-
Franken in Grand Rapids today
Al Franken is in Grand Rapids today. He’ll appear with Rep. Tom Anzelc at Brewed Awakenings at 4 p.m. Three candidates are making a serious pitch for delegates in the DFL U.S. Senate race, Franken, Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. As I’ve posted before, I see a three-way split on the Iron Range over these…
-
KeeTac Attack!
U.S. Steel will hold a press conference Friday at 2 p.m. at the Keewatin City Hall. My sources tell me the company is announcing a major expansion and environmental upgrade at its Keewatin Taconite plant, something like 3.5 million tons of additional pellet production capability. Yesterday, U.S. Steel announced that their Iron Range taconite production…
-
The Caucus of the Walkus
The Minnesota caucuses are Feb. 5, joining the tidal wave of primaries and other caucuses around the country for Super Tuesday. I’ve already been getting a lot of questions about how caucuses work by people who have never done it before. The short answer is “It’s like attending a meeting.” But there is a bit…
-
The reason for Obama
So this year’s election continues to fascinate me. The mojo tells me that the Republicans will nominate McCain and that the Democrats will have to do a little more soul searching before their nominee emerges. Here is my (biased) hope, that across the country people experience massive Clinton fatigue and collectively (or at least, a…
-
Major taconite production increase?
U.S. Steel will hold a press conference at the Keewatin City Hall on Friday, Feb. 1. They will announce the “good news” we’ve been hearing about for a couple weeks now. I have heard talk about something like a 3.5 million ton increase in taconite pellet production at Keewatin Taconite. That’s huge, almost doubling production…
-
Tepid debate at St. Paul mining hearing
I didn’t post a follow-up on the mining hearings down in St. Paul Friday. Essentially, it was a tepid debate between environmentalists and mining interests regarding nonferrous mining on the eastern Iron Range. Some old hard feelings were aired but no game-changing elements were introduced. The Duluth News-Tribune provided a rundown Saturday. The permitting process…
-
Yes We Can (win Minnesota)
I missed the results coming in and the speeches last night (the Northern Cheapskate and I were at the KAXE Annual Meeting) but I had a friend feeding me numbers by cell phone. What a win! Next week the Obama campaign will be rolling out its Iron Range leadership team and making a push to…
-
Brace yourselves: ‘super’ week awaits us
Will the team from New York prevail? Will 2008 be an historic year? Who will carry the pivotal state of Arizona? Are the TV ads the best part or just a distraction from what really matters? What am I talking about? See, that’s the thing. You’ll notice that these questions work for both the upcoming…
-
An important day for Iron Range mining projects
There’s a lot going on today that could impact many of the precious mineral mining and value-added iron mining projects currently in development on the Iron Range. First, this morning lawmakers are meeting with representatives of India-based Essar Global, the company that bought the Minnesota Steel project which aims to build a taconite mine and…
-
Iron Range Obama meeting now set for Saturday in Hibbing
The Barack Obama organizational meeting in Hibbing has been rescheduled for the day of the important South Carolina primary. Those interested in joining or learning more about the Obama campaign on the Iron Range are invited this Saturday, Jan. 26, at 3 p.m. to the Bob Dylan room of the Hibbing Public Library. The public…
-
Early challenge in West Duluth House race
For the most part, I believe it will be a fairly uneventful election year in Northeastern Minnesota legislative races. However, it appears there will be a least one interesting race in west Duluth’s District 7B House District, a seat currently held by longtime Rep. Mike Jaros. Clokey to run for Jaros’ seatDuluth News Tribune Following…
-
Obama meeting CANCELLED, to be rescheduled
UPDATE: The Obama organizational meeting for tonight has been cancelled and will be rescheduled because the field organizer is out sick today. Watch this site for an update in a day or two. Find out more about Barack Obama’s campaign for president and plans for the Iron Range at an introductory meeting tonight. It’s at…
-
Spin, baby, spin
Remember that scene in “Monty Python’s Holy Grail” where King Arthur is dueling with the Black Knight and keeps cutting off the knight’s arms, then legs. Each time he cuts off a limb the knight refuses to admit defeat, saying things like “Oh, it’s just a scratch.” Yeah, Excelsior Energy and their boondoggle Mesaba Energy…
-
In honor of Dr. King
I’m again posting from the deep woods instead of the office today in honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday. The Hibbing Daily Tribune has an interesting story about a community outreach effort that I’m involved with at the college where I teach. We help bring a diverse group of college students…
-
Old school nomination fight
The more things change, the more they come full circle. By now you may have heard that despite coming up just short in the Nevada caucuses, Barack Obama takes more state delegates out of Nevada because of how delegates are allocated by congressional district. Let’s just use this as a time to remember that this…