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All good things end
This will be my last column in the Mesabi Tribune. No sense in burying the lede. But to end something, you really should start from the beginning. My first professional byline was in the erstwhile Hibbing Daily Tribune shortly after I graduated high school. I met my wife Christina in the newsroom. In June 2001,…
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A note to historical researchers, 100 years hence
For about three years, I spent much of my free time reading century-old Hibbing newspapers on a microfilm machine in my basement. Please don’t throw your undies, ladies; it’s not as sexy as it sounds. My book research took on added meaning as I slowly absorbed the sensibilities of the 1910s and ‘20s. After a…
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New lumberjack history exposes plaid-clad myths
I live in the woods. So do a lot of my relatives. Go back a few generations and you’ll find lots of us from the woods. So I could say, as do many of my kind, that I know all about the woods. But I don’t. And neither do you. No one alive fully understands…
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Trump’s tariffs heralded by steel, harrumphed by manufacturing
I hold a dim memory from childhood of an afghan quilt just a little too small for my J.C. Penney “husky boy” body. If I pulled the blanket up to my chin, my feet would stick out. If I covered my feet, my nose would get cold. Only when I balled myself up could I…
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Wrestling our demons
Last hunting season I was determined to read more books than I shot deer. Since I saw as many bucks in the woods as I did elephants or hippopotamuses, this bar was easy to clear. But I was nervous. Both books that I brought to camp featured the word “demon” in the title. My religiosity…
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Iron Range helium shows quality; now, what about quantity?
Activity at the Pulsar Helium Topaz drill site near Babbitt picked up recently with the drilling of a second test well, Jetstream #2. I was there two days before drilling commenced on Jan. 16. It was everything you’d expect from a gas drilling site. Heavy equipment groaned beneath a tall derrick near an office trailer…
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TikTok dustup exposes empty menace of social media
I hope you survived the Great TikTok Shutdown of 2025. For a few hours last Sunday, the popular social media app went dark in the United States. The company wasn’t required to shut down this way, but acted in response to an impending ban that had been upheld in a rare unanimous Supreme Court decision.…
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Bringing it owl bog home
My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune, “I grew up in a Minnesota bog the size of New York City; I didn’t know it was special,” is out now. I know longtime readers already heard my stories about growing up on a junkyard in the Sax-Zim Bog. What can I say? In more ways than…
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How the Iron Range became an outpost of the oligarchy
Today, I’ve got a new essay in the Minnesota Reformer: “Just like Big Tech, American steel lines up with Trump oligarchy.” We’re living in a period of accelerated change. But certain trends have been brewing for a while, and one of them is the rise of an oligarchy in the United States. You may have…
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Global instability will hit home
The zany comedy, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” came out in 1963. The band R.E.M. released “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” in 1987. A couple years later, Billy Joel gave his famously frantic history lesson, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Despite these facts, those…
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The U.S. Steel deal is dead; long live uncertainty
When it comes to the U.S. Steel/Nippon merger, it’s all over but the crying. And there will be quite a lot of expensive crying in federal courtrooms over coming months and years. But that doesn’t mean the story is over. We’re going to learn a lot. This is the start of something, not the end.…
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After Carter, decency is up to us
Jimmy Carter was president when I was born. As a squishy infant with limited cognition, I knew nothing about inflation, gas shortages or the Iran hostage crisis. My memories of American politics begin with Ronald Reagan’s steely eyes glinting at me through our color TV. But I heard Carter’s name time to time, sometimes confusing…
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Another plot twist in U.S. Steel saga
My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune, “Blocked Nippon deal leaves fate of U.S. Steel in question,” is out now. In a widely expected move, President Biden officially blocked Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel Friday morning. Though expected, this move could prove a seminal moment in the timeline of the American steel…
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MinnesotaBrown Top Posts of 2024
Like a cookie from the jar, another year has disappeared with startling speed. As such, it’s time to compile some of my favorite and most popular writing from 2024. We’re now well past the era when I blogged daily in hot pursuit of the elusive viral clickstorm. Like I mentioned last year, I’m no longer…
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Which came first? Polarization or brain rot?
A quiet afternoon spreads before me like a workaholic smorgasbord. These are the mother lodes. Without classes, meetings or interviews to occupy my time, I can accomplish anything. Grade papers. Edit the book. Write. I might even finish this column. And I will, just after I watch another video. A tanker truck turned in front…