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Plus: MN voters will likely decide whether school funding will get a boost; and Brainerd educators rally after nearly a year without a contract. -
Lorie Shaull/Special to KAXETwo women, ages 20 and 22, reported the man had not returned to shore. One of the women was transported by ambulance for injuries related to cold exposure. -
Contributed/Bloomington Police DepartmentThe former state senator was charged in March 2025 after a prostitution sting operation in Bloomington, where an undercover police officer posed as a 17-year-old online. -
Ekaterina Bolovtsova via PexelsMichael Hart pleaded guilty to burglary and assault, the charges he was originally in custody for when he escaped from a corrections facility. -
The Minnesota Department of Transportation will host an informational open house in McIntosh on May 13, 2026, for its planned project on Highway 2 from Fosston to Erskine in 2029. -
Megan Buffington/KAXEWith hundreds laid off and bleak economics, Iron Range leaders are warning elected officials to carefully plan their budgets over the next few years. -
Plus: The producers of "Ghost Lake" are filming in a new location after the Bois Forte Band revoked its approval; and one year after Cleveland-Cliffs laid off 600 miners, Iron Range leaders are sounding the alarm on an economic downturn.
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Larissa Donovan/KAXEMax Hites had been with Lueken's Village Foods since the store's beginning. Employees and customers joined in celebrating Hites' 60-year career at an open house on May 1, 2026. -
Contributed/Karina Kafka / Report for MinnesotaThe bill’s proposed portal, accessible via the Internet, would provide contractors and subcontractors a place to submit payroll reports, which would be stored in a database for public or state use. -
Contributed/Minnesota Interagency Fire CenterAs "green-up" slowly makes its way north, Minnesota's firefighters remain alert to conditions where wildfires can easily spread due to available fuels and dry weather.
Chelsey Perkins became the News Director in early 2023 and was tasked with building a new local newsroom at the station. She is based in Brainerd and leads a team of two reporters covering communities across Northern Minnesota from the KAXE studio in Grand Rapids and the KBXE studio in Bemidji.
Megan Buffington joined the KAXE newsroom in 2024 after graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Originally from Pequot Lakes, she is passionate about educating and empowering communities through local reporting.
Larissa Donovan has been in the Bemidji area's local news scene since 2016, joining the KAXE newsroom in 2023 after several years as the News Director for the stations of Paul Bunyan Broadcasting.
