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The universal solution to poverty?
It comes down to whether you think we can solve problems at all. Will we succumb to the psychological ease of hoping our political “side” gains permanent power, an outcome that assures corruption and stagnation? Or are we willing to lend our support to new ideas? Will we patiently experiment, replacing ideas that don’t work…
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80th Laskiainen Finnish sliding festival this weekend
This weekend the Laskiainen Finnish Sliding Festival celebrates its 80th year in Palo, Minnesota. Laskiainen is an old Finnish tradition that made the leap to Northern Minnesota during the immigration of the early 20th Century. It’s a celebration of the fact that the days are getting longer, allowing people in northern climates to have more fun.…
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Animation depicts Hibbing’s new Beltline roundabout
This summer, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Iron Range city of Hibbing will install a two-lane roundabout at the intersection of Highways 169 and 37. News of this change has already caused many Range residents to go, “blurggle, blurggle, a-fuff-fuff-fuff!” This is one of Hibbing’s busiest intersections. I spend a portion of most mornings…
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GOP backs off federal land sale for now
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) withdrew his bill that would have allowed the government to sell federal lands for mining and other commercial use. Some had feared that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness might find its way on the list of lands that could be mined in the future. The U.S. edition of the Guardian reported…
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Minnesota fifth largest source of U.S. minerals
Minnesota is the fifth largest producer of American mineral resources according to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey. The state remains the largest producer of iron ore in the country, but also produces many millions of dollars worth of industrial sand and stone. From the Myers story: The USGS report reiterated what…
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ERP Iron Ore finalizes purchase of Magnetation
Bankrupt Magnetation is officially under new ownership. State of Virginia-based ERP Iron Ore finalized a purchase agreement of Magnetation according to ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. WDIO reported the story earlier today. Magnetation, based in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is a scram mining and iron ore processing company. The company recycles iron ore from waste piles in Northern Minnesota and…
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MINOS lab departs Soudan mine cavern
This week crews remove components from the MINOS laboratory on the 27th level of the Soudan Underground Mine on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. The picture above shows massive steel “neutrino tracking” panels” being removed from the facility. Since 2003, the lab hosted notable experiments testing the nature of subatomic particles in a beam fired underground…
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Former Range senator Tony Perpich dies
Last Saturday, former Iron Range State Sen. Tony Perpich (DFL-Eveleth) died in his Shoreview, Minn., home at the age of 84. He had battled heart disease. Perpich grew up part of a politically charged first generation Croatian immigrant family raised in the mining location of Carson Lake. With his brothers, he helped reshape Iron Range politics in the 1960s,…
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Why we need work, not just ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’
Last November, President Trump polled well in the once-venerated Democratic stronghold of the Mesabi Iron Range. I pin this to the issue of “jobs.” Specifically, I credit the fundamental belief baked into our culture that those who work for pay are superior to those who don’t or can’t. People here have lost jobs, or fear…
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From pipelines to mines, Trumpism on the march
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order clearing the way for the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects. Both projects were stalled under President Obama out of environmental concerns. Citing the jobs the projects would create and promising American-made steel in the construction process, Trump waved his order in front of…
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School gun range shot down by lead complaint
Last October, I shared news of a suddenly controversial gun range in the basement of the Lincoln Elementary School in Hibbing. After efforts to keep the range compliant with safety concerns, it now appears that lead contamination may doom the facility. For sixty years the Lincoln, originally a middle school, featured an underground gun range that…
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The cold comfort of adulthood
Everything is easy until you open the door. That’s true of life, but especially winter in Northern Minnesota. After Christmas, winter becomes an extended stay in a Residence Inn. We already know what keeps in the hotel fridge, how long to microwave the popcorn, the cost of every item in the vending machine. Our only enemy…
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Analyzing President Trump’s inaugural address
President Trump’s inaugural address eschewed the literary finesse that most presidents strived for, and instead drove home one of the most confrontational, populist speeches ever uttered in this setting. It could have been Huey Long up there. “While they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for people across our land. That all…
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Slice of Life: 78 years of columns from Floodwood writer
Every once in a while I congratulate myself because I’ve written a continuous weekly newspaper column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune since June of 2001. Every Sunday (and sometimes more often) I’ve had an original thought, sometimes coherent, in the paper. As of today, that’s almost 16 years of columns, not insignificant in today’s media…
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A cautionary tale from Duluth’s Russian sister city
U.S./Russia relations continue to make headlines during President-elect Trump’s transition. Setting aside reports of Russian interference in American politics, there is the fact that Russia has sought to reassert itself as a counterbalance to American power on the world stage. The Russian intrigue is guaranteed to continue into Trump’s presidency. Trump announced last week that his first foreign trip will…