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Conservation leads to drop in electricity use; implications abound
Xcel announces a 3 percent drop in power consumption from the August to September period from last year. (MinnPost reports on a Wall Street Journal story). That’s good from an environmental standpoint. And it further proves that the proposed $2.1 billion Mesaba Energy Project, which would produce gobs of electricity priced higher than last year’s…
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Into the den of girl clothes
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I used a version of this story for my Saturday essay on KAXE. Into the den of girl clothesBy Aaron J. Brown Like others, I did many things for the first time during my freshman year of college.…
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Up north, the front line in the battle over ‘new’ journalism
Here’s an interesting post from “Graham” at Entrecard, a traffic service for bloggers. He suggests, tongue in cheek, that it’s the journalism industry that really needs a bailout. Here’s an excerpt: I don’t have the solutions, but I know four things about the future of journalism, blogging, and newspapers: Print newspapers will die. People will…
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On hockey and the Iron Range’s real problems
I’ve been meaning to pass this along all week. Doug Grow of MinnPost profiled Mike Antonovich, the former Gophers hockey great and new mayor of the Iron Range town of Coleraine. Read it. The story seems to have several purposes. One, it shows how a hockey stardom is still great currency in Minnesota small towns.…
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DNT editorial roughs up commissioners
Check out the anti-establishment clarion call from the Duluth News-Tribune editorial board today. They are calling for the ouster of four long serving members of the St. Louis County Board in the 2010 election for various transgressions, mostly related to sexual harassment cases and the resulting failure of the board to acknowledge any wrong-doing. ……
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Brown(s) on the Air: GIFTS
My essay this Saturday for “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE focuses on this week’s topic of “gifts.” I talk about the trip into the den of girl clothes that men often must make in the early stages of a relationship. The story I tell has the added benefit of being about the woman…
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Thank you, Gilbert
Thanks to all who came out to my “Overburden” reading and lecture last night in Gilbert. It was a great discussion. I unveiled a couple of new riffs that I will be working on for future events. And I was surprised to see Ms. Weigert and Mrs. Elias, my high school band teacher and librarian!…
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The thick blue line
Business North ran a great story by Beth Bily about the political trends emerging in Duluth and the Iron Range after the 2008 election. Check it out. Related posts: No related posts.
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Last reminder to head for Gilbert tonight
Remember, I’ll be reading, speaking and signing books at 6:30 tonight at the Gilbert Public Library. It should be fun, so come on down. Related posts: No related posts.
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Alaska’s new senator takes an Iron Range name to D.C.
Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, a Democrat, has officially defeated longtime U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) after late absentee ballots were counted yesterday. There are plenty of places to read about the political implications, but I just want to point out the fact that two names originating from the Iron Range now decorate U.S. Senate offices:…
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Hot book action in Gilbert tonight! Be there!
In the early days of the Iron Range, most iron ore miners lived in company location towns where alcohol sales were restricted so that the miners would not drink too much. To defy their bosses, and also to drink vast amounts of alcohol and visit with, uh, professional ladies, these miners would trek across the…
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Cliffs coal merger is off
I hope they didn’t print t-shirts yet. Cliffs Natural Resources (formerly Cleveland Cliffs) is no longer merging with Appalachian coal giant Alpha Natural Resources even though Cliffs changed its name to match theirs. Awkward. The Duluth News Tribune has the full story. It appears that this another example of the economy influencing the long range…
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East Range mining rumble coming to St. Paul
This Mesabi Daily News story from yesterday explores the legislative strategy of environmental groups opposed to the PolyMet mining project on the East Range. The MDN also writes about the legislative strategy of pro-development groups, but usually in the form of drippingly-ironic editorials. Is drippingly a word? Anyway, there will be a legislative smackdown over…
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Obama win may mean faster rural internet… in the future
Sure, Democrats have lots to be happy about with Barack Obama’s win, but this item from “Wired” shows that the biggest benefit might come for everyone in the form of improved and expanded Internet access in rural areas and among economically strapped populations. For the first time in several decades the FCC may not be…
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Irv Anderson dies; Northland mourns
Former House speaker and longtime former State Rep. Irv Anderson (DFL-International Falls) died Monday morning at age 85. This short breaking story comes from the Mesabi Daily News and will be updated for the morning edition. There will be many obituaries recorded across the state on Tuesday that will show a fuller picture of the…