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Highway 53 reroute a generational test for the Range
This Dan Kraker MPR story provides the clearest narrative I’ve seen yet as to the proposals and local reaction to the proposed rerouting of Highway 53 on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, something we’ve discussed here before. The cheapest route would devastate many businesses and create a really mixed-up way of driving around the Quad Cities.…
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Booms and busts both change rural culture
Calumet, Minnesota (Aaron Brown, 1998) I’ve been looking to North Dakota a lot recently because the state is going through an oil boom and is getting fresh attention. People I know are moving there, in dribbles and drabs, to work the oil fields. And something about it reminds me a great deal of the mining…
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Group aims to re-engage Hibbing theater community
The cancellation of the award-winning theater program at Hibbing Community College amid the budget tumult of the past several years shook the Iron Range arts community. But there are green shoots here and there, notably with the foundation of a new community theater group called “Encore of Hibbing.” A group of actors and theater types…
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Walking the footsteps of the working poor
Last week, freshman State Rep. Jason Metsa (DFL-Virginia) lived on minimum wage as part of a challenge sponsored by Working America, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. The effort was designed to show the challenges facing the working poor as part of the debate over raising Minnesota’s minimum wage to what workers’ groups call a “living…
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Protests aplenty as Northern MN unravels
Everything’s coming up Moses. There’s a whole bunch of unwanted snow on the ground in northern Minnesota today. If you’re one of those cats who likes to talk about how great it is to ski this late in the season you best move along, son, because we don’t have much in common. In fact, let…
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Gov. Dayton to hold Iron Range town hall Tuesday night
Gov. Mark Dayton will hold a town hall meeting to discuss his budget proposal at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the commons at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in Virginia, MN. This will probably be the best environment for people here in northern Minnesota to express their views or questions on the budget to the…
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Want a job in northern Minnesota? Try Northland Job Fair
This Wednesday, April 17, the Northland Job Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the DECC Paulucci Hall in Duluth, Minnesota. Fifty of the largest employers in northern Minnesota will be on hand to take applications and meet job seekers. The Minnesota Workforce Center will be there to assist with resumes…
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Weather coping with maps and travel guides
It’s snowing. As I sit here this evening we are being told up to nine inches of wet, heavy April snow for the Iron Range by Monday morning. I am depressed. I am not alone. In a move she probably regrets, my wife Christina — knowing my enthisiasm for maps — sent me this Hey…
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Too ‘Minnesota Nice’ to Brag
This is my Sunday column for the April 14, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on yesterday’s episode of “Between You and Me” on Northern Community Radio. Too Minnesota Nice to BragBy Aaron J. Brown You never know what you’ll see when a “list post” circulates on the…
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Study: Iron Range mining, mesothelioma linked
Today, officials shared the long-awaited University of Minnesota study analyzing why the rare cancer mesothelioma is so prevalent among miners who worked on the Mesabi Iron Range. The result? Researchers see a link between working in the mines and the disease, but that dust from taconite mining is only one of several factors contributing to…
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Radio for the People
Lakeland Public Television closed their season of their arts and culture program “Common Grounds” with a profile of Northern Community Radio and my Great Northern Radio Show. This is a wonderful representation of the station for which I am so proud to write and produce material. You can watch the whole episode right here: Related…
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Take off that shirt, deer
This is a shirt with a deer on it. The actual incident involves a deer with a shirt on it. Five Wisconsin men are in trouble for putting a t-shirt on a deer. The DNR found out about this two ways: 1) the deer has been seen around the Oak Creek, Wisconsin, area wearing a…
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Bragging about Minnesota’s passive-aggressive non-bragging
This Saturday on KAXE‘s “Between You and Me” the topic is “Brag About Minnesota.” The inspiration was this Andrew Gauthier Buzzfeed piece, “38 Things Minnesotans are Too Nice to Brag About.” My essay for the radio has also been adapted into my Sunday column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune, but you might enjoy the audio…
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PolyMet announces $60 million in private funds
People want to know where nonferrous mining projects stand in northern Minnesota. It’s awfully hard to say, most days, as the local debate tends to float in a nebulous cloud of philosophical disagreement. While the ongoing permit process is important, I’ve long maintained that issue will resolve itself only to the degree these companies are…
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Results of major miners’ health study due Friday
On Friday, University of Minnesota researchers will reveal results of a highly-anticipated study on mesothelioma rates related to workers in Iron Range mines. Mesothelioma is a rare lung cancer often tied to asbestos found in industrial settings. Rates of the disease are 300 percent higher than normal among residents of the Iron Range. The big…