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Northern Minnesota restaurants lead per capita
It’s no secret that tourism is big business in Northern Minnesota. The hospitality and recreation industries employ thousands, while the ebb and flow of tourists are a big part of life here in the North Woods. I often write about Northern Minnesota’s economy, and how its actual composition compares with the idealized one usually discussed in the media. Mining, for…
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UPDATE: Where to find Minnesota fall colors 2014
UPDATE (Sept. 30): We have full peak colors in Northern Minnesota, and I’d argue we’re past peak in most of the parts that show dark red on the DNR maps. Any leaves still changing are only replacing leaves that have fallen. We lost quite a bit of the “canopy” on Sunday and Monday. You’ll still…
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Howie Hanson enters Duluth mayoral race; Ness responds
Though Don Ness has yet to announce whether he would seek a third term as mayor of Duluth, Minnesota, he nevertheless has a challenger today as blogger and city councilor Howie Hanson made an early announcement that he would run for mayor next year. Duluth city elections are held in the fall of odd years. Usually,…
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Today in Alt-History: North Minnesota and South Minnesota
A couple weeks ago I came across this feature from the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader in South Dakota exploring an interesting intersection of American history. In the time before Minnesota statehood and the dissection of Dakota territory, there was serious talk of splitting Minnesota on an east-west border instead of using the Red River as a north-south…
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Turn, turn, turn, D’oh!: 1,000 foot ship runs ashore in Duluth
The 1,000-foot freighter Paul A. Tregurtha ran ashore Saturday near Bayfront Park in the Port of Duluth, Minnesota, causing quite a stir in the Zenith City and prompting a localized surge in social media references to freshwater coal-hauling vessels. Hung up for more than three hours, the Tregurtha was freed with the help of two tugboats.…
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Iron Range GOP candidate facing lawsuit for garage chop
Nearly a year and a half ago, the small band of daily commuters on Itasca County Highway 8 noticed that this happened. I posted the picture to social media with a silly Paul Bunyan joke. What we hadn’t realized at the time was that this garage-halving operation was part of a looney, decades-old family property…
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Notes from the Northern Swing
Here’s your thought experiment for the day. Go watch some kind of live coverage of Congress. It doesn’t matter what they talk about, just look at them. Ancient partisans, middle aged careerists, twitchy young up-and-comers emit loud nothings into microphones then whispering crucial somethings out of earshot. Watching Congress in action shows why an unshakeable…
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Poll shows slipping support for PolyMet
The proposed PolyMet mine at Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota, is still waiting for news about its permits with a ruling to come from federal and state regulators late this year or early next. But the effects of the long wait and ceaseless statewide debate over the merits of opening new kinds of mineral mines in important Minnesota…
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Great Northern Radio Show in Park Rapids on 9/27
If you’ve wondered why posting has sluffed off some here at the Iron Range’s fastest-growing news and culture blog there is good reason. I’ve been writing the latest edition of the Great Northern Radio Show while balancing my usual mix of writing, teaching and cloak-and-dagger projects. I’m happy to announce that the script is done…
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U.S. Steel cancels KeeTac expansion plan
Business North reports that U.S. Steel announced several strategic decisions today, one of which was to cancel expansion plans at Keewatin Taconite on the Mesabi Iron Range. From the story: U. S. Steel executives said they considered its future raw materials needs for iron ore and coke, and found its current production capability sufficient. The…
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The midwestern town where ‘brain gain’ is happening
Today I’m sharing my latest piece for The Daily Yonder, a Kentucky-based online magazine exploring rural issues and development in the United States. This time I’m talking about Mitchell, South Dakota, an I-90 stop-off we visited on the way to and from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Probably best known for its iconic Corn Palace, Mitchell has…
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Essar financing appears to fall apart … again
The financing necessary to resume construction at the Essar Steel Minnesota taconite plant in Nashwauk is now in question, according to a Ron Brochu report that ran in the Scenic Range News Forum and Business North. For five years, India-based Essar Steel has been building a new iron mine near where the former Butler Taconite…
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DFL economist, 7A candidate Schultz dissects MNSure news
It’s been a long time since a candidate for office sent me a press release that was both substantive and informative. Jennifer Schultz is a health care economics professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She’s also the DFL candidate for the open seat in State House District 7A in eastern Duluth. Tonight she sent out…
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No more dress-up for Bemidji’s Paul Bunyan and Babe
It’s not terribly difficult to find likenesses of Paul Bunyan and his trusted blue ox Babe in Northern Minnesota. And if it’s not Paul, it’s some cockamamie relative or ex-girlfriend that a town dreamed up as a hook. But among the most iconic Paul Bunyan and Babe statues are the pair you see in Bemidji,…
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The tricky trouble of polling Northern Minnesota
This piece was cross-posted with my Up North Report blog at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Today, the latest in a battery of polling data from Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race was released, this time the Star Tribune’s Minnesota Poll. The results of the poll are not my reason for this post, though if you’re interested Sen. Al Franken, the incumbent…