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Brown on the Air: MOM ADVICE!
Tune in from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday to hear “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE. My commentary will be a part of the show’s rotating topic “Motherly Advice,” in honor of Mothers Day on Sunday. I contrast the various styles of advice I’ve received from the mother figures in my life. It’s adorable,…
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MN-GOP redistricting plan offers Iron Range a Trojan horse
As I’ve written before, one of the major cultural barriers we face on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range is the notion that political clout and tradition will “save” the region from an unfolding economic and demographic fate. Not doom, mind you, but a region with a smaller, older population, a greater divide between relative wealth and…
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On the Range, industry built on red ore shows gray hairs
Paul Tosto at the MPR’s MinnEcon blog reported some interesting data today. Minnesota enjoys a diverse economy and, like most of the country, an aging workforce. Which sector of Minnesota’s economy has the most workers aged 55 and older? Well, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development, the answer is mining. And in…
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Newsweek explores copper boom
Newsweek‘s Niall Ferguson pens an interesting story about the booming prices of copper around the world and the increased viability of copper mines. This should rightly remind those of us on Minnesota’s Iron Range of proposed copper and other nonferrous mineral mining proposals in our area. The article does a good job of explaining the…
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Glasses guy and mustache guy have good night in Canada.
The Canada Global Post reports that Conservatives there won a “crushing victory” in yesterday’s election, which is to say that they won 40 percent. In a multiparty contest that’s sufficient to win a majority of parliament, however, and this is the first time Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s party has done that. The CBC has a…
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Community colleges poised along the future front
This April 22 HuffPost essay from John Hrabe “Harvard University or Community College? Why the Choice Isn’t As Crazy as It Sounds” has been on my desk for a couple weeks. Take a read. In essence, college has always been part of class struggle. College itself was once an important socioeconomic step for a talented…
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Canada votes!
With everything else, let’s not forget that it’s Election Day in Canada. I’m always able to summon interest in Canadian politics because: My section of Minnesota was negotiated away from the British at the last minute after the War of 1812, so I sometimes feel vaguely Canadian. I pronounce about, “aboot.” I love me some…
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Onward to America’s better nature
Osama bin Laden is dead. This morning I remember my feelings behind the editor’s desk of a small Iron Range afternoon daily putting together the front page on Sept. 11, 2001. Each minute brought more horror. Each revision to the page better reflected the long, ugly period in our history that would follow. Today, I…
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Range cities explore shared services; can they move fast enough?
It was one of those bad news/good news/additional bad news days on the front of Sunday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune. There will be a few more of these in coming months. The bad news is not really news. Cuts to local government aid (LGA) at the state level will force cities on the Iron Range to…
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COLUMN: I have seen the future — in a mall
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, May 1, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I feel a little sheepish putting this out there after last week’s episode of South Park, but what can a guy do about that? I have seen the future – in a mallBy Aaron J. Brown We recently…
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Brown on the Air: GARDENING!
This week my contribution to the KAXE Saturday morning call in and music program “Between You and Me” joins the show’s topic of gardening stories. Gardens are firing up around northern Minnesota (finally, we think) and the Browns will be expanding our garden know-how as well. A version of this piece ran as my Sunday…
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Hibbing nurses call off strike
The Hibbing hospital nurses have cancelled their impending strike after a productive negotiating session. (Story, Fox 21) Related posts: No related posts.
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Range labor community to hold May Day celebration
Iron Range labor backers and DFLers will be holding a May Day luncheon Sunday from 1-4 p.m. at the Operating Engineers Local 49 Hall on Enterprise Drive in Virginia. This is the labor hall just off the freeway as you approach Virginia from Mountain Iron on Highway 169, or just off the 53 exit from…
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Barefoot in the Park? In this weather?
The Neil Simon play “Barefoot in the Park” opens tonight at 7:30 at the Hibbing Community College Theatre. The show runs this weekend and next with nightly shows Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday matinees. The reviews from last night’s benefit performance for the HCC Foundation Dinner were very good. After our 2009 kerfuffle over the…
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Cravaack taking early flak; MN-8 race shaping up as mega-tussle
Today would be a great day for me to link bait some nonsense about Northern Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District race, the new attacks on the Medicare votes of Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8), or the strange collection of fascinating Democrats you’ve never heard of who are going to run against him. I just wanted to write…