Minnesota Saves the Day

Minnesota gets major props from the NYT for its food-borne illness monitoring:

If not for the Minnesota Department of Health, the Peanut Corporation of America might still be selling salmonella-laced peanuts, Dole might still be selling contaminated lettuce, and ConAgra might still be selling dangerous Banquet brand pot pies — sickening hundreds or thousands more people.

And that's a hard news article, not an editorial. Basically, most states are terrible at monitoring outbreaks, but Minnesota is pretty good at it -- as a result, they're the ones who give the rest of the country a heads-up in a disproportionate number of national outbreaks. Just goes to show what a little funding and some good management can do for the public welfare.