Associated Press/Des Moines Register: The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said today it has taken the unusual step of denying a permit for a large hog farm proposed for Fillmore County in southeastern Minnesota because of the threat of adding to groundwater nitrate pollution in the geologically porous region. MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine said he denied the general permit for Waukon, Iowa-based Catalpa Ag’s proposed 4,890-sow facility near Mabel because of the threat to public health.