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Time to tell your northern MN story
A group from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design are spending the summer in residence in the city of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. It’s part of MCAD’s Greater Minnesota Arts Initiative (read more). Three artists are collecting stories — both face to face with people in northern Minnesota and online. They’re doing a contest of…
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Gilbert, Eveleth weekly newspapers shut down
The twin newspapers of the Eveleth Scene and Gilbert Herald published their final editions earlier this month. These two Iron Range weekly papers enjoyed a long history in two of the most interesting towns on the Mesabi. The Gilbert Herald in particular had published more than a century. Publisher Nathan Krause, who took over the…
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Catch the Grand Rapids ‘Great Northern’ podcast
The last Great Northern Radio Show broadcast live from the Reif Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, on June 29. And at last, we’ve got the podcast ready for you. Great Northern Radio Show — Saturday, June 29, 2013 — Grand Rapids, MN (PC: right click and “Save Link As” MAC: Ctrl-click and “Save Link As”…
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Iron Range ethnic foods draw national attention
The NPR show America’s Test Kitchen shared a two-part series that writer Carolynn Purpura MacKay penned for Cook’s Magazine about two popular ethnic foods from northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. She traveled to Hibbing last January to learn about the Italian spiced pork dish porketta and the eastern European dessert bread potica. (puh-TEET-za) It’s a very…
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Origins of sport
This is my Sunday column for the July 14, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Origins of sportBy Aaron J. Brown Tuesday brings one of my favorite events in all of summer, Major League Baseball’s All-Star game. This might seem a bit strange to some, as the all-star game is often not very good.…
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Former Iron Range rep is on Met Council
Something occured to me as I perused the list of people Gov. Mark Dayton appointed to the Metropolitan Council today. Lona Schreider of Brooklyn Park, who was reappointed, is the only person in history to serve on the IRRRB and the Met Council. She was Rep. Lona Minne (DFL-Hibbing) before she left office, remarried and…
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Track the tall ships approaching Port of Duluth, MN
U.S. Brig Niagara arrives in 2010 – Dennis O’Hara, via Visit Duluth Like many in northern Minnesota, my family awaits the arrival of the “tall ships” later this month in the Port of Duluth on Lake Superior. These masted wooden ships were a huge hit in 2010 and hundreds of thousands of people are expected…
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Know what the mining debate needs? Mercenaries
If you’ve ever been around a debate between people who want to dig up city-sized portions of earth to extract minerals and people who are against that, you see some common themes. Jobs vs. the Environment. Need for minerals in everyday goods vs. the need to preserve natural places. Growth and progress vs. air and…
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Hibbing Jubilee marks summer’s halftime on the Range
This weekend brings the Hibbing Jubilee, this central Mesabi Iron Range city’s summer celebration of mines and pines (but don’t call it Mines and Pines because that was the old name and there are proprietary concerns). Hibbing is “the town that moved” for the iron mines, five miles south where they got arguably the most…
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Iron Range board names ‘NextGen’ task force members
The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (previously Iron Range Resources, Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Agency and Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, known locally, always and forever, as the IRRRB) is trying to plan for the future of northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. That’s why Commissioner Tony Sertich and agency officials have crafted the…
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Dylan lets music do the talking in his native Duluth, MN
Bob Dylan performs July 9, 2013 at Bayfront in Duluth. Iris Kolodji Last night Bob Dylan played his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota, with Wilco, My Morning Jacket and the Richard Thompson Trio. More than 7,000 people attended the show at Bayfront Festival Park, though there was capacity for up to 12,000. Despite my longtime Dylan…
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Reinert decides not to run for MN Sec. of State
UPDATE: This post has been corrected and updated since its release Tuesday morning. Today, State Sen. Roger Reinert (DFL-Duluth) told me he would not run for Minnesota Secretary of State. After giving it some thought, he decided he didn’t want to go after a job that took him out of Duluth. Last month quite a…
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Dylan brings it back home in tonight’s Duluth show
A collection of Dylan books. We get a half dozen authors of Dylan books or documentaries visiting Hibbing every year. Martin Pulaski, Creative Commons license Tonight Bob Dylan and his band, along with Wilco, My Morning Jacket and the Richard Thompson Trio, will perform at the Bayfront Festival Park on the waterfront of Dylan’s birthplace,…
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Iron ore price dip a cause for (measured) concern
BusinessNorth‘s Ron Brochu has a fascinating story on the recent downturn in iron ore prices. Though no major production slowdowns are currently slated for the iron mines here in northern Minnesota, several future projects are facing some serious headwind, according to this story. I wrote about the slow progress at Essar Steel in Nashwauk earlier…
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Northern MN artists drop politically-charged mining album
An impressive group of northern Minnesota musicians, including the dean of the Duluth music scene Charlie Parr, have lent songs to a compilation album called “The Arrowhead Story.” This album is due for a Sept. 7 release, but has a digital page up now. It’d be an interesting collection on its own and it listens…