Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: columns

  • Ain’t no sunshine when solar jobs are gone

    Ain’t no sunshine when solar jobs are gone

    I was off last week, so I am late to note the Aug. 5 layoffs of 93 employees at Heliene, a solar panel component factory in Mountain Iron, Minn. It’s the subject of today’s column (gift link). There are two snap assessments one could make. You could say that this is President Trump’s fault. He…

  • Blood simple

    Blood simple

    My latest column (gift link) describes my first time donating blood. Some of you already do that, and that’s great. But for everyone who doesn’t, for whatever reason, you should consider it. Perhaps you’re like me, squeamish about blood draws. Maybe you have a history of going floppy at the sight of blood. Nevertheless, you…

  • Ely is open for business, but wildfire threat to tourism economy won’t go away

    Ely is open for business, but wildfire threat to tourism economy won’t go away

    My latest column (gift link) looks at the devastating impact of this summer’s wildfires on the tourism economy of places like Ely, Minn., and other towns surrounding the BWCA. This wasn’t the first wildfire in the BWCA and it won’t be the last. But the lengthening fire season is already changing northern Minnesota in many…

  • College costs creep upward while federal financial aid declines

    College costs creep upward while federal financial aid declines

    For several years I’ve been observing a rapidly accelerating crisis in higher education. Twenty-one years of teaching and serving in leadership roles at a college gave me one side of the story. Having three kids in college at the same time gave me the other. It’s much harder to go to college than it was…

  • Star light, star bright, you’re no star at all

    Star light, star bright, you’re no star at all

    What do you see when you look up at the night sky? For an increasing number of people, that view includes the dull glowing haze of light pollution from within the atmosphere and without. Today’s column (gift link) looks at the price of progress. Humans undoubtedly benefit from technology and satellites. The words on this…

  • Steel industry changes help explain split in our economy

    Steel industry changes help explain split in our economy

    In 2001, I was working at the Hibbing Daily Tribune when LTV Steel closed its Hoyt Lakes taconite mine. In 25 years, the wound to the Iron Range has yet to heal. But it wasn’t the first. In today’s column (gift link), I quantify just how much the iron and steel industry has changed in…

  • People live here

    People live here

    The internet is doing some funny things to time, space and relationships. Our perspective is warped. We feel close to faraway things and far from nearby things. But the world — the real world — is bringing us closer together whether we like it or not. Smoke from Canadian fires is again turning Minnesota air…

  • Weighing risks and rewards in Minnesota’s copper-nickel debate

    Weighing risks and rewards in Minnesota’s copper-nickel debate

    Today’s column (gift link) takes you along on my first trip to the wild rice stand at the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Aitkin County. I went there to meet with leaders from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, whose reservation borders the federal reserve. Rice Lake is one of the state’s most bountiful…

  • Cost conflict hits home in one of state’s longest strikes

    Cost conflict hits home in one of state’s longest strikes

    Today’s column (gift link) takes us to my home away from home, Chisago County. People sometimes think I moved to the Cities after I became a columnist for the Minnesota Star Tribune. Not so. I stayed right here at MinnesotaBrown World Headquarters in Itasca County. But it is true that I travel to the Cities…

  • The polka cure for people in need of joy

    The polka cure for people in need of joy

    Today’s column (gift link) is a recent favorite, mostly because I got to hang out with one of the most entertaining people I’ve met in the last few years. Rosanne Omersa recently-retired as an administrative assistant at the Eveleth campus of Minnesota North. She was there when it was Mesabi Range College and started back…

  • Making mental health care standard for rural communities

    Making mental health care standard for rural communities

    Today’s column (gift link) returns to a topic I explored last year: mental health care in rural Minnesota. My 2025 series of columns covered the gamut of mental health issues. I explored the availability of care, changing social norms about seeking help and the relationship between emergency rooms and law enforcement agencies and those in…

  • The thing everyone gets wrong about Hoover

    The thing everyone gets wrong about Hoover

    Today’s column (gift link) is, as I put it in our editorial meeting, “for the fans.” Once again, and certainly not for reasons of algorithm, the state’s largest newspaper has allowed me to write about history. History is like a washing machine. You throw all the dirty laundry in there and something just a little…

  • In a world of peepers, who controls the peephole?

    In a world of peepers, who controls the peephole?

    When I mow the lawn I always turn on my garage radio. Because I’m mowing the lawn, I hear almost none of what’s on the radio, until I turn the mower off. You catch a song halfway through; an out-of-context news blurb. It’s like a friend that’s always there, but that won’t be mad if…

  • Welcome to tick country

    Welcome to tick country

    It’s hard to love a tick. For the past week, I’ve been researching for a column about the diseases ticks spread. Despite the angle, I ended up kind of loving ticks. Ticks only move 2-3 feet from where they are born, unless they hitch a ride. They live in the soil. It takes them half…

  • Despite promises, data boom could bust small towns

    Despite promises, data boom could bust small towns

    Today’s column (gift link) looks at the raging debate over hyperscale data centers from a new angle. I got the idea from an old friend, Chuck Marohn, who longtime readers will remember as my co-host on the KAXE podcast “Dig Deep.” Chuck’s a local guy. He’s conservative because he believes government should be local, not…