Jay Caldwell

Boys Hockey: Moorhead 6, St. Cloud Crush 0 Sauk Rapids-Rice 8, Fergus Falls 4 (Bryden Prelvitz scored 2 goals and had 2 assists for the Storm.

Catfish Fest is returning to the chain of lakes in Richmond in February after a year off last year due to warmer than normal weather conditions. Glen Schmitt from Outdoor News says the event will take place February 14-15.

The upper Midwest fought through bitterly cold temperatures early last week which prompted some schools to start school 2 hours late or cancel school all together. St. Cloud School Superintendent Laurie Putnam joined me on WJON. She says the threshold that she and the other metro area Superintendents arrived at is 35 degrees below zero either surface temperature or wind chill. Putnam explains that is measured in the St. Cloud community. She says the 2-hour late start determination last week was based on the the hourly forecast which indicated temperatures rising from -35 at 8 am to -25 by 10am.

If you'd like to sign up to plunge and support this event go to plunge.org. You can recruit friends and family to join your team. Raise the minimum $75 to support Special Olympics Minnesota athletes. If you choose to go above and beyond to make a greater impact, you can earn incentives.

Girls Basketball: Sartell-St. Stephen 65, Osseo 40 (The Sabres built a 37-9 halftime lead. Kennedi Gack scored a career high 25 points to go along with 7 steals.

Many of the interstate roads will see in the United States go east to west but St. Cloud was a part of a highway system that went north to south in the early 1900s. The Jefferson Highway originated in Winnipeg and made its way south to Bourbon Street in New Orleans starting in 1916. Most sections of the route were gravel roads with two-lane bridges. It wasn't an extravagant 4-lane divided highway. The Jefferson highway was called the "Pine to Palm Highway".

The St. Cloud State basketball teams split a pair of games at home against Bemidji State Tuesday night. The men's team won 78-71 while the women's team lost 59-58.

The city of St. Cloud have been monitoring respiratory illnesses in the community through wastewater for the past few years. St. Cloud Public Services Director Tracy Hodel joined me on WJON. She says they are seeing 4 times the amount of influenza A this winter as opposed to the winter of 2023-2024. Hodel says COVID continues to be high this winter but not has high as it was last winter. She indicates Norovirus is double this winter compared to last winter and RSV is high but not has high as it was last winter. The complete breakdown is available here.

St. Cloud's Catholic Community Schools are spending the week celebrating Catholic School week in a variety of ways. I was joined on WJON by All Saints Academy students Mary Ilboudo and Jackson Rengel and Principal Karl Terhaar along with Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton School students Verlette Coronilla and Grace Olweny and Principal Kelly Vangsness.

The weather often dictates when and where to catch fish. Glen Schmitt from Outdoor News joined me on WJON. He says with the lack of snow on the ice he's finding fish along weed lines. Schmitt explains light is penetrating the ice and there is a lot of green weeds on many area lakes. Fish are looking for cover and during day light hours Schmitt says he's finding them there. He says he caught bass, panfish, and pike in the shallows and moved off onto 12-15 feet of water and found good sized crappies and blue gills near the weed lines in the middle of the day.