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Snow Day!
As I mentioned yesterday, we got walloped with a blizzard over the weekend. We got about 25-27 inches in my driveway and I am still trapped here at the house. That’s OK today because my workplace cancelled classes, but we’ll see how the rest of the week goes. Over on the East Range, Virginia “won”…
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Four Days in Denver
New York Magazine tapped former “West Wing” writer Lawrence O’Donnell Jr. to write a script about a potential scenario at the 2008 Democratic Convention. Titled “Four Days in Denver,” the piece is lengthy but quite entertaining and good salve for people who miss “The West Wing.” In a way, it reminded me of a guest…
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Rural electric cooperative, don’t fail me now!
Did I say “just over half a foot of wet, heavy snow” in my last post? Now that I’ve shoveled, I can attest that it’s at least a foot. And we just heard that we’re getting another foot tonight. What had been a somewhat dry winter in northern Minnesota is going to be moistened rather…
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Pre-spring warm-up
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, April 6, 2008 Hibbing Daily Tribune. Appropriately there is more than a half foot of wet, heavy snow on the ground in northern Minnesota this morning. Pre-spring warm-upBy Aaron J. Brown In northern Minnesota there’s a fifth season, one that doesn’t really have a name and that…
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Former Sen. Dayton shows big heart on the Range
Kudos to former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton for stepping up to help a young woman with a rare heart condition from my former hometown of Cherry, Minnesota. Apparently this isn’t the first time Dayton has helped pay medical expenses for people in need. Dayton may not have enjoyed his time in the Senate, but he…
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Brown on the Air: Greatest Dog Moments
Tune in Saturday 10 a.m.-noon on 91.7 KAXE for “Between You and Me” with Heidi Holtan. My weekly commentary will probably run during the first hour. The topic this week is part of the independent public station’s spring fundraiser, Greatest Moments, focusing on the greatest moments we’ve had with our dogs or cats. As some…
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Nashwauk steel plant still ‘go for launch’
Business North is reporting that a groundbreaking announcement on Essar Global’s Minnesota Steel iron mine and steel plant near Nashwauk is expected this month. So far, so good. Essar has a lot of “irons” in the fire, however, and I won’t pop open a bottle of anything expensive until I see really big shovels in…
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UPDATE: Minnesota moves up wind power rankings
Take a look at this post from Bluestem Prairie, citing a Rochester Bulletin story. Minnesota has moved into third place nationally for wind power generation. And that doesn’t include those lean 25 MW from Taconite Ridge on the Iron Range set to go online this year. Minnesota is windy, let’s make that work for us.…
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The future of small town media in 1,000 words
A really interesting comment about local newspaper websites crossed the blog yesterday morning. As you may know, the ACM family of newspapers on the Iron Range now require readers to sign up for a free account to use its newspapers’ websites. A MinnesotaBrown blog reader responded to the change in this way: What the hell…
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Over at MNBlue today…
I’m running errands this morning, but will be back with some newer material tonight. Meantime, check out my latest contributions at www.mnblue.com. They are rehashes of material I’ve posted here before about wind power on the Iron Range and the potential Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar. Sometimes the discussions take interesting turns with…
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Oh, those Wednesdays
My weekly schedule is a little like that of a ninja. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Someone kills my master and damn, I’ve got work. Well, there were dudes in jammies with swords everywhere today. (And the metaphor will end … now). So I’ll give you a brief roundup of the stories I’m monitoring the rest…
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Oberstar awaits nameless opponent in 2008
U.S. Rep Jim Oberstar (D-MN8) is the longest serving member of Congress from Minnesota. He’s a socially conservative, economically liberal DFLer in a socially conservative, economically liberal district that is the size of a New England state and where campaign news is still most widely spread by word of mouth. He’s an Iron Ranger in…
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Minnesota bonding bill: "Deal or No Deal?"
The Minnesota House and Senate conference committee released its bonding bill list today and there’s some good news for northern Minnesota. Among other smaller projects across the Iron Range, Itasca County would receive $28 million for infrastructure for Essar’s proposed Minnesota Steel plant near Nashwauk. That’s not nearly the amount required to build the pipeline,…
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Ventura U.S. Senate speculation
Jesse Ventura is toying with the idea of running for the U.S. Senate in his native Minnesota against incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and his top challenger Al Franken. On one hand this is more plausible than the presidential campaign rumors we heard last week, but on the other I can’t help but think this…
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Genes at the ballot box
Read how one British scientist believes that political ideology might be at least part genetic. This means that I need to start making plans with my family for what might be a long, slow descent into Libertarianism and gun hording. The only known treatment is whiskey, which yields sketchy results. Related posts: No related posts.