Janelle Vonasek
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GRAND FORKS—One boy likes tractors, big rigs and all things "heavy equipment." The other is more of a sports fan. The first prefers Chevy. And the second is Built Ford Tough. One is right-handed. The other, a lefty. And one happily gulps his milk and apple juice while the other turns up his nose to both.
GRAND FORKS—A B-25 twin-engine bomber is perched at the gates of Grand Forks Air Force Base, the name "Flo" emblazoned on its side next to an image of a leggy dark-haired beauty lounging luxuriously in a long white gown. Thousands of people have driven by the historic bomber, but far fewer know the story behind how a symbol of World War II military muscle came to land at an air base not established until 1955.
MAYVILLE, N.D. — Two teenagers were injured in a crash on an icy roadway about 5:40 p.m. Friday eight miles east of Mayville. The North Dakota Highway Patrol said Ellei Burmeister, 17, Mayville, was traveling west in a 2002 Oldsmobile Alero on N.D. Highway 200 when she struck a Ford Ranger that was parked partially in the westbound lane. The Highway Patrol said snow was blowing over the roadway at the time of the crash.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a woman whose body was found Friday afternoon along a snowmobile trail in rural East Grand Forks. A news release said the Sheriff’s Office and the East Grand Forks Fire Department responded to the scene about 4:30 p.m. Friday at 18711 445th Ave. S.W. An initial inspection did not show suspicious activity.
CUMMINGS, N.D.—Matt Weaver fired up a small propane heater, but it did little to warm the inside of the wide-open Quonset as he and business partner Jared Johnson heaved the last of their hefty wood goods into the trailer. It was not a good day for outdoor chores, but the longtime certified arborists and seedling sawyers had work to do. As the new owners of Buffalo Coulee Wood Products, the pair needed to haul a load of live-edge wood and 100-year-old barn posts to the Alerus Center for a three-day Grand Forks Men's Show.
HALLOCK, Minn. — It was an improbable romance between strangers in a faraway place. Nathan Younggren was a 25-year-old farmer who raised wheat, soybeans and beef cattle with his family near Hallock. Victoria "Tori" Allen was a 28-year-old former ski bum and advertising rep who lived in Colorado. He played rock music in a cover band, and she was a champion X Games rock climber.
DRAYTON, N.D.—Harris A. Peterson was a specialty crops pioneer who built a buckwheat empire, but friends and family of the founder of Minn-Dak Growers Ltd. say he also was a determined man who always had more work to do. Full of ideas and stuffed with trusted advice, Peterson still was meeting international clients this fall at age 92. He died Saturday, Jan. 27, in Grand Forks. "It was still his company, and he felt he was in charge and in command right up until the time he passed," said his son, Harold Peterson, who lives on the home farm 4 miles east of Drayton.
GRAND FORKS — You might want to set your alarms just a bit earlier Wednesday morning, Jan. 31, if you don't want to miss something that happens only once in a "super blue blood moon." Michael Gaffey, a Chester Fritz Distinguished professor in the University of North Dakota Space Studies Department, said the lunar trifecta happens only once every two to three years when the timing and alignment of the sun, Earth and moon are just right.
DEVILS LAKE, N.D.—Firebird Vision: Take one. Action! Channel 472 soon could be on a small screen near you. Longtime Devils Lake High School publications, yearbook and television production teacher Lara Prozinski says her students are gearing up for their own network of sorts through the North Dakota Telephone Co. The company recently awarded the school nearly $10,000 in high-definition studio cameras, production monitors, news anchor and boom microphones, headsets and a high-tech mixer/control board.
NORTHWOOD, N.D.—Not even a day after an early morning fire consumed semi and farm trucks whole and left just a smoldering shell of the longtime Korsmo Brothers Farms and Trucking business, a makeshift office opened and the deliveries rolled on. "We have an incredible crew. As far as trucking, I don't think we're going to skip a beat with our customers," said Paul Korsmo, who has owned the business for decades along with brothers David and Dan. A third brother and partner, Steve, died in 2013.