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Doc ‘Moonlight’ Graham Days begin today in Chisholm
The first ever Doc “Moonlight” Graham Days event starts today in Chisholm. This is a new take on the classic Iron Range summer festival concept, with arts displays, performances, a street dance, car show and Saturday parade. Find the full schedule at the Chisholm Chamber’s events page. Longtime Chisholm doctor Archibald Graham, known locally as…
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Stable mining sector highlights core woes in post-industrial North
You may have noticed the crumbly, jumbly economic news lately. Between the huge Wall Street stock selloff over the past few days or the general stagnation of growth and employment as our population grows and costs rises, we’ve got problems in America, sure. And we’ve got specific problems here in northern Minnesota, but not the…
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Bikes, deer and rock ‘n’ roll; let’s do this week right
We begin the week with some Iron Range stories that you might have missed if, like me, you’ve spent the last couple weeks trying to find a historical precedent for what’s going on in America (hint: noooooooo!) The annual Great River Energy Mesabi Trail Tour is next weekend. The ride spans from Chisholm to Grand…
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COLUMN: Body of work best displayed with shirt
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Aug. 7, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Body of work best displayed with shirtBy Aaron J. Brown After a long, hot summer I might be tan but Iām not taut. I read somewhere not to fret about your appearance in a mirror because of the…
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Dennis Anderson named co-host of Almanac North
Tonight WDSE Channel 8, the PBS station in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, announced that beloved retired WDIO Channel 10 (ABC) anchor Dennis Anderson will assume duties as the new co-host of Almanac North. This is a weekly news magazine that does a fine job of exploring the region’s headlines. It serves in the shadows of…
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Brown on the Air: YOUTH SPORTS!
This week on “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE, guest host Julie Crabb engages the people of northern Minnesota in a conversation on youth sports. I join the program with a short commentary on my time as a sacrifice-only, middle relief right fielder in youth baseball. I think you’ll enjoy it. “Between You and…
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Don’t hate me because I’m elite with the tubes
Someone sent me this Salon.com article by David Sirota, “Is the Internet for elites?” The subhead caught my eye, too: “A new study finds some truth in a favorite GOP talking point: Much of the Web is a ‘playground for the affluent.’” I’d argue that to some degree America is a playground for the affluent,…
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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…