-
Krinkie railed in Range editorial
It bears mentioning any time I find myself in wholehearted agreement with the Mesabi Daily News editorial page. Today, the MDN properly sticks it to Phil Krinkie of the Taxpayer’s League for his bashing of rail service to Duluth specifically and the people of northern Minnesota generally in a recent Duluth News Tribune op/ed. I…
-
Keewatin Taconite to be idled; layoffs at HibTac likely
Here comes the roller coaster. From today’s Mesabi Daily News: PITTSBURGH — The Keetac iron ore plant in Keewatin will be idled within the next several weeks. United States Steel officials announced that Keetac’s shutdown is part of the company’s response to the global economic turndown. Two facilities other than Keetac will also be idled…
-
Recession seems bad, but could be much worse
This MPR story by Bob Kelliher explains in real numbers how the recession is affecting the Iron Range mining and Duluth shipping economies. Two things seem apparent: It will get worse before it gets better and that it seems the various prospective companies and their investors are not pulling the plug on development for nonferrous…
-
Oberstar to champion jobs bill
U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, chair of the House transportation and infrastructure committee, is pushing a massive jobs bill that would move up the construction of approved transportation projects around the country. This is from a Duluth News Tribune story today by John Meyers. I’ve got to think that this works to the favor of Minnesotans…
-
Blade problems slow Taconite Ridge turbines
According to a Janna Goerdt story from today’s Duluth News-Tribune, Minnesota Power’s Taconite Ridge wind energy farm on the Iron Range is reporting some engineering problems in its first year. Once repaired, MP officials say the wind turbines will function as planned. The interesting factoid from the story is that these are the biggest inland…
-
Iron Range enters food stage of political calendar
In the Iron Range political universe there are two seasons. Thumpin’ season and potluck season. Thumpin’ season is when we engage our region’s unique brand of ad homonym political brutality for the cause of social justice. That ended with the election. We are now in potluck season, a time when wounds are licked and coffers…
-
Parliament: Smoke ’em if you got ’em
Canada’s conservative government may tumble because its two left-leaning parties, the Liberals and the New Democrats started crunching some numbers and realized there are more of them then there are conservatives. The election was several weeks ago! The biggest hurdles appear to be internal whining and bitching, which is SO classic liberal. Meantime, any coalition…
-
Oberstar denies cabinet rumors
Doug Grow at MinnPost reports that a Jim Oberstar appointment as Secretary of Transportation is unlikely. Twin Cities Daily Liberal blogs that this isn’t a bad thing. Agreed, but me, I’m an Iron Range blogger working in the 8th Congressional District. What the holy hell am I going to write about if Jim stays in…
-
Agency: huge Iron Range steel project still on track, despite economic news
I may have already tubed my invitation to the Iron Range Resources teddy bear picnic, but in the spirit of the holidays I’ll take a minute to point out some pro-IRR news. My friend and fellow Cherryite Lee Bloomquist, the IRR information officer, posted a status update on the Essar Steel Minnesota combined mine and…
-
‘Overburden’ tour reaches the gates of the Boundary Waters tonight
Moving away from political and economic topics (but not too far away), I remind you all of my community lecture in Ely this evening. At 7 p.m. in the CL104 lecture hall of Vermilion Community College I will give a brief lecture and reading from my new book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”…
-
Naked emperor just keeps on chooglin’
As expected, the Iron Range Resources board voted Monday to give Excelsior Energy a sweetheart two-year extension on making any payments on its combined $9.5 million in IRR loans since 2001. Bill Hanna of the Mesabi Daily News is reporting that the vote was 9-1, with Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) the sole “no” vote.…
-
From a Blue fall to Purple times
Political junkies are still learning to cope with the dramatic emotional drop-off that has occurred after the end of the election. Sure, we still have the Minnesota Senate recount and idle chatter about President-elect Obama’s cabinet to poke at. Some of the hard cases are really tweaking out over these things. But that’s nothing compared…
-
Boondoggle Monday
Today the Iron Range Resources Board meets to discuss extending the deadline for the $9.5 million in loans to Excelsior Energy for its Mesaba Energy Project. The Mesaba Project is a $2.1 billion (probably more) coal gasification power plant proposed for Itasca County and/or Hoyt Lakes. I have, at times impolitely, called for this project’s…
-
The Irv Era
Doug Grow, who is apparently my blogging BFF for the weekend, wrote a great story for MinnPost about Irv Anderson, the late State Representative and Speaker of the House whose funeral was held Saturday in International Falls. The story demonstrates quite a bit about Anderson’s personality but also much about the political culture of northern…
-
Conservation leads to drop in electricity use; implications abound
Xcel announces a 3 percent drop in power consumption from the August to September period from last year. (MinnPost reports on a Wall Street Journal story). That’s good from an environmental standpoint. And it further proves that the proposed $2.1 billion Mesaba Energy Project, which would produce gobs of electricity priced higher than last year’s…