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KAXE / KBXE People-powered radio in Northern Minnesota. www.kaxe.org Northern Community Radio is a different kind of radio. These are the "stars" of NCR programs.
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When you tune in to NCR you hear northern Minnesota...its people, environment, communities, music, attitude. NCR is a place where people gather to dance to good music or to find out about the flowers in the ditches and the birds at their feeders. It's a place to learn about the world, laugh, meet good neighbors, and share ideas.

Lueken’s Village Foods will celebrate 60 years in business this July and recently said goodbye to an employee who’s been...
05/12/2026

Lueken’s Village Foods will celebrate 60 years in business this July and recently said goodbye to an employee who’s been along for the entire six-decade journey.

Max Hites worked for Lueken’s since before it was Lueken’s, first at age 20 as a store stocker and carry-out at Hart’s Foods in 1965, at the site of the current Watermark Art Center. The next year, it was bought out by Joe Lueken, the namesake founder of the store.

Lueken’s employees and their customers celebrated Hites’ six decades with the company May 1 at the south store with three large sheet cakes, plus a personalized hotrod cake for Hites to take home.

Larissa Donovan of KAXE News has more on Hites's career and retirement:
https://www.kaxe.org/local-news/2026-05-11/luekens-village-foods-sends-off-its-longest-serving-employee

Photo: Larissa Donovan / KAXE

Leanne Langeberg is the public information officer for the Minnesota Incident Command System in Grand Rapids, which is a...
05/12/2026

Leanne Langeberg is the public information officer for the Minnesota Incident Command System in Grand Rapids, which is an interagency group of state and federal partners that cooperate to manage wildfire and all risk incidents.

The state is currently at Level 4 for wildfire response preparedness, nearing the top of the scale during Minnesota’s peak fire season. Langeberg described the preparedness ranking as largely a staffing tool.

“Five being that most extreme level, where resources are running short locally and we need to start reaching out to a broader network, whether that would be our regional network or even nationally,” Langeberg said.

Get information on the recent fire near Lake Bemidji State Park (contained) and find a link to the MN DNR Firewise tips to protect your property in this story by KAXE News Reporter Larissa Donovan: https://www.kaxe.org/local-news/2026-05-11/minnesota-firefighters-level-4-wildfire-preparedness

Photo: Contributed / Minnesota Interagency Fire Center

Where do you go when life seems overwhelming? Who do you turn to?Should you seek help, or should you just buck up and de...
05/12/2026

Where do you go when life seems overwhelming? Who do you turn to?

Should you seek help, or should you just buck up and deal with your issues?

These are some of the questions the Grand Rapids chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness wants to help you with. The group's president Marian Barcus and member Patty Holycross were recent Bright Spot guests on the KAXE Morning Show.

Holycross said, "I think people, ... if they're just starting on a mental health journey, are really starved for information. [They] need to know things that they don't know, and quickly."

The group is offering two webinars during the month of May, Mental Health Awareness Month. The meeting at noon Wednesday, May 13, will help tell the difference between everyday stress and bigger issues. The second at noon Wednesday, May 20, focuses on how to start getting help.

The full conversation, links to register for the webinars, and more available online
https://www.kaxe.org/show/91-7-kaxe-90-5-kbxe-morning-show/2026-05-11/bright-spot-grand-rapids-nami-chapter-offers-hope-help-and-healing

Photo: Lorie Shaull / Special to KAXE

Although most attention lately has been on mining proposals around the Boundary Waters, another copper-nickel project is...
05/11/2026

Although most attention lately has been on mining proposals around the Boundary Waters, another copper-nickel project is further along in the state’s regulatory process.

This fact is by no means lost on Kelly Applegate, commissioner of natural resources for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

He helps lead the band’s Water Over Nickel alliance, raising awareness of mining risks near the reservation in east-central Minnesota. If a mine known as the Tamarack Nickel Project started operating, Applegate said, it would be within miles of the band’s members, important cultural sites, wild rice beds and fisheries.

“This is a very water-rich environment,” he said after a speech at the Minnesota Capitol in April. “That’s the concerning part about this is. If this is going to be the first proposal for a sulfide mine, it’s in the worst spot it could be in.”

Brian Arola of MinnPost has more, available on KAXE News:

Discussions around Tamarack echo themes playing out for a Twin Metals’ copper-nickel proposal near the Boundary Waters, which in April cleared a key federal hurdle in the U.S. Senate.

