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A Prairie Home Companion seeks new host?
Garrison Keillor has benched himself as tonight’s “A Prairie Home Companion” program host. Folk musician Sara Watkins will take his place. Keillor will make appearances in sketches and perform his customary “News from Lake Wobegon” monologue, however. Speculation is that Watkins is getting a tryout as Keillor mulls retirement in the next year, though the…
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Drag to leave WDIO, Duluth media to become thunderdome
Thing #597 that I love about living in northern Minnesota. When TV reporters quit the media for money and regular hours they go work for mining companies. In a surprising announcement reported in today’s Duluth News Tribune WDIO 5 p.m. anchor Sandy Drag said she would leave the station to work as regional public relations…
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GUEST POST: The raw, cold appeal of the Iron Range
From time to time I share guest posts from readers and those with an Iron Range interest. This one comes from Nicole Anderson who wrote this reflection after spending a year on the Range recently. The Iron Range at first comes off as depressing with its empty store fronts and ghost town feel, but that…
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MPR: "Iron Range needs answers more nuanced than ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’"
Minnesota Public Radio published my commentary piece today entitled “The Iron Range needs answers more nuanced than ‘jobs, jobs, jobs.’” This is the second one and I think I’m going to try a few more because we all know what starts happening after the third date, am I right? This piece strikes at some of…
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Dayton makes civility a viable option
Gov. Mark Dayton is getting national attention for the way he handled what normally would have been a routine signing of an executive order authorizing Minnesota’s enrollment in a federal health care plan. He opened the press conference to the public and when protesters arrived he let them stay. Not only that, he let some…
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All politics is (less) local on the Range, Minnesota and beyond
Andrew Gelman at the well respected FiveThirtyEight political data blog recently explored the old saying “All Politics is Local.” This is often considered a veritable commandment in political circles, but Gelman offers a new take. Gelman’s bold-face conclusion is: “Politics is less local than it used to be.” To the degree this saying was true,…
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Iron Range 2011: Everything is wonderful, nothing is safe
Iron Range taconite production recovered in 2010, ending shy of its peak numbers from 2008 just after the recession started. The six taconite plants on the Range, ore dump salvaging Magnetation and the value-added producer Mesabi Nugget are expected to produce as much as 39 million tons in 2011. Keewatin Taconite is getting green lights…
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In which I explain the bog blog concept
Before Twitter and Facebook there was a time when blogging was the hip thing to do. This period lasted just a few years, from 2004 into 2007. By the end of it I was doing community ed classes about blogging and that’s how you know a trend died. While blogging is still relevant, it’s now…
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Brown on the Air: For days of Auld Lang Mine
I’ll be on 91.7 KAXE Monday morning at 8:10 to talk about the year ahead for the Iron Range and northern Minnesota. I’ll be dabbling in mining news and trying out some of my new riffs on the “fate vs. free will” concepts I’ve been working with lately. I’m going to make that so much…
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COLUMN: Everything’s heaven in 2011
This is my annual “predictions” column for the Jan. 2, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Everything’s heaven in 2011By Aaron J. Brown My clomp-clomping boots flatten the frozen swamp grass like corn flakes along the Canadian National rail line somewhere off Highway 7 south of Zim. I’m running now not just because I’m…
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Top MinnesotaBrown posts for 2010
Another year has come and gone. In keeping with a recent tradition I now highlight some of my top Google Analytics posts from 2010. After the list I’ll share a few favorites that never caught on. MOST READ POSTS About my friend Tom Anzelc — I hate that this one came out on top but…
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True Grit
This is a movie review, of sorts, which I don’t normally do and don’t plan to do all that often except when I feel like it. Tuesday night for my birthday I decreed that we would see “True Grit,” the Coen Brothers adaptation of the Charles Portis novel which also beget the 1969 John Wayne…
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Ice dams are a thing
Reuban Saltzman from the Structure Tech Home Inspection Blog has a great post today on the MinnPost “Blog Cabin” about how to prevent or address ice dams. If you don’t know what an ice dam is you were just like me before I moved into my first 1920s-built home on the Iron Range. They are…
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Spreading link love outside the metro
I heard from a new blogger in Chisago County, Minnesota, running a site called Fiefdom Politics. She seems to focus on local and regional issues in the southern part of Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District. I can’t promise I’ll do this every time I hear from someone but there are so few blogs focusing on northern…