Environment

Rising almost as fast as the price of scrap metal is the theft of those materials. A southern Minnesota salvage operator has found that out firsthand.

Even as the Ham Lake fire burns into Canada, life can start getting back to normal for many of the people who live in the Gunflint Lake area. Fire officials let them return to their homes Wednesday, nearly a week after they were forced out by the Ham Lake fire.

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., gives a speech titled "Building from the Center: Getting the Job Done on Renewable Energy" Monday at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

It's 5 feet 3 inches tall, well over 100 pounds and smells like rotting meat. It's the corpse flower, a rare, southeast Asian plant. Thirteen years ago, a professor at Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter planted its seeds and the plant finally bloomed this weekend.

3M has agreed to dig up virtually all of its PFC waste from three of its former disposal sites in the east metro, and put the material in a lined facility where it would not longer pose a threat to the environment. Those sites include 3M's production plant in Cottage Grove.

Minnesota's fishing opener comes at a time when many lakes are suffering from record low water levels. That could cause problems for some anglers.

About 50 Minneapolis residents resisted the lure of a beautiful spring evening and instead spent several hours inside a church overlooking Lake Calhoun Thursday night. They were there to learn more about a perfluoronated chemical that has contaminated fish in Calhoun and other nearby lakes.

Gardening season is in full bloom and Midmorning garden guru Deb Brown is in studio to answer your questions about all things green.

Ely has a new attraction. The North American Bear Center has opened on the small wilderness town's western end. The center is the culmination of years of work by famed bear researcher Lynn Rogers. Rogers says a mission of the center is to dispel some bear myths.

Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton and a contributor to the influential "Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," speaks Thursday at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis.