West Hartford native Rick Santos was inside a hotel lobby in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Jan. 12 when he saw the ceiling come crashing down. Seconds later he was trapped in an 8-foot-by-5-foot tomb, but still alive. For the next 55 hours, Santos and other colleagues would be trapped in complete darkness with no food or water while they hoped for a rescue.

A man was pronounced dead after sustaining fatal gunshot wounds from a shooting on Park Road. The victim, Christian Torres, was shot by an unknown suspect near the Hartford/West Hartford line on Jan. 26.

Controlled spending, the second-coming of Blue Back Square and a commuter rail to mark West Hartford as the new regional hub of the state is what Mayor Scott Slifka envisions for the town by the year 2020.

With new technology comes new problems, and parents are being warned about a phenomenon their children might be engaging in: "sexting."

The University of Hartford has received a $2.4 million grant from the federal government to develop a new generation of unmanned, flying vehicles for the U.S. Army.

The 7.0 earthquake that devastated the impoverished island of Haiti on Jan. 12 has displaced and killed people in numbers that officials say will never be measured. The ensuing marathon of media attention has kept America interested in a small nation that previously was paid little attention. Haiti will disappear from the headlines soon enough, but the challenge of rebuilding a nation still lies ahead.

The temperature outside may indicate winter is far from over, but the chilly weather doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking of summer. That appears to be the philosophy of the people in charge of the Elmwood Community Center's summer camp program.

Cupid's arrow appears to be pointed towards the stage this year. Just toward time for Valentine's Day comes "Love Letters," the Pulitzer-prize winning play by A.R. Gurney.