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Jump the fence, peek over the tall ridge
Over the weekend I gave a lecture at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. A small but kind crowd was there for my talk about Iron Range political history and I thank these folks for coming out on a a beautiful fall day. I took the “back way” home and what a day for a…
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COLUMN: Keep it interesting, Minnesota
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Keep it interesting, MinnesotaBy Aaron J. Brown I’ve been trying to quit, but it’s so hard. Temptation is all around and it’s only going to get worse. I wish I never started. I’m talking about politics, not pills.…
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Join me today in Chisholm
Join me today at 2 p.m. at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm for a new lecture on Iron Range politics. An open, probably lively discussion will no doubt ensue. Find out more at mndiscoverycenter.com. Related posts: No related posts.
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Broadband projects suggest great potential in northern Minnesota
Google Twin Ports, the group of interests trying to attract the internet giant’s experimental fiber project to Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, touts recent broadband developments as signs that the region might place high on Google’s list. Check out the message sent to the Google Twin Port’s e-mail list. One of the interesting thing about…
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Brown on the Air: LAUNDRY!
Tune in to “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE this Saturday morning for a laundry list of … well, laundry. The topic is laundry. That’s what I am trying to say. Do I have laundry stories? Well, do I have clothes? Do I have access to staining agents? Indeed I do, and I just…
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Awesome lecture to be dropped like hot on Saturday
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” ~Abraham Lincoln “The richest village in the world.”~Hibbing’s reputation during the tenure of 10-time village president Victor Power “The Iron Range will never, never, never be the same.”~Gov. Rudy Perpich, after the iron mining collapse of 1982. “Don’t call it a comeback.…
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I’m on to you, minivan advertisement
We’ve got a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country minivan. What’s funny about the Town and Country is that you tell people you bought the Town and Country and they go, “Ohhh, niiiiice,” as though this signifies some kind of class distinction. But really it’s a Dodge Caravan with a slightly different interior. We like ours…
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Iron ore + innovation = corvettes (also jobs?)
An Iron Range mining project has been featured in The Street, a Wall Street business publication. Here’s the lede: Keith Busse, the CEO and one of the founders of Steel Dynamics, owns the world’s second largest collection of corvettes. In fact, Busse set up his corvette garage, which contains 60 of the classic Chevrolet sports…
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Can Bob ditch after the White House gig? Yes he can.
I enjoyed this quote from the recent Rolling Stone interview with President Obama regarding the president’s one very brief interaction with Duluth native and Iron Range-raised American icon Bob Dylan: “Here’s what I love about Dylan: He was exactly as you’d expect he would be. He wouldn’t come to the rehearsal; usually, all these guys…
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Frankly speaking about food, faces and other F words on the Range
After I announced that Jeff Manuel would be writing some thoughtful, historically-minded guest posts for MinnesotaBrown, a UW-Superior classmate and fellow former Promethean editor wrote me. Frank Haataja is from the Cloquet area south of the Range, southwest of Duluth, and offers this, an entertaining and considerably less academic outside view of the Iron Range.…
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GUEST POST: Taconite Roads: what’s old is new
The following is part of an occasional series of guest posts from historian Jeff Manuel. Thanks, Jeff! File this one under everything old is new again. Aaron’s recent post about a company hoping to use overburden and tailings as road construction material reminded me of several old efforts to use mining byproducts in road construction.…
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COLUMN: Turning leaves, reading the signs
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Turning leaves, reading the signs By Aaron J. Brown The grass grows slowly now. Cool and dry, the lawn cuts smoother than at any time in 2010. But you’d never know it the way the leaves are falling.…
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Ten million Benjamins lined up for Essar’s new Range mine?
If it’s Friday afternoon on the Iron Range, some distant corporation must be quietly releasing an extremely important piece of news in a highly controlled manner. Folks ’round here just call this Miller Time. The Hibbing Daily Tribune reports today that “foreign media outlets” are reporting that Essar Steel Minnesota has secured $1 billion in…
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Brown on the Air: ANGER!
This week’s edition of “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE explores the topic of anger. Excuse me, ANGER!! $%&$&#&%@!!!! My weekly contribution tackles the anger trend in American culture and the anger trend among our preschool children. The differences between the two are slight. I also discuss how anger is a source of Midwestern…
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The ’72 Floodwood student insurrection
I enjoyed this story from the vault of the Duluth News Tribune, shared in the paper’s online “News Attic” feature. In 1972, students at Floodwood High School staged a rather dramatic walkout and protest surrounding the dismissal of a popular young English teacher. Floodwood is one of the hayfield swamp towns south of the Iron…