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Fishing for end to MN legislative session
Last weekend brought the opener of the Minnesota walleye and northern fishing season, one of our northern state’s most cherished traditions. Each Opening Day our state’s governor is expected to navigate the cold waters of a lake on a borrowed boat to catch a walleye regardless of his or her skill or interest in doing so. In…
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The destiny of place in social class
Last week, the New York Times introduced a fascinating news graphic showing the power of place in determining the economic future of people born there. (“The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up,” May 5, 2015). The graphic accompanied the story “An Atlas of Upward Mobility” by David Leonhardt, Amanda Cox and Claire Cain Miller,…
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Mouthing for a cause: Iron Range Lip Sync Battle
It is an arduous pop culture trek that brings a hot new trend from the lips of Jimmy Fallon to the theater stage of Hibbing Community College. On Thursday evening, another fad completes its journey as the first-ever Iron Range Lip Sync Battle will take place at 7 p.m., with proceeds benefiting Advocates for Family Peace. Participants will include…
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Don’t worry, they’re just dangerous parasites
Birch trees are nature’s version of that guy you know strung like a trip wire for any good excuse to start wearing shorts again. It’s not about temperature. It’s about attitude. Anyway, it actually is warm now and the birches have already donned light green, pale trunks shining in the sun. Trees of all colors and ages…
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Local blog still breathing, feeling fine
For a community college instructor, the end of the school year is a wondrous time — but not particularly conducive to blog output. News, views and cultural tidbits swirl about as always, yet my keystrokes are needed elsewhere. Look for my Sunday column, followed by some new content next week that I think you’ll enjoy. I’ll be here if…
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Magnetation to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Last week we reported the financial woes of Magnetation, the scram mining and iron ore processing company based on the western Mesabi Iron Range. Their partner and chief customer AK Steel declined to continue putting money into the company and Magnetation began working with financial advisors to keep the company afloat. Rumors were grim, to…
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Cliffs lays off 100 Iron Range salaried workers
On Monday, Cliffs Natural Resources announced 100 job cuts at its Northern Minnesota mines affecting salaried workers at Hibbing Taconite, United Taconite in Eveleth and Northshore Mining in Babbitt and Silver Bay. Cliffs had declared optimism about avoiding Iron Range shutdowns just last week, but also unveiled a mine closure in Michigan and huge first quarter losses.…
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The distant barons of Duluth and the Iron Range
As readers here know, we in Northern Minnesota are living in a time of speculation and bewilderment over the machinations of distant industrial powers. The regional economy of the Iron Range is dangling on a bouncing string pulled by unseen actors. But this is nothing new. Same now as it ever was. Zenith City Online, a…
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The mighty power of the freshwater seas
In Northern Minnesota, one’s eyes simply adjust to seeing the Canadian flag alongside the Stars and Stripes. Whether it started as a diplomatic favor, or a ploy to pull in Canadian tourists, the practice shows no signs of changing. The pep bands learn “O, Canada” and it’s widely understood that we have a lot more…
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Life is for people, not industries or ideologies
Northland’s NewsCenter recently completed a four-part series “Boom, Bust, and Beyond” about the causes and effects of the coming mining downturn on the Iron Range and ways to deal with it. The last piece focused on economic diversification, a frequent topic here at MinnesotaBrown, and featured an interview with yours truly, along with other Range officials…
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Audit shows lack of clarity, transparency in mining taxes
UPDATE: Post amended to reflect corrections from conflating IRRRB with genteral practice of mining taxation. Yesterday, Minnesota’s Legislative Auditor released a highly anticipated review of the financial practices of the state’s mining taxation system, which funds loval governments and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, the unique state agency that distributes funds from the Taconite Production Tax,…
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Cliffs optimistic even as other Iron Range mines struggle
UPDATE: Post amended to add Cliffs plant shutodown in Michigan. We’ve spend an exhausting amount of digital ink and radio blathering on the struggles facing Iron Range mines amid a global contraction in steelmaking and iron ore. U.S. Steel properties in Northern Minnesota are preparing for shutdown that could last the rest of the year, while…
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Another Russian incursion in Nordic waters?
Today, media sources reported that the Finnish Navy fired depth charges at a mysterious object in its territorial waters below the Gulf of Finland. Though an investigation will be needed to determine the exact nature of the object, it was suspected to be a Russian submarine. If so, that would be the second suspected Russian…
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Ride a painted pony let the spinning wheel turn
I’ve been wresting with something. If you were a regional blogger with yet-unrealized ambitions for greatness living in the woods deep outside a decaying industrial frontier where whatever doesn’t fit in your mailbox has to be picked up at the post office in Bovey (which is one of the closest towns but still 17 miles…
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Larson cruising in Duluth mayor race
Duluth City Councilor Emily Larson continues to clear the field in the race to succeed Duluth Mayor Don Ness in this fall’s election. On Tuesday, former Lt. Gov. and State Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon announced she would not run for Mayor, and endorsed Larson in the process. Earlier in April, St. Louis County Commissioner Chris…