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This week’s column bumped for newspaper vs. teachers fight
My weekly column for today was bumped from the opinion page of the Hibbing Daily Tribune to make space for an ongoing kerfuffle between HDT publisher Wanda Moeller and the local teacher’s union, a sprawling epic that’s played out each of the past three Sundays. I expect my column — which was about rural homelessness…
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Employees picket the Duluth News Tribune
Employees at the Duluth News Tribune picketed the building today in protest of continued job cuts at the Forum Communication-owned property. The entire newspaper industry is enduring economic hardship, particularly at dailies, but the cuts at the DNT have been staggering over the past few years, lately augmented by an increasingly tense relationship between management…
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EPA EPA EPA!
The Canadian mineral company Polymet’s proposed copper-nickel mine on the Iron Range hit turbulence this week with a ding to its draft environmental impact statement from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. “Inadequate” was the word used to describe Polymet’s plans to mitigate the environmental protections for the new-style nonferrous minerals mine on the former LTV…
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Rural Iron Range sheriff rides into sunset (rise?)
Itasca County Sheriff Pat Medure announced today he wasn’t running for re-election. The top law enforcement officer in this rural, largely liquid northern Minnesota county made the announcement at today’s county board meeting. Theory of the day: We haven’t heard the last of Pat Medure insofar as elections are concerned. The pages of any paper…
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Cravaack reaches across the crevasse (formerly known as aisle)
So I’m just sitting there, being me (like I always do), and I get a phone call. It’s Chip Cravaack. He’s a pilot. But he’s not just a pilot; he’s running for the GOP endorsement for Congress in Minnesota’s 8th district. And he wants to talk to me, and my readers. First of all, reader…
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COLUMN: "Driving into the sun"
This is my column for the Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Driving into the sunBy Aaron J. Brown Last year a woman described to me how her dad was worn down by the grind of commuting from the Itasca County portion of the Iron Range into the St. Louis County…
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In Praise of the Iron Range
The right honourable Kermit over at the conservative Minnesota politics blog True North has penned an earnest screed entitled “In Praise of the Suburb.” Go over and take a read. He’s a little quick to turn an anthropological issue into a political one, but he presents a new point of view. Suburbs exist for a…
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Five GOP candidates seek Oberstar’s seat
After a couple cycles where the GOP candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat held by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) emerged late in the process, I just realized that five announced Republican candidates are running this year. I knew that 2008 nominee Michael Cummins from Isanti and Justin Eichorn of Grand Rapids were running, both…
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Iron Range may sway MN-GOV DFL endorsement
Over at Minnesota Progressive Project (yes, the lefties) I’ve written a post about how I believe the road to the DFL endorsement in this year’s governor’s race will pass through the Iron Range. I have decided to move more of my blatantly political analysis over to that blog (and possibly others) as I consider new…
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35,000 feet and falling
Popular Mechanics gives us what we really need: a detailed set of instructions for how to survive a 35,000 foot fall from a recently exploded airplane. When I say “must read” I mean it this time. Related posts: No related posts.
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Marching band therapy for our times
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo. For most folks, the latest video from the band OK GO! for their latest song “This Too Shall Pass” is just plain fun. (These were the guys who did the “treadmill video” that was popular some time ago, having since established themselves the…
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Lessons from Mass.
As political junkies of all stripes coke out on analysis of today’s Massachusetts special election for the United States Senate, remember this. Some residents of major party bastions will vote for other parties when 1) there is a major national wave; others when 2) the dominant party nominates an idiot and/or terrible candidate; and 3)…
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Phantom Woodsy Lakesy Park (a Minnesota story)
If you missed it, the state and U.S. Steel have reached a potential deal for the mining/steel-making giant sell a large chunk of land on Lake Vermilion to become a new state park. The Iron Range-area park was a rather unexpected proposal from Gov. Tim Pawlenty two years ago that stalled when U.S. Steel got…
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Speculation of the House
Iron Range media outlets (in this case, the Mesabi Daily News by way of the Hibbing Daily Tribune) are reporting on the potential for DFL House Majority Leader Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) to become Speaker of the House under a handful of scenarios in 2010. The reality of this scenario depends on two things: 1) the…
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The King Holiday in a new century
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The King Holiday in a new centuryBy Aaron J. Brown How are race relations in your neighborhood? Yes, that’s still awkward, isn’t it? Just ask Harry Reid, who had some rough headlines last week after using some archaic…