trinity Lutheran church featuring the last mid-week Lenten worship service; Pastor Jeanne Megorden is providing her sermon:


Maundy Thursday worship services were held across the area tonight. We had a nice turnout of 36 worshipers at West Lake Johanna Lutheran church in Gilchrist Township. There was room for much more, though. I hope you can get to at least one worship service this weekend. Church will make your life better. No one goes to church and goes home saying, "Gee, whiz, I shouldn't have gone to church."

Here's another video from the Belgrade Lions chili feed on March 16 at the VFW:


I finally updated the Bonanza Valley Voice website. You can see what's there at http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. It's time to call it a night. I have a radio show to get to tomorrow morning in Glenwood. We should be on by 9:30 a.m. You can tune in via the radio at 107.1 FM or go online to listen to us at https://www.kmgk1071.com.

Heart attack snow!

The Bonanza Valley area got a full dose of "heart attack" snow on Sunday night and Monday. I don't have much of an idea of what fell altogether in the last 24 hours, but it was wet and heavy. This is the type of snow that you shovel for 5 minutes, and then you need to take at least a 5 minute break. I walked to and from the office at least 5 times today, and a sixth trip to downtown Brooten by foot was for tonight's city council meeting.

This was a rare day where our vehicles never left the garage! For that, I am grateful. As of now anyway, it appears that "Snowmageddon" has been a bust locally. I don't think we've surpassed 10 inches of snowfall in this current stretch.

At B-B-E schools, the Jaguar Kids Connection closed at 2:30 p.m. today due to the road conditions. Tonight, Superintendent Walsh announced that they will have a 2-hour late start tomorrow, Tuesday, March 28. That's where things stand right now.

Important Tuesday morning updates:
at around 7 a.m. today, B-B-E schools announced that today will become an e-Learning day with remote school taking place. The rural roadways have very poor visibility right now, and even where they've been plowed, the wind is blowing some roads shut. Travel safely today! Be SMART!

At The Voice, I expect to be in and out of the office all day. I don't expect to have the office open continuously during regular business hours (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), but I will forward the office number to my cell phone in order to be reached quickly that way: 320-346-2400. This is going to be another rough looking newspaper, but I have every expectation to restore it to the normal 12-page layout. Fingers crossed!!

The snow is falling (VIDEOS) and school is canceled for Monday

By mid-morning today, the snow started to fall across the Bonanza Valley area. A number of churches had already canceled worship services for today, including Big Grove, Crow River and West Lake Johanna Lutheran churches. I expect that later today, an announcement will be made regarding classes tomorrow at B-B-E schools.

Right now I'm going to pull up the Grace Lutheran church Palm Sunday worship, which was held this morning at 9 a.m. in Belgrade. You can watch the service by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wHFzWDvE1s. As of 11 a.m., it has 14 views.

The Sunburg Fire Department and Ambulance Service held a successful spring ham and turkey bingo last night at the fire hall. It drew a crowd of close to 140 people. This is an important fundraiser for their organizations.

Here's a video from last night in Sunburg:


Here's a video from the final blackout game played last night in Sunburg. The winner was really excited! As you will see at the end:


It goes without saying now that spring sports will be on at least a two-day pause. I expect indoor practices to resume later this week for golf, track and field, fastpitch and baseball. Currently, a movement is underway to rebuild the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team, and they are on the cusp of getting a fourth player signed up. The team, made up of just seventh graders and one eighth grader, will complete in the junior high level.

B-B-E has not had its own girls' golf team since the 2019 season. That is a long, tough drought. It is time to put that to an end!

This weekend I learned some exciting news out of the health care industry relating to how the government acted in 2020 and 2021. The exciting, actually stunning news is that the government admitted they were liars. This is news for the Bonanza Valley Voice website and not this blog. What I want to comment on is how exciting it is to utilize modern technology and the connections anyone on earth can make via the Internet to access information and hear first-hand from important and powerful people. In this specific case, I'm speaking about Dr. Mary Talley Bowden of Texas, who joined two fellow doctors and sued the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). From a common man's perspective, we can go on and on about the ills of modern technology. That much is obvious. We also should celebrate the use of modern technology as we utilize it to become smarter and more informed about current events. Something as simple and easy as this Jaguars Sports blog, which was first used in October 2006 for the football and volleyball playoffs, showcases the use of technology to quickly and easily get information out to the public.

