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Reports of fire at historic Soudan Underground Mine
I’m trying to find details, but the Mesabi Daiy News is reporting a fire between the 23rd and 25th levels of the Soudan Underground Mine burning since yesterday. UPDATE: A press release from the DNR: Fire underway in mine shaft at Soudan Underground Mine State Park Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Minnesota…
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Brown on the Air: RESTAURANTS!
Tune in this Saturday morning to “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE as I contribute a piece to the show’s rotating topic: restaurants. The show, guest hosted by Julie Crabb, will feature music and listener calls talking about favorite restaurants, recommendations and restaurant stories. My essay will explore the experience of dining out, itself…
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Census shows decline in most Range towns, boom in Itasca County
The Census released its 2010 population data for Minnesota Wednesday. Population and demographic trends that were forming in recent years were confirmed. Last year I wrote a piece about how the demographics of the Iron Range region of northern Minnesota were changing. The changes were not just in population. In actuality, northern Minnesota population isn’t…
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Electricity problems, fireball problems … brother, Minnesota has some problems
We drove to Grand Rapids this morning to bring our dog to the vet. The whole town and several surrounding towns had lost power after a Minnesota Power transformer blowout at 9:15 a.m. Grand Rapids is still without power here at 12:30 p.m. and could be for several more hours. We’ve heard from our son’s…
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‘Prospects for the Arrowhead’ to shake blues off this dusty place, or dance trying
I’ll be at this MPR/Northland’s NewsCenter “Future of the Region” event on April 5, participating in some yet unknown way. Come on down, if only to see what the Oscar and Felix act of MPR and KBJR collaboration might look like. “What is this, B-Roll of people jumping in Lake Superior? Get that out of…
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The Ocho holds its own
Moments ago U.S. Census data for Minnesota was released, including specifics related to Congressional and legislative redistricting. Long story short, Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District did not change population much. Analysis indicates it only needs 2,649 more people to be balanced properly with state population. That’s just one small town annexed from the 6th CD, for…
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China and the Range: one degree of separation
Asian demand for steel has had a large and positive influence on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range economy for several years, mostly because of how it affects prices and demand for steel products. Chinese demand, in particular, fueled the historic Range taconite production of 2007 and early 2008. Chinese stagnation spurred the widespread shutdowns in late…
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Iron Range job fair to be held Tuesday, March 22 in Virginia
I had an opportunity to check in with Craig Walter from the state Department of Employment and Economic Development this week. He was reminding me of the 13th Annual Iron Range Job Fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22 at the Thunderbird Mall in Virginia, Minn. With the Range economy sputtering…
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90 minutes on the bus one way, and back
Susan Maricle has an interesting personal post from her Poultry and Prose blog featured on MinnPost’s “Blog Cabin” today. She writes of her son’s 90-minute one-way bus ride to school from her family’s central Minnesota farm. The post struck a chord with me because our oldest son has a similar length bus ride to kindergarten…
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The night I stole an hour from time
From 1996 to 1998, the years I was in senior high school, I worked weekend overnight shifts as an easy listening DJ at 97.9 WEVE in the iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota. Specifically, I’d come home from school on Friday afternoon, prepare a bowl of Campbell’s soup and cheese sandwich, take a sleeping pill…
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Brown on the Air: RANGE UPDATE 3/14/11 on 91.7 KAXE
I’ll be on the KAXE Morning Show at 7:20 a.m. Monday talking Iron Range issues, with special attention given to my comments in my recent “On mining and the future in northern Minnesota” post from last week. Listen at 91.7 FM within 70 miles of Grand Rapids or streaming live at www.kaxe.org. You can access…
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COLUMN: To those who would divide us, remember the Sneetches
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 13, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. To those who would divide us, remember the SneetchesBy Aaron J. Brown People could once disagree about politics and still share a meal without posing an existential threat to each other. Generations of resentful Midwesterners have done just…
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Brown on the Air: FURNITURE!
This week’s edition of the Saturday morning talk and music spectacular “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE features another essay by yours truly, this one joining the weekly topic of “furniture.” I talk about how furniture tells the story of our lives in unexpected ways. I’d say the essay rolls nicely, like a well-mounted…
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Wide open DFL contest in MN-8, true 2012 tossup against Cravaack
In the months before Barack Obama won the presidency many wondered if he would consider then U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN8) for Secretary of Transportation. Oberstar wasn’t interested. After all, he had much more influence over transportation issues as chair of the House transportation and infrastructure committee, just as his fellow Iron Ranger and mentor…
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Governor to tour Iron Range amid state tourney fervor
Gov. Mark Dayton will be touring the Iron Range Friday and headlining the annual meeting of the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools that night. The more amusing detail of his schedule is that he will be visiting Hibbing High School at the moment the Bluejackets will be wrapping up play against the Hermantown Hawks…