The regional carrier will begin offering non-stop flights from the Central Minnesota airport to Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport in December, according to the St. Cloud Times. The newspaper notes the St. Cloud airport has not had commercial air service since December 2009 when Delta stopped its regional flights to the Twin Cities.

The Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation hopes to raise $5 million for the effort. The idea is to attract an airline that would operate flights between St. Cloud and O'Hare Airport twice a day.

Roughly a dozen new apartment projects are adding hundreds of units in central Minnesota, the St. Cloud Times reports. It is part of the nationwide trend of more people turning to multifamily housing.

St. Cloud-based Stearns Bank purchased all of the assets of the three-branch Jasper Banking Co. of Jasper, Ga., after regulators shut the bank down Friday, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Since 2008, Stearns has purchased eight failed banks in government-assisted sales.

The corner of 25th Avenue and Division Street in St. Cloud has been home to a seasonal Dairy Queen for more than six decades, but that will come to an end on Sunday, Sept. 2. "Hopefully, we can send everyone away happy one last time," said owner Bob Lahr. The tiny vintage cement building is being demolished to make room for a new CVS Pharmacy. A new Dairy Queen location just south of the existing building is set to open in February.

Budget cuts have led St. Cloud State University to put its flight school on the chopping block with a 2014 end date. SCSU's president says aviation is not central to the university's mission. But with the demand for trained pilots growing, supporters of the program hope it can be saved.