Aaron J. Brown

Minnesota Brown

  • Aaron J. Brown
  • News
    • Iron Range
    • Politics
  • Projects
    • Newspaper Columns
    • Power in the Wilderness book
    • Power in the Wilderness podcast
    • Great Northern Radio Show
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Fargo Reviews

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

  • ‘Fantasy News Team’ draft for Duluth, Minn., TV market

    ‘Fantasy News Team’ draft for Duluth, Minn., TV market

    A Duluth radio station is sponsoring a unique online poll that would “draft” the mid-sized media-market’s “Duluth TV Fantasy News Team.” Mix 108 is hosting the online balloting, which includes “positions” like anchor, meteorologist, sports anchor and reporter. Visitors can vote once per day. In looking at the list, I am reminded of how much turnover there has…

    September 15, 2015
  • U.S. Steel, union ‘taking break’ from heated negotiations

    U.S. Steel, union ‘taking break’ from heated negotiations

    Following news of ArcelorMittal walking away from the table in union negotiations late last week, U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers have announced a more amicable “break” in negotiations with a scheduled resumption in two weeks. Nevertheless, serious differences remain in a year in which mining companies are asking for concessions from the union amid…

    September 15, 2015
  • Duluth primary election is today

    Duluth primary election is today

    For my Duluth readers, the Zenith City of the Freshwater Seas holds its primary election for mayor and 5th District city council today. Eight candidates for mayor include:  Thomas Cooper, John Howard Evans, Howie Hanson, Chuck Horton, Emily Larson, James Mattson, Robert D. Schieve, and John Socha. The top two vote-getters will advance. That’s a lot…

    September 15, 2015
  • Maid on the Iron Range: 11th Housekeeper Olympics today

    Maid on the Iron Range: 11th Housekeeper Olympics today

    Today in Mountain Iron, hotel housekeepers from around the Iron Range will compete for fun, pride and barbecued food in the 11th annual Iron Range Housekeeper Olympics. The event takes the everyday tasks of hotel staffers and turns them into sport. I suppose this could be considered the latter-day equivalent of the old logging competitions…

    September 14, 2015
  • Essar seeks 3-year deal to avoid paying back $67 million

    Essar seeks 3-year deal to avoid paying back $67 million

    It was no secret that Essar Steel would be requesting more time to meet the provisions of a state grant that provided critical early infrastructure to its huge new mine near Nashwauk, Minnesota. The company has until Oct. 1 — about two weeks from now — to produce value-added iron products as it originally proposed.…

    September 14, 2015
  • Mining for Dinosaurs

    Mining for Dinosaurs

    For decades, Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range has labored under the belief that most of our fossils were walking around above ground, not buried below. Now scientists exploring a state park on the western Mesabi seek to turn this notion on its head. Most Iron Rangers know the Hill Annex Mine State Park in Calumet as…

    September 13, 2015
  • Linguist completes interviews exploring ‘Iron Range English’

    Linguist completes interviews exploring ‘Iron Range English’

    To follow up on a story I wrote about in July, Dr. Sara Schmelzer Loss has completed her interviews of 30 Iron Rangers in her continuing research on the Iron Range dialect. She’ll now begin work to determine her findings on the state of our unique dialect. Schmelzer Loss, originally of Hibbing, is a visiting professor of…

    September 13, 2015
  • Senators seek $6 million tax break for mining companies

    Senators seek $6 million tax break for mining companies

    Last week, Ricardo Lopez of the Star Tribune reported on a $6 million mining company tax break scheme snuck into this year’s ill-fated tax bill by State Sens. David Tomassoni and Rod Skoe, both senior DFL committee chairs and members of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB). A week later I am finally getting back…

    September 13, 2015
  • ArcelorMittal walks away from negotiations with Steelworkers

    ArcelorMittal walks away from negotiations with Steelworkers

    The United Steelworkers report that Arcelor Mittal has walked away from the negotiating table during the contentious contract talks that have weighed on Iron Range workers and families this month. The USW committee is returning home, where members will brief local miners in coming days, according to a USW statement. Workers at ArcelorMittal’s Minorca Mine in Mt.…

    September 12, 2015
  • Everybody to the primary in House 3A special

    Everybody to the primary in House 3A special

    The local DFL will not hold an endorsing convention for the Sept. 29 primary in the House 3A special election to replace the late Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake). This settles an important question many had about the process spurred by the loss of the popular, moderate DFL lawmaker to cancer last month. That means Koochiching County…

    September 8, 2015
  • First day of buffering … buffering … buffering

    First day of buffering … buffering … buffering

    For many districts across Minnesota, today is the first day of school for K-12 students. This is always an exciting time — for the kids, of course, but also for parents. So much hope and anxiety balled up in one occasion. With all the anticipation over locker combinations and seating arrangements, kids don’t share the…

    September 8, 2015
  • Blazing trails to sustainable Iron Range economy

    Blazing trails to sustainable Iron Range economy

    To quote a line from William Blake, “Expect poison from the standing water.” True of water. True of spirit. True of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. The kind of poison I’m talking about comes from hopelessness. Our Iron Range economy has suffered in recent months, years and decades. We have watched young people leave, and worse…

    September 6, 2015
  • Big mix of candidates, intrigue in House 3A special election

    Big mix of candidates, intrigue in House 3A special election

    Filing has closed for the Sept. 29 primary and Dec. 8 general election in the House District 3A special election to replace the late State Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake). Six candidates spanning the wide geographic and ideological spectrum that characterizes this enormous rural Northeastern Minnesota district will vie for one ticket to St. Paul. Early…

    August 31, 2015
  • Paying raptors attention

    Paying raptors attention

    We have a bonafide naturalist in our house in the form of our oldest son Henry. At 10, he knows more about the birds that live in the woods of Northern Minnesota than I ever have. Of course, he’s kind enough to bring the rest of us up to speed. Part of Henry’s fascination with…

    August 30, 2015
  • Great Northern Radio Show: Adding value to Northern MN

    Great Northern Radio Show: Adding value to Northern MN

    Like many local mines, Iron Range-based MinnesotaBrown.com will be entering a partial slowdown, or “hot idle” while we work out a little problem with the media commodities market. See, the price of a MinnesotaBrown blog post is down to a historically low $1.45 per long ton, due in part to limited demand and illegal imports…

    August 27, 2015
←Previous Page
1 … 108 109 110 111 112 … 413
Next Page→

Minnesota Brown

Proudly powered by WordPress