Wednesday digest: flying carp menace edition

The LaCrosse Tribune reports in Asian carp invade area:

Grass and bighead carp have turned up before in this area, [La Crosse fisheries supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Ron] Benjamin said, but the appearance of the silver is cause for concern. It previously had been found no farther upstream than Clinton, Iowa.

Silver carp, which grow up to 60 pounds and are excited by the vibrations of propellers, are a hazard when they leap into the paths of boaters.

And as an invasive species, they are a threat to the river’s ecosystem. How big a threat is unclear, Benjamin said. “Just to say, it’s a bad thing.”

A CBS News clip from 2006 explores the invasion of the energetic exotics:

This should play hell with the flathead cat fishing; the Minnesota River is one of North America's great flathead catfish waters. We hope that measures will be taken to keep these fiends out of the tributary of the Mississippi River.

Southern Minnesotans might be justified in feeling a bit paranoid about flying critters these days: the Winona Daily News writes in Authorities: Beware around bats:

Authorities are warning Minnesotans to be careful around bats after three of them tested positive for rabies in Olmsted County this year.

The Health Department’s Dr. Joni Scheftel said only one bat from the area tested positive last year and one bat in 2006. 

She says the 2008 results don’t necessarily mean there are more rabid bats out there; it’s probably the result of a spike in the number of bats being tested for the viral disease.

She credits the rise in bat submissions for testing to the story of a Monticello, Minn., man who died of rabies after a bat bite.

Two bats in Winona County tested positive for rabies in August, when health officials reported treating an unusually large number of people who had come in contact with bats.

Still, Rochester veterinarian Dr. Tobin Emrich says he’s concerned because he’s already treated two family pets for rabies because they had ben bitten by infected bats.

Scheftel said the most important thing people can do if they touch a bat, or think they were touched by a bat, is to capture it and have it tested.

We add that pet owners should make sure to have their companion animals vaccinated for rabies; kittehs find bats especially enticing, as some friends recently woke to discover.

The Austin Herald reports in QPP workers protest:

Workers affected by a neurological disorder contracted while extracting pig brains at Quality Pork Processors demonstrated outside the facility Saturday. . . .

. . .Demonstrators from the immigrant rights group Centro Campesino as well as affected workers and their families held picket signs outside the gates of QPP Saturday demanding answers to why the hog processor has allegedly denied workers’ medical restrictions and laid affected workers off. They are also demanding QPP process workers’ compensation claims. . . .

The Byron Review says that Canadian Pacific Holiday Train coming down the track to Rochester on Sunday. Rev. Paul Ibisch writes the Caledonia Argus to say Local food shelves will benefit from Holiday Train in La Crescent. Yes, Virginia, there is a railroad after Kevin Schieffer, as certain as generosity exists. Those who visit the train and listen to the entertainers traveling on it should bring food or funds to donate to local food shelves.

In Spring Grove, the Festival of Trees raises over $15k for county, local charities the SG Herald reports.

Congressman Walz is hosting a workshop on federal grants in Rochester today.

Finally, the great singer Odetta has passed. A while back, we posted a clip of here singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Here's another clip: