State public health laboratories coming more into the spotlight. What’s more complicated: a deadly virus or a glob of peanut butter? If you’re the state Public Health Laboratories, there’s no contest. That peanut butter is brutal. [News Source]

Tick population spreading in Minnesota. Disease-carrying ticks appear to be on the rise in Minnesota, and spreading to parts of the state that didn't have the bugs as recently as five years ago, state health officials say. [News Source]