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Google delays fiber decision until early 2011
Google is delaying its decision about which community it will choose to pilot its high speed Google Fiber. Duluth, Minnesota, is considered a strong candidate among the thousands of communities that applied. An MPR report explores Duluth’s chances. Google said it will announce its decision in early 2011. Related posts: No related posts.
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In which I make a libertarian argument on Range mining (for once)
PolyMet, the company proposing new nonferrous mineral mining on the East Range in northern Minnesota, is back in the news. PolyMet is asking Iron Range Resources for a $4 million loan as the project approaches the end of a very long permitting process. I expect they’ll get the loan. This is an interesting development partly…
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Range pensioners await (good?) news
Every place has its morose story of woe and heartache, its cyclonic sucking vortex of public and private outrage. For the Iron Range that story is the troubles facing pensioners from the former National Steel plant in Keewatin. A few hundred miners caught between owners of the plant, now run as Keewatin Taconite by U.S.…
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Thanks again, readers!
Thanks to all those who participated in my “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” signed book promotion for the holidays. We had takers from Las Vegas, southern California, suburban Washington, D.C., and, of course, Cook. A few more are in process. Thanks to everyone! You can still order the book online in time for…
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Today Congress honors an Iron Ranger
This evening at 5:30 the House of Representatives is slated to offer its tribute to departing U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN8), the outgoing House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair. Check out C-SPAN. There might be a lot of dispute about Oberstar’s politics but his legacy in Congress for the latter 20th century into this 21st is…
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COLUMN: Light unto the holiday night
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Light unto the holiday nightBy Aaron J. Brown The other night we did something many northern Minnesota families do this time of year. Despite the availability of electricity and light bulbs in our own home we trekked the…
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Footage of Metrodome collapse
Here’s exclusive Fox Sports video of the Metrodome collapsing from the inside. Minnesotans seem torn on whether this will ultimately send the Vikings into a new stadium or to Los Angeles for a boatload of money and a new name. Then again, they could go the Lakers route and just keep the Minnesota-specific name for…
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Metrodome collapses under heavy snow
The roof of the Metrodome collapsed last night under the estimated 17-20 inches of snow that fell in yesterday’s near-record Minnesota blizzard. Fortunately today’s Vikings football game had already been rescheduled for Monday (and now probably some other time, possibly some other place). It bears mentioning that the officials’ decision to postpone the game was…
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Brown on the Air: O CHRISTMAS TREE!
I won’t say it’s been a slow week on the Iron Range. It really hasn’t. But I’ve not been able to write the things I normally would what with classes winding down at the college. Meantime, take a listen to “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE this Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon.…
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Johnny Cash and the Iron Range
My friend Jason Scorich wrote a history column for the Hometown Focus about the time Johnny Cash played the Iron Range (Eveleth, specifically) in 1958. This is worth a read. Scorich juxtaposes Cash with the Range’s own Bob Dylan. Then Robert Zimmerman, Dylan lived in Hibbing at the time of the Cash show and was,…
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Iron Range Resources: let the light shine in
It bears mentioning every time I find myself in complete and total agreement with a Bill Hanna editorial in the Mesabi Daily News. The Iron Range Resources agency needs reform, a refocusing on quantifiable results, and increased transparency. Iron Range Resources is a difficult agency to explain to outsiders, many of whom think it’s just…
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We don’t collapse, we fall hard on purpose!
Salon.com details four ways that America could collapse in the next 15 years. Good news: most of the ways are fairly bloodless. Bad news: this is a thing. Related posts: No related posts.
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Range boondoggle dealt ironic setback: being ignored
This isn’t so much news as it is the gradual realization of the haphazard Iron Range economic development planning surrounding the Mesaba Energy Project, a coal gasification power plant proposed 10 years ago by the ethereal Excelsior Energy of Minnetonka. The U.S. Department of Energy recently removed the plant from its listing of so-called “clean…
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How does it feel, to be somewhat older than before?
The Wall Street Journal poses the question “Should Bob Dylan retire?” The Duluth native and Hibbing-raised musician is a favorite here as I help coordinate Dylan Days in Hibbing and have long been a fan of the man’s songwriting and songs, particularly his 1965-1975 catalog. This is not the first time we’ll be asking such…
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COLUMN: The return of winter’s empire
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The return of winter’s empireBy Aaron J. Brown All things change. In reading history all things change with regularity only because we have the advantage of looking back at vast amounts of time condensed into tiny paragraphs. For…