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Northern projects fare well in Gov. Dayton’s bonding bill
Gov. Mark Dayton revealed his suggestion for a $750 million bonding bill yesterday, including money for several northern Minnesota projects. A larger bonding bill is expected next year where many additional projects will be considered, along with those from this year that fail to make the cut. Local media lamented the lack of inclusion for…
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Nolan backs PolyMet project during recent tour
Last week, U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN8) toured his northern Minnesota district, making a few headlines along the way. Ron Bruchu of Business North reports on Nolan’s remarks to a Duluth Chamber event. Notable among Nolan’s remarks was an endorsement of PolyMet’s plan to mine copper and other minerals in northeastern Minnesota. Nolan said he’s…
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Boldly into the future for MinnesotaBrown.com
In the last year I’ve tried moving away from the day-to-day battles of politics to a wider view of life in northern Minnesota and my creative interests. We still do politics and news here; just done in a way that stands out from other blogs. This summer I am going to redesign the blog. It’s…
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Taft for our times
This is my Sunday column for the April 7, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. “Taft 2012: A Novel” by Jason Heller was clearly packaged to fuel the zeitgeist of last year’s election, spoofing targets from the media, to the tea party, modern politics and obesity in general. I read the book just recently,…
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Hear the Great Northern Radio Show Bagley podcast!
If you’ve been waiting for the podcast of our March 9, 2013 edition of the Great Northern Radio Show, recorded from our live broadcast at the Bagley High School auditorium, well, today is a big day for you. You can now hear the full, remastered version of that show. This show went through some early…
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The Iron Range: Welding together a new future
People ask me, “What is the Iron Range?” It’s always some version of that question. Maybe it’s “What’s the deal with the Range?” or “I’d like to understand the Range so that I may perform some professional function there without being beaten with an old boot.” It all works out the same. Sometimes people call…
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Lines, roads and tracks CHECK! Now Essar can build
Construction of Essar Steel Minnesota’s major project northwest of Nashwauk continues to make spurts of progress. This week, Minnesota Power announced that the electrical infrastructure is now complete, meaning that we now have power lines, new roads and fresh railroad spurs leading to a big brown field adorned with massive concrete footings. Nearly all of…
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A masker of life and death
What can we do to bring back life and death masks? Take a little trip through history and check out some famous figures from the ages as they actually appeared. Lincoln. Napoleon. How about real George Washington? All in there. I rather prefer the life masks, if only because they better represent what the person…
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Owl the King’s Men
Crows (Photo: Mary Bailey) Highway 169 runs up the heart of Minnesota, congesting near the cities, pumping trucks up and down the center of the state. But once you get to Grand Rapids, Highway 169 becomes something entirely different. It stains red and becomes the Official Road of the Iron Range, connecting the Mesabi and…
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Save the Two Harbors roundhouse?
A Two Harbors businessman is making a pitch to save the city’s historic roundhouse and renovate it to house a modern manufacturing facility. The Duluth News Tribune has the story. Normally this might not make the blog, but for this quote from the developer, John Ilse: Ilse isn’t accustomed to being on the side of…
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Iron Range original music on tap this Saturday
The Iron Range Original Music Association is an excellent example of a small grassroots effort that makes a big difference in the quality of life in a place like ours. This loose band of songwriters has helped cultivate a number of local bands that produce some true musical art and good times. They’ve got a…
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Iron Range Earth Fest 2013 is Saturday
Iron Range Earth Fest will be held this Saturday in Mt. Iron. They’ll have vendors, demonstrations and more. If you like growing things, eating grown things, making your own electricity, etc., they’ve got something for you. The flyer for the event is below the jump. (click headline) Related posts: No related posts.
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Duluth tall ship festival tickets on sale today
Tall ships docked at Duluth Harbor, 2010. Three tall masted ships will arrive in the Port of Duluth, Minnesota, this July. If you want a ride, tickets go on sale today and officials expect they will sell out by summer. The Tall Ships Festival is July 25-29 and if the 2010 event was any indication,…
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Ely, Minnesota, bans social media
It’s April Fools Day. Don’t worry, I won’t try anything. There’s always some bush leaguer saying they’ll shut down their blogs on April Fools Day. But they never do. My friend Paul Ryan, who succeeded me as editor of the UW-Superior student newspaper, did an April Fools joke back in 2001 in which he published…
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Happy Easter! (Sorry about the yoga pants)
It occurs to me that this week I turned in a newspaper column about see-through yoga pants to run on Easter Sunday. Is that a bad thing? If the yoga pants were too much for your delicate sensibilities, try a couple of my Easter classics. The first is a rather funny piece about the creeping…