-
Range project loan payments were extended as favor to company
Another Excelsior Energy audit story ran Sunday in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. This one focused on the decision by Iron Range Resources Commissioner Sandy Layman to unilaterally extend the interest payment deadline for this company a couple different times. The story seems fairly benign, but the bigger story for me is that the DFL dominated…
-
Persell endorsed in 4A
John Persell was endorsed over the weekend by the DFL for House District 4A, the seat that will be vacated when Rep. Frank Moe (DFL-Bemidji) leaves office at the end of the year. CASS LAKE — Beneath John Persell’s soft-spoken, low-key approach lies common-sense issues that will woo voters to send him to St. Paul,…
-
Evolution of Exercise
My Hibbing Daily Tribune column for this week was supposed to be about the Minnesota Steel story, but details emerged late in the week that may change the column so the paper held it. Instead I offer this charming (but not newsbreaking) piece about exercise. KAXE fans know that a version of this first appeared…
-
Obama to declare victory in MINNESOTA
Hell yes! The only better news would be if he did this at Zimmy’s bar in downtown Hibbing. This is the first true 21st century election of our lives. It’s never been a better time in history to be a Minnesota political junkie with limited social skills and a laptop. Get ready! From the Associated…
-
Optimistic news about Minnesota Steel on the Iron Range
Like a lot of people who have followed the story of the proposed Minnesota Steel integrated mining and steel making facility near Nashwauk, I’ve been getting nervous. While officials were receiving assurances that the western Iron Range project would go forward as planned, we were all getting mixed signals as Minnesota Steel’s new parent company,…
-
Range school district deeply divided after failed referendum
I’ve been following the Greenway school district’s financial woes for a while now. The district posed a major extension of three excess operational levies to keep its budget afloat for the next few years. The referendum, opposed by a group touting fiscal responsibility, failed by healthy margin. I argued, and maintain, that this was a…
-
Bakk again
OK, one more post on Tom Bakk’s exploration of a gubernatorial run. Then I’m done with this 2010 nonsense for a while. Folks have picked up that I’m skeptical about Bakk’s chances. I’ve been down the old timey Iron Range statewide whistle stop tour before. It’s like trying to occupy Russia in January. There is…
-
Brown on the Air: Words
My weekly essay for “Between You and Me” discusses words. Words can be deeply meaningful and strangely bizarre. Sasquatch. Squat. Kumquat. Syphilis. What a wild lexicon we live in! Creators of words and those who use them should tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday, May 31 for “Between You and Me,” a…
-
Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 5
Here is the final installment (this week) of “life as an Iron Range blogger,” the diversionary exercise that allows me to keep content on the blog while I work on my book. Here is the Hull Rust Mine on Hibbing’s north side. This isn’t natural. Every crook and cranny of this pit was dug by…
-
Bakk is running
Hate to be scooped on a Range story, but here it is from MNPublius (broken by MinnesotaDemocratsExposed I believe): State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) is running for governor. This is not surprising. Bakk has been hinting at this for a while. He’s getting out early probably to shore up union support and carve his piece…
-
Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 4
Book revisions continue through the week. Here I continue the visual tour of life as an Iron Range blogger.It’s not all good. Sometimes bugs like these land on your shoulder or leg. They’re huge and they bite. This one is now a lobbyist working for a confederation of energy and transmission line companies. It will…
-
For serious this time
Of course the Excelsior audit/review story has to break during my book-finishing week. For real, I’m going into my basement office and turning off the Internet now … except maybe for occasional peeking. I’ve got some material scheduled for the next few days. See you on the flip side. Related posts: No related posts.
-
You say ‘review,’ I say ‘audit’: Either way, the Iron Range is getting bamboozled
As reported, the Office of the Legislative Auditor is spending two months reviewing two loans totaling $9.5 million given by Iron Range Resources to a collection of lobbyists and lawyers calling themselves “Excelsior Energy.” Isn’t that kind of like an audit? Apparently there’s a difference. Anyway, the Hibbing Daily Tribune followed up on my post…
-
Greater Minnesota job seekers are hurting
I’ve written about the work of the folks at the Jobs Now Coalition in St. Paul in the past. Basically, they’re doing research and spreading the word that the jobs currently being created in rural economies do not pay the bills for average families, which makes positive employment statistics cited by the government fairly misleading.…
-
Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 3
Work on my book continues, so I continue with the tour of images that make up life as an Iron Range blogger. One of the interesting things about living on the Range is that you need to find entertainment in unusual places. We don’t have night clubs and Tom Petty never comes here. The names…