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Iron Range Maidens win first roller derby bout
Congratulations to the Iron Range Maidens on winning their first roller derby bout Saturday night in Grand Forks. It is one thing to talk about starting a roller derby team. It is another to form a confederation of inexperienced women ranging in age from college to middle age and begin drilling them. It is another…
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The Almanac Trip, or "So now I guess I really should write a novel"
If you missed my segment on TPT’s Almanac this weekend here’s the link (My bit is at the :30 mark, halfway through). The trip to the Twin Cities was a success and a welcome February diversion. We got home Saturday night before the big snow storm hit Sunday. As I wrote last week, Almanac is…
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COLUMN: When a mining town disappears
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. When a mining town disappearsBy Aaron J. Brown When you think of a website you don’t imagine permanence. You imagine something fleeting, changing, soon to be buried by the past. My first website was on the old GeoCities…
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Brown on the Air: ALMANAC and HOT STOVE LEAGUE
I’ll be rocking public broadcast media to its very core this weekend. Tonight at 7 I’m on TPT’s Almanac in St. Paul which airs in northern Minnesota on WDSE Channel 8. Cathy Wurzer will interview me in her series on regional writers. Tomorrow morning you can catch my weekly essay on “Between You and Me”…
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Almanac and the big city, here we come
This Friday at 7 p.m. I’ll be in St. Paul appearing on TPT’s Almanac, the popular news magazine program that airs live on PBS affiliates across Minnesota. Cathy Wurzer will interview me as part of her series on regional authors for my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” and varied other writings. For…
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Melin in St. Paul, to take office early next week
I spoke with Rep.-elect Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) this morning on her way to St. Paul. She’ll spend the rest of this week setting up her new office and learning her committee assignments. She confirmed that she’ll be in the office triplex with Reps. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) and Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam) sharing the services of one…
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Carly Melin wins House 5B special election
Carly Melin, the progressive 25-year-old attorney who stunned a deep DFL primary field, won the District 5B special election Tuesday for the State House of Representatives in the heart of the Iron Range. Melin defeated Republican Paul Jacobson, a Hibbing juvenile counselor and minister, with 60 percent of the vote. Jacobson carried more than 35…
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LIVE BLOG: House 5B Special Election Night on the Range
9:34: Melin has a chance to pull 60 percent. Could be close. No less than 59 percent. 8:59: MinnesotaBrown projects DFLer Carly Melin to win District 5B House race with just under 60 percent. 8:51: Large, important bird has told me Melin wins Fredenberg. It’s all over. 8:50: Napkin math time. Might have big announcement…
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Welcome to MinnesotaBrown.com
Over the past month this blog has come to be the go-to source for information about the House District 5B Special Election. If you found the blog this way you might assume that all I do here is Range politics. Well, there’s more to it than that and I hope you consider following this blog…
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House 5B update: Election Day on the Iron Range
Today voters in House District 5B in northern Minnesota head to the polls to elect their next state representative, either DFLer Carly Melin, Republican Paul Jacobson or Independence Party candidate Cynthia Kafut-Hagen. The winner will replace former State Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) who resigned to become Commissioner of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation last month.…
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MPR: "Iron Range youth are damned if they leave, damned if they come back"
Minnesota Public Radio features another of my commentaries today “Iron Range youth are damned if they leave, damned if they come back.” That headline ought to get your attention. I don’t mean literally damned, if that helps. Rather I’m talking about the sense of being emotionally uprooted when you leave a place like the Range…
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COLUMN: Rest not easy in these modern times, but welcome them
This is my column for the Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Rest not easy in these modern times, but welcome themBy Aaron J. Brown The winter presses on, a dry, cold march through snow to the oil tank to see if we’ll make it another couple months without ordering fuel…
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Watch another House 5B forum online
For those of you who missed the House 5B forum at Hibbing Community College you can watch a shorter debate from Friday night on WDSE Channel 8’s Almanac North program online (Show #1920). We’re still going to try to get the video uploaded on the other debate. Have I ever mentioned rural broadband as an…
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Cynthia Kafut-Hagen hopes Tuesday is Independence Day in Range special election
On Tuesday, voters head to the polls to weigh in on the House 5B Special Election to replace Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) in one of the Iron Range’s most vital legislative districts. I offered all the candidates the opportunity to share campaign statements with my readers. DFLer Carly Melin and Republican Paul Jacobson both participated…
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Minnesota the city-state
Samuel Arbesman created this map showing the states most dominated by a single metropolitan area. He calls them “city-states.” Minnesota is the 11th most metro-dominated state, with 59 percent of its population located within the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Other states generally fall within the category of sparsely populated or dominated by several similarly sized…