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The session, the shutdown, the malaise, and a secret plan
I hope you’ll forgive me for not spending much time analyzing the latter portion of Minnesota’s legislative session. To quote a character from Jon Hassler’s “Staggerford,” this year’s session “makes my ass tired.” In truth, I called it the day after the election with this tweet: @minnesotabrown Aaron Brown MN voters seem to have found…
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Cravaack holds town hall meeting in Mt. Iron
U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) held his first town hall on the Iron Range last night. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there. Reactions I’ve seen so far seem to fall along party lines. The event was only scheduled for an hour and it appears they stuck to that pretty closely, so not everyone got…
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Cravaack to hold town hall meeting on the Iron Range
U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) will hold his first big public town hall meeting on the Iron Range Tuesday night from 7-8 at the Mountain Iron Community Center just off of Highway 169. I’d bet this event is packed with supporters and opponents of the Congressman and could be quite the lively affair. Kudos to…
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MN Governor’s Fishing Opener floats on familiar waters
I just got off the phone with my wife, a Friday morning regular at the Caribou Coffee in Grand Rapids. Today there were a lot of fancy strangers with Macintosh computers on hand, streets choked with Mitsubishis and Hondas. This can mean only one thing: The Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener is here. Because Minnesota is…
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Will Victor Laszlo be on the last plane off the Iron Range?
Rural northern Minnesota air service could be severely threatened by cuts to the federal Essential Air Service program. This program subsidizes passenger air service to airports like Hibbing, Thief River Falls and International Falls. Three times a day the turbo prop plane buzzes over my house in the woods on its way to International Falls…
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Minnesota redistricting to create "Great Northern" seat?
State Republicans released their proposal for the redistricting of Minnesota’s eight congressional districts. The main surprise is the way they redraw the 7th and 8th districts. Instead of two northern districts drawn east and west, you have a new MN-8 that cuts across all of northern Minnesota. The veteran western Minnesota DFL Rep. Collin Peterson…
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Hibbing mayor attacked, bitten in attempted robbery
In a news brief on the front of Sunday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune, we learn that Hibbing Mayor Rick Cannata was attacked in an attempted robbery Friday night and suffered a bite near his left eye. There were three arrests, including an adult and two juveniles. The mayor’s injury required several stitches. According to the HDT…
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Clark first to announce challenge to Cravaack in MN8
Former State Sen. Tarryl Clark has announced her plans to seek the DFL nomination in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District, currently held by Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack. Clark most recently ran against Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN6). She is from St. Cloud, currently located in Minnesota’s Sixth District. Clark is a prodigious fundraiser and amiable candidate. Her…
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MN-GOP redistricting plan offers Iron Range a Trojan horse
As I’ve written before, one of the major cultural barriers we face on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range is the notion that political clout and tradition will “save” the region from an unfolding economic and demographic fate. Not doom, mind you, but a region with a smaller, older population, a greater divide between relative wealth and…
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Glasses guy and mustache guy have good night in Canada.
The Canada Global Post reports that Conservatives there won a “crushing victory” in yesterday’s election, which is to say that they won 40 percent. In a multiparty contest that’s sufficient to win a majority of parliament, however, and this is the first time Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s party has done that. The CBC has a…
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Canada votes!
With everything else, let’s not forget that it’s Election Day in Canada. I’m always able to summon interest in Canadian politics because: My section of Minnesota was negotiated away from the British at the last minute after the War of 1812, so I sometimes feel vaguely Canadian. I pronounce about, “aboot.” I love me some…
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Onward to America’s better nature
Osama bin Laden is dead. This morning I remember my feelings behind the editor’s desk of a small Iron Range afternoon daily putting together the front page on Sept. 11, 2001. Each minute brought more horror. Each revision to the page better reflected the long, ugly period in our history that would follow. Today, I…
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Range cities explore shared services; can they move fast enough?
It was one of those bad news/good news/additional bad news days on the front of Sunday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune. There will be a few more of these in coming months. The bad news is not really news. Cuts to local government aid (LGA) at the state level will force cities on the Iron Range to…
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Range labor community to hold May Day celebration
Iron Range labor backers and DFLers will be holding a May Day luncheon Sunday from 1-4 p.m. at the Operating Engineers Local 49 Hall on Enterprise Drive in Virginia. This is the labor hall just off the freeway as you approach Virginia from Mountain Iron on Highway 169, or just off the 53 exit from…
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Cravaack taking early flak; MN-8 race shaping up as mega-tussle
Today would be a great day for me to link bait some nonsense about Northern Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District race, the new attacks on the Medicare votes of Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8), or the strange collection of fascinating Democrats you’ve never heard of who are going to run against him. I just wanted to write…