By Shane PalmquistThe Cardinal matmen took to the road over the holiday break and headed to Montevideo for their annual Holiday Tournament. Although none of the varsity wrestlers placed, a few of the junior varsity competitors did notably well. Andrew Fodness took first in the 119-pound class, Rustyn Crosby took third place in the 135-pound class. Both Eric Kor (103 pounds) and Kyle Moerke (215 pounds) took fourth place honors. Josh Fick (171 pounds) finished fifth place.A couple of shoulder injuries to key varsity wrestlers Jose Sarvia and Greg Brandt hurt the Cardinals, according to Coach Tim Homan."We continue to struggle on the varsity level but the wrestlers continue to work hard and improve," Homan said. The Luverne wrestlers are back on the mat this Saturday at the Southwest Conference individual tournament.

Dragons Go 5-1 at "The Clash"On Thursday and Friday the Adrian Dragon wrestlers ventured to Rochester to compete in the "Clash," a national dual tourney. The tournament consisted of 10 No. 1-ranked teams across the country, along with other highly-ranked squads from their respective states. Glenbard 39, Adrian 14The Dragons ran into a solid, physical Glenbard North team from Illinois in the first round. Glenbard jumped to a huge lead and never looked back as they defeated Adrian by a score of 39-14. Only three Dragons were able to muster victories against the Panthers. Winning for the Dragons were Brandon Bullerman (5-1 decision), Tony Sauer (17-1 technical fall), and Levi Bullerman (by fall in 40 seconds).Adrian 48, Gross Catholic 18Adrian came back strong against Gross Catholic from Nebraska with a winning score of 48-18. The Dragons earned five falls, two forfeits and one decision on their way to the victory over the No. 6-ranked squad.Gross won the first two matches of the dual and jumped out to a 9-0 lead. Joey Bullerman earned the first win for the Dragons as he pinned his opponent in 2:40. Gross then won the 125-pound match and forfeited the 130-pound weight class to Zach Reker, making the team score 12-12. Gross also won the 135-pound match by decision, giving them their last lead of the afternoon at 15-12. Brandon Bullerman and Dusty Bullerman followed by pinning their opponents in 3:01 and 1:03 respectively. Tony Sauer and Kyle Mixan (No. 1-ranked in Nebraska) squared off at 152 pounds in a matchup of two excellent wrestlers. Sauer nearly pinned Mixan before allowing the go-ahead escape with 8 seconds left in the match. Tony shot in but was unable to finish the takedown in time, giving Mixan the 7-6 decision. Nate Engelkes and Cody Reverts both won by fall at 160 and 171 pounds. Levi Bullerman faced Sam Minardi in the 189-pound matchup. Bullerman was able to control Minardi and earn the 3-1 victory over the No. 3-ranked wrestler. Will Lutmer accepted a forfeit at 215 pounds, making the team score 42-18 going into the heavyweight class.In the heavyweight match, Cody Lutmer muscled his way to a 5-1 decision, giving the Dragons the opportunity to wrestle the No. 2-ranked Winner Warriors from South Dakota in the final round.Adrian 50, Winner 24The Winner Warriors (last year’s Class A South Dakota state champs), were able to win only four matches against the Dragons, as Adrian won the dual by a score of 50-24. Stephen Loosbrock got the Dragons off on the right foot as he horsed his opponent over, winning by fall in 4:15. Winner won by fall at 112 pounds, tying the score at 6.Joey Bullerman wasted little time with his opponent as he earned the victory via fall in 1:34. Winner tied the score again, as they won by fall in the 125-pound match. Zach Reker gave the Dragons another lead as he pinned his Warrior opponent in 1:15. Winner again tied the dual (18-18) as they were able to win by fall in the 135-pound match.Brandon Bullerman finished his perfect day (3-0) by winning his match by a score of 17-1, giving the Dragons a 23-18 lead. Dusty Bullerman followed by pinning his opponent in 3:33. Tony Sauer extended the Dragons’ lead to 14 by decisioning his opponent by a score of 10-5. At 160 pounds, the Warriors sent out the No. 1-ranked wrestler in South Dakota against Nate Engelkes. Engelkes wrestled well but was caught and pinned in the second period. Cody Reverts accepted a forfeit at 171 pounds.At 189 pounds, Levi Bullerman finished his perfect day by pinning his Winner opponent in 50 seconds, clinching the victory for the Dragons. Will and Cody Lutmer earned decisions over their Warrior opponents by scores of 6-2 and 8-7 respectively. By winning this dual, Adrian was placed in the fifth-place bracket and would square off against Goodhue, Litchfield, and GMLOK, the other fifth-place teams from Day 1.Adrian 32, Goodhue 19The first dual of Day 2 was against Goodhue. Goodhue jumped out to a 4-0 lead by winning the 103-pound match by major decision. Tony Thier countered by defeating his opponent by a score of 6-0, pulling the Dragons to within one. Goodhue extended its lead by winning the 119-pound match by a score of 5-4. Brandon Croat and Zach Reker gave the Dragons a brief 10-9 lead by winning two close matches by scores of 2-0 and 4-2. Goodhue regained the lead by winning the 135-pound match by a score