Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: Iron Range

  • Range school district deeply divided after failed referendum

    Range school district deeply divided after failed referendum

    I’ve been following the Greenway school district’s financial woes for a while now. The district posed a major extension of three excess operational levies to keep its budget afloat for the next few years. The referendum, opposed by a group touting fiscal responsibility, failed by healthy margin. I argued, and maintain, that this was a…

  • Bakk again

    Bakk again

    OK, one more post on Tom Bakk’s exploration of a gubernatorial run. Then I’m done with this 2010 nonsense for a while. Folks have picked up that I’m skeptical about Bakk’s chances. I’ve been down the old timey Iron Range statewide whistle stop tour before. It’s like trying to occupy Russia in January. There is…

  • Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 5

    Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 5

    Here is the final installment (this week) of “life as an Iron Range blogger,” the diversionary exercise that allows me to keep content on the blog while I work on my book. Here is the Hull Rust Mine on Hibbing’s north side. This isn’t natural. Every crook and cranny of this pit was dug by…

  • Bakk is running

    Bakk is running

    Hate to be scooped on a Range story, but here it is from MNPublius (broken by MinnesotaDemocratsExposed I believe): State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) is running for governor. This is not surprising. Bakk has been hinting at this for a while. He’s getting out early probably to shore up union support and carve his piece…

  • Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 4

    Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 4

    Book revisions continue through the week. Here I continue the visual tour of life as an Iron Range blogger.It’s not all good. Sometimes bugs like these land on your shoulder or leg. They’re huge and they bite. This one is now a lobbyist working for a confederation of energy and transmission line companies. It will…

  • You say ‘review,’ I say ‘audit’: Either way, the Iron Range is getting bamboozled

    You say ‘review,’ I say ‘audit’: Either way, the Iron Range is getting bamboozled

    As reported, the Office of the Legislative Auditor is spending two months reviewing two loans totaling $9.5 million given by Iron Range Resources to a collection of lobbyists and lawyers calling themselves “Excelsior Energy.” Isn’t that kind of like an audit? Apparently there’s a difference. Anyway, the Hibbing Daily Tribune followed up on my post…

  • Greater Minnesota job seekers are hurting

    I’ve written about the work of the folks at the Jobs Now Coalition in St. Paul in the past. Basically, they’re doing research and spreading the word that the jobs currently being created in rural economies do not pay the bills for average families, which makes positive employment statistics cited by the government fairly misleading.…

  • Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 3

    Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 3

    Work on my book continues, so I continue with the tour of images that make up life as an Iron Range blogger. One of the interesting things about living on the Range is that you need to find entertainment in unusual places. We don’t have night clubs and Tom Petty never comes here. The names…

  • The important difference between wi-fi and high speed

    The important difference between wi-fi and high speed

    A recent column from Mark Stencel of CQ Politics details the woes of major municipal Wi-Fi networks. The one in Philadelphia is currently going down in flames. I continue to advocate that northern Minnesota’s Iron Range must use its unique revenue and public governance structure to create a universal high speed internet network, whether that…

  • Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 2

    Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 2

    I’m working on other projects this week, so instead of my normal posts I’m sharing a glimpse into some of the images that make up my life as an Iron Range blogger. When people think of the Range they might think of mines, rough-looking blue collar towns, piles of red dirt, pine trees and lakes.…

  • Whitepine talks about steel wars

    Paul at Whitepine, my east Range counterpart, is writing about the same modern-day steel baron wheeling and dealing that I have been talking about. His main argument is that we Iron Rangers need to have a backup plan because there’s a lot we don’t know about Essar and the Minnesota Steel project. I agree. Check…

  • Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 1

    Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 1

    It’s officially summer in my world, which — unlike other teachers — means more work than ever. I have a book due June 16, a summer course starting next week and a legislative campaign committee to fire up. Therefore, this week and perhaps the next few weeks will be light on blogging. Instead I’ll be…

  • Boondoggle vs. Audit

    Boondoggle vs. Audit

    I may be slowing the blog for the next few weeks but I do have a couple stories that I’m following, including continued educated rumors that the expenditure of a $9.5 million Iron Range Resources loan to Excelsior Energy is being audited by the Office of the Legislative Auditor. I’m getting very plausible reports that…

  • Range high speed internet debate comes to Nashwauk

    Range high speed internet debate comes to Nashwauk

    Once again, opponents line up to say we don’t need universal, affordable high speed internet on the Iron Range. They don’t want competition and are unwilling to provide the service themselves. I don’t care whether it’s FiberNet, Qwest or someone else — our leaders need to recognize that if the Iron Range doesn’t make a…

  • Critical Greenway referendum fails

    Critical Greenway referendum fails

    Greenway’s referendum failed after Tuesday’s votes were counted. My information comes second hand from someone in administration. I don’t have vote totals, but what I heard was the measure failed by about 200 votes out of about 1800 — roughly a ten-point defeat. (UPDATE: From the May 21 Grand Rapids Herald-Review, referendum fails 1170-898. That’s…