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Bob Dylan to play 3 nights near old stomping grounds
Lost in the analysis of Bob Dylan’s biography is the fact that Dylan’s relationship with his hometown of Hibbing, his birth town of Duluth and Minneapolis, the town where he went to college for a time, is pretty much the same as that of any artistic kid who made it big in New York and L.A.…
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Shocked, SHOCKED, to see Iron Range unemployment gap
Over the weekend, you may have seen the front page story from the Mesabi Daily News declaring the fact that Iron Range unemployment is 64 percent higher than the state average. This was a statistical analysis by editor Bill Hanna, not new information, yet presented in Pearl Harbor banner headline form on the front of the…
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On brains, screens and the cross-eyed future of labor
Push the power button. The icon appears. We have a few seconds. Sip coffee. Look out the window. Sunny now, but look to the west where clouds gather just above the trees. Did we check the weather last night? Power on. Here we go. First the notifications pour over the top of the screen. Then…
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Green Party candidate could complicate MN-8 race
MPR’s Catharine Richert filed a story this week about Ray Sandman, Green Party candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s Eighth District. Sandman, a Duluth Vietnam veteran and community advocate who grew up on the Fond du Lac reservation, has run a mostly quiet campaign (he didn’t return calls to be in Richert’s story). Nevertheless, he is generally…
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Iron Range town re-opens secret speakeasy tunnel
UPDATE: Photos from the Aug. 29, 2014 event (via Annabella’s Facebook page) Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range experienced a lot of history in a short amount of time. From its rapid transition from native hunting and ricing grounds, to logging fields, to rural industrial mining region 120 years ago, to the collision of dozens of ethnic immigrant groups…
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Bad news, good news about demographic changes in rural MN
Recently we’ve explored the idea that while population has declined over the past 30 years in places like Northern Minnesota and other rural locations, not all the trends are negative. Young professionals have gradually returned to rural Minnesota in numbers significant enough to merit discussion about how we do economic development, generally. That’s why this…
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Twin Metals boasts feasibility, but cuts staff
It’s been a topsy-turvy week for Twin Metals, one of two nonferrous mining projects near the Iron Range. Last week, the company triumphantly touted a “pre-feasibility” study showing that their proposed mine would be extremely profitable — costing $2.77 billion (possibly more expensive than any single private project in state history), but bringing in more…
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Fargo wins Emmy for best miniseries; Tolman denied
Except for one outrage, it was a mostly wonderful night for the FX series “Fargo” at the 66th annual Emmys award ceremony last night in Los Angeles. Fargo wins Emmy awards for best miniseries, and best writing and directing. Billy Bob Thornton, nominated for best actor for the role of Lorne Malvo, wasn’t predicted to…
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New Cliffs leadership commits to iron ore strategy
After a dramatic company shake-up last month, the new CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources is vowing to focus on mining, processing, and shipping iron ore from the Great Lakes region, especially from the Mesabi Iron Range. Cliffs operates and co-owns half the mines on the Iron Range, including Hibbing Taconite, United Taconite in Eveleth and…
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Star Tribune joins Trampled by Turtles on the road
The Star Tribune‘s Chris Riemenschneider spent six days on the road with Northern Minnesota’s own Trampled by Turtles last month, with the full feature and photo package running in the Sunday edition. Hardly the salacious, sordid, soggy adventure that a Replacements tour would have been 30 years ago — although these guys are no choirboys…
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Hibbing named safest city in Minnesota
The Iron Range city of Hibbing has been named the safest city in Minnesota, based on a statistical analysis of violent and property crime rates. The source blog, Safe Choice Security, is a commercial security system seller that uses these rankings as link bait (well played), but the statistics appear valid. It’s hard to declare…
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On past, present, future and the modern minivan
Humans prefer borders. We’re like squirrels that way, and screech just the same. We see our world in one place and that of others locked over there, across some line only we can see. Some borders stand arbitrary, penned on maps with compasses and rulers by a whiskey-breathing voyager of the old times. Some borders…
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Shhhhcrerrrr-rrrsssssshhhh-owaaaaaaa: Duluth Air Show
“What troubles you, my dear?” Arthur peeled off his black sock, pale skin shining in the darkened room. His pensive wife stared out the window of their Victorian mansion. “Shhhhcrerrrrrrrsssssshhhhowaaaaaaa?” she asked. “Oh, my Angel, whatever would cause you to ask that question. Of course I love you.” “Schhhooooooooowwwwwwwaaaaaaashhhhh!” she bemoaned. “This again? My dear, we cannot…
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Grand Rapids investors plan brewpub in Old Central School
A Grand Rapids, Minn., bank executive and the president of Magnetation are teaming up to bring a brewpub restaurant to the first floor of the Old Central School in the Itasca County seat. Ed Zabinski, a city councilor and vice president at Grand Rapids State Bank and Matt Lehtinen, chief operating officer of the scram…
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Laura Ingalls Wilder memoir shows gritty reality on the prairie
Last week on our way to South Dakota, my family took a detour along the way to visit the site of the Ingalls farm and dugout home north of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Though my wife and I were raised in remarkably different styles, we share the memory of our mothers reading us the Laura Ingalls…