Farm Bureau Breakfast on the Farm is coming (SPORTS show video added)

While it is unfortunate that I'm down to the last minute to give extra promotion here, it's better late than never...the annual Pope County Farm Bureau Breakfast on the Farm event is heading east into Stearns County for a special Labor Day event starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow. It will be located at one of the Anderson Farms locations at 44338 County Road 19, Belgrade. This is roughly one mile west of the Belgrade Menard's Fixtures plant.

You can see additional details by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/pRF0P.

Here's a direct link to view the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's photo gallery from the Breakfast on the Farm event two years ago at Rolling Forks Vineyard in rural Glenwood: https://encr.pw/qjneu.

And shifting gears a little back to sports...currently, I'm with family and our camper at Pomme de Terre campgrounds just outside of Morris. We spent the last night here and are enjoying a little time "out west" in Stevens County. My voice has come back somewhat after I pushed it to the limit for our volleyball team last week. It was worth it! It is always worth expending the extra effort needed to help our teams win!

Here's our sports department's Fall Sports Show No. 2 of the season, featuring Friday Night Lights I:


One error in the sports show...the football team racked up over 300 yards of offense, not under 300 yards. The Flyers tallied 294 net yards of offense. Full statistics from the game will be published in the September 5 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

I'll get additional information on West Central Area's football team posted in a new blog post on Monday...or Tuesday. The Knights are 1-0 after defeating the Polk County West Thunder 38-12 at Climax, Minnesota. Polk County West is a co-op team that includes student-athletes from East Grand Forks Sacred Heart and Climax-Fisher high schools. In 2023, Polk County West had a 5-5 record with a 1-1 showing in the Section 8A playoffs. In their preseason preview in the Grand Forks Herald newspaper, their coach stated that they had ample depth with roughly 18 players expected to have significant playing time.

Law enforcement procession lasts 2-plus hours

The law enforcement procession in support of fallen Pope County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Owen lasted over two hours this afternoon in downtown Glenwood. It was one of the most overwhelming displays of solidary I have ever seen in my life. Law enforcement was in attendance from all corners of Minnesota and nearly every county and municipality in the state. LEOs from neighboring states were also there in squad cars/SUVs, and I even learned that police officers from as far as New York and Arizona attended Deputy Owen's funeral this morning at Minnewaska Area high school.

Additional coverage has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. An article was posted today that includes video from the funeral procession for Deputy Owens. Link: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

I did not see this coming: my article on Governor Tim Walz has received over 30,000 views in a little over 24 hours. It is far and away the most-viewed web article I've ever posted in the eight or so years since I created the newspaper's website.

In a country where many elected officials and government bureaucrats spout derisive and corrosive statements to the public about police officers, it's more important than ever that we show support for the Thin Blue Line and remind the world that working in law enforcement is still a noble and honored profession.

Press conference held on Cyrus shooting (VIDEO)

The Pope County Sheriff's department held a joint press conference with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) this afternoon in Glenwood. You can read parts of the statements provided there by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice website: https://bit.ly/414AH3b.

It is worth noting...
Small town police departments and sheriff's offices are not flush with staff to begin with, and when officers are pulled out of rotation either because they were killed, or they were involved in a shooting, it puts tremendous strain on the entire law enforcement system. Criminals don't say, "Well, gee, the police department is hurting now, they're short-handed, I suppose we can give them some slack for the time being."

Here's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension superintendent of investigations Scott Mueller speaking about increasing violence perpetrated against law enforcement:


Too many in the public take our law enforcement and even our EMT responders for granted. It's not just an automatic thing that these people magically appear when we are in distress. There's so much that goes into it that they are recruited, schooled, trained and then do the hard work of filling the shifts and providing the law enforcement response when things go badly.

At B-B-E schools and across Jaguar Country, we are fortunate to have men and women ready, able and willing to answer the call of duty whether it's part of the Belgrade-Brooten police department, area county sheriff's departments, ambulance crews and fire departments. They are all wonderful people. We cannot thank them enough.

Church and some desk clearing

Tonight I'll clear a few notes off of my desk in this blog post and then add a new sports blog post later tonight.

Also, if you want to take in the October 2 worship service at West Lake Johanna Lutheran church, you can click here: https://bit.ly/3CncZnK.

The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's "local events" folder that includes 59 galleries (at present) from separate events across Jaguar Country can be found by clicking here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2022-B-B-EBonanza-Valley-area-events.

Here's a link to the Homecoming coronation album: https://bit.ly/3CJvqEo. I just got these uploaded tonight, although it does not include any of my cell phone photos yet.

We still have multiple events coming up in October in the local area. I also want to specifically point out an event that hasn't made it into my calendar (yet) or onto my newspaper pages. That is the upcoming B-B-E Music program's Halloween carnival that is on Monday, October 24 at the high school in Belgrade. Please spread the word! Details to come.