of 7-4. Brandon Bullerman gave the Dragons the lead for good as he tech falled his Goodhue opponent in 5:40, making the score 14-10, Dragons. Dusty Bullerman and Tony Sauer followed the technical fall by decisioning their Goodhue opponents. Goodhue pulled within one with two victories at 160 and 171 pounds, tightening the Dragon lead to 20-19. Adrian won the last three matches of the dual with a fall at 189 pounds and decisions at 215 and 275. Levi Bullerman wasted little time at 189 by earning the fall in 1:31, while Will and Cody Lutmer handled their opponents by scores of 4-2 and 11-8, giving the Dragons the 32-19 victory. Adrian 40, Litchfield 21In the second dual of the day, the Adrian Dragons matched up against the No. 6-ranked Litchfield Dragons. Adrian was too much for Litchfield; Adrian was able to win 9 of the 14 matches on the way to a 40-21 victory. Litchfield jumped out to an early lead by earning a fall at 103. Tony Thier knotted the score by pinning his Dragon opponent in 3:04. Joey Bullerman wasted little time in his match by gluing his opponent as well in 1:27, giving Adrian the 12-6 advantage. Brandon Croat extended the Dragon lead by defeating Paul Shephard 11-4. Litchfield took the lead from Adrian by winning the following three weights, giving them an 18-15 lead. Dusty Bullerman handled his opponent, earning a major decision and regaining the lead for Adrian going into the 152-pound match. Tony Sauer earned an 11-5 win over Jon Malepsy, pushing the lead to four at 22-18. The state-ranked AJ Werner had his hands full with Nate Engelkes at 160 pounds but was able to earn a 12-6 decision, shrinking the lead to one point again. Cody Reverts won a crucial match against an excellent wrestler at 171 pounds, giving the Dragons a four-point lead with three matches to wrestle. At 189 pounds, the No. 1-ranked Levi Bullerman pinned Frank Koch in 3:21, making the team score 31-21. Litchfield moved up their No. 4-ranked 189-pound wrestler to 215 to take on Will Lutmer. Lutmer used his size and strength to upset the Dragon by a score of 5-4, sealing the victory for Adrian going into the heavyweight match. Cody Lutmer ended the dual 1:38 seconds later when he pinned his opponent giving Adrian the 40-21 win.Adrian 46, Grand Meadow 19The last dual for the Dragons came against a very physical and high-flying Grand Meadow-Leroy-Ostrander-Kingsland (GMLOK) squad. GMLOK came into the dual ranked No. 2 in Class A in Minnesota and had eight ranked wrestlers on the squad compared to Adrian’s four. The Dragons laid evidence to the fact that rankings mean very little when two tough squads square off, as they were able to earn seven falls and a 46-19 victory. Stephen Loosbrock lit the fire under the Dragons. Even though he couldn’t quite pull off the upset, he hustled and left everything he had on the mat against his opponent. Tony Thier got the Dragons on the board with his exciting pin against his senior opponent at 112 pounds. Joey Bullerman kept the Dragons rolling by earning a fall with 3 seconds left in the first period to give Adrian the 12-3 lead. GMLOK was able to win the following four weights but could only muster one extra bonus point and a 16-12 lead going into the 145 pound match. Dusty Bullerman lifted his opponent high in the air and planted him in 24 seconds to regain the lead for the Dragons. At 152 pounds, Tony Sauer was able to earn a major decision by using great technique on the feet and earning numerous takedowns and a 17-7 win. Nate Engelkes extended the Dragon lead to 28-16 as he pinned his Bull Dog opponent in 55 seconds. At 171 pounds, Cody Reverts squared off against Joe Bunne from GMLOK, a nationally ranked wrestler and returning state champion. Reverts wrestled well and controlled Bunne from the top position but was unable to score a last-second takedown against the state champ, losing the match by a score of 3-2. GMLOK would not win another match as the Dragons put the hammer down at the top of the lineup again as they won the last three matches by fall. At 189 pounds, Levi Bullerman took on the No. 3-ranked Lance Peters. Bullerman dominated the match, earning takedown after takedown. Levi eventually took Peters down to his back and earned the fall in 3:45, making the team score 34-19. Will Lutmer jacked up his opponent and threw him to his back, earning the fall in 1:00. In the final match of the afternoon, Cody Lutmer finished up in style by squeezing the life out of his opponent and earning a fall in 2:44. The 46-19 victory gave the Dragons the Division 5 championship in one of the toughest dual tournaments in the country. Winning performancesTony Thier, Dusty Bullerman, Tony Sauer, Levi Bullerman, Will Lutmer, and Cody Lutmer were winners of all three of their matches on the second day of the dual tourney. Levi Bullerman was named the Outstanding Wrestler for the tournament and he compiled an individual record of 6-0 with five of the victories coming by fall. The Dragons compiled a team record of 5-1 and an overall individual record of 49-36 at the tournament. Adrian now is 12-1 on the year and ranked No. 2 in the state in Class AA.This information was submitted by Coach Randy Schettler.

