By Timothy J.

By Lowell Johnson Fort Ripley While watching my son play basketball with my grandsons the other day, I started thinking about the important role fathers play as coaches, and especially as emotion coaches.

By Ralph Westgard The Obama administration and the Department of Defense (DOD) are under the delusion that energy fuel supplies for our armed forces are subject to the whims of potentially hostile governments.

By STEVE LUND Brainerd School District Recently, the Brainerd School Board approved the district's operating budget for the 2012-13 school year.

By Kurt Martin Brainerd In your editorial last week, you reported that our national debt was 70 percent of the GDP. I'd be curious as to where you are sourcing your statistical data.

By Terry McCollough Retired Dispatch Publisher High school graduation season is fully upon us, and this rite of passage is being marked by balloons – often in school colors – across the countryside, noting the site of family gatherings to salute the graduates. Somewhat less conspicuous ...

Our middle class is battered, bruised and on the ropes perhaps, but ready and willing to get back to work to make America strong once more....

It may often be with the best intentions, but governmental bodies have a habit of handcuffing themselves - limiting their abilities to make the best possible decisions.

By STEVE RAZIDLO Superintendent District 181 He gets dropped off at the back side of his elementary school nearly every day. I have driven him to school for four years; we have a routine. As he gets out of the car, I tell him I love him.

A new Massachuesetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study, released May 15, reports that background radiation levels more than 100 times normal background levels show no DNA damage in mice, whose responses to radiation mimic those of humans.