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Brown on the Air: ‘Final Edition’ and RISK!
In a rare double whammy, I’m promoting two radio appearances today. Today at 5 p.m. I’ll be a guest on the 91.3 FM KUWS (Superior, Wisconsin) program “Final Edition,” a roundtable discussion about journalism in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The topic is “blogging” and I’m on with Barrett Chase of “Perfect Duluth Day” and Beth…
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More commotion in Range economic development
I’m still catching up from my trip to the Twin Cities. Here are some of the headlines from the last two days. Essar Steel is delayed eight months because of financing issues. This is the combined mine and steel mill in Nashwauk that’s been talked about in some form for approaching two decades but that…
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Thank you, Twin Cities!
I have returned from the Twin Cities. My first metro book tour for “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” was a success and I thank all those who came out to events and wished me well in my travels. Wednesday morning, a blizzard had wrapped up northern Minnesota. Though snowfall was less than expected,…
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Here we go
At this hour I am taking stock of my situation regarding the overnight snowfall and my plans to get from Balsam Township in the wooded heart of Itasca County to the bustling (and also snowed upon) metropolitan area for today’s 4 p.m. reading at Coffman Memorial Union at the U of M. It’s normally a…
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When the metal ones come for you
Confirmed: The Duluth News Tribune is staking its editorial future on angry, misguided rants written by conservative older folks. This one blames every conceivable problem in Duluth on socialism. I can’t wait until my 70th birthday when I can write my op/ed blaming the 2032 robot uprising on those damn kids trampling my yard as…
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Big Daily Deathwatch
David Brauer at MinnPost points out the continued speculation over the deathwatch on the big Twin Cities dailies. Some sources say the Pioneer Press will go, others say the slightly larger Star Tribune might succumb to financial wounds or switch to an ultra-lean all-online format. Brauer suggests that both papers are in better shape than…
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Essar financing situtaion explained further
This morning, Mike Jennings of the Hibbing Daily Tribune explores the financing situation for Essar Steel Minnesota’s Nashwauk project, a combined mine and steelmaking operation currently in early construction. Essar, an India-based global corporation, is reportedly having some trouble securing necessary loans because of the credit situation. Jennings reports that State Sen. Tom Bakk will…
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‘Overburden’ heading south tomorrow
The first time my parents brought us to the Twin Cities they didn’t tell my sisters and I where we were going until our Oldsmobile station wagon pulled onto I-35. It was a long drive and they didn’t want us to melt down in excitement. My first question once we got there: what’s behind those…
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Name these times
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 8, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Name these timesBy Aaron J. Brown The Great Depression. The Crusades. The Dark Ages. The Renaissance. And, of course, the Iron Range Recession of the 1980s (known locally by one pseudo-word: “Da’eighties”). These terms describe historic periods of…
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Grover’s Corners Revisited
I must give a strong recommendation of Frank Rich’s column (“Some Things Don’t Change in Grover’s Corners”) in the Sunday New York Times. He compares the conditions today to the conditions under which Thornton Wilder wrote his famous play “Our Town.” He cites Wilder’s nephew and literary executor as saying that the play is being…
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No one’s going to push around mining companies on these guys’ watch
It’s a good thing that Sens. Tom Bakk, David Tomassoni and the Mesabi Daily News editorial page are standing up for those poor, defenseless mining companies at this time of great peril. Because with the world crumbling all around us, lord knows the the biggest problem we’ve got is that mining companies might have to…
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Literary pick o’ the week
Mary Ann Grossmann of the St. Paul Pioneer Press included my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” in her weekly “Literary Pick of the Week” feature in the entertainment section. This comes in advance of my first ever Twin Cities book event, 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at the University of Minnesota Bookstore…
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How do you say ‘taconite’ in Arabic?
Minor miner news: WCCO in the Twin Cities did a story about the looming Iron Range economic woes with the temporary idling of most local taconite mines this spring and summer. Major miner news: Al-Jazeera TV did the same story weeks ago, sending a reporter to Duluth and, from appearances, part of the Iron Range.…
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Budget Fight: Always buckle your seatbelts
Jon Collins offer this story in today’s Mesabi Daily News (he writes for several Range papers including the Hibbing Daily Tribune that runs my column). The piece is a great roundup of Iron Range legislator perspective in anticipation of a big fight with the governor over this session’s historically tight budget. And though State Rep.…
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Essar financing woes highlight complicated Range economic scene
There’s a lot of commotion in the Iron Range economic development world this morning. Mike Jennings, editor of the Hibbing Daily Tribune, has returned from a long medical leave and broken a major story about the Essar Steel project in Nashwauk. Apparently, Essar is having trouble completing the financing package for the project and may…