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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…
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Mining debate splits St. Louis County DFL
While state politicos continue to pontificate over the Lt. Gov. job opening on Gov. Mark Dayton’s DFL ticket, a potentially signifiant political divide over mining continues to widen here in northern Minnesota. John Myers of the Duluth News Tribune reports that the St. Louis County DFL Unit 3 board has voted in a resolution opposing…
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Prettner Solon steps aside; Dayton’s DFL crossroads
Moments ago, Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon (D-MN) announced she would not be joining Gov. Mark Dayton’s ticket for re-election this year. The announcement leaves Dayton with a decision about who should replace her to run with him at the top of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party ballot. As I’ve written before, and two names continue to…
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NY Times tale of two cities: Duluth & Superior
The Twin Ports of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, are front and center in a must-read New York Times story today about the veering political paths of these two neighboring states. Minnesota and Wisconsin have become political science experiments in what happens when one party gets to enact its agenda with full legislative majorities and…
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Big mag lauds Duluth Mayor Don Ness
Twin Cities Business Magazine named Duluth Mayor Don Ness its Person of the Year last week. The Gene Rebeck feature may be found here. Here’s an excerpt: Ness points to the vibrancy in Mankato and Rochester, smaller Minnesota cities that have experienced a “virtuous cycle of growth.” By contrast, “Duluth had been in a vicious…
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Iron Range woman details heartbreak, hope in Romania
Hometown Focus, a weekly newspaper based in Virginia, Minnesota, recently profiled a young woman from Gilbert who has been volunteering in a Romanian orphanage off and on for a few years. Ashley Leisen is nearly finished with her second stint in Brasov, Romania, as a volunteer with the Firm Foundations Romania organization. Here’s an excerpt…
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Controtastrophegate Crisispocalypse
Where were you when you heard that they might run out of Velveeta before the Super Bowl? Maybe you were rushing the kids off to school, mindful of your long list of chores for that day, such as maintaining your social media persona. Perhaps you were on the phone with a friend or relative, chatting…