**Sunday night announcement: B-B-E schools has announced that the campuses will be closed on Monday with the exception of the Jaguar Kids Connection day care in Brooten. For K-12 students, they get their first bona fide snow day of the 2023-2024 school year...and winter's not done yet!

Rather terrific news in Brooten

This week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper will feature some remarkable news for the city of Brooten. Some tremendous, positive turn of events are taking place that everyone can feel good about. The newspaper hits the newsstands on Wednesday afternoon, when you can read all about it!

Speaking of good news...the Belgrade Lions hosted an incredible chili feed where they had turnout break what they saw in 2022 and 2023 for this event. The chili cook-off was held on Saturday at the Belgrade V.F.W., and additional reporting will come in this week's Voice.

Here's a video recorded near the end of the event:


Right before the awards were announced, the Belgrade Fire Department members who were attending the event had to abruptly leave for a fire call.

Grateful for our business community!

At this time on New Year's Eve in the final hours of 2023, I want to take a moment to give a shout out to our local business community! The news and sports coverage provided by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper would not be possible without the support of over 100 local businesses across our area.

Of course, I'm grateful for B-B-E schools and our local churches as well, but our Jaguar Country community would not last long without all the local businesses we have.

Tonight I'll join a New Year's Eve party taking place at Lucky Shots Bowling Alley in Brooten. I also am aware of partying at Heidi's Bar in Sedan, although I can't say how late any of that will go. Marcia's Bar and Grill is also open tonight next door to the newspaper office.

Here's a video I forgot to post from the Belgrade Commercial Club Santa Day over 3 weeks ago:


Our business community helps make events like the Belgrade Santa Day possible! Thank you to everyone out there who supports what we have going here in the Bonanza Valley area!

You can get a glimpse of just about everything that wasn't sports-related that took place across the Bonanza Valley area in 2023 by clicking here to the Bonanza Valley Voice SmugMug photo gallery: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2023-B-B-EBonanza-Valley-area-events.

Upcoming events across the Bonanza Valley area are always listed in chronological order at the newspaper's website calendar page. You can find that by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/otuB1. A few things on deck in the near term include a special school board meeting (Tuesday this week), a Buck Euchre card tournament at The Spot on Saturday and then a regular school board plus the Brooten city council meeting next Monday the 8th. One of our local conservation groups holds their annual meeting on Saturday the 13th in Padua. Stay up to date and be an informed citizen!

A hectic week lies ahead

We are in front of one of the busiest weeks of the entire year. In addition to all the community and school events coming, cold weather will arrive on Thursday night and usher in winter-like conditions. The day of Thursday, October 26 appears to be the final day of any appreciable gardening that can take place this year. By that evening, all of my above-ground harvesting has to be completed. You can catch up with the events that are coming at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's website community calendar: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/page/bonanza-valley-area-community-calendar/102.html.

One event I'd really like to raise the profile of is the Bonanza Valley Royal Strutters upcoming annual banquet and "Gun Blast" at the Padua Pub. This will be held on Saturday, October 28 with doors opening at 5 p.m. You don't have to arrive at that time, however, and they have a very casual evening planned with a dinner served at 7 p.m. (Dave's famous chicken and ribs!) Question can be emailed to BVRS.nwtf@gmail.com. The Bonanza Valley Royal Strutters is one of our premier conservation and gun safety and gun advocacy organizations. Its members are also key supporters of B-B-E high school's Clay Trapshooting team.

More details are coming in this week's The Voice!

On Sunday night, with a light rain coming down, I'm pouring over my football game notes. I thought we scored on our 11th or 12th drive of the game in the second half, but I have since determined that the Jaguars scored on their first, second and 10th drives of the game in the 20-7 win over K-M-S. The Fighting Saints proved to be a formidable opponent, and the game's outcome was not secured until less than 4 minutes remained. The Jaguars gained 4.43 yards per offensive play, while K-M-S gained 3.45 yards per offensive play.

