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Mesabi Daily News calls for economic diversification
Today’s Mesabi Daily News editorial, “Diversify, diversify,” cheers the news that Minntac will soon resume full production, but primarily demands leaders to dedicate new focus on economic diversification. So, yes, let’s rejoice in Minntac going back to full operation in about two weeks. And let’s also hope that the company’s Keetac facility on the west Range will…
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What’s ahead for the Great Northern Radio Show
Since October 2011 I’ve produced, written and hosted a radio variety program called the Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio based in Grand Rapids and Bemidji, Minnesota. We’ve been fortunate enough to air on independent public stations around the state and even on the cable access channel in the Northeast suburbs of the Twin…
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Talking Iron Range on Strong Towns podcast
A while back I had a conversation with my friend and fellow Northern Minnesotan Charles Marohn for his Strong Towns podcast. Chuck is an engineer, planner and nationally-renowned thinker on the topic of sustainable development and small town survival. Aaron Brown — author, college instructor and radio producer from Minnesota’s iron range — joins the…
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Building s’more character
My youthful excursions to Cub Scout and Boy Scout camps run together in a blur. Tents. Fires. Tripping on tree roots. One thing I do remember is that my dad was there, especially for my first camping trip as a Webelos Scout. He could only stay one night and his snoring shook the tent flaps…
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Warm greetings from Minnesota’s northern hellscape
All through yesterday friends and neighbors collectively set ablaze my social media feed with a link to an article entitled “These Are the 10 Worst Places to Live in Minnesota,” posted on a website called RoadSnacks.net. To save you the suspense, Nick James of RoadSnacks.net lists the worst cities are as follows: Cambridge Brainerd Grand…
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U.S. Steel announces September restart for Minntac
WDIO is reporting that U.S. Steel will call back all its laid off workers at Minntac for a September restart of its idled lines at Minnesota’s largest taconite mine and production plant. That date is consistent with estimates of the shutdown’s duration when it was announced earlier this year. U.S. Steel’s other mine at Keewatin…
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Rez comedians heal, hearten with laughs
“When people hear the words ‘Indian Reservation,’ they think of alcoholism, drugs, addiction, abuse and suicide,” levels Jon Roberts, a comedian from Red Lake. “We want to send a message that those shouldn’t be the only words you think of when you see us. Laughter is what brings communities together. That is the reason we…
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Duluth city elections set for 2015
Duluth, the regional center and media hub of Northern Minnesota, holds odd-year elections. As such, filing just closed for this year’s city and school board offices in the Zenith City. Peter Passi reported about this in the Duluth News Tribune. The big political story in Duluth is still the decision by popular Mayor Don Ness…
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A tale of two junkyards
I was raised in the 1980s and early ’90s on a family-owned junkyard along the storied Iron Range Highway 7 on the edge of the Sax-Zim Bog. Two trailer homes rested upon these swampy grounds: one filled to the ceiling with hubcaps and the other which housed my family. The steam cloud from Eveleth Taconite filled…
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Iron Range Original Music Association to host street show
IROMA, or the Iron Range Original Music Association, is a loose alliance of active bands producing original music based out of Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Its members include a couple acts I’ve booked for my Great Northern Radio Show and that you see on the marquees of a number of establishments here and around the state. On Thursday,…
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Authentic Finnish music at the B’nai Abraham
This week, the B’nai Abraham Cultural Center and Museum will host a Finnish Music Festival Wednesday, July 22 at 7 p.m. Kanteleen Soittajat, a group of 18 enthusiastic American-Finns from Duluth and surrounding area perform on the kantele, an ancient instrument that originated two thousand years ago and is now Finland’s national musical instrument. Since…
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The woods and us
I smile to see the midnight fireflies from my darkened bedroom in the woods. The fireflies of my youth in the Sax-Zim Bog twinkled like stars. We see fewer today, but still enough to inspire wonder. Suddenly my smile drained away. What if my boys remember a few fireflies when there are none? We read…
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Ely adventurers to spend year in BWCA
Dave and Amy Freeman, who split time between Ely and Grand Marais in far northern Minnesota, are adventurers in every sense of the world. It’s their job, their hobby, and their way of life. I’ve written about their adventures in my column and here on my blog. Amy appeared on my radio show when Dave was kayaking Rio Roosevelt in…
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Free dental clinic in Duluth swamped; our state’s dental denial
Yesterday hundreds of low income or underinsured people flowed into the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center to lay on folding tables to receive free dental care from the nonprofit Minnesota Mission of Mercy. John Lundy describes the event, which continues today, in Saturday’s Duluth News Tribune. One way of looking at a story like this is to say that it’s good…
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Some miners called back to work, but not for mining
The Mesabi Daily News reported yesterday that a number of laid off miners at Minntac were called back to work this week to perform scheduled maintenance projects. In this case, the miners are replacing outside contractors who otherwise would have been hired for the work. The so-called word on the street always was that idled workers at U.S. Steel’s…