Archive - May 29, 2008

Josette M. Koss, a resident of Warren, Ore., died at her home May 26, 2008, at the age of 84.
She was born Dec. 16, 1923, in Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada, to Gaston and Mary (Godin) Camirand.
She was educated in Canada and graduated in 1940.
She married Alfred Koss in 1946 in Fort Frances, Ontario. He preceded her in death in 1987.
They moved to International Falls, Minn., in 1967 and then to Vancouver, Wash., Reedsport, Ore., and finally St. Helens, Ore., in 1973 until present.

A local chapter of what may be the oldest and largest fraternal order in the world will celebrate a century of service with an open house June 1.
The International Falls, Koochiching Masonic Lodge No. 270 will open its doors to the public from noon to 4 p.m., at the 416 Third Street location that the Freemasons have occupied since 1919.
Master of the Lodge Tom Barthell welcomes the public to visit with members who will explain “the odds and ends of lodge history.”
“Our open house is open to anyone who is interested or just wants to drop in,” said Barthell.

Drunk driving accident staged for Falls students

A 911 call was placed to the Koochiching County Law Enforcement Center — there was an accident near Falls High School and First Lutheran Church and the dispatcher was unsure of any injuries.
The chatter, laughter and shouts of the accident being fake coming from Falls High School students stopped as two International Falls Police patrol cars raced into the First Lutheran Church parking lot with their sirens blaring.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will remove fire restrictions on open burning permits in Carlton, Becker, Hubbard, Mahnomen, Clearwater, Itasca, the southern half of Beltrami, and the remainder of Cass County
Forestry officials and fire wardens began issuing permits Wednesday. These counties have received adequate spring rain and vegetation has “greened up.”

By ROGER JEROME, Sports Correspondent

The Falls High Broncos baseball team rode a nine strikeout, two hit pitching performance from Jake Casareto to a 4-1 win over Hibbing in the opening round of play in the Section 7AA baseball playoffs Wednesday afternoon at Scheela Field.
“Jake did a great job of trusting his fielders,” Bronco coach Vic Heinlen said. “When he fell behind in the count, he had the confidence to throw strikes because he trusted his teammates to make the plays,” he said. The Broncos played error free ball in the game.

COHASSET — A day after the Littlefork-Big Falls Vikings softball team ended the 2008 season for the Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans, the Spartans baseball team returned the favor with a 12-6 victory over the Vikings Wednesday night in Cohasset.
The loss ends the Vikings season and the careers of seniors Ian Klemetsen, Billy Boyd, Paul Kennedy and Anton Imhof.
“It was a good season and we had a lot of good ballplayers,” Vikings head coach Todd Sether said.

Have you ever experienced the feeling of “needing a vacation after taking a vacation?”
And with gas costs astronomical, the cost of traveling has become prohibitive.
The reason vacations are attractive is that people yearn to take the routine apart. And the reason people feel the need to leave is because staying home just feels like “the same ol’ same ol’” grind.
With gas costs crimping vacation possibilities, staying home on vacation but changing the routine may just feel like one of the most relaxing vacations ever.

West End Elementary first-grade class learned the life cycle of the butterfly with kits and live caterpillars. They watched as a week went by and the caterpillars grew to several times their original size. Then attached themselves to the top of the cage and formed chrysalides and entered an incubation stage.
About a week later the butterflies emerged and the students fed them flowers for nectar and sprayed them with sugar water until setting them free on Tuesday. The butterflies will go on to lay eggs and complete their own life cycle in a few weeks.

To the editor,
To the flower thieves at the cemetery: It takes a pretty sick person to steal flowers off of loved one’s graves. That’s about as low as you can sink.
What do you do? Cruise around the cemetery to see what flowers you can steal for home? Not only did you steal flowers of our son’s grave, but you stole from others as well.
Dennis Coleman
International Falls, MN

To the editor,
Missing from our parents’ grave are two green hanging baskets with fuchsia geraniums surrounded by mini pansies.

To the editor,
It’s been a long time since I had the privilege of expressing my thoughts on current events. I guess I was waiting for something to trigger my desire to do so, and the other day an article in The Journal did just that.