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The Bus Factor
This story (“Big, yellow and putting schools in the red“) in today’s Star Tribune details the woes of some suburban Minnesota school districts in covering the skyrocketing cost of diesel fuel for their bus fleets. I don’t have the data to compare miles and fuel use between suburban and rural northern Minnesota school districts, but…
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Hibbing’s Mines and Pines Jubilee reaches zenith today
Today is the Hibbing Mines and Pines Jubilee Parade and Street Dance. Come on down (or up) to Hibbing for some good times. I hit it off with my wife Christina at this event 10 years ago. If you attend, you’ll see just how improbable that was. We’ll be in town tonight but we’ve learned…
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House K-12 committee planning hearing on Iron Range
A little birdie tells me that the Minnesota House K-12 Finance committee is scheduling a hearing on the Iron Range this summer. This will be a great opportunity to explain to leaders from around the state the importance of the “Minnesota Miracle” model of education funding. Every student in Minnesota deserves access to a quality…
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OOM PA PA!
It’s the last Polkafest ever on the Iron Range! I can’t believe I forgot to post this yesterday. Today is the headline day for Polkafest at Ironworld in Chisholm. The Iron Range has hosted Polkafest since the 1980s, but this year it was announced that the event would be moving to Carlton next year. Polka…
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Who will build the party of the Iron Range?
The legislative elections on the Iron Range are usually only competitive if there is a DFL primary. That’s not to say that the Iron Range is excessively liberal or that there aren’t any Republicans around, it’s just that the DFL party structure dominates state politics around here, and has for half a century. Now, I’m…
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High speed internet on the Range: Part of a national plan?
A healthy economic recovery on the Iron Range must include vast improvements to our technological infrastructure (or, in deference to my friends in the broadband business … the means of delivering our tech infrastructure). It’s one way to use our region’s mineral resources to lay out a non-specific red carpet for a huge number of…
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They come here with their pinstriped suits and …
Boom times a’ comin’ to the Iron Range. That’s the story and I mostly believe it. There will be jobs created here in the next few years, mostly because steel is selling high and our local iron mining operations are much more competitive in the global economy. If big new plants like the ones proposed…
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Peebles will come, Ray. Peebles will come.
OMG! Hibbing is getting a Peebles! A what now? For the last several years people in the Iron Range’s largest city of Hibbing have been anticipating the coming of a new retailer after the big Wal-Mart came in and precipitated the closure of our Kmart and Pamida while the local mall saw most of its…
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Gene Lyons’ Obama problem and how it affects Minnesota
My “hometown” paper is the Hibbing Daily Tribune (in as much as I live in a very rural township with no paper and this one is somewhat close and runs my weekly column). The Tribune, like most small town dailies, doesn’t run nearly as many syndicated columnists as it used to for budget reasons. One…
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IRR budget tabled as meeting began to heat up; sympathies to the Rukavina family
Our sympathies go out to Rep. Tom Rukavina and his family after the news of his mother’s death arrived during last night’s budget meeting at Iron Range Resources. The meeting was adjourned and the budget issues will be resolved at a future meeting. During the meeting, Rukavina had just proposed cuts to the commissioner’s proposed…
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Iron Range Resources budget showdown tonight
A story in yesterday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune explained that tonight’s Iron Range Resources board meeting will explore the proposed $31 million budget for this unique state agency funded by taconite mining taxes. My friends Tony Sertich and Tom Anzelc explain the agency’s purpose in the Mike Jennings story: Two other IRRB members, Reps. Tony Sertich…
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The coming internet crisis and why the Range can lead the way
Jason Baker of the Star Tribune has a must read piece for anyone who uses the Internet (and if you’re reading this, that means you). When I talk about building a fast, reliable public/private high speed internet network on the Iron Range this is what I mean and this is why it matters so very…
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Iron Range Renaissance? Or Recovery?
Officials of all stripes engaged in back patting and speech-making on the Iron Range this week for the dedication of Mesabi Nugget, a new facility that makes iron nuggets from low grade iron ore near Hoyt Lakes. They also toured Minnesota Power’s new Taconite Ridge wind energy project by Virginia. This year we’re producing innovative…
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Range coal gas boondoggle tripped up at PUC
Excelsior Energy’s boondoggle Mesaba Energy Project, a massively expensive coal-gas power plant that relies on government favors and grants to survive, was dealt a minor blow this week. The state PUC declined to reconsider a past decision that would have granted the project more time to coalesce. It also corrected language in the proposal to…
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A busy week …
Quietly, it’s been a very busy week on the Iron Range. There were developments in Mesabi Nugget, Minnesota Steel, Polymet, Taconite Ridge, iron magnetization, flood mitigation for the Canisteo mine pit, my favorite boondoggle (Mesaba Energy Project) and more. I can’t keep up with it all. I hope to have several posts up later today…