State farmers will benefit in two ways: drought has helped to drive corn prices higher, and Minnesota farms are producing high yields compared to farms in other states, where dry conditions have shriveled crops, WCCO reports.

Finding your way through the corn maze is supposed to be the hard part. But for a Fridley family the real challenge came afterwards, while playing in the three-foot-deep pit filled with corn kernels. Karilyn Miller discovered she'd lost her wedding ring. But fate - and a metal detector - was on her side as the ring amaizingly turned up.

And did you know Betsy Ross probably didn't sew the very first flag? It turns out there are a lot of myths about the Fourth of July. Arm yourself with the truth about July 4 and the war for independence before you head out today – and impress your friends and family at the barbecue later.

The Central Minnesota Ethanol Co-Op has suspended operations until they can buy corn or sell ethanol at a better price, the St. Cloud Times reports. The Little Falls plant is using the downtime to complete maintenance and other projects, but most of the 30 employees are out of work.

Triple-digit temperatures heated up the Twin Cities during the 4th of July holiday. The National Weather Service's Minneapolis-St. Paul station said the temperature hit 100 degrees at 3 p.m., which marked for only the second time ever that Independence Day has been this hot. The last 100-degree 4th of July was in 1949.

The director of the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota is waiting for a work crew to repair the roof of the popular tourist destination, which was damaged in a May hailstorm. The Associated Press reports that work was supposed to begin in June but has been delayed. The Mitchell City Council authorized Schilling to spend $175,000 to repair the hail damage.