By Shane PalmquistThe Cardinal boys hockey team took to the road last weekend, playing in the Worthington Holiday Tournament.The Cards came out of it with a 1-2 record after three tough games in three days.Sioux City 7, Luverne 1The Cardinals came out slow in the first game Wednesday, Dec. 29.They allowed Sioux City to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and build on it by adding two more in the second period.Luverne finally got on the board in the third behind a Casey Krueger goal with an assist from Chris Fitzer. That goal proved to be too little too late as Sioux City answered with two more to bury the Cardinals 7-1.Worthington 6, Luverne 3In Game 2 Luverne took on the host Trojans Thursday, Dec. 30.Power play goals seemed to be the flavor of the night as three of Worthington’s six goals came via the man advantage. The Cardinals netted one of their own power play goals in the second period when Nick Otten took a pass from Nate Boler to get Luverne on the board. Worthington took a commanding 5-1 lead with 14 minutes left and hung on as Luverne got two late third-period goals from Derek Elbers and Chris Fitzer.Luverne 4, Redwood Area 0Luverne’s third and final game of the tourney Friday turned out to be its best one.The Cards shut out Redwood Area and got 23 huge saves from goalie Brad Van Santen. With one minute left in the first period, senior Capt. Matt Reverts scored off a pass from Derek Elbers.Reverts also netted an unassisted second goal in the second period. Teammates returned the favor to each other also in this game. In the second period Nick Otten took the puck off the stick of Casey Krueger to put the cards up 2-0. Then, after the Reverts’ goal put the cards up 3-0, Otten returned the favor to Krueger and put the final exclamation point on a 4-0 shutout of Redwood. Luverne travels to Worthington tonight before hosting Dodge County on Saturday and Fairmont next Tuesday.

By Katie McGaffeeHills-Beaver Creek boys had a big victory over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton with a 72-62 win.The Patriots started off the first half with a six-point lead, a momentum that carried them to their win. Kale Wiertzema hit 13 of 23 shots which led him to grab 35 points and 12 rebounds. Bush netted 16 points and had eleven assists."The whole team played outstanding," Coach Steve Wiertzema said. "Beating a quality team like R-T-R takes a whole team’s effort. Our defense was excellent. Zach Wysong did an exceptional job on their point guard."H-BC will be home again on Jan 6., hosting the Adrian Dragons.Box ScoresWysong 1 3 2-2 11, Bush 1 5 3-3 16, Wiertzema 1 12 8-13 35, Baker 0 0 1-2 1, Broesder 0 1 1-2 3, Leboutillier 0 2 0-0 4, Rozeboom 0 1 0-0 2.

