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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…
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Hibbing strike averted
City workers and administration have come to a tentative agreement in the Iron Range city of Hibbing, Minnesota, averting the strike that was recently approved. Members of AFSCME Local 791 will vote on the agreement Wednesday. Workers had been refusing overtime during the cooling off period, causing some noticaeably difficult driving conditions in Hibbing during…
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Great Wall of … Asian Carp?
MinnesotaBrown.com has been the internet’s one-stop-shop for those casually interested in the threat of Asian carp species to the fresh waters and Great Lakes of the Upper Midwest, but who do not want to be bothered with excessive “fancy science.” But the fancy science is out there, and a recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…
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Emerald ash borer, meet Polar Vortex
One of the stories bandied about amid the Polar Vortex of the past few days was the theory that this frigid cold might help knock back the emerald ash borer threat in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ash borer larvae die off when the temperature is sustained below zero for several days. It would take extremely…
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County board, state house races heat up east Duluth
The special election to replace the late Steve O’Neal on the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners will be next Tuesday, Jan. 14. District One includes much of eastern Duluth, where they’re also gearing up for an open state House race after the announced retirement of Rep. Tom Huntley (DFL-Duluth). The Dist. 1 county commissioner…
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Highway 53 reroute might avoid need for new bridge
One of the big stories of 2014 will be the Highway 53 reroute on the Iron Range, altering the existing path of the north/south regional artery to accommodate new mining near Eveleth and Virginia, Minnesota. For most of last year, talk centered around a bridge that would possibly span the Roucheleau Pit outside Virginia. Now…
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Mesabi Miner crashes into Great Lakes ice-breaker
WDIO reports that the Mesabi Miner, a major Great Lakes ore ship hauling taconite pellets off the Minnesota Iron Range, crashed with a U.S. Coast Guard ice cutter near the Straits of Mackinac Sunday morning. The 220-foot ice-breaker the Hollyhock was badly damaged in the accident, while the 990-foot Mesabi Miner suffered some damage. These…
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Civil war over wind chill breaks out in frigid North
The “polar vortex” has arrived in northern Minnesota, delivering the promised “surface of Mars” deep freeze, and giving everyone something to argue about in lieu of going outside for any reason. We had 30 below this morning. I have not gone out to assess the wind. One of the more interesting semantic battles that has…
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Oracle speaks of turbulence in 2014 predictions
The Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-200 dipped its frosty belly beneath the clouds, revealing the flat landscape of the winter bog, white canvas speckled with dark brown and black tamaracks. The captain’s voice filled the loudspeaker. “This is your stop.” The flight attendant had been nervously preparing my parachute since we took off from Minneapolis-St. Paul.…
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City workers authorize Hibbing strike
Hibbing AFSCME workers voted to authorize a strike late last week. Now the city and its contract employees enter a cooling off period (no pun intended amid the record-setting cold today). The Hibbing strike could begin as soon as Jan. 14 unless talks are successful. The main issue appears to be the city’s request for…