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Ze editorial! Ze editorial!
I’ma go ahead and link this Bill Hanna Mesabi Daily News editorial about the state budget forecast solely because he commits to a “Fantasy Island” motif in describing how government functions. Headline: “‘Ze Plane! Ze Plane!’ bringing money to St. Paul’s Fantasy Island“ Bill’s point is ultimately that government should focus on jobs, not government…
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Great Northern Radio Show preview: Meet the Players!
It’s coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and…
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The understated coolness of the Mesabi Trail
There was a time I had a close relationship with my bike. When I lived in town I rode it to work, to interviews, to the Rotary meetings. My last night at the paper before I went to grad school, I rode the bike round and round over the thread bare carpet of the Hibbing…
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Great Northern Radio Show preview: Sonny Johnson
It’s coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and…
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Runaway seal flops off to the sky
One of the two seals that escaped from the Lake Superior Zoo during last year’s historic flooding in Duluth has died. Here’s the teaser for the AP story at the top of yesterday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune. I share this because there’s a lot going on here. The top head is what you tell the kids.…
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Great Northern Radio Show preview: Mary Bue
It’s coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and…
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Motorist delivers self into Range furniture store
Last May, a motorist plowed their car into a greeting card shop in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, producing this sarcastic offering from yours truly. (example: “I spent hours trying to pick the best car but ended up just sending this one.”) Well, it’s starting even earlier this year, as this morning a motorist ran into the…
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Ness ‘drops’ State of City video at hipster hot spot
As we’ve already discussed, Duluth Mayor Don Ness delivered his annual State of the City address via video this year. The film was released last night and you can see it here: Ness wanted to discuss the impact of last year’s floods and used video tools to explore the devastation and recovery. The State of…
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Mining for economic answers, digging up riddles
We know from experience that mining is a boom and bust industry. Why, even the speculative future of mining is boom and bust! It all depends on who you talk to. Here, MPR’s Dan Kraker explores the dynamic of potential new mining near the eastern Mesabi Iron Range. You can (and should) listen to the…
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Great Northern Radio Show preview: Hobo Nephews
It’s coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and…
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Green thumbs sought to reinvigorate Range farmstead
Here’s an interesting item I received from Beth Pierce at Iron Range Tourism: Biwabik landowner wants to put farm into production Shawn Callahan is looking for a few good farmers. Callahan, who owns and operates Green Gate Guest House, a sustainably built guest cottage near Biwabik, is hoping to put new life into his historic farmstead. “I’m reaching…
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It’s the Minnesota spring that gets you, not winter
This is my Sunday column for the March 3, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It’s the Minnesota spring that gets you, not winterBy Aaron J. Brown It’s March. I think all the snowbirds are gone by now. So let’s speak freely, shall we? I don’t mind that people head south for the winter.…
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The sounds of Sparta
On the topic of Minnesota musicians with ties to the Great Northern Radio Show, check out this marvelous Andrea Swensson “The Current” profile of Sparta Sound, where Rich Mattson and friends have crafted a respected recording studio used by many in the growing Minnesota music scene. From the story: Sparta may feel remote, but it’s…
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Range town thinks spring with ‘Green Envy’
For those longing for spring in this land where spring eludes us well into late April, how about this Iron Range shindig? This Saturday, March 2, an event called “Green Envy” will be held from 4-7 p.m. at the Olcott Park Greenhouse in Virginia, Minnesota. The tagline: “Be the envy of all your friends, get…
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Still time to enter poems, stories in Dylan Days contest
As a shiftless blogger with dreams of an illustrious writing career I know that you, a shiftless blog reader, probably pine for the same. How about you try a contest that I help run for Dylan Days in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota? The B.J. Rolfzen Memorial Creative Writing Contest is named for Dylan’s…