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Shelley Robinson first to announce for 5B seat
Shelley Robinson becomes the first candidate to announce for the House District 5B seat being vacated by Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm). Her statement, made both here and on her Facebook page, is this: Shelley Robinson is announcing her candidacy for MN House District 5B seat vacated by Tony Sertich. Shelley is the Executive Director of…
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Duluth’s population challenge
Duluth Mayor Don Ness has pledged to put the city on a path to increase Duluth’s population to more than 90,000 people by the year 2020. The city has hovered in the 85,000 range the last two censuses amid northeastern Minnesota’s sluggish natural resources economy. Since the late 2000s, however, Duluth has enjoyed more economic…
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Tony Sertich and the seachange on the Iron Range
As previously reported, Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) will resign Thursday to take his new position as commissioner of the unique state agency Iron Range Resources. This agency overseas the tax revenue paid by mining companies in lieu of local property taxes. Though much maligned by foes, both of the informed and uninformed variety, IRR remains…
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Dayton officially announces Sertich pick at IRR
And it’s official. More on the way. Governor Dayton Announces Representative Tony Sertich to Head Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board Dayton, Sertich committed to economic development in Northern Minnesota St. Paul— Governor Mark Dayton today announced the appointment of Representative Tony Sertich as Commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB). Sertich,…
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Sertich to be next Iron Range Resources Commissioner
The Mesabi Daily News is reporting something that’s been in the rumor mill around the Iron Range for weeks. Gov. Mark Dayton will appoint Rep. Tony Sertich to be the next commissioner of Iron Range Resources on Tuesday. Wisely, the MDN was granted an exclusive here. Later on Tuesday I’ll elaborate on the three big…
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Drag to leave WDIO, Duluth media to become thunderdome
Thing #597 that I love about living in northern Minnesota. When TV reporters quit the media for money and regular hours they go work for mining companies. In a surprising announcement reported in today’s Duluth News Tribune WDIO 5 p.m. anchor Sandy Drag said she would leave the station to work as regional public relations…
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GUEST POST: The raw, cold appeal of the Iron Range
From time to time I share guest posts from readers and those with an Iron Range interest. This one comes from Nicole Anderson who wrote this reflection after spending a year on the Range recently. The Iron Range at first comes off as depressing with its empty store fronts and ghost town feel, but that…
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MPR: "Iron Range needs answers more nuanced than ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’"
Minnesota Public Radio published my commentary piece today entitled “The Iron Range needs answers more nuanced than ‘jobs, jobs, jobs.’” This is the second one and I think I’m going to try a few more because we all know what starts happening after the third date, am I right? This piece strikes at some of…
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Dayton makes civility a viable option
Gov. Mark Dayton is getting national attention for the way he handled what normally would have been a routine signing of an executive order authorizing Minnesota’s enrollment in a federal health care plan. He opened the press conference to the public and when protesters arrived he let them stay. Not only that, he let some…
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All politics is (less) local on the Range, Minnesota and beyond
Andrew Gelman at the well respected FiveThirtyEight political data blog recently explored the old saying “All Politics is Local.” This is often considered a veritable commandment in political circles, but Gelman offers a new take. Gelman’s bold-face conclusion is: “Politics is less local than it used to be.” To the degree this saying was true,…
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Iron Range 2011: Everything is wonderful, nothing is safe
Iron Range taconite production recovered in 2010, ending shy of its peak numbers from 2008 just after the recession started. The six taconite plants on the Range, ore dump salvaging Magnetation and the value-added producer Mesabi Nugget are expected to produce as much as 39 million tons in 2011. Keewatin Taconite is getting green lights…
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In which I explain the bog blog concept
Before Twitter and Facebook there was a time when blogging was the hip thing to do. This period lasted just a few years, from 2004 into 2007. By the end of it I was doing community ed classes about blogging and that’s how you know a trend died. While blogging is still relevant, it’s now…
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Brown on the Air: For days of Auld Lang Mine
I’ll be on 91.7 KAXE Monday morning at 8:10 to talk about the year ahead for the Iron Range and northern Minnesota. I’ll be dabbling in mining news and trying out some of my new riffs on the “fate vs. free will” concepts I’ve been working with lately. I’m going to make that so much…
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True Grit
This is a movie review, of sorts, which I don’t normally do and don’t plan to do all that often except when I feel like it. Tuesday night for my birthday I decreed that we would see “True Grit,” the Coen Brothers adaptation of the Charles Portis novel which also beget the 1969 John Wayne…