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Virginia, Minn., hospital vote on tap Tuesday
Another big vote tomorrow will take place in Virginia, Minnesota, on the eastern Mesabi Iron Range. Voters there will decide whether to sell their municipal hospital system to a private health care company, most likely Essentia — the conglomerate that recently took over the St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic system. Financial trouble for the Virginia Regional Medical…
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Upcoming Duluth election not too hard, not too soft
Working media in northern Minnesota means operating in the sphere of the Duluth TV market. Duluth, the largest northern Minnesota city, is the seat of the state’s largest geographic county, St. Louis. Politics in Duluth, though still dominated by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, have nevertheless been contentious and sometimes hard to predict. That’s less true this…
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COLUMN: The lost causes are not lost forever
This is my Sunday column for the Nov. 6, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It’s an expanded version of the “Mr. Smith” essay I shared yesterday on KAXE’s “Between You and Me.” The lost causes are not lost foreverBy Aaron J. Brown In 1939 Frank Capra directed Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur in…
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Brown on the Air: MOVIES!
This Saturday morning’s “Between You and Me” program on 91.7 KAXE explores the topic of movies with music, commentary and your calls. Guest hosts “Mom of Pop Culture” Julie Crabb and retired film professor Jack Nachbar will guide the discussion. My regular contribution explores what is still my favorite movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”…
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MPR: Beating the daylight-savings time system
I have the daily commentary over at Minnesota Public Radio’s site this morning. The topic is my experience with daylight-savings time (which is this weekend, by the way) dating back to my stint as an overnight disc jockey in my high school years on the Iron Range. There’s a lot that goes on for daylight-savings…
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I’d hunt if I needed to, OK
Minnesota’s famed rifle deer hunt begins tomorrow morning at dawn. Indications suggest a strong deer population for the shootin.’ The deer hunt is one of those cultural touchstones one must learn to embrace or at least tolerate to succeed in northern Minnesota. In this place, all men are asked if they hunt and those who…
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Great Northern Radio Show moves up the shore
If I failed to mention it before, the Great Northern Radio Show has been picked up by 91.7 KAXE for a 2012 season. If you missed our October 2011 debut in Hibbing you can still hear the program online (Hour 1 and Hour 2). We’ve been trying to build an audience for the show on…
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Good times roll on the Range, in theory
Another development on the growth of salvage mining operations on the Iron Range was reported today. Magnetation and a related company are teaming up to recover ore from an area near Chisholm. The St. Louis County Board is expected to approve the work at a meeting today, according to a story by the Duluth News…
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A good sound man is hard to find
With my foray into live radio production this year I’ve made mention of the creative influence of A Prairie Home Companion on my work. Today I join others in mourning the loss of that show’s famed sound man Tom Keith, a longtime MPR host and personality. He died of a heart attack Sunday. A Prairie…
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Halloween blizzard, 20 years later
Happy Halloween, everyone! Your focus today might be on the kids, trick-or-treating and/or other elaborate adult celebrations. (My Facebook photo feed over the weekend revealed many things about my friends, things that cannot be unseen). But for a lot of us in northern Minnesota, Halloween brings memories of the 1991 Halloween snowstorm. It broke records…
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Magnetation to HQ operations from Grand Rapids
An executive with Magnetation, the scram mining operation on the western Mesabi Iron Range, tells Business North that the company will be relocating its small headquarters from Nashwauk to Grand Rapids. The proximity to an airport and high-end hotels was a key factor, according to the story. Magnetation’s Site #1 is Keewatin, where workers have…
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Iron Range mayor biter story reaches toothy denouement
The second of three defendants charged in connection with an incident involving a late-night attempted robbery of the mayor of Hibbing was sentenced last week. This would be the defendant who bit Mayor Rick Cannata as he attempted to subdue him for police. The defendant’s name: Thundercloud Rodriguez. Thundercloud Rodriguez and two associates attempted to…
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COLUMN: Every season, a new world
This is my weekly column for the Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The column was bumped up to Saturday this week. Don’t think that’ll be a regular deal. Every season, a new worldBy Aaron J. Brown Always the words come, “how can you live here? It is too cold.” And…
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The night the Soviets occupied Hibbing
I was absolutely floored by this item on the new Minnesota-based “Historically Inclined” blog by Jayson Hron. He describes in exquisite, luscious detail the frigid January 1959 night when the Soviet hockey team played an exhibition game in Hibbing, whipping a young American team in the Memorial Building arena. You must read this and you…
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Daddy wears a Twins cap
NPR’s Robert Krulwich, part of the wonderful program RadioLab, posted an item on the NPR blog entitled “The Tyranny of Fathers.” He explores data showing that the single most important indicator of which sports teams you support is the fan loyalty of your father. Far and away, it’s not even close. Mothers, grandparents and friends…