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Essar loan extended, company in talks to bring steel plant to Range
Essar Steel, an Indian company planning to open a new taconite plant near Nashwauk next year, is talking to another company about bringing an historic steel plant to northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. This according to reports from yesterday’s meeting of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board in Eveleth. Essar also got their $6.7 million…
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Long arc of justice bends toward ‘Lincoln’ on the Range
Daniel Day-Lewis portrays Abraham Lincoln. Quite a while ago I read a story that Daniel Day-Lewis would portray Abraham Lincoln in a movie based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals.” I had an episode that would probably be categorized as “geeking out” but probably exceeded the norm. The world’s best actor. My favorite…
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Those Duluth prostitutes are so dressed up that they look like … not prostitutes? Wait, what?
A joke in Monday night’s “How I Met Your Mother” suggested that prostitutes in Duluth, Minnesota dress very conservatively. Because of the cold? Kind of a context thing, I think. Didn’t watch. Could have, but didn’t. Anyway, the Duluth News-Tribune ran this as a “namedrop” in the today’s culture page. I really don’t know how…
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Our paychecks now face constant ballot test
In a glimpse of what could easily have happened in Minnesota and could yet occur, a Republican legislature and governor passed “right to work” laws in Michigan yesterday, one of the biggest union states in the nation yesterday. Lawmakers did so with little debate and no hearings, ushering in laws that weaken both public and…
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Iron Range roller derby team sports new logo
The Iron Range Maidens roller derby team has released its new logo: The selection was made as part of a contest. Doug Kahlberg created the winning entry. I attended a Maidens bout once and wrote this. In addition, you should know that the Maidens have a B-Team named the “Attackonites.” Attackonite is a mineral product…
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Language, not lutefisk, might be Scandinavia’s greatest gift
One of my favorite blogs, TYWKIWDBI, posts the following question: “Is English a Scandinavian language?” Some professors in Norway apparently believe so, saying that viking domination of the early English nation had more lingual influence than “Old English” or later intermingling with the romance languages of central Europe. Specifically, sentence structure is one area of…
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DNR proposes moose as endangered species
Growing up in northern Minnesota in the ’80s and ’90s, we saw moose in the woods just outside the Iron Range. No, we didn’t see moose every day, the way we often see whitetail deer. But you saw a moose or two every year, more if you lived farther north than the Range. Those days…
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LIVE FEED: Dayton, legislative leaders discuss 2013 agenda
Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL-Minnesota) and legislative leaders from the state House and Senate will hold a joint press conference today at 11:30 a.m. Courtesy of The Uptake, I’ll carry the event live here at MinnesotaBrown.com. Last week, state budget forecasters announced a deficit of about $1.1 billion, about what was expected. Still in the mix…
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Nolan featured in NY Times story on political experience
Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) is in the lede of a story in the New York Times about the importance of experience in political leaders. Nolan ran as an experienced “down-home” small businessman, but had this little nugget in his resume: he served in Congress 30 years ago and left of his own choice because of…
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COLUMN: Hay! What? Hay bales (that’s the joke)
This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 9, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I previewed this column earlier in the week, complete with the 1998 Cherry High School class picture, in which my class posed in a hay field with hay bales. Also, I am wearing white pants. Hay! What? Hay bales!…
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Looking in on Hibbing’s ‘Castle in the Wilderness’
WCCO’s Bill Hudson did a “Finding Minnesota” story about Hibbing High School, one of the most ornate and visually stunning school houses in the state. Most Iron Range locals take this place for granted, or at least are desensitized to its grandeur. This building and its history are a fascinating part of the area’s rich…
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Hey! Hey! Hands off my hay!
This morning, NPR aired this story about hay thefts on the Great Plains. With drought across much of the country, hay is a precious commodity these days, commanding double the normal price. This has prompted hay rustling, which is funny when you think about the size and highly visible location of most hay bales. I…
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Nolan lifts curtain on backroom congressional fundraising
WTIP’s Jay Andersen has this intriguing interview with Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) as he prepares to take office in January. It was noted in the interview that Nolan’s election this November represents a 32-year span between his last term, which ended in 1980, and the one he’ll begin soon. Nolan spends most of the interview…
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‘Value-added’ setback reminds of Range’s inherent value
The Mesabi Daily News penned a Sunday, Dec. 2, editorial about the decision by Magnetation to locate their pellet production plant in Reynolds, Indiana, instead of on the western Mesabi Iron Range where they mine and partially process their raw ore. The Bill Hanna opinion is one shared across the region: disappointment. “And that should…
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Unique gifts from northern Minnesota’s Iron Range
If you’re looking for unique gifts with a connection to northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, check out Made on the Range. This was rolled out several months ago but is updated for the holiday season now. Tony Sertich, commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), held a press event touting the website yesterday.…