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School levies prevail across northern Minnesota
Yesterday’s election didn’t provide many surprises here in northern Minnesota, and my hypothesis that schools would face a more difficult time passing referendums proved incorrect. Voters in Duluth, Hermantown and Hibbing all approved their levy referendums. Only Hermantown and the second Duluth question were remotely close, and even then not really in doubt. (Duluth’s second…
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City, school, county races top Tuesday’s Duluth vote
Northern Minnesota’s largest city, Duluth, holds city and school board elections Tuesday, along with a pair of school referendums. The Duluth vote has the potential of shifting these key boards on a variety of issues, so we’ll be watching closely. Duluth residents can find out how to vote here. Here are the candidates and questions.…
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12,000 feet, wings fell off, everyone OK (UPDATE)
UPDATE: The skydivers and pilots involved in this incident will be on Good Morning America Monday morning from 7-9 a.m. GMA will have a live crew on hand all morning. UPDATE II: It turns out that while GMA planned to send a crew to Superior, the skydivers were slated to be on NBC’s Today Show.…
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Sleepy Duluth county board race holds quiet intrigue
The special election to replace the late Steve O’Neil on the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners has been a mostly quiet affair. The eastern Duluth county board second district primary will be held a week from today, Nov. 5, and features four candidates, with two candidates already having suspended their campaigns from the last…
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Duluth skyscraper? Well, almost
A new building in downtown Duluth will be a bit smaller than previously hoped. Nevertheless, developers are announcing a 12-story corporate tower on the site of the old KDLH TV studios in the heart of the Zenith City. It will be one of the tallest structures in this growing northern Minnesota city, altering the skyline…
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Beargrease sled dog race back on after ‘peaceful coup’
The 2014 John Beargrease Sled Dog race is on again after new volunteers staged what the Duluth News Tribune calls a “peaceful coup,” replacing the board of directors that had canceled the race just last week. From the DNT: “There’s a huge upswell of people willing to help and keep it going,” said musher John…
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John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon cancelled
The Duluth News Tribune is reporting that the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon has cancelled its January 2014 race. In short, the Beargrease is out of money. Several races over the past few years have been cancelled or delayed due to lack of snow or wet conditions. This has sapped the organization’s reserves. So,…
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DNR: Don’t feed the Park Point foxes
Fox 21 News reports that Minnesota DNR officials are warning residents of Park Point in Duluth not to feed the wild foxes that have taken up residence there. Not everyone likes the Park Point foxes. From the story: DNR wildlife managers are receiving increasing numbers of calls from area residents concerned about habituated foxes approaching people…
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Jerry Springer in Duluth: a tale of comedy, woe
Jerry Springer is coming to Duluth, Minnesota, on Saturday, Oct. 12 as host of “The Price is Right Live,” a stage version of the long-running TV show once hosted by Bob Barker, now Drew Carey. Springer is best known for his cable TV talk show in which tank-top wearing guests are known to throw chairs…
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William Jennings Bryan in Duluth
I played the narrator role of the “Stage Manager” in my high school junior year production of “Our Town.” I remember giving a line about how William Jennings Bryan once spoke in Grover’s Corners, a sign of some strange and isolated collision between this small town and the churn of national events. The Zenith City…
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50 years later: Kennedy’s visit to Duluth, Ashland
It was 50 years ago today that President Kennedy walked out the doors of the Hotel Duluth in Duluth, Minnesota and flew off to another stop on his national tour. The day before he had landed and spoke in Ashland, Wisconsin at an airport that now bears his name before speaking and politicking in Duluth…
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Duluth balloon festival barely clears windy weekend
Krista Burns via Northland NewsCenter Windy conditions threatened to deflate Duluth’s first-ever hot air balloon event, Le Festival des Montgolfières à Duluth, this weekend, but the first (albeit tethered) balloon lift over Duluth in 125 years had taken place. So, “flight.” Kind of. It turns out that a port city with lots of wind, a giant…
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Hot air balloon festival opens today in Duluth
Photos: Don Biresch, Creative Commons license, from a New Jersey balloon festival. UPDATE: The gates are open and the balloon festival is under way! Watch weather conditions in Duluth to see if they affect the flight of balloons. (Wind and such). Duluth, Minnesota, will host a hot-air balloon festival Sept. 20-22 at Bayfront Park…
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Duluth’s sister city Petrozavodsk elects young reformist mayor Galina Shirshina
Barton Sutter, a Duluth, Minnesota, writer and an influential teacher of mine, described Duluth’s sister city this way: “a city in Russia that sounds like a brand of vodka made out of diesel fuel, Petrozavodsk.” Well, Petrozavodsk just elected a new mayor of some interest. Galina Shirshina, 34, is a journalist who is the first woman to…
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Lake Superior Aquaman cleans up litter
Aquaman doesn’t get much respect in the pantheon of superheroes, his super power being the ability to politely request assistance from otherwise normal wild animals. But Lake Superior has its own Aquaman, in the form of Duluth’s Jim Richardson. WDIO had the story last night. Nutshell: Richardson dresses like Aquaman and dives underwater to pick…