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Coleman KAXE interview reveals northern strategy, foretells battle over coal gas boondoggle
U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman gave an interview to Scott Hall on the KAXE morning show today in which he covered a broad range of issues. KAXE is a unique and popular independent public radio station serving most of northern Minnesota. The most interesting details came near the end after Scott asked his final question, and…
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Falls wins icebox war
A triumphant victory for our people! International Falls keeps ‘icebox’ titleAssociated Press (via the Duluth News-Tribune) INTERNATIONAL FALLS — International Falls has iced its claim to be the “Icebox of the Nation.” This city on the Canadian border had been fighting the ski town of Fraser, Colo., for the legal right to the trademark. International…
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A toddler, a truck and the theory of relativity
This is my Sunday, Feb. 10 column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. So the other day our son Henry, who is two and a half, picked up a toy truck from the coffee table, examined it carefully and made a simple declaration. “I’ve had this truck a long time.” We offered the standard parent agreement,…
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250 MW of clean energy coming downstream
Maybe some folks think I’m out to choke out the upper Midwest’s power supply after last week’s column in which I once again criticize the Mesaba Energy Project, that boondoggle coal gas power plant pushed by lobbyists here on the Iron Range. Not so, my business friends. In fact, my arguments fall squarely in line…
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Pawlenty’s (literally) bumpy road to the vice presidency
(This post might have been timely if I had actually finished it before my crazy Friday schedule. Hell, I’ll just post it now anyway). By now many have heard the frequent speculation over whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be John McCain’s running mate now that McCain has essentially secured the Republican nomination. McCain has…
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Brown on the Air: Gym Class
Tune in Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 KAXE to hear “Between You and Me.” I contribute essays to the call-in and music show, which profiles a different cultural topic each week from a distinctly northern Minnesota point of view. This week we’re talking about gym class. That’s a sore subject for a…
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Health care tour comes to Hibbing today
State Rep. Carolyn Laine, an Iron Range native, will be in Hibbing today with other legislators to tout a bill for universal health care that she and others will be proposing this session. Those interested in the health care debate should check it out. I would go if it weren’t cross-scheduled with the dinnertime insanity…
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For my ‘red’ readers
One other note: Mitt Romney carried the Republican caucuses in Minnesota. I was initially surprised until I remembered how poorly John McCain did here in 2000. I just heard from a Republican friend who attended his caucuses in Hibbing. He said he voted McCain and was confronted with an icy reception. Mike Huckabee and Romney…
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Super Tuesday on the Iron Range
Nothing knocks over a mountain in one night. But when you combine wind and water and the correct amount of time, the mountain is destined to fall. That’s how I feel about the status of my Democratic party this morning. Barack Obama was down by a million a few months ago and now he’s running…
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Giant sloth demise leading to, well, ‘slow’ decline of Joshua tree
Yesterday on National Public Radio I heard an unusual story. The giant sloth is extinct, the announcer read, and scientists are now concerned about what that means for the desert and dry-land Joshua tree. These trees grew in evolutionary symbiosis with the giant sloth as the slow moving giant-clawed creatures were instrumental in the trees’…
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Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
I’ve already implored everyone to get out to caucuses tonight, so it’s in your hands now. You have a few more hours to vote in the MinnesotaBrown online poll predicting who will win the Minnesota DFL and Republican caucuses tonight. Right now it looks like the consensus is Obama and McCain. We’ll know soon enough.…
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Just when things were looking up …
In class Monday I was telling my students how important it was to get out to the caucuses Tuesday night. I wasn’t pitching for my candidate, just telling them that they should go to the party caucus of their choice to have a say in who the major party presidential nominees would be in this…
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Vote straight-ticket ‘Gangsta’ in ’08
This clip shows everything that is great and everything that is wrong with politics and the media in the United States of 2008. 1) A thousand-year-old white man can relate to a Gangsta rapper on a mainstream news network, and 2) their conversation is vastly more substantive than most of what you hear elsewhere. Vote…
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Hawaiian Congressman to appear at Tom and Jerry’s today
It’s not often I get to write a headline like that. An update and clarification about U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s (D-Hawaii) visit to the Iron Range to stump for Barack Obama. He will be at Tom and Jerry’s bar in Chisholm at 3 p.m., not at the college as was originally planned. I think this…
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Mesabi Daily News story about Obama’s Range endorsements
Here’s a Mesabi Daily News story about the Iron Range Obama Committee press conference last weekend: Range group backs ObamaBy Charles RamsayCHISHOLM — An area group has stepped up with backing for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, as the Iron Range Leadership Committee voiced its support for the Illinois senator before Minnesota’s Tuesday caucus. Heading…