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Watch the debates in bellwether MN-LEG northern district
KAXE’s series of non-traditional radio forums in the hotly contested MN Senate District 5 continue Thursday morning at 8:15 with a District 5B conversation between Reps. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) and Carolyn McElfatrick (R-Deer River). The segment begins at 8:15 a.m. on 91.7 KAXE/Northern Community Radio, streaming at kaxe.org. This is the district featuring three…
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Jobless rate quite low in northeastern Minnesota
The Duluth News Tribune reported Tuesday that unemployment in Duluth has dipped below 6 percent. Moreover, unemployment in the entire region has also dropped: The jobless rate reached 6.2 percent for Northeastern Minnesota, down from 6.7 percent in August. And the greater Twin Ports area, which includes all of St. Louis, Carlton and Douglas counties,…
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Great Northern Radio Show TONIGHT, 5-7p, on KAXE.org
Tune to the Great Northern Radio Show tonight at 5 p.m. on 91.7 KAXE Grand Rapids (89.9 Brainerd) and 90.5 KBXE Bemidji. It’s streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org. If you can, please attend the live broadcast by arriving at the Boardman Auditorium at Eveleth-Gilbert High School by 4:30 p.m. Admission is free…
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A Great Northern Radio Show for the ages
From a post in the Atlantic: 1956 is not terribly long ago. People born then and after are still working. Their parents are often still alive. Their grandparents, if alive, would be in their 90s. But the above clip from a 1956 TV show includes a 96-year-old man who saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham…
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Longyear buys Grand Rapids site; marks West Range growth
More signs of economic growth on the western Mesabi: The Itasca Economic Development Corporation has found a buyer for its Itasca Eco Industrial Park in Grand Rapids. This was the former Ainsworth lumber plant that closed in 2008. J.M. Longyear, LLC, just bought the whole thing. GRAND RAPIDS, MN – On behalf of our board…
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Money, Medicare & the Iron Range: MN-8 lurches to climax
The third MN-8 debate is on for noon today, but here’s another view of the race that’s been collecting in the oak barrel I keep outside my back door. There’s more in there, of course. Always more. Fundraising: Surprisingly, Rick Nolan out-raised Chip Cravaack in the final quarter before the election. Cravaack enters these final…
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COLUMN: The Swedish Connection
This is my Sunday column for the Oct. 14, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The Swedish ConnectionBy Aaron J. Brown In reviewing my family history files I always thought the Swedish villages where my great-grandmother’s family is from seemed more like a random collection of letters that have no meaning. Recently I met…
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The nitty gritty reality of NoMinn mining debate
Sometimes you get tired of explaining the same thing, over and over, so here is a haiku describing the political, economic and geological issue of our time on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. They say with new rocks,mined clean, our kids prosper.They speak truth, we hope. People think that the issue of precious mineral mining in…
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Cliffs, Steelworkers reach labor agreement
The United Steelworkers and Cliffs Natural Resources have reached a tentative labor agreement for workers at Hibbing Taconite and United Taconite in Eveleth. This was the last company to formally negotiate an agreement with the Steelworkers after last month’s averted Iron Range mining strike. Related posts: No related posts.
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UPDATED: Detroit Diesel to bring 50 jobs back to Hibbing
According to the Mesabi Daily News, Detroit Diesel is expanding to the unoccupied spec building by the Range Regional Airport in Hibbing. The project would create about 50 jobs. They’re seeking $2.5 million loan from the IRRRB at its Thursday meeting. I suppose one of those jobs would be the one my dad was laid…
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Job growth on western Mesabi could tilt tight races
Gov. Mark Dayton was on the western Mesabi Iron Range last week, touting job growth in the area from the new Essar Steel and Magnetation projects in Itasca County. He used the occasion to reiterate his support for these projects, including whatever Magnetation needs in its quest to open new endeavors in coming years. In…
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Duluth paper endorses Republican for Rukavina seat
In the new House District 6B, the seat currently held by colorful Range political figure and retiring Rep. Tom Rukavina, the index is so strongly DFL that it seldom draws coverage in legislative politics. The DFL candidate, blessed heartily by Rukavina, is Iron Range native and local labor organizer Jason Metsa, a young but wily…
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Great Northern Radio Show set for Oct. 20 Eveleth show
A new season of my Great Northern Radio Show launches Saturday, Oct. 20, with a live KAXE/KBXE broadcast from the Boardman Theatre at Eveleth-Gilbert High School in Eveleth, Minnesota. Our new take on the variety show format has been touring northern Minnesota for a year and we’re excited to show off our progress back “Home…
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COLUMN: New game, no rules
This is my Sunday column for the Sept. 30, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired Saturday on “Between You and Me” on KAXE/KBXE Northern Community Radio. New game, no rulesBy Aaron J. Brown One spring morning a few years ago the residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood in Hibbing…
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First mining equipment arrives at Essar’s Nashwauk site
Since news a couple weeks ago that Essar Steel was slowing construction at its Nashwauk taconite plant site the company has been working hard to convey the notion that the slowdown is only temporary. Today, the company announced that its first piece of mining equipment, the pictured drill, has arrived on site. Essar Steel Minnesota…