Wayne Nelson and the writers at Business North do a fine job of covering the economic news of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. This week’s edition has a couple of interesting Iron Range stories.

First, this story reviews Essar Global’s North American steel ambitions, something I talked about earlier in the week. This is the company that is in the process of buying Minnesota Steel, a proposed mining and steel-making operation on the Iron Range.

Then this story explores how the Iron Range is currently driving the region’s manufacturing and service economy in advance of what is still believed to be a potential economic boom.