Summary: A car packed with explosives and a roadside bomb went off back-to-back outside a municipal building north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 37 people and wounding 54. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that more than 100 foreign troops died in Afghanistan in June 2010, making it the deadliest month to date in the then nine-year-long war.

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Summary: The outgoing U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, who was recently confirmed as the next director of the CIA, says U.S. troops have achieved progress on the battlefield but that “much work remains” to be done in Afghanistan. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Baghdad’s Green Zone was targeted in a mortar attack as Vice President Joe Biden visited Iraq on America’s Independence Day.

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Summary: Late Friday afternoon, July 1, 2011, a line of severe thunderstorms hit St. Cloud, Minn., and surrounding communities with heavy rain, large hail, and near-hurricane-force downburst winds of 65 to 70 miles an hour toppling hundreds of trees, some of which landed on buildings and vehicles. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 3, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner described 54-year-old music teacher Dan Rassier as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling at the end of the Rassier driveway on the evening of Oct. 22, 1989. Aubrey Immelman discussed aspects of criminal motive and the likely offender profile, noting the need for a linkage analysis involving the unsolved kidnapping and sexual assault of Jared S. in Cold Spring and the unexplained disappearance of Joshua Guimond from the campus of St. John’s University.

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Summary: Despite U.S. reports of progress on the battlefield, American troops were killed at the same pace in the first half of 2011 as in the first six months of 2010 — an indication that the war’s toll on U.S. forces has not eased, even as the Obama administration moves to shift more of the burden of war to the Afghans. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 2, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Taliban suicide attackers stormed a four-story house used by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Kunduz, north Afghanistan, killing four people before succumbing in a fierce, five-hour gunbattle with Afghan security forces.

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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 July 1, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that law enforcement converged on the farmstead on the outskirts of St. Joseph, Minn., where a masked man kidnapped Jacob Wetterling at gunpoint more than 20 years earlier.

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Summary: Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June 2011 the deadliest month in two years for American forces. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 30, 2010, Aubrey Immelman observed that Rep. Michele Bachmann’s paranoid “One-World” delusion had reared its head yet again. While lunacy has traditionally been associated with the phases of the moon, this particular figment of Bachmann’s paranoia seems to wax and wane on an annual cyle coinciding with the yearly G-20 summit.

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Summary: The final bill for the post 9/11 U.S. wars in Iraq and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region will reach at least $3.7 trillion and could be as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project “Costs of War” by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 29, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Taliban attackers armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, and grenade launchers stormed the heavily guarded Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, before NATO helicopters killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a siege lasting more than five hours. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 28, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that an independent report by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction found that the U.S. had often overestimated the ability of Afghan military and police units to fight on their own, calling into question the strategy to win the war and bring troops home.

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Summary: America’s chapter in Afghanistan’s struggle is drawing to a close. Few experts believe Afghanistan will enjoy peace anytime soon. Optimists hope the level of violence can be reduced and the fighting limited to small areas around the country. Pessimists, including many Afghans, fear that once the foreign troops leave, the country will descend into a new civil war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 27, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported allegations by Iran that Saudi Arabia was allowing Israel to use its territory in preparation for attacking Iran nuclear sites.

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Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann is statistically tied with Gov. Mitt Romney at the top of the first Iowa poll of the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign season, conducted by the Des Moines Register. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 26, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that central Minnesota voters had the opportunity to meet gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner’s running mate, lieutenant-governor candidate Jim Mulder at the Granite City Days parade in St. Cloud.

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