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Beat spring fever with 2-day bus trip to different part of Midwest
So, the other night I was watching the local news in real time, which means watching actual commercials as they happen. (You know, the way “normals” watch TV). We often see the morning news shows, but usually miss the 10 p.m. edition. Anyway, that’s where we saw this ad for a new bus-to-bus service offered…
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Grand Rapids event adds voice to homelessness images
People tend to think of social problems being concentrated in the cities because population density forces people to see them. In rural areas and the small towns of northern Minnesota, the problems exist in similar proportion: just often outside the view of most people, most of the time. This is how so many people here…
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Minnesota DNR maps help explore state with new eyes
The above image was created with a maps feature from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources web site. You can use data to create all kinds of different maps. This is the Mesabi Iron Range, as seen from the air in 2010. Naturally, I spent my time on the site checking out places around the Iron…
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Schultz wins DFL nod in 7A, shocking tough field
Four strong candidates. Seven ballots. By the end, Jennifer Schultz had won the DFL endorsement in House District 7A to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Huntley (DFL-Duluth). The Duluth News Tribune has a detailed story. Schultz, a political newcomer, is a professor of economics and director of the health care management program at the University of…
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My place in the woods
I’ve talked to city people who have a hard time falling asleep without the ambient noise of traffic or the hum of industry. And I know country people who say the same thing about the sounds of nature or wind through the trees. It’s a misconception that the woods are quieter than the city. True,…
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Great Lakes ships cut their way out of Duluth port
March in northern Minnesota is a season where spring is observed not necessarily in warmth, flowers and rain like in other places, but it other rhythmic patterns. For instance, this weekend they began chopping some big ships out of the icy prison of the Port of Duluth so they can begin the 2014 Great Lakes…
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Great Northern Radio Show is Saturday night
It’s an exciting day: the live broadcast of my Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio is Saturday night, beaming out from the Mesabi Range College theater in Virginia, Minnesota. The Great Northern Radio Show broadcasts from small towns and offbeat theaters around northern Minnesota, telling the story of the place and its people,…
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Port of Duluth to be blessed today as spring nears
This afternoon in Duluth, Minnesota, brings the annual blessing of the port, a ceremony conducted before the opening of the shipping season. This is an additional reminder that though it does not feel like spring in northern Minnesota, it truly and technically is. From the Duluth Seaway Port Authority on behalf of the Twin Ports…
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Mesaba Concert Association gets you 15 shows for $35
When we talk about building a vibrant, diversified, creative future for the Iron Range we can’t discount the things we’ve already got going for us. For decades, the Mesaba Concert Association, and their counterparts in Virginia and Ely, have brought quality professional musical entertainment to the Iron Range. They keep the cost to the audience…
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‘The ore won’t burn up, won’t go out of fashion’
A friend of the blog recently sent me an old book: “Duluth and St. Louis County Minnesota: Their Story and People,” edited by Walter Van Brunt and published by The American Historical Society, 1921. The 1890s in northern Minnesota were historic for transfer of public lands to lumbermen. In process, lumbermen either discovered ore or…
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Iron Range mining boss wins dancing competition
It’s not every day that an Iron Range mining company sends me a YouTube video showing their company president dancing to a Ray Charles song from “The Blues Brothers” as he and a professional dancer win the Reif Center’s “Dancing with Our Stars” competition. In fact, this is the first time that has happened. Might…
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Iron Range officials fear dangers of Hwy 53 reroute
New problems arising from the much anticipated reroute of the Iron Range’s primary north-south highway might require more funding, officials now say. Highway 53 has to be rerouted between Virginia and Eveleth next year to accommodate mining by Cliffs Natural Resources at United Taconite. One version of the Hwy 53 reroute would dramatically reshape the…
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Gathering crisis; hopeful challenge
I’m not sure how many of my birthdays I spent at Zimmy’s in downtown Hibbing, Minnesota; but I know my 21st was on the list, and so was my 30th, and several other random numbers I’ve since forgotten. I do know I’ve spent 13 Dylan Days — all of them — at Zimmy’s. I’ve given…
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Meantime at the Essar Steel construction site…
“Meantime at the Essar Steel construction site” is part of my 2014 winter/spring sanity project. I will post original cartoons about modern life in northern Minnesota every Friday until the snow melts. Related posts: No related posts.
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Iron Range papers among 34 sold to Adams Publishing
The largest circulation newspapers on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range have been sold along with 34 others to Minneapolis-based Adams Publishing Group. The purchase includes 34 newspapers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and the Chesapeake Bay region. Business North reports on the sale, and this article appeared in all the affected newspapers, including the (Virginia, Minn.) Mesabi…