Last month's downpours across southern Minnesota carried plenty of sediment and farm-field runoff into rivers and streams. After one storm the Pollution Control Agency measured phosphorus in Watonwan River at five times the preferred level.

A split in a wastewater pipeline in Sauk Rapids early Wednesday sent untreated sewage into the Mississippi River for several hours, the St. Cloud Times reports. Sauk Rapids Mayor Dave Saunders said the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was notified, and workers had the sewage flowing back to the St. Cloud wastewater treatment plant by Wednesday night.

Two kayakers, ages 16 and 21, were rescued Tuesday after they lost control of their kayaks in the fast-moving Mississippi River and ended up yelling for help on an island in Sauk Rapids near St. Cloud.

Authorities say they have no plans to trap or kill a wild bird that has become a well-known nuisance in the central Minnesota city. But they do hope it moves along. The St. Cloud Times says the same wild turkey regularly wanders onto a downtown road and just stands there.

The drought that's squeezing trade on the lower part of the Mississippi River is threatening to force barge lines to lighten cargos in Minnesota if it doesn't rain more soon, the Star Tribune reports.

You may know Sinclair Lewis was born in Minnesota, and that he was the first American awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. But you probably don't know the Lewis secret that inspired what is now an annual writers conference in Sauk Centre.