-
Dire challenges ahead for Magnetation
The scram mining company Magnetation appears headed for a make or break moment in coming months after partner AK Steel said Tuesday it would not put any more money into the company. Right now Magnetation processes waste rock at old Mesabi Iron Range mine sites into iron pellets that feed AK Steel’s operations in Indiana.…
-
City mulls animal layoffs at Duluth zoo
The Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minnesota, is a place of special memories for those of us who grew up in Northern Minnesota. On one hand, it was “our zoo,” the first place where we laid eyes on exotic animals like you see in the storybooks and subject of our youthful curiosity. On the other,…
-
Duluth Mayor opens Homegrown with pothole rock anthem
That’s right, the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival opened last night and runs all week in the Zenith City of Lake Superior, home to so many people who are in bands that the 2020 census might create the first Member of Congress elected by multi-band bass players and shiftless drummers experiencing creative differences. By all means,…
-
Better living through sawhorses
In the hurly-burly churn of Iron Range news and controversies, it can be hard to find the steady constant of a noble cause. How about sawhorses? Everyone needs a sawhorse, eventually. Those sawhorses should be better. Lighter. More easy to store. And if an entrepreneurial couple from St. Paul with a tie to the Iron Range so happens…
-
Smokey, smooth and sweet: Actual Wolf’s ‘Itasca’
Eric Pollard is a Grand Rapids, Minnesota, boy better known by the name he shares with his stage persona, band and ethos: Actual Wolf. A few years back, he emerged from behind the drum kit to become a front man and accomplished songwriter. Listening to him was to hear to a wolf trying on sound;…
-
An interview with Canada’s Governor General
Thanks to a strange set of circumstances involving Twitter and a longstanding history of witty repartee with the Canadian Consulate’s digital team, I was granted the chance to interview His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, on Thursday, April 23. The Governor General, constitutional head of the Canadian government as representative of…
-
The Iron Range is dead; long live the Range
“The king is dead; long live the king.” This saying from the height of European monarchies meant when the person at a nation’s helm physically died, the title lived on with the next person in the royal line. Massive change could be seen as mere progression. This simple continuity kept order even at a time…
-
Reeling U.S. Steel asks for relief on state mining leases
Socked by a global iron and steel price collapse, U.S. Steel is asking the state for a reduction in the cost of its state-owned mining leases, which currently fund trusts benefiting Minnesota universities and schools. The company needs to reduce costs by about $25 million to reopen its Iron Range properties. The 114-year-old Pittsburgh-based company announced earlier this…
-
Dismal legislative effort on broadband continues
Waiting for the Minnesota legislature to act on broadband infrastructure for rural Minnesota is a lot like trying to update your operating system on a rural computer. It takes forever and halfway through you have to start over because of some stupid error message. One thing seems readily apparent from the last few days of…
-
Mining may displace yet another Iron Range highway
By now we’ve talked plenty about the rerouting project for Iron Range Highways 53 and 135 near Virginia and Eveleth to accommodate new mining activity at Cliffs’ United Taconite mine. Now Cliffs says it will need to move Highway 5 between Hibbing and Chisholm to allow Hibbing Taconite to continue mining. The project would happen…
-
Some icons, surprises in Labovitz award-winning businesses
Several Northern Minnesota entrepreneurs were honored today as the University of Minnesota-Duluth Center for Economic Development named this year’s winners of the Joel Labovitz Entrepreneurial Success Awards. You might recognize some of the businesses on the list, while others might surprise you. Among the honorees was Bergquist Imports, proprietor of the iconic orange Swedish horse…
-
Despite industry crisis, steel provisions fail Minnesota House
With a summer of political and economic hardship ahead, Iron Range lawmakers tried to attach “buy American steel” provisions to state projects under debate this week at the legislature in St. Paul. These kinds of provisions have been used in the past, particularly in association with the new Vikings stadium and other large projects. New…
-
Trampled by Turtles to lead a Minne-so-big lineup on July 11
The regional interwebs are ablaze with the news that Northern Minnesota’s own Trampled by Turtles will headline a stacked July 11 Bayfront Park Duluth concert lineup of Minnesota bands on their way up the national music scene. Other acts include past Great Northern Radio Show guests Actual Wolf and the Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank.…
-
Mesabi Nugget stays down; U.S. Steel continues cuts
Business North reports that Steel Dynamics, owner of the Mesabi Nugget plant in Hoyt Lakes, will keep the plant idled as the price of iron remains lower than the cost of production. The idling was announced months ago with the hope that it would end after new equipment was installed during the shutdown. Though the upgrades…
-
‘Onions’ to killer murder birds of death
Last week I was talking to a friend from out of the area who had picked up a Saturday edition of the Mesabi Daily News at a local gas station. “You’re in for a treat,” I said. “You get to read Orchids and Onions, the most vile opinion page in all of Minnesota.” And it is.…