Our Thanksgiving holiday is largely about cooking — the No. 1 cause of residential fires.

It’s a fact that has cost Minnesotans nearly $38 million since 1990, according to a Minnesota Department of Public Safety press release.

In 2009, 49 percent of all fires in our state started in the kitchen, and on Thanksgiving weekend alone, 82 residential fires destroyed $1.3 million in property.In addition to the fact that stove fires can start so quickly, they’re dangerous because they don’t behave like other fires.

By Forrest Adams

Bahram Akradi has an ambitious goal to change school lunches before his 2-year-old son is old enough to enroll.

Last Thursday afternoon, the founder and CEO of Lifetime Fitness unveiled the plan that could start the change he wants to see. It targets food ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, food coloring, trans fats and artificial sweeteners.

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM) is now accepting nominations for its annual list of the state’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places through Friday, Dec. 31, 2010. The nomination form is available at the Alliance's website, www.mnpreservation.org/programs/ten-most-endangered/.

By Forrest Adams

It’s a “lame-duck” session of Congress, but Republicans keep talking about pork.

Pork-barrel spending is the term used when a member of Congress earmarks money specifically for a project in his or her congressional district within a larger spending bill.

Congress passes the larger bill, but the earmarked spending bill passes at the same time with little scrutiny. The process has come under increasing criticism as many voters consider it to be evidence of wasteful government spending.

By Forrest Adams

Doug Peterson said he was warned not to expect much from donors, in terms of extra monetary giving.

The economy is in rough shape. Family budgets are flat or going down. The reasons why the executive director of Love INC (In the Name of Christ) of Eastern Carver County should have heeded the warnings and set his sights low were numerous.

The following obituary is from the Nov. 25, 2010 print edition of the Chaska Herald newspaper:

By Richard Crawford

After the results came in for the District 5 seat on the Carver County Board, the numbers just didn’t seem to add up for Bruce Schwichtenberg.

On Nov. 2, incumbent Commissioner Jim Ische had 3,375 votes to Schwichtenberg’s 2,614. It was the second time Schwichtenberg had lost to Ische for the seat.

By Chuck Friedbauer

The Monday recount for the final District 112 School Board position supported the initial vote, resulting in Tim Klein edging Bryan Litsey.

According to District 112 superintendent secretary Sandy Neal, the recount totals for Tim Klein were 4,471 votes, while Bryan Litsey had 4,310.

“The outcome of the election did not change much with the recount,” said Neal. “Klein netted one more vote, while Litsey gained four additional votes.”

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Office of Traffic Safety today named the state’s 13 “most dangerous” counties for impaired driving, and Carver County is No. 13 on the list.

The dangerous counties, in order from 1-13, are Hennepin, St. Louis, Anoka, Ramsey, Dakota, Olmsted, Wright, Washington, Scott, Rice, Stearns, Itasca and Carver. These counties will be targeted with extra DWI patrols through September 2011, including Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 24.