Late Sunday night, the final Class 1A coaches poll was released, and our volleyball team is ranked No. 12 out of 12 total teams receiving votes. On the QRF rankings, B-B-E sits at No. 9 in the latest calculations released. Minnesota's Class 1A in girls' volleyball includes 152 teams. Throughout all four classes, Minnesota has 404 high school varsity volleyball teams.

In Fine Arts news!
The B-B-E high school pep band will perform for the second round of volleyball playoffs if the Jaguars win their opener on Wednesday night. The second round match is in Brooten on Friday, October 27. The music program as a whole is gearing up for the fourth annual B-B-E Spooktacular music night on Monday, October 30 at the high school. More on that was published on page 2 of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper last week.

Church dinner day...and football notes

Today there's a big change of pace ahead with two church dinners on deck...the first begins at 10:30 a.m. at First Lutheran Church of Norway Lake, where they'll be serving a meatball dinner. The other is a turkey dinner at Chippewa Falls Lutheran that begins at 11 a.m. in beautiful Terrace. I won't be able to get down to Norway Lake, but I am going to Terrace. My morning has been occupied by going to church worship and still combing over my Friday Night Lights IV game notes.

Take this in: B-B-E's first three drives encompassed 10 plays for a total of 210 yards that put them ahead 20-6 with just under 2 minutes remaining in the first quarter. For A-C-GC, their first scoring drive on their third overall possession covered 90 yards before they scored on Jevon Williams' 7-yard run with 2:11 left in the opening quarter. That drive used 6 plays, its biggest coming on a 44-yard run by tight end Isaiah Renne that put the Falcons at the 7-yard line.

Overall in the first half, the Jaguars totaled 268 yards of offense on 19 total plays across 6 drives to score 28 offensive points. Of the 268 yards, 127 yards came on 11 carries, and 141 yards came on 8 catches. Although they trailed 36-22 at halftime, the Falcons totaled 270 yards of offense on 31 plays to score 22 offensive points.

After a full review of my notes and Hudl game tape, my totals show the Jaguar gaining 424 yards of offense, while A-C-GC had 404 yards of offense. The Jaguars had 35 plays to 58 by the Falcons. For B-B-E's offense, the yardage was a total split with 212 yards on the ground and 212 in the air. Crazy. In the second half, A-C-GC had 140 yards of offense...but no points scored.

UPDATE on Sunday night...I will not be blogging for at least a couple days. Likely not until Wednesday night. My plate just got beyond full, and I have to micromanage my time going into this week. I'm still determining exactly what went wrong, but it appears that our family's 2013 Chrysler minivan has a completely hatched transmission. This is after its undercarriage was "roughed up" by a softball-size rock. The rock was driven over at highway speed on a county road north of Paynesville on Friday. I think it caused a slow leak of transmission fluid which was not discovered until today...when it was too late. The damage was done. Somehow the transmission lost a ton of fluid this weekend. This minivan's transmission has a capacity of about 9 quarts, and by my estimation it was at least 3 quarts low. Our family is now facing a true hardship. This has been difficult to wrap my head around. It was a freak accident to have this rock damage the transmission, and I have to simply be glad that it didn't cause an actual car accident. Tomorrow I'll be getting a tow truck on the road and also making a visit with Scott Voss at Hofmann Transmission. Looks like he's got more business lined up! I am thankful he's in our Brooten community.

Sports update...
**The volleyball team won 25-16, 25-22, 26-24 at Parkers Prairie tonight. They're now 13-4 overall. Next on the schedule for the Jaguars is a trip to Eden Valley-Watkins this Thursday for a Central Minnesota Conference match. The two teams shared the CMC title last year.

Harvesting solar energy...and updates (VIDEOS)

Today we continue harvesting some tremendous solar energy across the Bonanza Valley area and beyond. That's basically tying up all my free time right now. In our family garden, we are very busy pruning tomatoes and tending to a few other vegetables that are still going strong. The heat units are plentiful, which is something we are grateful for.

We are expecting a high of 85 degrees today!!! At Weather-Dot-Com, it says are at 82 degrees now in the middle of the afternoon in Brooten.

So! Go outside and enjoy that sunshine!!!

Tomorrow the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team competes in the Prairie Conference tournament. If memory serves me correct, this is an event that is being brought back after it was pulled during the 2020 COVID season. This is great news!! It is a tourament that I feel the Jaguars can shine in. Action begins at 9 a.m. at Osakis high school with five teams, including the host school, B-B-E, St. John's Prep, Parkers Prairie and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area. I am hopeful that The Voice will cover it in person.

