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Lookin’ for bog birds blowin’ in the wind
The Sax-Zim Bog birding festival begins Friday. It’s full, so don’t get any ideas. We’ve talked about my Zim roots and the bog before. Reading this story from the Duluth News Tribune hit an odd chord for me. Most of the quotes by the various people in the story could be swapped out for quotes…
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Newspaper group to close Hibbing printing plant
Business North has broken the story that American Consolidated Media, owner of many small daily and weekly newspapers in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, will close its Hibbing printing and production plant. The Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and others will now be printed at the Duluth News Tribune‘s new printing facility…
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A free book and a story for Presidents’ Day
As some of you know, my wife Christina is also a blogger, and a more successful one at that. While I traipse through the back woods of the internet she has a national reach with her frugal living site Northern Cheapskate. Today, she shares a free Kindle download for the book “I Wish I Knew…
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Essar names buyer for pellets at new taconite plant
Essar Steel Minnesota has announced a purchase agreement with Arcelor Mittal for the taconite pellets it plans to produce early next year. The new Essar plant is now under construction near Nashwauk on Minnesota’s western Mesabi Iron Range. A press release was sent out earlier today, compiled here in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Related posts:…
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Romancing the Range
This is my Sunday column for the Feb. 10, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on Saturday’s “Between You and Me” program on Northern Community Radio. Romancing the RangeBy Aaron J. Brown Life boils down to moments of consequence. With Valentine’s Day approaching (it’s this Thursday, for those…
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Business North to buy Scenic Range News Forum
The Scenic Range News Forum, a weekly newspaper on the western Mesabi Iron Range, will be sold this spring to the publishers of Duluth-based Business North. Ownership of the Scenic Range News Forum will change hands in a transaction scheduled to close on April 1. Cynthia and L.L. Johnson have reached an agreement to sell…
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New IRRRB rules could change board composition
Changes to the composition of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board are in store after redistricting and the fall elections made it constitutionally impossible to convene. Urmila Ramakrishnan, legislative correspondent for the Mesabi Daily News and other northern papers, reported the story earlier this week. Law currently requires that half the board be comprised…
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Moose hunting done in MN until population recovers
No chance to be first on this story, but at least I get to use my Bullwinkle/”North by Northwest” photo art again. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is cancelling the 2013 moose hunt because of massive, sudden decline in the moose population. We talked about the moose crisis here before. And before that. And…
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UMD study predicts impact of mining projects
UM-Duluth’s Labovitz School of Business has a new study out today projecting the possible economic impact of new mining projects in northern Minnesota. It paints quite a picture of the region’s mining economy. This is from the press releases (emphasis mine): Duluth, Minn., Feb. 6, 2013 – A recent report outlining Minnesota’s mining industry found…
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The Saturday Evening Post is so screwed right now
Tarnations! The U.S. Postal Service is dropping Saturday home delivery in August. Now my Time Magazine won’t come until Monday, which is the same day my new e-edition of Newsweek is waiting to be downloaded on my iPad but that I usually don’t download because who has that kind of bandwidth? We have limited bandwidth!…
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The mystery and masks of the Iron Range
You think you know a place, or people, and you really don’t. History is layers upon layers of truth that is only knowable through a quasi-scientific estimation. And you know who I think represents that best? Our fellow northern Minnesotan, Bob Dylan. He theorizes in most recent interviews that the closest you get to the…
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Extracting hard truth from rocks of mining debate
A mining company with designs on taconite reserves in northern Wisconsin is back in the news. Gogebic Taconite had suspended its plans to mine in Iron County last spring because of issues related to Wisconsin’s environmental permitting process. Wisconsin, unlike Minnesota and Michigan, hasn’t had active iron mining in a long time and the regulatory…
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The iron ore space race
This is my Sunday column for the Feb. 3, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Below the jump you can learn more about plans to mine minerals from asteroids. The iron ore space race By Aaron J. Brown Looking down from space through the night sky you see the bright lights of our modern…
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Minnesota Power to convert major Range plant from coal to gas
This week, Minnesota Power announced it would convert its coal-fired Laskin Energy Plant near Hoyt Lakes to natural gas generation in coming years. The $15 million conversion will eventually join the closure of one of Laskin’s MP’s Taconite Harbor units, but company officials are hopeful there will be no layoffs. The plan allows Minnesota Power…
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On encouragement, hurtling space rocks, robots, mining (natch), & geneology
What’s this? It’s a clue about my Sunday column. Here’s another. We don’t just need to mine them thar’ hills. We need to mine them thar’ asteroids, too. What could possibly go wrong? Meantime, for something completely different, catch my essay this Saturday on Between You and Me. The topic is “Encouragement.” All you have…