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Corrections to Franken parade post
Please note the corrections to the Al Franken Iron Range parade post from earlier in the day. My bad. Related posts: No related posts.
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Brown on the Air: Favorite Cars
Tune in to “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE to hear my weekly commentary, which is just a small part of a great call-in and music show unlike anything you’ve heard before. This week, the show explores the topic of “favorite cars.” What’s your favorite car? Why? Mine was a 1982 GM Cutlass Cruiser…
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Franken to appear on Iron Range for 4th of July, RE-UPDATED
UPDATE x2: For real this time! After a great amount of confusion, Franken’s Range parade schedule is finally in my hands. July 3 (today): Al joins the picket line at a labor protest outside the Hibbing Wal-Mart. I have been seeing this picket line the last few days and will be posting about it at…
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Happy Birthday, Doug and George!
Our twin sons Doug and George turn 1 today. Their arrival last summer changed our lives in many amazing ways. Life with three young boys (their older brother Henry is 3) can be stressful but it’s also a lot of fun. I’m taking the day off of politics and news. Check back Thursday. Related posts:…
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MinnPost: Oberstar doesn’t rule out Cabinet position if Obama wins
MinnPost has an intriguing story about veteran Minnesota Congressmen Colin Peterson and Jim Oberstar. Peterson ruled out serving in an Obama Cabinet, but Oberstar left the door open just a tiny little bit. Now, I agree with comments made on a post I wrote about this last month. Oberstar won’t leave his chairmanship of the…
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First day filers
Iron Range State Reps. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) of District 5B and Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) of District 3A have filed for re-election today. Here are the corresponding press releases. Sertich will face Republican John Larson, a Hibbing bar owner, in the general election. Anzelc will face Republican Marvin Ott, a former county veterans official. I…
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Holiday week means take it easy, blogosphere
Who are we kidding? It’s a holiday week. I’ll be posting some items this week, but I’m under no illusion that people will read them reliably. There will be some new information on my favorite topic of universal broadband on the Iron Range. Also, candidate filing for state offices begins today. I will be checking…
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Keeping tabs on job creation results
I don’t always jive with what happens on the editorial page of the Mesabi Daily News, but the MDN fired off a pretty good editorial last Saturday about the proposed hire of an Iron Range business recruiter for our mining-funded state agency Iron Range Resources. Like the MDN, I’m not against business recruiting, but I…
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Industry insiders sour on technology for Iron Range ‘clean coal’ boondoggle
There hasn’t been much to report about Excelsior Energy’s boondoggle proposed Mesaba Energy Project, a coal gasification power plant that would be situated on the Iron Range. The state PUC has not scheduled a final decision on whether or not to force Xcel Energy to buy the high-priced theoretical electricity that would be produced if…
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The Bus Factor
This story (“Big, yellow and putting schools in the red“) in today’s Star Tribune details the woes of some suburban Minnesota school districts in covering the skyrocketing cost of diesel fuel for their bus fleets. I don’t have the data to compare miles and fuel use between suburban and rural northern Minnesota school districts, but…
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Stenerson officially announces 7B run
Longtime DFL activist and AFSCME Field Representative Marsh Stenersen is running for the House of Representatives in Duluth’s 7B district. We broke that story here on Saturday. Here is Stenersen’s statement that he’s releasing today: PEOPLE NOT POLITICS. That’s what this election is all about. I’m running for those people who have heard too many…
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McCain grooming Pawlenty for VP spot
Today’s appearance on “This Week” cements the conventional wisdom that Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) is the frontrunner for John McCain’s running mate. Pawlenty is unlikely to be able to deliver Minnesota for McCain, but I don’t think the campaign cares about that. Pawlenty has proven to be an effective surrogate who makes it look like…
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Bergson in exile, for now
Nina Peterson-Perlman of the Duluth News-Tribune writes an interesting profile of former Duluth mayor Herb Bergson in today’s edition. Bergson has tried to stay out of the public eye since leaving office, but notable findings in the story include the fact that he’s writing a memoir due out in the fall and that he isn’t…
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Seven words I won’t forget
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 29, 2008 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Seven words I won’t forgetBy Aaron J. Brown When I was eight, a stroke of luck changed my life and taught me the majority of the dirty words I currently know. That was the year I won the…
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Obama has advantage, not a guarantee; get to work!
For those who are getting ahead of themselves, John Fund from the Wall Street Journal presents a frank, fairly reasonable argument this week showing that, while Barack Obama enjoys an advantage right now, this election is far from over. Both Obama and John McCain have plausible paths to victory depending on the events of the…