Videos added late Wednesday night...

Here's a video featuring B-B-E's fourth touchdown of the game against Benson in the home opener last Friday:


The Jaguars led 28-3 after that touchdown on Luke Illies's reception in the end zone from Luke Dingmann.

Here's a video from late in the second quarter against Benson:


Time to get to practicing my trumpet for our pep band's second performance of the fall! It's less than 48 hours away!!!

Hard freeze takes out the garden

I spent about two hours last night clearing out the last of what I could from the family garden plots. The exception is a couple hills of potatoes plus some carrots that are still in the ground. We had what farmers call a "killing frost" in the Bonanza Valley area with temperatures dropping into the low 20s. It dipped below 32 degrees between 9 and 10 p.m. last night. Noteworthy: an Indian summer is coming!

What this means for my newspaper-related work is that I'm "behind the 8 ball" and have to catch up from work I would have normally done on Sunday night. Look for just a 12-page newspaper this week. I hope to catch my breath before the big sports playoff push begins next week. Life will get very, very crazy.

Tonight we have the school board meeting at the high school media center at 7 p.m. It is open to the public. The Belgrade city council also meets tonight at 7 p.m. at city hall. A third group meets tonight at 7 p.m., the Belgrade Lions, who will meet at the meeting room at Coop's Corner.

You can see a summary of items on the Belgrade city council agenda at my editor's blog: http://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com. Yes, I have a "news" blog as well as this sports blog to maintain and operate in addition to the newspaper's regular website!

Storm report from Thursday, May 12 and game updates

Here's what I've got so far at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://bit.ly/3yRCVI7.

I'll get updates there as I receive or process them. **Video was added late Friday afternoon.

Tonight: the baseball game at 7 p.m. will be broadcast on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. That's 107.1 on your radio dial, and they also stream live from their website: https://www.kmgk1071.com.

*The Jaguars have a 2-0 lead in the third inning against Browerville.

A crazy busy weekend

First, a reminder! The Sunburg Fire Department invites everyone to their spring ham and turkey bingo fundraiser event on Saturday, April 9 at 7 p.m. at the fire hall/community center. Sponsored by the Sunburg Fire Department and Ambulance Service. One card is just $6, while three cards are just $12. DOOR prizes! FREE coffee! 

Also! Tonight The Hit List will be performing live at Heidi's Bar in busy downtown Sedan. The Belgrade V.F.W. Steak and Pork Chop Feed is tonight from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

TOMORROW! The big B-B-E speech team showcase takes place between 3 and 5 p.m. at the high school. Come one, come all! Before or after you go to that, you can take in the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church pancake and sausage supper at their parish hall between 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.

You can see the full list of area activities at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website by clicking here: https://bit.ly/3vpO7bB.

B-B-E zip codes post a one

There are only about 14 different items pulling my attention away from state wrestling right now. So I hope to get through most of them soon and then re-focus on state wrestling again.

Here's one item to get off my desk...as I have done every Thursday since the summer of 2020, I've finally reviewed the latest local COVID-19 numbers. Click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website to read more: https://bit.ly/3sCLVNC.

Don't forget! This weekend is jam-packed with activities, which culminate with the Belgrade Lions Family Fun Day from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 6 at the high school.

Did you know? The winter choir concert that we held on Monday this week at Olson Auditorium was Jaguar Country's first public choir concert since December 2, 2019. The concert held on that night was a Christmas concert. We went almost two years and three months without a choir concert. Crazy. I'm so glad that is behind us. You can see a photo gallery with pictures from that 2019 Christmas concert by clicking here: https://bit.ly/35Pjxio.

Valentine's weekend is coming...and a play!

Here's a friendly reminder that a big Valentine's weekend is straight ahead here in the Bonanza Valley area of Minnesota. I've got two businesses highlighted on an online article that you can check out right now by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice website: https://bit.ly/3ozngHq.

Additional Valentine's weekend advertising is available in this week's issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice print edition. Please support these businesses, as they make it possible for the newspaper's sports department to continue operating on a weekly basis covering B-B-E varsity sports!

