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National media do the Minnesota swing
On Nov. 3, voters will elect either incumbent Donald Trump or challenger Joe Biden as President of the United States. Biden holds a wide lead in the popular vote according to national polling, but it’s actually the Electoral College vote that determines the winner. That’s why American presidential elections become a mishmash of individual state…
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Labor Daze on the Iron Range
I feel bad that I’m not posting more often about what’s going on around the Iron Range these days. Hip deep in writing my book and teaching remotely I just don’t have time to whip up posts like I once did. As a result these events keep happening and the social arbiter of it all…
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Duluth senate primary will document changing DFL coalition
It’s primary election day in Minnesota. And while there are some interesting races around the state — notably the 5th Congressional District DFL race for Congress in Minneapolis — only one merits significant attention here in the North. In the State Senate District 7 DFL contest Sen. Erik Simonson of Duluth faces a spirited challenge…
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The politics of unemployment
My latest for the Minnesota Reformer is up. Here’s a taste: The extension of mining unemployment benefits is an ever-present Iron Range campaign issue and legislative priority. Now it could prove to be the biggest national campaign issue in the entire 2020 race. Welcome to Thunderdome! I’m afraid to report the real winners are in…
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Latest Power podcast episode connects desert car chase with Minnesota mines
The second episode of our podcast “Power in the Wilderness” dropped over the weekend. You can listen online now if you missed it. The episode is entitled “El Pulpo,” Spanish for “The Octopus.” Our show is a special production of KAXE-Northern Community Radio. It’s funded in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.…
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Media mergers in northern Minnesota and beyond
By now you may have seen the last column I wrote for the Hibbing Daily Tribune and the first that I penned for the newly merged Mesabi Tribune. Then last Friday I did a couple interviews about the merger of the Hibbing Daily Tribune and Mesabi Daily News. First I went on the KAXE Morning…
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Wanna hear the most annoying sound in Duluth?
Hey, wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world? That would be the sound of the fully loaded freighter Presque Isle scraping the side of the canal on its way out of the Port of Duluth this morning. Nobody was hurt. Somebody, however, has a bad case of the Mondays. Related posts: No related…
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125 years of iron ore from Hibbing’s Mahoning mine
At sunrise on Friday, July 3 workers raised a 44-star American flag at the edge of the the Hull Rust Mahoning Pit in Hibbing. The historic flag commemorated the day in 1895 when the first shovel lifted iron ore from the Mahoning Pit. “That open pit of course started with a single scoop of ore…
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2020 Iron Range Fourth of July schedule battered, not beaten
As you might know, each year I enjoy sharing the schedule of Iron Range Fourth of July parades, street dances and fireworks displays. July 4 is a American holiday that holds special meaning here in the immigrant communities of northern Minnesota. This year we enter the Fourth of July holiday week with much more uncertainty…
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The haunting truth of human nature
For the past couple years I’ve been reading old Hibbing newspapers for my book. I find that reading every paper from every year is exhausting but still the best way to research. This method provides context about everything going on in the community, including the national and international news that shaped people’s attitudes. So I’ve…
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IRRR commissioner OKs contested water tower project in Brookston
On Thursday afternoon Commissioner Mark Phillips of the Minnesota Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation announced the approval of a contested $250,000 grant for a water tower in Brookston. The decision concludes a growing controversy over the project’s exclusion from a collection of public works projects funded by the unique state agency. The small…
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Iron Range daily newspapers to merge
Today, the Mesabi Daily News and Hibbing Daily Tribune announced that the newspapers would merge operations beginning Wednesday, July 8. The new Mesabi Tribune will publish six days per week, making it the only remaining daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. Print publications have been reeling from lost ad revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic. These immediate…
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Redhead Mountain Bike Park looks wild
The manufactured landscape of the Iron Range looks like nothing else. It’s a cyborg. Half natural, half unnatural. Steep cliffs made by shovels, trucks, and explosives overlook deep, clear lakes that are not lakes. They’re pits dug through generations, reclaimed by a water table that once existed underground. Nature always stands ready to reclaim what…
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CD8 race to test GOP trend in northern Minnesota
The 8th Congressional District race, which drew so much attention two years ago, begins with a dynamic unseen since the 1920s: a Republican incumbent clearly favored. U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber won the high-priced MN-8 donnybrook of 2018. He enters 2020 joined at the hip with President Donald Trump as both seek re-election. With Trump’s approval…
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Competitive legislative races slated across Northland
NOTE: This post appears in today’s Hibbing Daily Tribune as part of a news sharing arrangement. Generational change. A historically contentious presidential race. Not one, but two major parties devoted to legalizing marijuana. These factors and more will influence several interesting northern Minnesota legislative races that formed after last Tuesday’s filing deadline. Though the presidential…