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Northbound Caravan brings some of MN’s best bands to Grand Rapids, MN
It’s been a good summer for live music in Northern Minnesota. Though I was too busy to write about it back then, the KAXE Mississippi River Festival last month, featuring past Great Northern Radio Show acts like Actual Wolf and the Roe Family Singers, was fantastic. The same venue — the Rotary Tent outside KAXE…
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Franken & foes in first MN-SEN debate (via @TheUptake)
This morning at 10:30, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Republicans Mike McFadden, Jim Abeler and David Carlson, and presumptive Independence Party nominee Kevin Terrell will participate in Election 2014’s first full MN-SEN debate at Farm Fest. Next week, McFadden, Abeler and Carlson will compete in a Tuesday, Aug. 12, primary election in which the endorsed…
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CenturyLink drops the Big Gig in Twin Cities
For some continued perspective on the drive to improve broadband infrastructure in rural Minnesota, note that cable giant CenturyLink is rolling out a 1-gigabit per second service in the Twin Cities over the next few months. CenturyLink announced its plans this week. That’s roughly similar to the speeds touted by Google Fiber, which has garnered huge attention…
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MN-8 ‘toss-up’ is more than just politics
Last week, the non-partisan Cook Political Report moved the race for Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District between Democratic incumbent Rick Nolan and Republican Stewart Mills from “Lean Democratic” to “Toss-Up.” This news has already attracted attention from most of the state’s political writers, so I’m not here to rehash the day-to-day politics. Roll Call still says Nolan is slightly…
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Report: Putin ‘wants to regain Finland’
A former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin says that his ex-boss wants to reestablish the Russian state in its original, pre-Bolshevik form. Among other jaw-dropping targets ranging from the Baltic states to parts of Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus, Putin apparently has eyes on reclaiming the independent Nordic nation of Finland at some point in his rule.…
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One Bigfoot myth we can hardly bear
Like many of my era, I was introduced to the “myth” of Sasquatch (aka “Bigfoot”) through the motion picture “Harry and the Hendersons.” In this movie, not only was Sasquatch real, his heart was bigger than his feet, thawing the stern countenance of John Lithgow, who was a pretend jerk in a lot of movies…
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’90s alt band Live at Merritt Days 2014
The city of Mountain Iron, Minnesota, has good reason to love the ’90s. After all, it was in 1890 that Leonidas Merritt and his family first discovered the famous Mesabi iron range and its rich hematite iron ore, spurring the settlement of Northern Minnesota and industrialization of a modern nation. In 1892, the Merritts managed…
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On the fair, tall timber and Thomas the Tank Engine
In a quiet summer reverie I hear the chuffing of a steam engine around the tracks of a country bend. What could it be? Why, it’s a train with a face, of course. Our boys are officially too old for Thomas the Tank Engine and his Island of Sodor; Sir Topham Hatt and all the…
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MN iron ore: changing history for 130 years
William Henry Brown was born in Northern Michigan during the peak of copper and iron mining in the Upper Peninsula. He was the son of a Cornish immigrant whose family had perhaps known mining since the Roman Empire. When he was a child he would have heard about new iron mining to the west in…
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Beware Iron Range hyperbole in Election 2014
Last week I was called into town to do another “Iron Range political pundit” interview with Northland’s NewsCenter’s Nick Minock. The story was about something presumptive Minnesota GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike McFadden had said about nonferrous mining projects in Northern Minnesota. McFadden had suggested that projects like PolyMet and Twin Metals, which have been mired in environmental…
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Hibbing, Duluth, Brainerd among new Dunkin’ Donuts locales
UPDATE: Grand Rapids, MN is also on the list of new locations. A Hinckley, Minn., couple is developing seven new Dunkin’ Donuts locations in Northern Minnesota, including Duluth, Hibbing and Brainerd. That according to this Paul Walsh article in today’s Star Tribune. [New franchisee Brian] Weidendorf said the Duluth locale will be in a remodeled…
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UPDATE: Hedge fund takes over Range mining giant Cliffs Natural Resources
UPDATE: The votes have been counted and Casablanca Capital overwhelming won its bid to take over Cliffs Natural Resources, winning all six open spots on the board of directors. In a release, Casablanca states: Donald Drapkin, Chairman of Casablanca, said, “We are grateful to our fellow Cliffs shareholders for their careful consideration of the issues…
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DNT: Twin Ports seagulls need vitamins
The iconic Twin Ports seagulls of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, remind me of a colony of ants or bees — best considered a single organism rather than as a multitude of individuals. This mass of scavenging port birds have entered into a symbiotic relationship with the french fry dispensing tourists at the Head of the Lakes. The birds…
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Rural Minnesota needs Chattanooga internet solution
Lately I’ve been reading and writing about the concept of “Brain Gain” for rural Minnesota and Iron Range communities. This is the idea that rural areas, particularly in Minnesota, may lose their high school graduates, but have been steadily and quietly attracting young professionals back through reverse migration. Our central challenge is in engaging this population…
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Modern Times: still moving for mines, destination uncertain
The ethos of Minnesota’s Iron Range is change even if its peoples’ reputation is one of stubbornness. The ups and downs of the mining industry and cultural melding trained a whole region to eye warily that which rolls around the bend, even though we know that water, minerals and even mountains can be moved, whether…