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More commotion in Range economic development
I’m still catching up from my trip to the Twin Cities. Here are some of the headlines from the last two days. Essar Steel is delayed eight months because of financing issues. This is the combined mine and steel mill in Nashwauk that’s been talked about in some form for approaching two decades but that…
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Thank you, Twin Cities!
I have returned from the Twin Cities. My first metro book tour for “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” was a success and I thank all those who came out to events and wished me well in my travels. Wednesday morning, a blizzard had wrapped up northern Minnesota. Though snowfall was less than expected,…
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When the metal ones come for you
Confirmed: The Duluth News Tribune is staking its editorial future on angry, misguided rants written by conservative older folks. This one blames every conceivable problem in Duluth on socialism. I can’t wait until my 70th birthday when I can write my op/ed blaming the 2032 robot uprising on those damn kids trampling my yard as…
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Essar financing situtaion explained further
This morning, Mike Jennings of the Hibbing Daily Tribune explores the financing situation for Essar Steel Minnesota’s Nashwauk project, a combined mine and steelmaking operation currently in early construction. Essar, an India-based global corporation, is reportedly having some trouble securing necessary loans because of the credit situation. Jennings reports that State Sen. Tom Bakk will…
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‘Overburden’ heading south tomorrow
The first time my parents brought us to the Twin Cities they didn’t tell my sisters and I where we were going until our Oldsmobile station wagon pulled onto I-35. It was a long drive and they didn’t want us to melt down in excitement. My first question once we got there: what’s behind those…
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Name these times
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 8, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Name these timesBy Aaron J. Brown The Great Depression. The Crusades. The Dark Ages. The Renaissance. And, of course, the Iron Range Recession of the 1980s (known locally by one pseudo-word: “Da’eighties”). These terms describe historic periods of…
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Grover’s Corners Revisited
I must give a strong recommendation of Frank Rich’s column (“Some Things Don’t Change in Grover’s Corners”) in the Sunday New York Times. He compares the conditions today to the conditions under which Thornton Wilder wrote his famous play “Our Town.” He cites Wilder’s nephew and literary executor as saying that the play is being…
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No one’s going to push around mining companies on these guys’ watch
It’s a good thing that Sens. Tom Bakk, David Tomassoni and the Mesabi Daily News editorial page are standing up for those poor, defenseless mining companies at this time of great peril. Because with the world crumbling all around us, lord knows the the biggest problem we’ve got is that mining companies might have to…
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How do you say ‘taconite’ in Arabic?
Minor miner news: WCCO in the Twin Cities did a story about the looming Iron Range economic woes with the temporary idling of most local taconite mines this spring and summer. Major miner news: Al-Jazeera TV did the same story weeks ago, sending a reporter to Duluth and, from appearances, part of the Iron Range.…
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Budget Fight: Always buckle your seatbelts
Jon Collins offer this story in today’s Mesabi Daily News (he writes for several Range papers including the Hibbing Daily Tribune that runs my column). The piece is a great roundup of Iron Range legislator perspective in anticipation of a big fight with the governor over this session’s historically tight budget. And though State Rep.…
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Essar financing woes highlight complicated Range economic scene
There’s a lot of commotion in the Iron Range economic development world this morning. Mike Jennings, editor of the Hibbing Daily Tribune, has returned from a long medical leave and broken a major story about the Essar Steel project in Nashwauk. Apparently, Essar is having trouble completing the financing package for the project and may…
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Cherry readies for a fight
A defiant school board member Darrell Bjerklie speaks out in defense of my alma mater: Cherry High School. The community is girding for a fight as the St. Louis County schools look for big cuts amid a financial crisis. Cherry isn’t any worse off than the other schools; it’s just close enough to other schools…
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The return of the 1980s?
Comparisons between this period in Iron Range economic history and the dismal 1980s, the time when I grew up here, are cropping up all over. Earlier in the week the St. Paul Pioneer Press broached the subject from a statewide perspective and yesterday Catherine Conlan wrote an Iron Range-specific story on the topic for MinnPost.com.…
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Sharp response to DNT editorial
When I suggested that the Duluth News Tribune‘s pro-copper mining editorial from last Sunday deserved some further inspection, I further suggested that retired Range miner and participant on this blog Bob Tammen should provide an environmental perspective from an Iron Range resident’s perspective. As it turns out, in Thursday’s Duluth News Tribune, he’s done just…
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Who are the true owners of these lands, forests and waters?
I am a proud resident of rural Itasca County in the great north woods of Northern Minnesota. My corner of the world stands on the western end of the storied Iron Range which itself rests on the edge of a massive forest that stretches for miles, fading into marshes, rivers, lakes and the Canadian border…