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COLUMN: No sense in do-overs, only do
This is my Sunday column for the Oct. 7, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on KAXE’s Between You and Me last April. No sense in do-overs, only doBy Aaron J. Brown One day my parents brought my kids sisters and I to the Como Zoo in St.…
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My (friendly) Union march to Atlanta
I’m traveling into the heart of the Confederacy today. I am very excited to spend the next few days as arm candy for my more successful blogging wife and to take in the sights and sounds of Atlanta, Georgia. This will be the furthest south I’ve ever gone. When I was 11 my grandparents took…
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Great Northern Radio Show set for Oct. 20 Eveleth show
A new season of my Great Northern Radio Show launches Saturday, Oct. 20, with a live KAXE/KBXE broadcast from the Boardman Theatre at Eveleth-Gilbert High School in Eveleth, Minnesota. Our new take on the variety show format has been touring northern Minnesota for a year and we’re excited to show off our progress back “Home…
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COLUMN: New game, no rules
This is my Sunday column for the Sept. 30, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired Saturday on “Between You and Me” on KAXE/KBXE Northern Community Radio. New game, no rulesBy Aaron J. Brown One spring morning a few years ago the residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood in Hibbing…
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AUDIO: Game on (the radio)
We can’t change the present or the future. We can only change the past, and we do it all the time. That’s Bob Dylan from his recent (print edition only) interview in Rolling Stone. That quote floored me, and further still I read it in an ESPN/Grantland Fantasy Football column by Chuck Klosterman. What?! What…
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First mining equipment arrives at Essar’s Nashwauk site
Since news a couple weeks ago that Essar Steel was slowing construction at its Nashwauk taconite plant site the company has been working hard to convey the notion that the slowdown is only temporary. Today, the company announced that its first piece of mining equipment, the pictured drill, has arrived on site. Essar Steel Minnesota…
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Northern Minnesota is at peak fall colors
I saw this DNR map showing autumn foliage levels this morning. I live in that darkest red splotch in the North. Here’s what this looks like out behind MinnesotaBrown.com World Headquaters in Itasca County: If you’re planning a foliage tour in Northern Minnesota, this is THE weekend. The next heavy wind is going to take…
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Supreme Court orders DFLer Simonson onto 7B ballot
In an unexpected turn today the Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered the name of DFL-endorsed candidate Erik Simonson onto the Nov. 7 House 7B ballot. Simonson was running a write-in campaign after State Rep. Kerry Gauthier dropped out of the race amid a personal scandal. This order removes much of the election day confusion that…
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Steelworkers to back Nolan in MN-8, halting Cravaack gains
The United Steelworkers, representing about 3,000 Iron Range taconite miners, are set to endorse Rick Nolan in his bid to unseat Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8). The endorsement is expected to occur during a “major announcement” planned by the Nolan campaign at 3:30 Wednesday at the Mineview in the Sky south of Virginia, Minnesota. The Steelworkers…
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Hard to write fiction when you’ve covered a small town
This is blog is, in my heart anyway, a thought experiment wrapped in the cloak of local politics. Quite a thing, local politics. Ultimately and alternatingly more redemptive and more cruel than the national business. Jeff Winkler penned a post for The Awl yesterday entitled “My Sister the Candidate.” In this, a small town newspaper…
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Talking mining and MN-8 politics on the radio
On Sunday I was on the LeftMN Radio Hour with Aaron Klemz and Tony Petranglo on AM950 in the Twin Cities. The topic was politics in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District and mining issues in northern Minnesota. You can listen to the show below or here. My segment is at about the 9:30 mark. Podcast Powered…
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What Magnetation looks like
There are many “proposed” projects bandied about in Iron Range economic talk. There is Essar Steel, a major project under construction. But in terms of new production and new jobs, Grand Rapids-based Magnetation, Inc., has done the most new hiring and new shoveling in the past year. Magnetation processes iron ore once discarded as waste…
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We must put down the canoe menace
Maybe you’d like to better understand the media landscape on the Iron Range as it relates to the ongoing debate between supporters and opponents of proposed copper-nickel mines in the region? Last week, opponents of the mining projects announced that a group would canoe from the BWCA to St. Paul using various waterways to protest…
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COLUMN: Autumn news from the North Country
This is my Sunday column for the Sept. 23, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on “Between You and Me” this weekend on 91.7 KAXE. Autumn news from the North CountryBy Aaron J. Brown There’s a chipmunk near where I wait for my boys to get off the…
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The mining fracas continues in MN-8
My recent post about Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District got some attention around the state. If you missed it, here it is. The short version: GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack is bludgeoning former DFL Rep. Rick Nolan on the northern Minnesota mining issue, something Nolan has to counteract if he hopes to win. Nonferrous mining is my…