Monday night’s meeting of the Law Enforcement Study Committee included many beautiful statements about how fair and neutral it would be.The group is looking into the funding of law enforcement, and to some degree, how services are delivered through the city of Luverne contract. For all the assumptions of steering the group toward his own agenda, Luverne City Administrator Greg LaFond said he wouldn’t lead the meetings and invited the group to set its agenda and ask for more participation outside City Hall. Luverne Finance Director Barb Berghorst was on hand for information but said she’d leave the meetings if it made committee members feel awkward, or as if it was a "city" function. With all the talk of cooperation and fairness, I felt like I was sitting in the middle of a folk song. ... Then the record skipped. Committee members said they would look into whether they can close their meetings. So much for first impressions.Committee meetings of public bodies are — according to Minnsota’s Open Meeting Law — open to the public, but this group is seeking a lawyer’s opinion on that.If a group like this, appointed by a government body to make recommendations to the government body, doesn’t want its opinions in the public, then it shouldn’t bother meeting. Who would give their findings any credit? How could we believe their research was as fair as they promised?The information in the meetings isn’t going to be private data, and I bet committee members will share their opinions and findings with their friends and family members. Then that information will float through the gossip streams and we won’t even have an account of what they did on the record. Not talking openly and sharing opinions is what got the county and city in trouble in the first place.Even if the committee finds a loophole in the open meeting law, shame on them for closing meetings that involve the most talked about local issue for more than a year. Law enforcement is an important arm of our local governments. Open meetings are also an important aspect of those governments. A political authority of the people, without adequate information to the people, is a joke. Frankly, there’s nothing funny about what the law enforcement committee is studying.

You have been patient, but I know you can’t wait another minute longer to learn who has been named 2004 Library Patron of the Year. The time has come to reveal the winner of this coveted tribute. The individual who has been deemed worthy of the 2004 honor is Jocelyn Alschlager! Ms. Alschlager is a long-time resident of Rock County. Currently, she is attending college. During a weekend visit to Luverne, she single-handedly, and with no regard for her own personal safety, saved the library from certain disaster. With her uncanny powers of observation and ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, Jocelyn thwarted the efforts of an unnamed perpetrator who intended to cause harm to the library. She was bold and she was brave (which is more than I say for her mother). Jocelyn will be awarded the secret prize revealed only to the esteemed group of Library Patrons of the Year. There is an additional bonus even more valuable than the secret prize: the librarians will like you. As you may know, gaining the affection of a librarian can be tricky and sometimes difficult. It must be earned and can be extremely beneficial in life. So congratulations, Jocelyn, for a job well done. Previous winners of the prestigious Library Patron of the Year are Karen Martens, Harold Forsberg and Jeremy Stoltenberg. Other news at the library: Its time to sign up for the "Melt Away the Hours With a Good Book" adult winter reading program. You have until March 31 to read 12 books. Then you get a prize. The reading program is open to ages 16 and up. The more people who sign up for "Melt Away the Hours" the better chance we have of winning the $500 cash prize for purchasing new books. You can call in and register or sign up the next time you stop in at the library. We are going to begin a brand new year with a brand new book by one of our favorite authors, Barbara Taylor Bradford, "Unexpected Blessings." Evan, Tessa, Linnet, and India: four remarkable women, three generations of Hartes, and one indomitable family whose loyalty binds them together and whose enemies want to tear them apart.Evan Hughes is trying to integrate into the powerful Harte family. She is caught between her estranged parents, her new family, and her new love. But a dangerous enemy hovers in the background.Tessa Longden, Evan's cousin, is battling her husband for custody of their daughter, Adele. When Adele suddenly goes missing, Tessa is forced to seek help from her half-sister, Linnet, a woman who has been her rival all their lives. Linnet, the most brilliant businesswoman of the four great-granddaughters, is desperately trying to show that she is the natural heir to her mother, Paula. But her glittering future at the helm of the vast Harte Empire means many sacrifices, perhaps even the loss of her sister's fragile trust.And India Standish, the traditionalist in the family, falls in love with a famous British artist from a working-class background. Madly in love, India is determined to marry him, no matter what her family thinks.As conflict and danger swirl around the Harte women, someone is pulling the strings to make sure none of them finds happiness. Who among them will rise to the challenges as only a true Harte can do?This latest dramatic story in the ongoing saga of an extraordinary family dynasty is full of love, passion, jealousy, and ambition.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on Jan. 6, 1928:"ALL HORSE-DRAWN VEHICLES MUST HAVE PARKING LIGHTSSuch is Opinion on New Traffic Act as Rendered by Assistant Attorney General YoungquistThe traffic law passed by the last legislature requires that horse-drawn vehicles be equipped with parking lights when parked, according to an opinion by G.A. Youngquist, assistant attorney general, in reply to a query from A.C. Godward, city planning engineer of Minneapolis. The traffic act as originally drawn required all vehicles on the highways at night to have front and rear lights. This portion of the act was amended to apply only to ‘motor vehicles.’ Section 54, relating to parking, however, says that ‘Whenever a vehicle is parked or stopped upon a highway, whether attended or unattended, during the times mentioned in section 49, (one-half hour after sunset one-half hour before sunrise) there shall be displayed upon such vehicles one or more lamps projecting a white light visible under normal atmospheric conditions from a distance of 500 feet to the front of such vehicle and projecting a red or yellow light visible under like conditions from a distance of 500 feet to the rear.’A section of the bill permitting use of reflectors in place of rear lights on horse-drawn vehicles was stricken out. Apparently, as the law now stands, you can drive a wagon or sleigh without lights, but you cannot stop on any street or highway. The law, however, permits municipalities to pass ordinances permitting parking any vehicle without lights in places where there is sufficient light to reveal a person 200 feet away.Even if it is now required by law, it would seem that anyone driving any kind of a vehicle on any traveled road would have lights as a matter of self-protection."Donations to the Rock County Historical Endowment Fund can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society. P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

On the surface it’s a thoughtful offer from another country, but perhaps it should be questioned. We’re talking, of course, about Zimbabwe’s latest fund-raising program, designed to lure U.S. tourists with weight problems. According to the London Sun Times, the plan promises to be a win-win situation for both Zimbabwe’s floundering economy and overweight Americans. One Zimbabwean bureaucrat explains it this way — "Since Americans are so fat, let’s set up tours from the U.S. so that people can pay us money to come here and work off their pounds by laboring on our farms." The CIA reports that under Robert Mugabe, the country’s apparent president-for-life, a chaotic land redistribution program begun in 2000, "caused an exodus of white farm owners, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities." That’s not the stuff of vacation brochures. Even though the Zimbabwe unemployment rate is 70 percent, the farms, now owned by people with little or no knowledge of farming, are in dire need of trained workers. Overweight Americans would ostensibly raise the country’s corn, cotton, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts, sheep, goats and pigs because the Zimbabweans are too busy suffering, starving and dodging illegal drug traffic. If we stop to think about the proposal, there might be certain advantages, other than losing weight, with taking a work vacation in the southern Africa country. For one thing, we wouldn’t have to bother with losing weight so we’ll look good in bathing suits at some tropical beach or pool area. With all of the fieldwork ahead of us, we might actually want to beef up a little by grabbing second or third helpings of whatever meals we happen to be eating now. It might be refreshing to spend time in an unusual vacation climate. What Zimbabwe lacks in beaches and palm trees, it more than makes up with recurring droughts, floods and life-threatening storms. The country is roughly the size of Montana, but because only eight percent of the land is suitable for farming, we would have plenty of opportunities to mix with other Americans as they rake coffee beans under the burning sun, shear sheep and harvest sugarcane with long machete knives. Incidentally, the remainder of the land is classified as "other", as in sand, sand and more sand. By working while we’re vacationing, we would experience less guilt about abandoning our regular workplaces and families at home. Feel like something is missing from your life now that our own presidential election is over? Immersion in Zimbabwean politics might be just what the doctor ordered. Get right back on that political bandwagon with the country’s rigged elections, general strikes, political violence, human rights violations and general economic collapse. Another advantage to working on a farm and burning off calories at the same time would be the freedom from having to buy postcards ("Working up a good sweat — wish you were here") and having to send them to everyone you know back home. No economy, no stores. No stores, no postcards. It’s as simple as that. Finally, any child back home would be proud to wear a shirt which reads, "My parents picked cotton in Zimbabwe and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

The best kept secret in your county is the incredible return on investment for every dollar spent on your County Veterans Service Office. Here are the facts:1. Number of Veterans in Rock County: 8392. Amount of VA federal dollars received by veterans in Rock County (VA compensation, pension, education, and insurance): $2,675,5573. Number of veterans in Rock County who received care at a VA facility (Includes inpatient or outpatient visits. Obviously, many of these veterans had multiple visits): 2214. Dollar amount of VA medical care received by these veterans: $1,299.827.5. Amount of Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs state veterans benefits received by the veterans in Rock County: $06. Total veterans benefits received by the veterans in Rock County: $3,975,3847. Dollars per veteran in Rock County: $4,738Therefore, there is a very large return on investment for every dollar you spend on your County Veterans Service Office budget. If I can be of any assistance to you, please call me at (507) 283-5061.Ronald H. HansenRock County Veterans Service Office