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Small town musicians make rural life worth living
Happy Thanksgiving! And it is a week for thanks. Thank you for subscribing to my website and for reading my work. My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune is out Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27. Entitled “The music scene is alive and well in rural Minnesota,” his one connects a happy time in my…
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Life exists within a thin candy shell
We live in a world of Dairy Queen Blizzards, smooth fabrics, heated seats and cars that cover a day’s walk in less time than it takes to watch your favorite TV show on something called Netflix. Heck, we can watch that show in the car if we so choose. We live soft and easy compared…
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After years of rejecting hunting traditions, acceptance brings unexpected connection
Minnesota’s firearms deer hunting season has one more weekend to go, but I’ve already achieved my goals for the year. No, I didn’t shoot a deer, but I engaged in two weekends of forest walks, patient vigil, wide-ranging conversation and family rituals. Last Friday, I did a segment on KAXE talking about a recent column…
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For whom the skunk sprays
We’ve lived in the fetid heart of skunk country our whole lives — without incident, until recently. My wife Christina grew up north of Nashwauk and I was raised in the swamps of the Sax-Zim Bog, each of us well acquainted with skunks. In my case, the family junkyard was overrun with the striped stinkers.…
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Rightward swing will impact Iron Range projects, prospects
For the first time in living memory, Republicans control all the State House seats on the Iron Range. Meantime, a resounding national victory for President-elect Trump in last Tuesday’s election holds immediate and long term implications for our region. The local GOP legislative wins weren’t unexpected. DFLers maintained hope that they might keep District 7B…
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In Minnesota, some hunting traditions will subtly change next year
The rifle season for deer hunting opens Saturday morning, subject of my latest column in the Minnesota Star Tribune. I’ll be at our family’s hunting shack as you read this, hoping that no violent deer force me into an act of self-defense. I might even load the rifle. Deer hunting is a big fall tradition…
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Election Day! Election Night! Election Week?
Please forgive some brief wistfulness over the old days here at MinnesotaBrown.com. On an Election Day like today, I once breathlessly live blogged northern Minnesota election from the closing of polls to the final results. I nurtured a network of courthouse moles across the region and sometimes was the first to call races on the…
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Political signs breaking our minds … and bank accounts
It’s almost over. Tuesday brings Election Day here in the United States, a moment for each of us to solemnly express our civic opinions through the exercise of democracy. After that, things will calm down. Political disputes will fade into the background and everyone will turn their attention toward the hard work facing our troubled…
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Blue dirt, red dirt, dust to dust
My latest column, “When a blue district turns red, the dirt stays the same” is in the Sunday, Oct. 27 Minnesota Star Tribune. The “Iron Range is shifting to the GOP” story is now a well-worn trope in Minnesota media and political chatter. As a 20-year columnist in the region, I’ve documented every inch of…
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Change defined Rick Nolan’s scrappy political career
Last week, former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan died at the age of 80. His death surprised many. Nolan had campaigned for Democrats here on the Mesabi Iron Range just two weeks earlier. It’s often said that the passing of a venerable politician is “the end of an era.” I’ll spare that language of Nolan because,…
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For sale: childhood memories, adult heartbreak, one sports team, slightly used
Earlier this month, the Pohlad family announced they would explore selling the Minnesota Twins. This unexpected announcement came on the heels of a disappointing season in which a talented but injury-prone team listlessly limped its way out of the playoffs after a promising summer. Sports franchises are both profitable and a status symbol among the…
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Despite checkered history, reorganized Essar Group ready to launch Mesabi Metallics
My new essay appears in the Minnesota Reformer today. (“Good news on the Iron Range: $2 billion Mesabi Metallics is finally happening; for real this time.”) Like much of what I write, it will interest readers on the Mesabi Iron Range. But the impact hits wider. Here we see the corporate maneuvering that shapes our…
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100 years later, still waiting on the Prince of Wales
With rain pouring from gray autumn skies, about 10,000 men, women and children swarmed the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha rail depot on West Fifth Avenue in Duluth. The unexpectedly massive crowd spilled across the tracks to greet the Prince of Wales. It was Sunday, Oct. 12, 1924 — 100 years ago today. Anticipation…
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Stuck in the middle with you: life in the ‘sandwich generation’
My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune, “In the quick of time — a dispatch from the ‘sandwich generation’ years,” is out now. Readers here might remember the jolt my family took when my mom suffered a stroke in 2022. In one terrible turn of events, a relatively healthy child care provider in her…
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As disaster costs mount, we all pay the price
This week, we witnessed the scope of devastation in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. The miles between northern Minnesota and the impacted area create only the illusion of distance. In truth, the effects of this far-away storm will soon hit home. Asheville and many surrounding cities and towns face historic flood and storm damage…