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Follow @minnesotabrown for Range-centric, utterly atypical convention feed
My 2010 DFL Convention blogging is off to a slow start. Good thing there’s a generous dropoff rule, or I’d be out of the running for most awesome bloggy person writing vaguely accurate information on an iPod Touch. Ever try to get out of the house with three screaming boys under age 5 when you…
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SOUTH to Duluth
While most of the state’s DFL bloggers and politcos pack up their stuff for tomorrow’s state party convention in the great “northern” Zenith City of Duluth, Minnesota, some of us look to the southern horizon with a sense of uncertainty and excitement. Unlike most, I’ll be driving a hundred miles south to fulfill my duties…
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More on the Ironworld revival
Here’s an update on yesterday’s Iron Range Resources Board decision to help reopen the former Ironworld research center and museum in Chisholm. Brush up with this story from the Duluth News Tribune. As I posted last night the IRR has allocated $1 million from the mining tax revenue paid in lieu of local property taxes…
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Former Ironworld facility to reopen
Word has come from St. Paul that the Iron Range Resources Board has approved a plan that would reopen of the Minnesota Discovery Center to the tune of about $1 million. This would entail a stripped down version of the operations seen before the facility closed amid financial struggles late last year. Details will be…
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A political opportunity for the Iron Range
This Mary Lahammer post from TPT reminds us that there are some serious Iron Range implications in the upcoming gubernatorial endorsement and 2010 election. Naturally, we’ve got a Range legislator in the scrum at the DFL convention trying to get endorsed (Tom Rukavina is considered to be in the second tier, according to MinnPost, MNPublius…
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Oberstar’s GOP opponent endorsed
Eighth Congressional District Republicans have endorsed Chip Cravaack to take on longtime northern Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar. Cravaack is an airline and Navy pilot from central Minnesota. Oberstar, from Chisholm, remains heavily favored and will still almost certainly win. That said, he’ll take some heat from Tea Party types and he might lose some of…
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Oh, yeah, I’m ‘working’ right now
NY Times columnist David Brooks casually mentioned that he was cheering for Duke in the men’s college basketball final last week, and that Duke beat the smaller, working class team not because it was rich, but because talented people get rich through hard work (I’m paraphrasing, you can read the original dialogue). Matt Taibbi wrote…
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And now we all learn how to spell "lieutenant"
For observers of the MN-GOV race, particularly the DFL side, we now enter the strange lull before the April 23-25 DFL Convention in Duluth. Naturally, the candidates planning to go “all in” for the endorsement will be calling the thousand-plus voting delegates and doing events around the state. The only other thing they can do…
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Go(ogle) jump in a lake
Duluth’s efforts to be selected as one of the test sites for Google’s new super high speed fiber internet technology have reached fever pitch. In addition to filming a high end short film with the entire community last weekend, organizers have been using all sorts of online, grassroots efforts to demonstrate the city’s desire for…
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And then there was one (Iron Ranger)
Iron Range State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) has dropped out of the DFL gubernatorial race before next month’s endorsing convention. As the Iron Range guy in the Minnesota blogosphere you might be curious if I have any insights on this. Well, I’m from the Midwest. So if did, I’d never say in the first paragraph.…
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Wanted: Young People
The following is part of my news analysis series for the Thursday, March 11, 2010 edition of the Scenic Range News Forum of Itasca County, Minn.: For the Iron Range, demographic change is the challengeBy Aaron J. Brown The demographics on Minnesota’s Iron Range, trending toward an older society with fewer young families, may have…
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COLUMN: "Rural homeless: out of sight, out of hope?"
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 7, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It was originally written for last week but rescheduled to run today. Rural homeless: out of sight, out of hope?By Aaron J. Brown It’s easy to forget that poverty, mental illness and personal crisis leave people homeless in…
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Another Iron Range DFL convention: Curiouser and Curiouser
I attended the Itasca DFL convention today in Bovey and can report the following: Nothing I say will make the 2010 DFL endorsement process any more understandable or predictable. I expected Tom Rukavina, fresh off a big win at his nearby home convention in SD-05 last weekend, to win handily. He did win the most…
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Range DFL gov candidates consider unity plan
I have learned from two sources that Tom Bakk told people at the SD-05 convention that he and Tom Rukavina have discussed combining forces before the April DFL state convention, uniting behind the one of them with the most pledged support. This puts even more importance on Bakk doing well in his home district and…
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Rukavina whips Bakk in SD-05 DFL convention
A highly placed source informs me that yesterday’s SD-05 DFL Convention in the heart of the Iron Range was a blowout. State Rep. Tom Rukavina took 16 delegates to fellow Iron Ranger Tom Bakk’s mere 3. Four delegates were elected as uncommitted. Rukavina represents District 5A, which is the core of the Mesabi Iron Range’s…