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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Firm hiring Iron Range replacement workers
Iron Range labor supporters were angered yesterday when the Mesabi Daily News ran a classified ad for a firm hiring replacement workers with experience in a “metal manufacturing and processing facility.” Applicants were warned that “this is a labor dispute situation — employees will be transported across a picket line.” Given the tenuous nature of negotiations between…
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Sept. 5 ‘We are the Range’ concert at Olcott Park
On Saturday, Sept. 5, Iron Range musicians will unite for “We Are the Range,” a benefit concert for area food shelves, at Olcott Park in Virginia from 1-9 p.m. Admission is free, but everyone is asked to bring non-perishable food or financial donations. It’s a good lineup, with a quintessential Range sound. Headlining will be…
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‘What’s Left: lives touched by suicide,’ opens in Grand Rapids
Last spring I wrote about a personal story as it related to my friend and colleague John Bauer’s project to open dialogue about the effects of suicide on the people left behind by their loved one. He successfully funded the project, which is entitled “What’s Left.” The exhibit will open Friday, Sept. 4 at the MacRostie Art…
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Nascent Blandin project would take over Showboat Landing
Long in the works, a new biofuel project in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, may soon come to fruition, but is attracting the ire of arts backers in this western Mesabi city. Though the project has yet to be confirmed by UPM-Blandin, city officials say it will take over a section of Mississippi River shoreline commonly called Showboat Landing.…