St. Cloud Live

Tradition holds that immediately following the opening round of the NHL draft, teams treat their first pick to a nice dinner so they can begin getting to know each other. On Friday night in Buffalo, New York, whoever calls Wyatt Cullen’s name at the draft’s official podium can expect a hefty restaurant tab. “Holy cow, the amount of food we go through in this house is crazy,” said former Minnesota Wild forward Matt Cullen, a three-time Stanley Cup winner and Wyatt’s father.

Celebration of Life will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 9, at Joy Christian Center for Sandra L. Bielecki, 76, who passed away Sunday, June 21, at the Good Shepherd Community in Sauk Rapids. Rev. John Jose will officiate and visitation will be one hour prior to service at the church. Arrangements have been entrusted to Williams Dingmann Family Funeral Home in Sauk Rapids. Sandra was born November 23, 1949, in Hibbing to John “Yovi” and Ella Mae (Hosking) Shain.

LOS ANGELES — Playing in goal for the U.S. men's national soccer team is a little like playing right field for the New York Yankees. You're following a long line of great players, making the comparisons — and the high expectations — unavoidable. Matt Freese is the latest to be thrown into that crucible. But he considers that pressure to be a privilege, not a problem. "I wouldn't say it's intimidating, I would say it's inspiring," he said before the U.S. training session Tuesday morning in Irvine.

West Central Minnesota boasts a lot of natural beauty, with a number of state parks with miles of paved and natural hiking trails through out as well as designated scientific and natural areas. Here are some worth visiting: Between Minnesota Highway 23 and U.S. Highway 212 in Yellow Medicine County lies 27 acres of natural Minnesota River Prairie, where the largest populations of Minnesota's rarest lizard species can be found.

ST. PAUL — An $834,000 judgment will stand against the brother of a notorious polygamous sect leader, a three-judge panel ruled Monday. The Minnesota Court of Appeals declined to reverse a Cook County jury’s verdict or order a new trial in the lawsuit brought against Seth Jeffs and his company for fraudulently receiving funds from his imprisoned brother, Warren Jeffs.

MORRIS, Minn. — The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will not require an environmental impact statement for a large expansion planned by Riverview LLP for its West River Dairy near Morris. The MPCA determined that the environmental assessment worksheet is adequate to address the potential environmental effects of expanding from 7,855 to 18,855 cows.

“The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too …” — Luther Standing Bear, Sicangu/Oglala Lakota (1868-1939) Standing Bear was right. The more removed people become from the natural world, the crueler of a people we become. It’s not hard to look out there, almost anywhere and see the cruelty of humans, it’s as if we are becoming aliens. Each day, I grieve our cruelty.

ST. CLOUD — Stearns County commissioners selected five finalists for the county administrator position while preparing for what officials expect could be a challenging 2027 budget amid uncertainty over state and federal funding. The discussions took place during a Tuesday, June 23 work session focused on narrowing the candidate pool for the county’s top administrative job and setting expectations for county operations following Mike Williams’ retirement on July 17.

At first glance, it's hard to see why friends called John Martin Johnson "Stubby." In his Navy portrait, the Minnesota native has the wholesome good looks of the boy next door. His dark blond hair is neatly combed, his blue eyes look directly into the camera and he wears an easy smile that gives little hint of the war ahead. Minnesota native John Martin Johnson was lost on the USS Herring. Johnson was born in Pine City, Minn., the son of farmer Gilbert Johnson and his wife, Anna.

MENDOTA HEIGHTS — Heather Miller-Koch was inducted into St. Cloud State's Athletics Hall of Fame last fall. That was perhaps expected, but then she got an email this winter from the Northern Intercollegiate Conference that surprised the 2010 SCSU graduate. Turns out she's going into the MSIC Hall, too. "It's an awesome honor for me and St. Cloud State," said Miller-Koch, one of the best all-around athletes in school history. "I was recruited to play basketball and do track and field.