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Star Tribune: Essar’s Iron Range project delayed a year
Dee DePass of the Star Tribune reports that Essar Steel Minnesota’s project in Nashwauk has experienced the financing delays local observers have long suspected. Essar is set back a year. Essar Steel Minnesota will delay the opening of its Nashwauk taconite plant until the second half of 2014, officials confirmed Thursday. The plant, 90 miles…
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A tale of two Marriage Equality Days
Today is the first day same-sex couples can legally marry in the state of Minnesota. For me, this is a happy day, particularly as I think of friends finally able to enjoy the legal benefits of long term committed relationships with the people they love. I spoke out against the anti-equality amendment last fall, and cheered…
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Blinking thing tells you when you can run stop sign
WDIO St. Louis County in northeastern Minnesota is considering a new blinking sign for rural intersections that would warn motorists when a vehicle is approaching from the crossing highway. They’ve been testing the sign already. WDIO has the story. He said about 25 percent of serious crashes in Saint Louis County happen at rural intersections…
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Range filmmaker featured on Buzzfeed for indie film tips
Promotional still from “Pollywogs.” Last month I shared the story of Hibbing native Karl Jacob’s independent film “Pollywogs” making its debut at the LA Film Festival. The movie was filmed on the Iron Range. Jacob recently published an article on BuzzFeed entitled “10 Easy(ish) Steps To Making The Indie Movie of Your Dreams.” The list…
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Hibbing native jazz singer Evingson featured on NPR
Jazz singer Connie Evingson was featured on last week’s “Weekend Edition” on NPR, giving a charming interview about her music and upbringing on Minnesota’s Iron Range. Evingson was raised just down the street from Bob Dylan’s boyhood home in Hibbing, Minnesota. She’s played a number of shows on the Iron Range over the years. The…
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Freshman Iron Range lawmaker hit on mining claims
I’ve been writing how this summer is building toward a contention boiling point on the nonferrous mineral mining issue. We’re waiting for PolyMet to release its updated EIS after the EPA rejected its last one. Over in Wisconsin we’ve seen much more sharp-edged protesting and company overreaction to local mining debates than we have seen here…
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It’s official: July frost advisory issued for northern MN
MNZ010&012-018-019-290930-/ O.NEW.KDLH.FR.Y.0003.130729T0700Z-130729T1200Z/KOOCHICHING- NORTHERN ST. LOUIS-NORTHERN COOK/NORTHERN LAKE-NORTHERN ITASCA- CNTL ST. LOUIS-INCLUDING THE CITIES OF.INTERNATL FALLS. ELY.ISABELLA.BIGFORK.HIBBING327 PM CDT SUN JUL 28 2013 .FROST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 7 AM CDT MONDAY. NO SHIT THIS IS A REAL THING. THE NATL WEATHER SVC IN DULUTH HAS ISSUED A FROST ADVISORY WHICH IS IN…
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Nerds among us
This is my Sunday column for the July 28, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired yesterday on Northern Community Radio’s “Between You and Me.” PROGRAM NOTE: you can hear the latest Grand Rapids episode of my Great Northern Radio Show today (Sunday) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.…
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Looking inside the numbers of MN-8
Taking a look inside the demographics of northern Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District shows a few things, mostly that it’s older than your average MN district. Take some time to check this out. Good nerdy times. (h/t Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, Star Tribune) Related posts: No related posts.
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OMG, you guys, what can we do to put ourselves on the map?
Ed Schipul, Creative Commons license Jay Walljasper had a feature on Minnpost yesterday, expressing concern that the Twin Cities (don’t call them that) of Minneapolis and St. Paul (too many syllables) don’t have a firm national identity other than that they’re cold in the winter. Walljasper continued his series today. Despite scads of stats showing…
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Northern MN ‘showboat’ tradition on Mighty Miss this weekend
You can still catch one of the coolest theater traditions of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, with this weekend’s closing performances of the Mississippi Melodie Showboat. Hometown Focus ran a lovely feature on the annual riverside music tradition in this northern town. You might recall that the boat sank last year. But don’t worry, they’ve got…
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Ain’t no party like a Range nerd party cause a Range nerd party don’t (PUNCH) (BLEEDING)
How did I miss this? On July 17, Northland’s Newscenter reported on the fact that Popular Science named the Soudan Underground Mine as its top travel destination for nerds. (Attention media nerds, Northland’s Newscenter is a conglomeration of several formerly autonomous TV network affiliates in the Duluth, MN market). Feast your eyes on the story:…
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Hey Hey, Iron Range, time for the St. Louis County Fair
The St. Louis County Fair is this week, starting Thursday and running through Sunday at the fairgrounds in Chisholm. This is the “northern” St. Louis County fair, and I apologize for neglecting to discuss the southern one last week. The “North” is the Iron Range fair, the larger of the two, and the one that…
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From the junkyard; thoughts on movin’ on up
My sister Alyssa and I illustrate a heavy 1985 snow at Brown and Sons Salvage in McDavitt Township (Zim), MN. The “American Dream” is predicated on a simple concept. Unlike a lot of the 19th century European powers, America was to be a place where one could climb the ladder of social class based on…
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MN House select committee on jobs to visit Hibbing, Duluth
This looks kind of interesting. Press release from Rep. Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley): Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs to hold hearings in Duluth and Hibbing ST. PAUL, MN – The Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs will be making their first outstate stops of their interim tour where they will ask workers across the…