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Iron Range Renaissance? Or Recovery?
Officials of all stripes engaged in back patting and speech-making on the Iron Range this week for the dedication of Mesabi Nugget, a new facility that makes iron nuggets from low grade iron ore near Hoyt Lakes. They also toured Minnesota Power’s new Taconite Ridge wind energy project by Virginia. This year we’re producing innovative…
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Range coal gas boondoggle tripped up at PUC
Excelsior Energy’s boondoggle Mesaba Energy Project, a massively expensive coal-gas power plant that relies on government favors and grants to survive, was dealt a minor blow this week. The state PUC declined to reconsider a past decision that would have granted the project more time to coalesce. It also corrected language in the proposal to…
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A busy week …
Quietly, it’s been a very busy week on the Iron Range. There were developments in Mesabi Nugget, Minnesota Steel, Polymet, Taconite Ridge, iron magnetization, flood mitigation for the Canisteo mine pit, my favorite boondoggle (Mesaba Energy Project) and more. I can’t keep up with it all. I hope to have several posts up later today…
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Brown on the Air: Low cost summer fun
Gas prices got you down? My weekly essay on KAXE’s “Between You and Me” this Saturday features low cost summer fun. What can we do for cheap this summer? I also talk about the art of gas siphoning, so tune in. The show airs Saturday, June 14, between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM…
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Tom Bakk: the MinnesotaBrown interview
Iron Range State Sen. Tom Bakk, chair of the powerful Senate Tax Committee, is exploring a run for governor in 2010. He’s been making the rounds to newspapers and blogs telling people his decision-making strategy. Paul Demko did an interview with Bakk earlier in the week for the Minnesota Independent. His political team approached me…
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Go Tigers!
Indulge some nostalgia here. My alma mater, Cherry High School, is making its first appearance at the state baseball tournament since 1997 when I was still a student there. Cherry is a tiny township tucked away along the Mesabi Iron Range, known mostly as the place where all the Finns went after being blacklisted from…
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Gubernatorial showdown on the Range
While I’m (slowly) working on a post about my interview with Tom Bakk, here’s a story from Monday’s Mesabi Daily News about the prospects for a rural governor, specifically an Iron Range governor, in the 2010 election cycle. What’s interesting is how the two potential Range candidates, State Rep. Tom Rukavina and State Sen. Tom…
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Range connections in AK-SEN race
Minn Post has a story about the Iron Range family ties of Mark Begich, Mayor of Anchorage and Democratic challenger to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Begich’s father, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, was born and raised on the Iron Range and his uncle, Joe, is a fixture in Range politics. I am ashamed that I didn’t…
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Long, hot summer
Just as in the rest of my life, I deal with multiple audiences on this blog. Some folks come here for politics. Some come here to see what’s up on the Iron Range. Some come here because they read my columns or listen to my radio essays. And some come here because they googled “moonshine”…
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2nd CD DFL challenger Sarvi has Range connection
The conventional wisdom is that the upcoming election features conditions favorable to Democrats. Most of the big analysts are predicting Democratic pickups in the Senate and House. There are pickup opportunities for Democrats here in Minnesota, as well, most notably Sen. Norm Coleman’s seat and the Third Congressional District being vacated by popular Republican incumbent…
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A real good reason to run for president
Hillary Clinton has been offered an “endless” supply of vodka for doing a full page ad for Svedka, which apparently is a kind of vodka (Iron Rangers prefer brown bottled booze). I imagine I’m not the only one writing about this, so kudos to Svedka for lowering the bar. We all know Hils likes the…
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Fishing is the pits
Iron Range mine pits … not just for disposing of Jimmy Hoffa’s body anymore*. Sam Cook’s column in today’s Duluth News-Tribune explores the success of the program that stocks our abandoned, flooded mine pits with large, delicious fish. Fishing in a mine pit is just like fishing in a lake except that if you step…
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Franken tours Minnesota today, including Grand Rapids stop
DFL endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken tours Minnesota today, including a stop at Brewed Awakenings in Grand Rapids at 5 p.m. I am working with the campaign on getting an interview with Franken for this blog. Unfortunately, I have business in Hibbing today and can’t get over to Rapids. But if you’re in the…
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Steel barons of the 21st century
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 8, 2008 Hibbing Daily Tribune. It was held over from last week because Essar made an announcement reiterating their commitment to the Minnesota Steel project just beforehand. My original sentiment remains, though; the Range must not depend on large steel companies or consultant-driven projects to deliver…
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Franken endorsed on first ballot; I was at the dump
DFL delegates endorsed Al Franken on the first ballot in Rochester moments ago. I heard the results on MPR just as I was getting back from taking diapers to the dump in my rural Iron Range township. Later I am going to grill some stuff. The lesson learned? Well, first, we’ve got to potty train…