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Backroom battle looms over nonferrous mining on the Iron Range
Here is the continuation of Jon Collins series on lobbying from today’s Mesabi Daily News. I expect it will also run in the Hibbing Daily Tribune and Grand Rapids Herald-Review. This story focuses on the backroom battle lines being drawn over the issue of nonferrous mining on the Iron Range. Some of the most emotional…
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Twins confident in starting rotation; I am confident in lottery win
Headline: “Twins are confident in their young starters“ Yes, just as the dictators of South American nations are always “in excellent health.” Just for once I’d like them to come out and say “yeah, we’re going to cobble something together on the cheap again and see what happens.” The Twins are always a fun team…
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Legislative tour coming to the Iron Range
The legislature’s public forum tour will pass through the Iron Range this Friday. Topic #1: the crippling state budget and finding solutions that might be tenable. There’s a stop in Virginia and another in Grand Rapids. UPDATE: The Grand Rapids stop will be March 7. Related posts: No related posts.
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MDN editorial backs Anzelc Sunday liquor revenue bill
The Mesabi Daily News published a Monday editorial supporting Rep. Tom Anzelc’s bill that would allow Sunday liquor sales in Minnesota with revenue going to child social services. The MDN calls the bill “innovative.” I wrote about this topic yesterday. Some highlights from today’s MDN editorial: To his credit, Anzelc has offered a proposal for…
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‘These things are old; these things are true’
This is my weekly column published Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I read a portion of this for a recent episode of “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE. ‘These things are old; these things are true’By Aaron J. Brown We live in a time of great abstraction. Economists most folks…
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Come writers and critics …
The Sunday Hibbing Daily Tribune ran a Melissa Cox story about the Dylan Days Creative Writing Contest. I am one of the organizers of Dylan Days, an annual arts event in Hibbing, Minnesota, that celebrates Bob Dylan, literature, music and visual art. This year the event runs from May 21-24, 2009. The writing contest and…
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Iron Range Resources Board kicks off new term this week
Some fodder from Sunday’s Mesabi Daily News: The Iron Range Resources Board convenes Wednesday in St. Paul for its first official meeting of the new term this week. On the docket, some financing for mining projects that might have some short term job creation benefits but that mostly involve capital improvements to local mines. Because…
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Anzelc’s Sunday liquor bill to fund children’s services getting attention
Jon Collins has a story in today’s Hibbing Daily Tribune and Mesabi Daily News about a bill by my friend Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township)* that would allow Sunday liquor in Minnesota with tax proceeds to be directed toward budget gaps in children’s social services. In tough times, funding for at risk kids must be…
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Environmental groups steps up attacks on new Range mining project
KBJR and Range 11 (Northland’s NewsCenter) is reporting on a group called Water Legacy and its efforts to stop the Polymet nonferrous mining project on the eastern Iron Range. The group cites human health risks from the type of mining proposed by PolyMet. I hear from St. Paul that this matter of nonferrous mining is…
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Brown on the Air: PERFECT DATE
This week’s topic for “Between You and Me,” the Saturday morning call-in and music program on 91.7 KAXE, is “the perfect date.” Saturday is Valentine’s Day and I’ll be offering my weekly radio essay for the show. I cover the theme from a few different angles in a (cross your fingers) humorous way. You can…
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New wind project would create more Iron Range turbines
The Mesabi Daily News is reporting about a project that would add more wind turbines to the Iron Range landscape in Northern Minnesota. The Mountain Iron Economic Development Authority is behind the concept, which would build a series of turbines between Aurora and Giant’s Ridge and sell the power wholesale to local power companies. The…
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Chuck and Abe
Happy 200th birthday, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln! It is likely that no two people born on the exact same day in history will ever shape history as much as these two men, born Feb. 12, 1809. I hold dim hope that German pop star Senna Guemmour and I might hold similar influence from our…
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Superior and the Iron Range: together at last
CORRECTION: When I wrote this I meant to say Bukoski’s Ironworld lecture was Saturday, Feb. 21, the week after his radio interview. A great working class writer, Anthony Bukoski, is going to be venturing north from his Superior, Wis., base to appear on the Iron Range next week. Bukoski writes short stories about the people…
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Despair, I shall name you Canisteo
Jon Collins, legislative correspondent for the Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and other northern newspapers, has a story today about the ongoing, never-dying, omnipresent, will-outlive-us-all problem of the retired Canisteo Mine Pit by Bovey. The pit has too much water, is considered a major flood risk and is currently causing all…
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Stimulus provides at least one thing for the Iron Range: hope
It could be argued that half the problem with the economy right now is mental. People (and businesses) are scared and letting their fear control their actions. That’s not to dismiss the very real recession and shaky financial system, but it seems fitting that the federal stimulus package is addressing the not-so-insignificant matter of hope…