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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…
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The merry month of May launches a season of toil
Happy Memorial Day! The blog has enjoyed a busy May. We covered the end of the legislative session, redistricting talk and analysis, the ramping up of the MN-8 campaign, (Bob) Dylan Days in Hibbing, the governor’s fishing opener, the biting of an Iron Range mayor by an “alleged mayor biter,” roller derby, the retirement of…
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COLUMN: A nine-letter word for mortality
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, May 29, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A nine-letter word for mortalityBy Aaron J. Brown I see these books lined up next to my grandpa’s chair, dog-eared and inherently factual. They are his crossword puzzle dictionaries. Various wings of the extended family conspired over the…
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Iron Range rocks as Dylan Days reaches its peak
Dylan Days enters its busiest day with an exciting Saturday lineup: Bobby Zimmerman Bus Tour, 10:30-2:30, pick up/drop off at Zimmy’s: the popular interpretive, interactive tour of Hibbing showing the town Dylan knew, his potential influences, along with the town today through storytelling and history. Waiting list available. Dylan Days 2011 Postal Cancellation, 2-5 p.m.,…
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Brown on the Air: BOB DYLAN AT 70!
My weekly contribution to the Saturday morning 91.7 KAXE program “Between You and Me” joins the show’s rotating topic: Bob Dylan at 70. Dylan Days is going on now in Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing. With Dylan turning 70 last week, a generation is forced to reckon with its own mortality. This is has been a…
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Dylan Days like a rolling stone with big Friday events
Today brings the first big day of the Dylan Days weekend in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing. Dylan Days Symposium, 2-4 p.m. at Hibbing Public Library Auditorium, featuring discussion with members of Dylan’s high school band The Golden Chords, original film about Dylan and tourism featuring Manchester professor David Leaver, and the 2011 literary showcase…
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Dylan Days 2011 welcomes world travelers
Dylan Days, the grassroots arts, music and literature event in Bob Dylan’s Iron Range hometown, opens today in Hibbing, Minnesota. Here is today’s lineup: Dylan Days Welcome Reception, 5 p.m. at Zimmy’s; followed by live music from Anchorage, Alaska’s The Grunt Monkeys. Find out more about Dylan Days at the website or by following Dylan…
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MPR: Northern Minnesota’s politics is about to get ugly
I have the MPR News Commentary today with a piece about the changing nature of Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District after Rep. Chip Cravaack’s defeat of former Rep. Jim Oberstar in 2010. Check it out and pass it along if you can. Related posts: No related posts.