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COLUMN: Drive youth home, not away
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 12, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Drive youth home, not awayBy Aaron J. Brown “If you’re going to write in the paper, put my name in there and say that I want a car.” That would be Doug, one of my boys about to…
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Entrepreneurship and the future of places like the Iron Range
This post from Dr. Steve Wyckoff of the education reform blog “What’s Become Clear” explores the notion of teaching entrepreneurship to high school students as a form of economic development. I have to say, upon reading his ideas, there is merit here that could be applied to the Iron Range. So much money is spent…
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Judas was from the Iron Range
This is the film Professor David Leaver of Manchester Metropolitan University presented at Dylan Days 2011 in Hibbing, Minnesota. It explores some of Dylan’s past (including his northern Minnesota roots) and how his path intersected with one important place, the Manchester Free Trade Hall. Related posts: No related posts.
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Brown on the Air: LUNCH!
Are you enjoying your lunch right now? This year the book “Minnesota Lunch: From Pasties to Bahn Mi” by James Norton came out. In another of my Forrest Gump moments, I was interviewed for this book, which combines elements of a traditional cookbook with cultural narrative of the meaning of the food in question. Jim…
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The Lazarus Option in MN-8
Well-known political commentator Stu Rothenberg wrote a fascinating profile of former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan for Roll Call. Nolan is considering a monumental political comeback in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District. I mean, just read it, if only for the picture which shows Nolan looking like all of your dad’s friends when you were 6 years…
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Art in the Park brings youth orchestra to big Range venue
The Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm announces its evening “Art in the Park” event for tonight. June 9 Art in the Park features Crescendo Youth Orchestra Crescendo Youth Orchestra will perform at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 9, for Minnesota Discovery Center’s Art in the Park series. The Orchestra’s performance is part of a five-day…
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The business of art on the Iron Range
Here at the blog I call for harnessing creativity for the economy of the future. Musician, CPA and friend of this blog Carolyn Flaschberger will lead a workshop tomorrow on the art of keeping good record for your business as an artist at the Lyric Center for the Arts First Stage in Virginia, Minnesota. From…
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MPR: Shutdown would have big impact in northern Minnesota
The Minnesota Public Radio MinnEcon blog took a hypothesis of mine and ran with it. A while back I theorized that a state government shutdown could have a disproportionate effect on rural Minnesota and here on the Iron Range. Molly Bloom reports that, indeed, the hit would come from the fact that state government wages…
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The meaning, value and future of place in rural Minnesota
Gregg Aamot has a compelling commentary over at MinnPost today talking about how young adults from small towns feel the sometimes simultaneous urge to stay and leave. Growing up outside the metro means growing up in a place with an unpredictable economy and a highly specific local culture, two factors that create this dichotomy. I’ve…
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Summer is here
There are baby woodpeckers out my front door, baby some-other-kind-of-birds out my back door. It hit 90 on the Range today. I got the crisscross pattern into some of the lawn; still working on the rest. The garden is growing. The boys started swim lessons today, including the younger boys for the first time. Summer…
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COLUMN: Don’t retread on me
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 5, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Don’t retread on meBy Aaron J. Brown The entertainment writers call this the summer of the sequel. In a May 15 Newsweek column, film critic Roger Ebert describes a popcorn movie season of unoriginality and safe choices for…
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Brown on the Air: KICKING THE HABIT!
The topic for this Saturday morning’s call-in and music program “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE is “Kicking the Habit.” Guest host Julie Crabb, fresh off quitting smoking, will welcome stories from listeners about the time you kicked a habit. My weekly commentary generally runs in the first hour of the show, which runs…
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‘Art in the Park’ returns to Iron Range’s MN Discovery Center tonight
The Thursday evening summer music series at the former Ironworld, now Minnesota Discovery Center, returns tonight in Chisholm. Here’s a press release that includes other interesting tidbits as well. Art in the Park begins June 2 Minnesota Discovery Center’s summer music series begins Thursday, June 2, at 7 p.m. with Mark Pommier’s acoustic performance in…
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Range 911 calls now headed for Duluth
The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department has announced that emergency calls from the northern half of the massive northern Minnesota county will now be handled in Duluth. The “Midway” call center, as it is known, will be closed. One dispatcher I’ve talked to, understandably upset about an additional 2-3 hours of drive time, also fears…
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The Iron Range’s highway connundrum
A while back I wrote about the ongoing Highway 53 reroute affecting the Iron Range Quad Cities of Mt. Iron, Virginia, Eveleth and Gilbert, really the central artery of the region. The Laurentian Chamber of Commerce has a project home page with updates, including this map. Eveleth is that gray blur in the center, Virginia…