Nearly 500 community members recently kicked off the beginning of Habitat for Humanity of Douglas County's (HFHDC) build season by taking part in its annual Hard Hat Breakfast.

Shooters set 18 personal best this past week.  Talk about this topic

A new bike program at Grand Arbor's Nelson Wellness Center in Alexandria provides residents and members the opportunity to get on a bike again.  Talk about this topic

If you receive an unusual e-mail from Walmart, beware. It could be a scam. The Alexandria Police Department and the Alexandria Walmart have received numerous phone calls from residents about e-mails they've received from Walmart, sometimes misspelled as Wall-Mart, regarding purchases made on their account.  Talk about this topic

This post is about one particularly hard day, meant only to give you a glimpse of what it is like here and how we cope with what we see. It was 0830 and I was in my office working on some useless spreadsheet when my pager went off. It said "Ax1, GSW APH ETA 10 m." This translates to incoming&one injured, life threatening (Alpha), Gun Shot Wound, coming by Apache Helicopter, Estimated Time of Arrival, 10 minutes.  Talk about this topic

Area residents and riders from throughout the area are encouraged to support the seventh annual Motorcycle Ride for Habitat for Humanity on Saturday, May 25 at Apol's Harley-Davidson in Alexandria.  Talk about this topic

Piece by piece, stitch by stitch, quilt by quilt -- a group of quilters volunteered their talents over the last 18 months to deliver comfort to wounded soldiers. Five local women from the Honor Quilts organization recently joined forces with quilters from Fergus Falls, Perham, Dent and Underwood to sew and hand-deliver 950 Quilts of Valor (QOV) to injured soldiers at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell.  Talk about this topic

FRC Team 3313 Mechatronics from Jefferson High School (JHS) in Alexandria recently competed at the Minnesota State Championship. The Minnesota State Robotics Competition is a Minnesota State High School League-sanctioned event. The competition was held at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus.

Alexandria finished third in three events - PI Singles, PI Team and CI Doubles

The Alexandria boys' golf team is getting better every meet  Talk about this topic

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Another winter has given way to Minnesota's second season - construction. Twelve projects are planned for the summer of 2013 in Douglas County. A bid opening is scheduled for June 10.  Talk about this topic

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Union supporters celebrated Monday after the House voted 68-66 to allow some child care providers and personal care attendants to join unions.  Talk about this topic

Editor's note: The following is a collection of news briefs from Forum Communication Company newspapers in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Minnesota Legislature ended a historic 2013 session seconds before midnight Monday after voting to renovate the state Capitol building, help communities fight floods, give veterans a new facility and provide disaster assistance.

Wet conditions have lowered the fire danger and prompted the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to lift burning restrictions in all or parts of 32 Minnesota counties. Restrictions were lifted at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 21.

Villard man dies in two-vehicle crash.