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DEED commish talks Dayton budget tonight in Grand Rapids, MN
Tonight, Minnesota DEED commissioner Katie Clark Sieben will hold a forum to discuss Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget in an event sponsored by TakeAction Minnesota. Those interested in that process may wish to to check it out. Various forms of the budget are beginning to shape up at the legislature and that process will play out…
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Range student tells MPR about life with Asperger’s
I’m very, very, very proud of my kid sister (a sophomore at Hibbing High School) Tori Brown who has today’s commentary at Minnesota Public Radio. She writes about the practical realities of having Asperger’s Syndrome as a high school student. She wrote this after talking to us about our son, who also has a form…
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The quiet weight of Prairie Silence
How many truths are unspoken in a place like the Iron Range, or really any part of Minnesota? Perhaps as many as remain unsaid on the North Dakota flat lands of Melanie Hoffert’s new memoir “Prairie Silence: A Memoir.” Hoffert’s debut book is an excellent read, one that absorbed my long weekend. I’ll explore it…
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Snowmobiles, art and poetry, a true Range blend
Looking for something to do on the Iron Range this weekend? Here are an assortment of options, all of which roughly coincide with e-mails that have lingered in my inbox until this present and pressing moment. How about a snowmobile race? We’ve got solid snow pack all over the Range and if cross country skiing…
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Gadzo talks Iron Range potica on Twin Cities TV
Jason Davis’s popular KSTP “On the Road” segment heads to the Iron Range to talk to Jan Gadzo (pronounced Yahn Gahdso) about potica. Jan Gadzo is an amazing person with an amazing story. I kept lots of notes from talking with him about his experiences fleeing the former Czechoslovakia. Here’s a guy who knows what…
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Hobo Nephews, Mary Bue headline Bagley ‘Great Northern’
I’m writing now for the Saturday, March 9 edition of the Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio, broadcasting live at the Bagley High School auditorium in beautiful Bagley, Minnesota. Reserve your free tickets now! We just found out we’re up against a big men’s hockey game between the University of Minnesota Gophers and…
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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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"36 maps that explain the entire world"
I have a thing for maps. It’s a cliche, of course, for a fellow of my profession. Something about an easy way to pretend to be smart. But I love maps. When I roll out the new version of this blog later this year, I want to include an interactive map somehow. I don’t know…
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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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UMD students declared hottest in the nation
A typical UMD student when not wearing parka. A website called DateMySchool has named the University of Minnesota at Duluth as the U.S. college with the hottest student body. Hotness, in this case, has been measured by the number of photos from that college that have been downloaded at their creepy website. I attended the…