-
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…
-
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…
-
What we do when hope runs out
I was vacationing with family the day Robin Williams died from suicide after a lifelong struggle against depression. Had I been around my computer, I’d have shared stories of late night TV appearances and favorite movies with the rest of you. He was, after all, arguably the best late night TV talk show guest of…
-
Pipelines ‘pipe in’ hot debate in Minnesota
We’ve spent a lot of time here at the blog talking about mining as it relates to Minnesota politics, but I haven’t spent as much time on another environmental/devlopment issue that will be at least as contentious in upcoming debates, if not more so: pipelines. As evidenced by the recent dustup between labor DFLers and…
-
Mississippi River Music Armada begins in Grand Rapids
With summer coming to its calendar-based conclusion (even if we have some good weather yet to come), I’ve heard about a really interesting concert series kicking off this week in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, just off the western Mesabi Iron Range. David Fort of the Canadian folk duo Twin contacted me with news of the 3rd annual Mississippi…
-
Embarrass Fair needs new blood to carry on
I think back to the number of conversations I’ve had with Roland “Charlie” Fowler of Embarrass and I don’t think I can name one where he didn’t mention the Embarrass Regional Fair in some way or another. I even heard Fowler drop a plug for the Embarrass Fair on a CNN story about the friendly…
-
Otto, Entenza and the isolation of Range mining politics
I was out of town last week when the Primary Election results came in. I’m back, and today I’ll be offering my thoughts on the DFL State Auditor race from a new angle: What the Iron Range “Dump Otto” movement did and didn’t accomplish, and what it means for the divided DFL party in MN-8.…
-
Rukavina, Hujanen face off in marquee local race
I was out of town when last week’s Primary Election results came rolling in. I’m back and it’s time to analyze some of the more interesting races. I’ll start with the race for St. Louis County District 6 Commissioner, where longtime Iron Range State Rep. Tom Rukavina of Pike Township seeks a return to elected office.…
-
Discovering new attitude, new hope for Northern Minnesota
What if the economic prospects in Northern Minnesota aren’t nearly as bad as people make them out to be, but will get much worse if we don’t act soon? What if a working plan for a better future will require an entirely different way of thinking, but there is a solution if we’re willing to…
-
Minnehaha: a place to rest where the water falls
Slowly approaching a premature middle age I find myself firmly anchored in the woods of Northern Minnesota. Each occasional trip to our state’s Twin Cities metropolis is less a drive and more the unraveling of one life for the winding up of another. The rules change. People wear different stripes, gather in exponentially larger numbers.…
-
Air Force Brass to play the Range on Sunday
The Lyric Center for the Arts in the Iron Range city of Virginia, Minnesota, is sponsoring a free concert by the United States Airlifter Brass this Sunday, Aug. 17, at 3 p.m. at the Olcott Park bandstand. I’ve seen this group play before and I can’t imagine a more fitting sound to hear in a…
-
Rowdy auditor race, GOP intrigue highlight MN primary
Primary election polls in Minnesota are open and will remain so until 8 p.m. tonight. I wrote about the election last Sunday, although in a fairly obtuse, Mark Twain sort of way. I’m on the road right now and won’t be able to provide much in the way of live blogging tonight. Rest assured, I’ll…
-
Itasca County seeks to extend broadband to every household
This is some of the most exciting news I’ve had a chance to share in a while. For at least a decade I’ve advocated for rural high-speed internet investment here in Northern Minnesota where technological infrastructure will be an important part of economic diversification. Itasca County, which includes Grand Rapids, forests, 1,000 lakes, the western…
-
Some Minnesotans eligible for property tax rebate
Americans tend to have the deadline for income tax return applications engrained in their minds. (Though, if you’re doing it right, you should break even every year). Because property taxes are managed by local governments, we tend to accept them at face value. Well, by act of the legislature, Minnesota residents will have the ability…
-
2014 Minnesota primary: sorting out best of what’s available
I remember once sitting at the kitchen table with my dad shortly after he turned 30. I was 8 or 9 and in the process of memorizing an encyclopedia on American Democracy. “Dad,” I said, “You’re old enough to run for the Senate!” I was busy imaging his campaign. (He’d need to wash off that…