A White Earth man was found dead in a wooded area shortly after being the subject of a Becker County Sheriff's Office pu...
05/11/2026

A White Earth man was found dead in a wooded area shortly after being the subject of a Becker County Sheriff's Office pursuit.

In a news release, the sheriff's office stated a deputy was on patrol in White Earth on Friday, May 8, when he identified the driver of a passing all-terrain vehicle as 47-year-old Michael Azure.

Azure's driving privileges were revoked as canceled-inimical to public safety. The deputy activated his squad's emergency lights, according to the news release, and Azure reportedly fled the area around 2:11 p.m. The deputy lost sight of the ATV on the south side of White Earth and ended the pursuit, the release stated.

More on KAXE News

The cause of Michael James Azure's death remains under investigation. After a brief pursuit, deputies located an abandoned ATV, with Azure found unresponsive in the woods.

Native and non-Native community members came together in Walker on Tuesday, May 5, for a special event on a national da...
05/11/2026

Native and non-Native community members came together in Walker on Tuesday, May 5, for a special event on a national day of remembrance for missing and murdered Indigenous relatives.

The city of Walker commemorated the night by illuminating its lighthouse red, matching nearly all the participants’ clothing worn to show solidarity with the cause.

The ceremony included smudging, a to***co offering and a space to remember missing and murdered Indigenous relatives, near and far.

Natasha Kingbird, a co-founder of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women 218, sang a song written by her brother, which she described as calling the spirits to guide missing and lost loved ones, and the families left behind.

Photographer Lorie Shaull took the photos you see in this gallery, with more available online at KAXE News. KAXE Reporter Larissa Donovan covered the event. Read or listen online as you see all the photos:
https://www.kaxe.org/local-news/2026-05-06/we-are-all-relatives-onigum-walker-communities-come-together-for-mmir

As Itasca County Board Chair Cory Smith put it, you’d have to be living under a rock to not know that some Minnesota com...
05/11/2026

As Itasca County Board Chair Cory Smith put it, you’d have to be living under a rock to not know that some Minnesota communities are choosing to fly the previous state flag.

“So, with that, I brought it here for, No. 1, you the people to tell us how you feel,” he said at the Board meeting Tuesday, May 5.

In the three years since Minnesota adopted the new flag, some local governments — including Crosslake and Babbitt — voted to continue to fly the former flag. Several cities have more recently made the move, like Wadena. Most in the recent wave have been in the Twin Cities suburbs and exurbs.

The Cohasset City Council plans to vote on flying the old flag at its meeting Monday.

Smith said the County Board will give people a few more weeks to voice their thoughts, with plans to decide on May 19.

KAXE News Reporter Megan Buffington has more:
https://www.kaxe.org/local-news/2026-05-08/itasca-county-considers-whether-to-fly-old-minnesota-state-flag

Photo: Megan Buffington / KAXE

The Itasca County Board plans to decide on May 19, 2026, whether to fly the previous Minnesota state flag, possibly in addition to the present flag.

"I feel very lucky to be here," he said. "It's a beautiful station, and it's not too often someone brand new gets a wond...
05/11/2026

"I feel very lucky to be here," he said. "It's a beautiful station, and it's not too often someone brand new gets a wonderful station like this." - Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Jack Lien, Walker enforcement area.

Officer Lien shared his predictions and tips ahead of his first fishing opener as a C.O. KAXE Reporter Megan Buffington has the story, including Lien's background and safety/smart tips that will serve you all boating season long:
https://www.kaxe.org/local-news/2026-05-08/new-walker-dnr-officer-shares-predictions-tips-ahead-of-his-1st-fishing-opener

Photo: Contributed / Lorie Shaull via Flickr

Jack Lien has been exploring the area lakes ahead of opener on May 9, 2026, both to familiarize himself with them and to study "where the fishermen are going to get their boats and where they might find success.”

This week we want to hear about your favorite flowers! Tell us your faves (and why), and let us know what you are planti...
05/11/2026

This week we want to hear about your favorite flowers! Tell us your faves (and why), and let us know what you are planting this year.

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260 NE 2nd Street
Grand Rapids, MN
55744

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Wednesday 8am - 4pm
Thursday 8am - 4pm
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