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Global view of iron ore casts dim light on the Giant Mesabi
What’s happening on the Iron Range right now is much like the calm before the storm, or the eerie quiet of a city soon to be under siege. We know that come June nearly 1,200 iron miners will be out of work, with many more likely to follow. We’re not confident when people will be…
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Remembering Howard Pitzen of the Effie Rodeo
This week we learned of the passing of longtime Northern Minnesota rancher and cowboy poet Howard Pitzen, founder of the Effie Rodeo near Bigfork, some 40 miles north of the Iron Range. Nearly 89, Pitzen died in hospice care at his home not far from the rodeo grounds. Howard was a guest on a 2012 episode of my…
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Watch MN Gov. Dayton’s State of the State address
Tonight, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton delivered his annual State of the State address at the Capitol in St. Paul. You can watch the speech below, courtesy of The Uptake. Gov. Dayton entered the speech with a healthy approval rating in the mid-50s, but facing a stiff challenge from a staunchly conservative Republican State House and a…
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‘Last Call for the Mitchell Yards’ tonight
I’m excited to tell you about a new documentary you can see for the first time tonight on WDSE/WRPT PBS North. “Last Call for the Mitchell Yards” shares the story of the Mitchell Yards, an abandoned Iron Range railway station between Hibbing and Chisholm that once handled 80 percent of the iron ore used by…
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Governor’s bonding bill tilts toward Greater Minnesota
Yesterday, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton released his proposed $842 million bonding bill. While a bonding bill is expected from the DFL-controlled State Senate, there are mixed signals coming out of the GOP-led State House as to whether a full bonding bill will be on the table or not. The governor’s plan invests in economic development,…
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Putting out the ‘welcome hat’ to new Minnesotans
One of the first things you learn in Minnesota is the power of good cold-weather clothing to survive and even thrive through our characteristic winters. At first, the urge to be fashionable or “strong” causes people much suffering. Then, all at once, snow pants and giant hats become a beacon in the dark, safe refuge for…
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An uncomfortable truth about Iron Range’s mining woes
Here on the Iron Range one cannot escape the talk of impending layoffs at area iron mines. You also can’t mistake who company officials and unions alike blame for this situation: foreign steel dumping. “Dumping” means foreign companies, sometimes as extensions of foreign governments, sell steel for less than it costs to produce, just to move it off their shores. Usually their…
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Ma Peep and the way things are
“It ain’t easy being no Peep,” she said. She puffed a jelly bean flavored e-cigaratte on the porch of the large cardboard box her family has lived in since last March. “Things come harder for me, fo’ sho. I went up the doctor’s office, nurse says to me ‘I need a vein.’ I says I…
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‘Bells across the land’ in Minnesota
On April 9, Americans will mark 150 years since the surrender of Confederate sources to the Union Army in the American Civil War. The divisions that caused the Civil War — primarily slavery and attitudes about the role of government — existed for hundreds of years before the war, and continue in some form today.…
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Dry spring jacks up fire danger in Northern Minnesota
It’s been an unseasonably dry spring so far in Northern Minnesota, so much so that yesterday’s high winds generated a tinder box of wildfires across the region. None grew out of control, but forestry people I know were hopping between at least a dozen small fires just in the immediate region. The temperatures fell quite…
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Saturday’s Bemijigamaag Powwow in Bemidji welcomes all
The city of Bemidji, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwa, Red Lake Band of Ojibwa and White Earth Ojibwa Nation, along with Northern Community Radio, KOJB-The Eagle and a host of sponsors, will join to host the Bemijigamaag Powwow this Saturday, April 4, at Bemidji’s Sanford Center. The event is free and open to all.…
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Poetry in motion: KAXE/KBXE to host third annual Beat Cafe
Every weekday morning, my local public radio station shares a poem recorded by a Minnesota poet in a program called “The Beat.” I must admit, I run hot and cold on these poetry segments. I’ve heard poems that have shook me to my core, but most poems bother me. They irritate. Aggravate. Infuriate. Provoke scorn…
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Ely, MN, bans drones, effective April 1
It’s April 1, which means Ely, Minnesota, is up to its annual shenanigans: Find out more about Ely’s campaign to ban drones. Related posts: No related posts.
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KUMD ‘NorthFest’ welcomes April in style
The independent public station 103.3 FM KUMD in Duluth will launch its first ever “NorthFest” on Wednesday, April 1 with live music all day on the campus of the University of Minnesota at Duluth. The lineup features excellent representatives of the growing Duluth music scene, including several past (and future?) guests of my Great Northern…
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MinnTac to lay off 700 in taconite slowdown
UPDATE (4/1/15): Minnesota Public Radio reports on the conditions in Iron Range taconite mining. I was on the midmorning MPR News program yesterday talking about the situation. (3/31/15) — This morning, U.S. Steel announced 700 impending layoffs at MinnTac, the Iron Range’s largest taconite plant. U.S. Steel had already announced the idling of its Keewatin Taconite property…