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Hell’s Kitchen to raise cold cash for Embarrass, MN
It’s getting cold in northern Minnesota again. I’m not sure if it’s colder than Mars like it was a couple weeks ago, but adequately cold and getting colder. We talked about the cold on Northern Community Radio’s Between You and Me last Saturday, in which I shared an expanded version of my “Insider Tips on…
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U.S. Curling team with MN/WI stripes earns attention
When the 2014 Winter Olympics begin next month in Sochi, Russia, many will be following the high profile athletes of hockey, skating and snowboarding. But as people here in northern Minnesota know, and others are starting to realize, there is a true “regular folks” team to follow in Sochi. The U.S. Curling team, which I’ve…
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Workers pulled off Essar site; more financing woes
WDIO reports that union officials say many workers are being pulled off the Essar Steel Minnesota site near Nashwauk, Minnesota, as the company continues to search for financing to finish the long-awaited project. Rumors that contractors are owed large sums of money seem to be confirmed with news that many workers are not reporting for…
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So, what is International Metallics Corp., anyway?
I caught this story in the Mesabi Daily News last weekend: Reston, Virginia-based International Metallics Corp. is apparently proposing some kind of direct-reduced iron plant in Superior, Wisconsin. The Douglas County Board of Directors and Superior Redevelopment Authority are working on some kind of deal to help make this happen. The Duluth News Tribune had…
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Taps for Tapes: UMD tape crypt to empty this week
We all know the days of the video cassette — the VCR, the tape, the “video” in reference to a black plastic rectangular container of magnetic tape — those days are gone. And perhaps tomorrow’s free-for-all VHS giveaway at the University of Minnesota-Duluth library is just another example of that. Or perhaps it’s the end.…
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Report: Minnesota taconite revenue trails inflation
Marshall Helmberger’s Timberjay has a remarkable story analyzing Minnesota taconite revenue from production taxes over the past several decades. Here are the nuts and bolts: At a time when Minnesota mining companies continue to reap major windfalls from the historically high price of taconite produced on the Iron Range, state and local taxpayers are definitely…
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Pride cometh before the fall
In the parade of the Seven Deadly Sins, it is often said that pride leads the procession. They also say “pride cometh before the fall” and that, too, is generally true. In a world of so many illusions, pride is the biggest, falsest illusion of all — so big, that it causes most other problems…
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Find Iron Range mining jobs at Jan. 24 event
With all the hullabaloo over the proposed PolyMet mine and other controversial proposed mining projects, let’s not forget northern Minnesota’s Iron Range remains a mining region anyway. And that iron mining industry is having a pretty good year. Qualified applicants for Iron Range mining jobs have a pretty good chance at getting one. The Minnesota…
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Trampled by Turtles return for 2014 MN/WI tour
Duluth and Minneapolis-based progressive bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles will be making another Minnesota/Wisconsin tour this year, reprising their successful home-state swing from last year. Here in the north, TBT will be back at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids on March 25 and in Bemidji on March 28. You can find out more or…
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Huge crowd packs PolyMet EIS hearing in Duluth
Almost 1,500 people packed into the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center last night for the first of three public hearings about the PolyMet Environmental Impact Statement. The purpose of the PolyMet EIS hearing was to allow feedback on the document released late last year, which details the possible environmental impact of the controversial new copper/nickel…
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Mesabi Daily News headline makes Letterman show
As it was foretold in prophecy, the Mesabi Daily News‘ not-so-accidental boner joke from late last year was included in a David Letterman segment on funny small town news last night. Here’s video: It bears mentioning that Team Letterman put the Mesabi Daily News story last in the segment. Humor writers save that spot for…
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Boyle win in east Duluth previews 2014
Duluth city councilor Patrick Boyle defeated former city councilor Jim Stauber in the special election for St. Louis County District 2 Commissioner Tuesday. Turnout was low, but the nonpartisan result came pretty close to the partisan index of the district — with the liberal Boyle claiming 65 percent and the conservative Stauber winning 35 percent.…
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PolyMet EIS public hearings start Thursday
On a recent edition of TPT’s Almanac, supporters and opponents of a controversial new mining project in northern Minnesota took to the stage for a short, white-hot debate (second segment) that represents everything I hate about covering this issue. The more you dive into it, the more you find yourself in the morass of your own…
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New Duluth building will be kinda sorta tall
Well, this new Duluth building is not quite a skyscraper, but the new Maurice’s corporate building in downtown Duluth will be an impressive structure. Developers released a new composite of the building’s revised plans yesterday, which has been making the rounds in Duluth area media. The project would give one unified headquarters to the retailer Maurice’s,…
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Scenic Range NewsForum expands web presence
The Scenic Range NewsForum on the western Mesabi Iron Range recently launched its new website, a mobile-optimized site that tosses aside its clunky PDF reader-style predecessor. Along with this comes news that the Scenic snatched the low bid for becoming Itasca County’s newspaper of record, leaving the Grand Rapids Herald-Review to this painfully defensive story. As…