Summary: Today is the 12th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings. Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves on this date in 1999. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 20, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Today is the 16th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 18th anniversary Branch Davidian assault in Waco, Texas. Army veteran Timothy McVeigh planned the OKC bombing as revenge for the deadly standoff between the FBI and Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, that killed more than 70 people on April 19, 1993. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 19, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, at a somber ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, warned of the need for continued vigilance against terrorists.

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Summary: Suicide bombers detonated two explosives-packed cars outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, killing at least nine people and wounding 23. Separately, hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner telling him Iraq’s security forces can protect the country after the planned withdrawal of 46,000 U.S. troops by the end of 2011, gunmen stormed the home of a Shiite family living in a mostly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad and killed all four family members, including two children. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 18, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Taliban were moving fighters into Kandahar, planting bombs, and plotting attacks as NATO and Afghan forces prepare for a summer offensive.

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Summary: Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade and crossed a new census milestone: 50 million, or one in six Americans. In Minnesota, 2010 census figures show the state’s Hispanic population jumped 75 percent in the past decade. The rapid growth of central Minnesota’s immigrant population, if it continues unabated, has the potential to create significant social conflict down the road — though less so in the case of Mexican immigrants than for Somalis. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 17, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that despite an upsurge in threats and violence by far-right radical groups and lone wolves, the Homeland Security Department appeared gun-shy about reporting or monitoring the trend too closely. Domestic security and counterterrorism officials said that even though a controversial report issued a year earlier by Homeland Security about a “resurgence” in far-right radicalization and recruitment appears well informed, if not prescient, the Department had done nothing to re-issue the report or update it.

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Summary: Afghanistan’s fighting season will begin in full force by the end of April — and with it, a chance to measure the success of NATO’s efforts to turn back the Taliban. The extent to which the Taliban return to the fight will also help determine whether the surge of more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops that President Obama announced in December 2009 succeeded in arresting the insurgency. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 16, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported a New York Times/CBS News poll that found the 18 percent of Americans who identified themselves as Tea Party supporters were wealthier and more well-educated than the general public and tended to be Republican, white, male, and married.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 15, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Sen. John McCain said the United States had been backing away from a brewing fight with Iran, even as that country moved ever closer to having nuclear weapons.

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Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann, in an address to The Family Leader — a conservative Iowa group — made many controversial statements, including the debunked claim that Planned Parenthood “wants to be the LensCrafters of Big Abortion” and falsely claiming that Al Franken “stole” Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election. But Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert keyed in on statements about same-sex marriage as Bachmann tried to prove her “anti-gay street cred” with social conservatives. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 14, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that GOP activist Luke Hellier, in an apparent attempt to taint the reputation of Michele Bachmann’s Republican challenger, Aubrey Immelman, posted a misleading report on the website “Minnesota Democrats Exposed.”

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Summary: A U.S. Marine reservist, Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, and a Navy corpsman, Seaman Benjamin Rast, were killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a U.S. Air Force Predator drone in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan — an apparent case of mistaken identity. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 13, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: In a slow-starting 2012 Republican presidential field that lacks star power, Michele Bachmann is carving out a role as the polarizing Tea Party favorite with a dynamic, take-no-prisoners style. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 12, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. troops opened fire on a bus carrying Afghan civilians, killing five people and setting off anti-American protests in Kandahar, where coalition forces hope to rally the public for a coming offensive against the Taliban.

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Summary: Iraq’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, says his country’s security forces are ready to protect Middle East leaders who will attend the Arab League summit in May 2011, even as bombings and shootings across Iraq killed 20 people, including four policemen. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 11, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Sarah Palin criticized Barack Obama’s foreign policy on the eve of the president’s nuclear counterproliferation summit focused on keeping nukes out of the hands of terrorists.

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