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Thomas the Tank Engine arrives in Duluth
If you have preschool boys in America you know all about Thomas the Tank Engine. I have three boys who’ve grown up with this talking train, his friends and the odd human controllers who interact with them on the vaguely British Island of Sodor. Have I written about this before? Yes, I have. A time…
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Silent Cal at the Hull Rust Mine
On this date in 1923, Warren Harding, an amiable, if corruptible president who sometimes questioned his own abilities to govern, died of a heart attack in San Francisco. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in during the night by his own father, a notary public. On this same date in 1928, President Coolidge became the…
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County schools scolded for referendum stumping
The state court of appeals rapped the St. Louis County School District for campaigning for the 2009 referendum that funded the district’s current consolidation and construction plan. (Story: MPR’s NewsCut) This could have a big impact on the way districts handle future bond referendums. This is no small thing, as the state school funding shift…
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Essar cites progress, with a twist in Range steel mill hopes
The Duluth News Tribune reported on the construction status of Essar Steel Minnesota’s new taconite plant in Nashwauk, very near the former location of the old Butler Tac plant. Butler’s closing was perhaps the biggest symbol of the Iron Range’s 1980s collapse. The prospect of reopening a mine there and maybe even making steel on…
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The grand dupe in the great north woods
In 2009 this blog and most northern Minnesota lawmakers, business people and policy types backed the idea of a legacy forest in Itasca County. This would be private land owned by UPM Blandin made available for public use for the vast majority of time it’s not being logged. Blandin took a $44 million payday from…
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COLUMN: The things that make us human
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, July 31, 2011 Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired Saturday on 91.7 KAXE‘s “Between You and Me.” The things that make us humanBy Aaron J. Brown We know that fire needs fuel, oxygen and heat to burn. A swap meet, combining elements from rummage…
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Brown on the Air: SWAP MEET!
This week on “Between You and Me” guest host Maddi Frick lights up Saturday morning with talk of swap meets. Not coincidentally the annual Itasca County Swap Meet will be going on throughout the weekend at the fairgrounds in Grand Rapids. I’ll be joining the 91.7 KAXE call-in and music program with another of my…
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Minnesota Power to supply energy for Essar
The Essar Minnesota Steel project near Nashwauk seems to be making slow progress in its construction of a revitalized new taconite mine and still-proposed steel mill. Nevertheless, they are holding press events. Yesterday Essar officials joined officials from Minnesota Power and the Nashwauk Public Utilities Commission to announce that Essar will purchase power from Minnesota…
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Some progress, more work ahead for Minn. rural broadband
Yesterday, work began on the Greater Minnesota Broadband Collaborative Project, extending internet speeds and connectivity in northern Minnesota. A project in southern Minnesota also began construction. These projects largely stem from the controversial federal economic stimulus efforts of 2009 and remind us that those efforts are not yet complete. Most of you know I have…
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Tony Hayward story making waves in Range mining vs. environment clash
Northland’s NewsCenter offers an update to yesterday’s revelation that former BP head Tony Hayward is now working for Glencore, the company behind the PolyMet project here on the Range: UPDATE: I must add, as I mentioned yesterday, that PolyMet has said that Hayward will not be involved in its Range project. That’s true, but I…
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Much-maligned former BP boss Hayward to oversee Range project?
MinnPost’s Don Shelby has a fascinating scoop about how the parent company of Polymet, which is proposing new nonferrous mining on the Iron Range, has hired Tony Hayward. You might remember Hayward as the CEO of BP during the massive underwater Gulf Coast oil spill last year. Hayward’s job with Glencore: Overseeing environmental policy and…
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Cuddyer pitches; universe disturbed
Last night Minnesota Twins outfielder Michael Cuddyer was asked to pitch the 8th inning in a 20-6 drubbing by the Texas Rangers. The good news is that after pitching into a jam he closed the inning without giving up any runs. The bad news is that we live in a world where this happens. (Image…
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‘Let the Great World Spin’
I keep threatening to write a novel the way the barbarians once kept threatening to overrun Rome. Unthinkable, but one day it could happen. On my journey I’ve decided to rejigger my reading list to include more fiction. And today I’m glad I’ve done so. “Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCann (2009) doesn’t…
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The ‘greatest days’ of Range summer nearly here (and gone)
One summer a few years back I was in the Noon Rotary Club in Hibbing, Minnesota, and along with my colleagues was tasked with taking tickets at the St. Louis County Fair in the nearby town of Chisholm. It was a fundraiser for the club and an opportunity for service at the biggest single summer…
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MinnesotaBrown on Google+, I think.
Though I still don’t know what I’ll do with it, I’ve entered the Google+ world. You can “+1” this site using the button below or in the side bar. Follow me? Or don’t. It works differently. I will learn it when Twitter dies, which is supposed to be soon I guess. Related posts: No related…