Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: News

  • Big U.S. Steel story remains unconfirmed

    Big U.S. Steel story remains unconfirmed

    Here is what the Duluth News-Tribune is reporting about that credible rumor I heard the other day regarding U.S. Steel’s operations on the Iron Range. Mum’s the word on high-level meetings at Minntac MineLee Bloomquist, Duluth News Tribune Several top-level U.S. Steel executives made a rare visit to Minntac Mine in Mountain Iron this week…

  • Good news?

    I’m hearing credible rumors of something potentially big and ostensibly good happening at U.S. Steel’s taconite plants in northern Minnesota (they own Keewatin Taconite and MinnTac near Virginia). I’ll let you know when I can confirm. Related posts: No related posts.

  • Freaking beobabs everywhere!

    Freaking beobabs everywhere!

    Who remembers “The Little Prince?” In this French children’s book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a pilot meets an alien who looks like a little kid. This “Little Prince” lives on a tiny planet where all he does is pull up the baobab trees so they don’t take root and choke his world. C’est une métaphore!…

  • Yes We Can

    Yes We Can

    You know it’s a rough night when the TV makes your beer taste bad. So, Clinton won New Hampshire. I’ll avoid the more cynical thoughts that have been bouncing around my head all day, but sufficed to say we’ve got a battle on our hands. It’s all about Feb. 5 now. One on one. Clinton…

  • MPR posts ‘Select a Candidate’ quiz for 2008

    Minnesota Public Radio posted their “Select a Candidate” feature for the election year. I wouldn’t recommend using it as your only method of selecting a candidate for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race or the presidential caucuses, but it will help show you which candidates line up with you on your most important issues. I took the…

  • Pawlenty really doesn’t want to be a wallflower in ’08

    Pawlenty really doesn’t want to be a wallflower in ’08

    T-Paw is really hoping for someone to ask him to the prom. He’s got the dress. He’s got the body glitter. He’s ready. Future Republican nominee, just ask him. Get him out of our state for just a while because I’m betting he’ll act like a total bitch if he doesn’t get asked. We’ve got…

  • ‘West Wing’ in real life?

    ‘West Wing’ in real life?

    OK, so this is nerdy but it’s the Internet so you’ve got to expect some of that. IF Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee and IF John McCain is the Republican nominee, then our election this year will be strikingly similar in tone and style to the “West Wing” fake election held during the last…

  • New Hampshire speaks tomorrow

    The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday. There is a good chance that my “endorsed” candidates, Barack Obama for the Democrats and John McCain for the Republicans, will win on both sides of the aisle. The biggest story of this election so far has been Obama. I feel like his candidacy could be remembered as a…

  • No U.S. Senate candidate has Range advantage

    No U.S. Senate candidate has Range advantage

    The Iron Range doesn’t always line up votes in statewide endorsement battles, but often it will. Not so this year. If you recall some of my earlier posts about Range politics (Part 1 and Part 2) the Range has three basic DFL factions: labor, progressives and opinion leaders. Sometimes they line up and sometimes they…

  • Obama wins Iowa

    Here I am, in my easy chair. My three young babies are asleep in their beds. I grew up on a family-owned salvage yard in northern Minnesota in a place called the Iron Range. As I grew up, my dad was a diesel mechanic who after being laid off in the 1980s managed the junkyard.…

  • News from the Iowa front

    News from the Iowa front

    I’ve been getting some hilarious e-mails from a friend of mine who lives in Dubuque, Iowa. I wrote her because I was curious about what life was like in Iowa amid the nonstop statewide campaigning going on by the 8 or 9 top presidential candidates. She gave me these hilarious details: 1) She hasn’t had…

  • MinnesotaBrown endorsements: Obama, McCain

    MinnesotaBrown endorsements: Obama, McCain

    2008 will be regarded as an historic turning point election in the United States. Someone always says that about every election, but this year we have some evidence. No modern U.S. election has ever featured such wide-open primaries in both parties. No modern presidency has ever left such deep ideological divides in this county as…

  • Rukavina’s flag law takes effect

    Rukavina’s flag law takes effect

    The legislative delegation of the Iron Range is known for great successes and monumental failures over the course of state history. They are also known for quirky stands on random issues. Rangers put their full pressure behind legalizing low-grade fireworks a few years ago. They made a Quixotic stand against the smoking ban last year,…

  • Behold 2008’s great bounty

    Behold 2008’s great bounty

    Stop! What’s that sound? That gentle ringing … or it buzzing? Why, it can only be one thing. The future! The rest will have to wait; it’s time to answer the call. Behold, my 2008 predictions for the Iron Range and to a lesser extent … THE WORLD! POLITICSThe political world is shocked to its…

  • Minnesota could lose Congressional seat in 2012

    Minnesota could lose Congressional seat in 2012

    For Minnesota political junkies, this is an old assumption. Our slow population growth in Minnesota could cause us to lose a Congressional seat after the 2010 census. This would mean a contentious redistricting battle that puts increased importance on who controls the legislature and governor’s office in coming years, especially after the 2010 election. For…