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Watershed map shows Minnesota’s true geography
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) released this fascinating map of the state’s watersheds. The Minnesota PCA describes a watershed this way: A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that drains off of it goes into the same place—a river, stream or lake. The smallest watersheds are the drainage areas…
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Range town addition fades to mining
Parkville, Minnesota, is a place, but not a town. It’s one of the location villages common to the Iron Range, a place where miners and their families lived a literal stone’s throw from mining activity. Legally speaking, Parkville is an addition of Mountain Iron, the Mesabi Range’s first town. But U.S. Steel has been gradually buying…
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Flags of many colors on the Iron Range
Today at 11:30 a.m., Hibbing Community College will dedicate its World Flags Project at the campus commons. Like many community and technical colleges around Minnesota, HCC has seen an influx of immigrants and first generation Americans. HCC’s diversity committee surveyed those students to determine their national origin. A flag from each nation is now displayed…
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MNSCU Board selects Maki to lead Iron Range colleges
Today, Chancellor Stephen Rosenstone recommended Bemidji State University CFO William Maki to lead the five independent Iron Range-region colleges of the Northeast Higher Education District. The MNSCU Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Maki as President of NHED at its afternoon meeting. The Northeast Higher Education District consists of Hibbing Community College, Itasca Community…
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Grand Rapids Library wants YOU to make Peep diorama
There is only one constant, and that is change. Our lives are but marks along the way of change. Nowhere is that more evident in the fact that four generations after mud roads and a multi-lingual society in the remote forests of Northern Minnesota, the Grand Rapids (Minn.) Area Library is now sponsoring a Springtime Peeps…
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Hear (and see!) latest Great Northern Radio Show
See the Great Northern Radio Show as broadcast on Channel 12 Public Access in the Northwestern Twin Cities suburbs: On Saturday, March 7, we broadcast my Great Northern Radio Show live from the stage of North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. It was our first broadcast from the Twin Cities metropolitan area and our first…
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The little town with blazing fast internet
This is an extended news feature I produced for Northern Community Radio that was broadcast today on the Morning Show and this week on the news magazine “The Give and Take.” This web version includes some visual add-ons. Please support Northern Community Radio during their pledge drive this week. In addition to being a vital producer of…
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Magnetation moves to drain pit for new mine
Lost in the din of bad news about Iron Range mines last week was this nugget: The scram mining operation Magnetation is a step closer to dewatering the Canisteo Pit near Bovey to begin mining untapped ore reserves underneath the adjacent Buckeye Pit. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is taking public comments on the project…
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The wheels on the bus go on your phone
Each morning, out on the dirt road by our house deep in the Northern Minnesota wilds, I wait for the bus with my elementary school-aged boys. It’s a special time for reflection, conversation and encouragement. We build the special bond between father and sons. I wouldn’t trade those first five minutes of the day for…
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Rukavina Strikes Back: colorful Range pol rebuts Strib
Today, the Star Tribune features an op/ed from former Iron Range State Rep. and current St. Louis County Commissioner Tom Rukavina rebutting recent stories about the political nature of a IRRRB call center project. I wrote about those Star Tribune stories here, and again here — both times pointing out how damaging this year has been…
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St. Urho’s Day marks Finnish-American spring
St. Urho’s Day, the Finnish-American celebration of a non-existent saint, who freed Finland from a non-existent grasshopper problem, is March 16, but the celebrations kick up in earnest around the “Finnish-American” states of the Great Lakes before then. It’s always been a particularly strong holiday here in Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range region, something I wrote about at…
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U.S. Steel to idle Keewatin Taconite, affecting 400 workers
Today, U.S. Steel announced it will idle its Keewatin Taconite mine and processing plant in 90 days. The mine employs more than 400 people and produces about six million tons of taconite pellets annually. With about five million tons stockpiled on the property this shutdown could last several months unless market conditions improve dramatically.…
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‘North Country’ Dylan Fest sets 2015 schedule
Late last year, I was part of the outgoing committee announcing that Dylan Days in Hibbing, Minnesota, would be put on indefinite hiatus until new leadership stepped up to take over. After 12 years of working on the annual event, a confluence of personal factors — including the demands of my growing radio show —…
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Minnesota winters confound mound septics
Just a couple weeks ago it was thirty below zero. Now teenagers are wearing shorts and the dirt roads are breaking up. I saw forecasted highs in the 60s coming down the pike. That’s how fast the weather turns in Northern Minnesota. A few weeks ago I warned about the possibility of frozen septic mounds this year…
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Duluth’s ‘cribs’ sinking out of sight
It’s an interesting phenomenon when abandoned skeletons of industry become endearing local landmarks. Part of the their appeal is that these ruins endure without human aid; in fact, they survive active hostility. So it’s a strange, sad feeling when these vestiges of the past succumb to natural causes. This has been the case as Duluth’s…