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Steelworkers to back Nolan in MN-8, halting Cravaack gains
The United Steelworkers, representing about 3,000 Iron Range taconite miners, are set to endorse Rick Nolan in his bid to unseat Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8). The endorsement is expected to occur during a “major announcement” planned by the Nolan campaign at 3:30 Wednesday at the Mineview in the Sky south of Virginia, Minnesota. The Steelworkers…
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Hard to write fiction when you’ve covered a small town
This is blog is, in my heart anyway, a thought experiment wrapped in the cloak of local politics. Quite a thing, local politics. Ultimately and alternatingly more redemptive and more cruel than the national business. Jeff Winkler penned a post for The Awl yesterday entitled “My Sister the Candidate.” In this, a small town newspaper…
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Talking mining and MN-8 politics on the radio
On Sunday I was on the LeftMN Radio Hour with Aaron Klemz and Tony Petranglo on AM950 in the Twin Cities. The topic was politics in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District and mining issues in northern Minnesota. You can listen to the show below or here. My segment is at about the 9:30 mark. Podcast Powered…
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What Magnetation looks like
There are many “proposed” projects bandied about in Iron Range economic talk. There is Essar Steel, a major project under construction. But in terms of new production and new jobs, Grand Rapids-based Magnetation, Inc., has done the most new hiring and new shoveling in the past year. Magnetation processes iron ore once discarded as waste…
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We must put down the canoe menace
Maybe you’d like to better understand the media landscape on the Iron Range as it relates to the ongoing debate between supporters and opponents of proposed copper-nickel mines in the region? Last week, opponents of the mining projects announced that a group would canoe from the BWCA to St. Paul using various waterways to protest…
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COLUMN: Autumn news from the North Country
This is my Sunday column for the Sept. 23, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on “Between You and Me” this weekend on 91.7 KAXE. Autumn news from the North CountryBy Aaron J. Brown There’s a chipmunk near where I wait for my boys to get off the…
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The mining fracas continues in MN-8
My recent post about Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District got some attention around the state. If you missed it, here it is. The short version: GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack is bludgeoning former DFL Rep. Rick Nolan on the northern Minnesota mining issue, something Nolan has to counteract if he hopes to win. Nonferrous mining is my…
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Tempest winds lean hard on the North Country’s MN-8 race
This week I listened to the new Bob Dylan album “Tempest” front to back, first time I’ve done that with any album in a long time. It’s a darker turn, playfully macabre with Dylan’s best pure music among his recent albums. “Tempest” is enchantingly foreboding — songs on aging past prime, a double murder-suicide, an…
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Ira Glass on creativity: work is the answer
As a public radio guy I look to Ira Glass of “This American Life” much the way one of the puppets on the “Sprout” network must look to Big Bird of “Sesame Street. Yeah, we’re in the same field. We even have the same parent organization (NPR/PBS). Yeah, we share some fundamental interests and skills.…
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Footage of Melin, Weber debate in Iron Range House seat
On Sept. 5, the Duluth News Tribune hosted legislative forums on the Iron Range. You can see several forums involving mismatched candidates from various races in SD3 and SD6 here. But I am sharing the only one-on-one comparison in that day’s activities: a debate between Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) and GOP challenger Roger Weber of…
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The evolution and anatomy of the North American graboid
Sometimes, when you really love a particular form of art, examples of that form from the time you found this love are elevated in your mind beyond any position this particular art deserves. So it is for the movie “Tremors” and me. In 1990 I was 10 and very much not allowed to see “Tremors.”…
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LIVE: Klobuchar, Bills debate for MN-SEN
Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race hasn’t drawn much attention this year. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has held large leads over Republican challenger State Rep. Kurt Bills in all major polls. While Klobuchar is indeed likely to prevail in this contest, this morning’s debate in Duluth — one of the few scheduled debates in this…
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"Tempest," other Bob Dylan album downloads for $5
Bob Dylan is out with his latest new album “Tempest.” The Duluth-born, Hibbing-raised poet-musician always draws a lot of attention with his work. The album has received generally strong reviews. My own impression is that “Tempest” seems a major achievement in music and songwriting — more so than even his other recent work — but…
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Look at my teeth! I am happy!
This is my Sunday column for the Sept. 16, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. This is revised from a version of this piece that ran on KAXE’s “Between You and Me” in 2010. ### Look at my teeth! I am happy! By Aaron J. Brown How much time do you spend pretending to…
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AUDIO: "Call Me Maybe," life theme songs & plight of frogs
So I went and did it. I downloaded “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jespen. Sure, I’m late to the party. The song peaked in popularity months ago with the downright literary refrain: “Hey, I just met youand this is crazy,but here’s my number,so call me maybe.” I actually listened to the Cookie Monster parody…