News stories from International Falls, Minnesota

The Daily Journal will not publish Friday and the office will be closed in observance of Independence Day. The Journal will resume regular delivery and office hours Monday. Government offices, banks and others business will also be closed.

The Can-Am Rock festival celebrates its second consecutive year with some of best American and Canadian giants of classic heavy metal Saturday at the Roadhouse Niteclub and Community Center.
A large outdoor band shell was erected for the event, according to organizers. Music is scheduled to go on rain or shine. Doors open at 3 p.m. and live music continues all day with a 30 to 45 minute intermission between acts and ends at 12:30 a.m.
With 1980s giants, “Ratt” and “Headpins” headlining, the newly formed alternative metal band from International Falls will be the opening act.

“Have great day at FCC.” A few simple words on a banner that is more than a slogan, it’s a business plan.
Falls Country Club Golf Pro Tom O’Connell is in his 10th year at FCC and has seen the course grow and mature into one of the premier public courses in northern Minnesota.
“When I got here 10 years ago, they had a new 18-hole golf course with the equipment of an old nine-hole golf course,” O’Connell said. “That’s a bad combination.”

Allen Kruse has hardly settled after one month as the new Koochiching County Veterans Service Officer, when he was installed Tuesday as commander of the International Falls, William Robideau Post 66.
Kruse hopes to “breathe new life” into the inactive organization that was once commanded by his grandfather, Lester Kruse, a former P.T. boat captain who passed away in May.
“He asked me if I would become active in the legion and to try and get it going again,” said Kruse. “When I became the veterans service officer, it seemed an appropriate time to get it going.”

Late season lake sturgeon harvest on Minnesota-Canada border waters opened Tuesday and runs through Sept. 30.
A sturgeon tag is required to harvest a sturgeon, but anglers may fish catch-and-release without a tag. Sturgeon must be 45-to 50-inches, inclusive, or more than 75 inches to harvest. Immediately upon reducing a fish to possession, the sturgeon tag must be validated and attached. Harvested sturgeon must be registered within 48 hours.
For further information, please refer to the following address on Department of Natural Resource’s Web site at:

To the editor,
I am writing to let the people of International Falls know how proud they should be of their hospital. They saved my friend’s life.

The Fourth of July is for celebrating our nation’s history with family and friends.
But no one wants the festivities to end with an ambulance ride to the hospital or a ride in a squad car to the police station.
Law enforcement throughout the state will crack down on impaired drivers throughout this weekend as Americans prepare to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day.

The 2008 Up North Elementary basketball and volleyball are scheduled to start on Monday.
The basketball camp runs Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and is taught by Rainy River Community College women’s basketball coach Tim Myles.
Assisting Myles in the camp will be men’s head coach Dieter Humbert and Amos MacKenzie.
The Volleyball camp runs from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. and is run by RRCC women’s volleyball head coach Mel Millerbernd. Helping Millerbernd will be Andrea Millerbernd, Jenna Gordon, Kelly Millerbernd and Danika Stelton.

Selected illustrations of Royal Canadian Mounted Police from the Potlatch Collection

Over 75 years ago, the Northwest Paper Company of Cloquet recruited the image of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or Mounties, to advertise the quality of its paper to the printing industry. The company wanted to establish a corporate identity that would reflect the integrity of its product.

“When you were born, no one loved you. You were thrown out in an open field.”
The Bible: Ezekiel

‘Forgiven: A Story of a Discarded Infant in Ninth Century Norway’

Against the blood-spattered backdrop of the Viking Age, American novelist, PM Kulseth, weaves fact with fiction in this “historical thriller of an infant, who is born unwanted and unloved.”