Janelle Vonasek
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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.
DRAYTON, N.D. — Tom Grzadzieleski is a fighter who's not afraid to twist an arm or throw a few 42-pound rocks to get his point across. The longtime curler and president of the Drayton Curling Club says with a wry smile: "Sometimes people just need a little abrasive encouragement. We already know 90 percent of the people who come in these doors and try it are going to be hooked. They never say, 'No, I'm never going to do that again.'"
GRAND FORKS — People who did not get a flu vaccination last fall might have a fighting chance yet against catching the severe strain now circulating the nation. Public health officials for Grand Forks County and the North Dakota Department of Public Health say it's better late than never to get a flu shot. "No vaccine is 100 percent effective," said Carolyn Kaltenberg, a nurse and immunization program manager with Grand Forks Public Health. "But if you do get vaccinated and get influenza, hopefully, your symptoms will be less severe."