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Buying local in a flat world
This Minnesota 2020 think tank keeps coming up with interesting items. The Duluth News-Tribune has a story about the challenges and possible impact of the “Buy Local” movement. Read it here, or an excerpt below: Economists say buying local is a complicated idealJane BrissettDuluth News Tribune – 12/10/2007 Christmas shopping at J. Skylark, a locally…
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Miners’ health issues not easy to figure out
The Duluth News-Tribune and others are reporting that the state health department has begun compiling data on the Iron Range miners who died from a rare form of cancer. The findings are inconclusive, other than few of the miners involved worked in a ceiling tile factory in Cloquet. That was the story many officials and…
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First big snow
We white-knuckled it through the first big snow storm of the year last night. We averaged about 20 miles an hour from Hibbing out into the Itasca wilderness where we live. We made it, but it wasn’t easy. I was just informed, however, that we left our winter boots out in the car. Which means…
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Moody Out
For those who follow TV news out of the Duluth market (Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin), some news. Edward Moody, the accomplished and odd-looking morning anchor for the Northland NewsCenter (Channels 3 and 6) is leaving for Rochester, N.Y. I don’t know who will replace Moody, but I expect the person will look just as strange,…
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Clear alternatives to Mesaba Project
More on the Excelsior story. Read an op/ed from the Duluth News-Tribune by Charlotte Neigh, the co-chair of Citizens Against the Mesaba Project (CAMP). Here is an excerpt: The Mesaba Project is planned for a site that is about as far as it could be from potential sequestration sites. Piping the carbon dioxide to western…
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Big picture shows glum future for Range coal gas plant scheme
There was a hearing last night about the Environmental Impact Statement by Excelsior Energy for its Mesaba Energy Project near Taconite. The project would be a $2.3 billion coal gasification power plant. I didn’t attend. Fact is, the EIS is a small part of the issue with this project. The TV news — WDIO in…
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The Pro-Breakfast Candidate
Toddler dialogue from this morning: TODDLER: Santa bring Cranky? (the Crane, from “Thomas and Friends”) ME: That depends, are you a good boy? TODDLER: Hmmm. ME: Are you a good boy or naughty? TODDLER: I like breakfast. Sounds like someone is preparing for a congressional campaign. Related posts: No related posts.
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More woes for community college football in northern Minnesota
Here’s the news from International Falls. My analysis is below. RRCC ends football program; Provost cites college’sloan default rate as reasonBy LISA KACZKE, International Falls Daily JournalThe football program at Rainy River Community College has been terminated. Provost Wayne Merrell said Monday that the termination is related to the fact that RRCC had the highest…
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The cycle continues
It’s funny how historic trends just keep on rolling on the Mesabi Iron Range. Bad times, then good times, then labor trouble, then pretty good times, then a crash, then bad times … repeat. We’re just about to hit good times, so here comes the labor trouble. Iron Range Steelworkers prepare for contract talksBy Lee…
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Midweek flurry
I’m doing book interviews and a couple meetings today. I might only get an hour at my desk, so not much time for writing or blogging today after yesterday’s equally fruitless blog day. I’m still ticking away at the banana column for Sunday’s paper which may take a different turn before it’s done. Stay tuned…
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Brown on the Air: Veterans Day
I’m on the air Saturday morning with another of my weekly radio essays. “Between You and Me” with Heidi Holtan will visit the topic of Veterans Day tomorrow between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 KAXE and online at http://www.kaxe.org/. This essay is the early form of a longer piece I plan to include in…
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RIP Bruce Kasden
My friend Paul Ryan wrote a nice column about the passing of our advisor from when we both worked on the UW-Superior Promethean college newspaper. Bruce Kasden was a good man who left us far too soon. A lot of the funniest stories aren’t ones that I’d necessarily publish, but he was one of the…
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I drank ‘shine … and more
The firearms deer season opened this weekend, a time-honored tradition on the Iron Range that I’d never participated in … until now. On Saturday I joined the festivities at my family’s hunting shack in the woods that separate the Iron Range from Canada. My grandfather, dad and uncles have spent a lot of time putting…
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The horror
A business news broadcast on MSNBC yesterday flashed this title over the ticker at the bottom of the screen: “No more cheap mac and cheese.” You know, I’ve watched price increases for gas, produce, cereal, dairy and corn products of all kinds. But nothing hit home like this. If Mac and Cheese, the world’s most…
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Wind, biomass and hydro usurp coal for next decade
If you had a time machine and brought this article back in time, even as recently as 2002, I might have suspected it was a work of fiction. Minnesota Power, the biggest coal burner in the state, is predicting no new coal-fired generation for at least 15 years. Instead, the company is planning additional wind,…