The necessary permits are in place to build a 95-megawatt wind farm north of Paynesville, but Edina-based Geronimo Wind Energy is still looking for a utility company to buy its energy. A St. Cloud Times report says this has delayed construction by a year on central Minnesota's first large-scale wind farm, that includes as many as 60 turbines.

A growing number of rural Midwestern churches -- where generations have been baptized, married and buried -- are closing their doors as rural America loses residents to cities and suburbs. "There’s a kind of sadness to see the rural decline,” one observer says.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals will allow an Orono man to keep his residential wind turbine that city officials say violates the zoning ordinance. The turbine is not as large as those seen in rural Minnesota and Iowa, homeowner Jay Nygard's machine is a vertical-axis turbine about 20 feet high.

The developer of a 50-turbine wind farm says Goodhue County residents are leaving animal carcasses out to attract eagles. The presence of eagles could affect the project. State officials have not verified the accusations.