Also! Read more here on the play On Golden Pond coming to The Little Theater in New London: https://bit.ly/3LmRUgT.

Good news Wednesday (a day late)...and we posted a 48

Here's my good news Wednesday installment for this week. I want to do this every week on Wednesday, as it helps "pick me up" following each Bonanza Valley Voice news cycle.



CRAZY, CRAZY GOOD NEWS! BREAKING NEWS out of Canada! the Canadian trucker COVID-19 jab mandate protest is set to earn a HUGE victory in rural Alberta. Alberta is located in southwestern Canada. While major media will not report this right away, and some may never report it, you can learn about it right now while reading this. Rural ministers of Alberta's legislative assembly are set to agree to demands set forward by the truckers who have been blockading the Canada-U.S. border crossing. Rural Alberta Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in the province will agree on the demands contingent on the truckers allowing one lane of non-emergency traffic to pass through the border. Currently, all traffic not involving emergency vehicles are allowed through the blockade. A spokesman for the truckers said that the rural MLAs are "supporting us 100 percent" but they cannot continue support if we don't open one lane of traffic. If the lane is opened, they will drop the rural COVID-19 mandates AND the "Restrictions Exemption Program" which is the Alberta government's fancy-schmancy, cloaked way of naming their completely insane truckers COVID-19 jab mandate, a vaccine passport policy. The truckers have said that if their request to drop the jab nonsense is not met, the border would be shut down immediately.

Wow!

Good news piece No. 1: COVID-19 case counts plummetted at B-B-E schools in the past week by over half. The January 26 COVID-19 number of active cases among students and staff was 19. For February 2, the new number is now nine. For the record, nine represents approximately 1.13 percent of all staff and students. Imagine that, as COVID-19 is still "raging" across the state, nation and globe, our fully and completely wide-open school district in Jaguar Country has an official COVID-19 case rate of just over one percent. Let that sink in for a moment. I spoke personally with the B-B-E school nurse yesterday, and I can report that she is feeling upbeat about where we stand right now as a school district. She acknowledges that we are not "out of the woods" yet with COVID-19, but we have much to be grateful for. It is very much worth noting that B-B-E elementary school held their Global Play Day yesterday. This is something that simply could not be held in any way, shape or form in many schools in Minnesota as well as across the United States right now because of their stupidly insane COVID-19 "mitigation" policies that they mandate on their school children.

Good news piece No. 2: COVID-19 case counts have declined on a week-over-week basis among the approximately 4,300 men, women and children living in the zip code areas of Belgrade, Brooten and Elrosa (56316, 56312, 56325). The new number of COVID-19 cases reported by the Minnesota Department of Health during the past week is 48. This is crazy good news after the January 27 report showed 54 new cases. While it is possible that the delta strain is still out there, we can assume that omicron has made its way here and is spreading quickly. However, the fact that the number did not continue increasing from 54 is fabulous news. Also, if you feel you or a loved one is susceptible to having a bad outcome with a match up with COVID-19, I recommend that you don't assume you'll catch omicron instead of the much tougher delta strain. I've read reports in the Argus Leader out of Sioux Falls that genetic sequencing of COVID-19 cases in South Dakota show that some delta strains are still in circulation. If that's the case in South Dakota, then we should assume that's the case in Minnesota. I don't have time to look at all area zip codes, but I made a point to look at Spicer, New London and Glenwood...in all three zip code areas, they showed a noteworthy decline in COVID-19 cases this week compared to last week, when most area zip codes saw huge increases in the January 27 MDH report. GEE WHIZ, it's almost as if COVID-19 waves are cyclical and have very little to do with government mandates. GEE WHIZ, WHAT A CONCEPT!

Good news piece No. 3: Sweden is the latest European nation to drop all COVID-19 restrictions. Read that again: ALL restrictions. Starting on February 9, people will be allowed to dine at restaurants again with no limitations on how many people can be inside, or how much space there should be between them. The requirements for COVID-19 vaccine certificates and wearing face masks on public transportation will also be removed, as well as the recommendation to limit social contacts.

Good news piece No. 4: the United Kingdom is scrapping their health care worker COVID-19 jab mandates. This unbelievably good news was announced on January 31 this week. You will not read this in most major media outlets in America....LET THAT SINK INTO YOUR HEAD FOR A MOMENT. 

It's ironic how the U.K. is a leader on this issue, while the United States is a sad, pathetic country that continues to be a follower and completely beholden to the interests of Big Pharma with no regards for the health care system's ability to properly staff their facilities. For the U.K., they are now able to hire back over 40,000 health care workers who were wrongly "sidelined" because of the jab mandate. This is very, very good news for their health care system.

Good news piece No. 5: recognizing that they could have an increase in students who may suffer from mental health challenges, the Eden Valley-Watkins school district hired a second social worker for the 2021-2022 school year. While this is not breaking news and is something that took place last fall, it is still very much worth reporting here.

In the January 12, 2022 issue of the Eden Valley-Watkins Voice newspaper, elementary principal Rob Pederson said that he was very grateful that the school board hired a second social worker. He said, "More students than ever are crying in the hallways. They are just so overwhelmed. I've never seen it. That wears on our staff. It wears on parents. I commend staff for what they do. I commend parents for what they do."

In the same newspaper article, a change to the current school year was also outlined to the public called Flexible Fridays. "Flexible Fridays" amount to spaced out extra days of prep time for teachers with students having the day off. This was in response to numerous staff members doing double duty and other extra work when the staff was hit with COVID-19 absences last fall and this winter. They set these Flexible Fridays for February 4, March 4, April 1 and May 13. School officials are encouraging families to schedule any child-related appointments for these Fridays to help minimize school absences. This Flexible Fridays concept is a unique way to create a "safety valve" release for teachers. The district announced the dates right away in mid-January to give parents a heads-up well ahead of time so they know that school will not be in session those days. Also, for families who need day care services, that will be offered through their Community Education. Is this something that more schools should adopt? I don't know the answer to that question. I have not seen or heard anything to suggest we should do this at B-B-E. That's out of my purview, but my initial response to that would be that this step isn't necessary at B-B-E with our four-day school week structure. I added this to this good news blog post simply to point out that EV-W schools recognized they had an issue and did not ignore it. That is a good thing. My side bar comment: mental health challenges stemming from misguided COVID-19 mandates will plague our society for years, possible decades. If you didn't know that or realize that by now, then you have been living under a rock and have not been paying attention very well to reality. "You heard it from me first." I'm not bragging about that, but I will continue stating very clearly how worried I am for our future when the government has instilled a ridiculous level of COVID-19 anxiety and angst in the public. Ridiculous to the Nth degree, of the highest order. End Rant.

Good news piece No. 6: we are over halfways through winter! Yes, that is good news! I call it good news because of how anxious and excited I am to get back into our family garden. By my estimation, we've got about two months left of winter, which begin in late November last year. We were spoiled last fall with extraordinarily mild, sunny weather. What I call a fairly "normal" winter began around December 1 and has stuck with us since. The days are getting longer now, and in just a few more weeks we'll be preparing for the Easter season and the always-enjoyable fish fry season!

Good news piece No. 7: the Canadian trucker COVID-19 jab mandate protest has created widespread, global awareness of what is wrong with government's wrong, anti-science approach to the spread of the COVID-19 China-Communist-Party (CCP) virus. Also, every time Big Tech tries to censor news of what they are doing, more and more people are made aware of it. Their censorship is backfiring on a massive level. I've got more to write on that, but it will end up at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website when I have time to focus on it.

Winter punching us in the mouth, and a 43 is posted

We're getting a good, old-fashioned punch in the mouth from winter right now. Fortunately, conditions are supposed to improve as the day goes on. Last night the temperature plummeted from near 40 degrees to about 12 degrees by 8 a.m. this morning.

The latest COVID-19 data has been released, and you can see the summary at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://bit.ly/3GQFLNY. At B-B-E schools, the COVID-19 numbers (dated December 14) are 2, 2 and 2 between the Jaguar Kids Connection, elementary and high school populations, which totals about 800 men, women and children. This is down dramatically from three weeks ago when that figure totaled 15.

The Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team hosts their home competition tonight at the B-B-E elementary school. Doors open at 5 p.m., the National Anthem will be performed at 5:55 p.m., and the competition starts at 6 p.m. This will be re-posted in a new blog post.