The Crow Wing County Human Rights Commission was abolished by a 4-1 vote of the Crow Wing County Board on Oct. 11.

Just a couple weeks before Brainerd School District voters headed to the polls to vote on referendum questions, the district and its teachers' union reached a contract settlement in late October.

For the third year the College Drive Reconstruction project remained a controversial topic for the city of Brainerd. In 2011 the council, by a narrow margin, approved increasing the project from $6.9 million to about $9.4 million. More than $4.

New owners for the Westgate Mall brought welcome news of additional stores, a new theater, technology upgrades to the mall and, especially, the prospect of more jobs.

Brainerd School District voters headed to the polls Nov. 8 and voted "Yes, Yes." Voters approved the first operating levy question, which asked for a renewal of $199.24 per pupil, with 7,036 yes votes, or 70.57 percent, to 2,934, or 29.42 percent.

A brutal assault during the early morning hours of Feb. 6 in downtown Brainerd left one man with significant head injuries, another man with a year-long jail sentence and a third man with a prison sentence.

It was a beautiful Christmas morning with fresh snow on the ground from a blizzard the night before.

We sat, cross-legged in a circle on the 1st grade carpeted floor. Just a small group gathered for our last religion class before Christmas.

The holidays. They say that it is such a wondrous time to celebrate the birth of our savior and to experience the joy of giving to others. Sounds simple, right? In one way, it is true; but in other ways, wrong.

Christmas was on her way home, smiling all the way. There was a lot of snow on the ground and her parents always told her to drive carefully and she remembered every time. She had a good day at her job and Nick had come to see her.