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Taking Requests: Minnesota Steel, sure thing or just a myth?
This is the third and, for now, final installment of the randomly occasional “Taking Requests” segment, in which I blog about Range issues on the minds of MinnesotaBrown readers. Today’s topic, at the prompting of a couple e-mails I’ve received, is the Minnesota Steel project near Nashwauk. For the past decade, the biggest of all…
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Brown on the Air: "The Almighty Dollar"
My weekly essay for KAXE’s “Between You and Me with Heidi Holtan” will cover the value of a dollar as the show topic asks “What can you get for a buck?” My thoughts range from international currency to Zimbabwe to crappy stuff you can buy at the dollar store. Ideally, this will make more sense…
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Flash: Iron Range Stalin voters breaking for Clinton
I just love the crime section of the Grand Rapids (Minn.) Herald-Review. Most of the dailies up here on the Iron Range gloss over the small town crime, trimming out the details that make weekly and twice-weekly crime blotters more interesting. This is from Wednesday’s Herald-Review: The words, “Hillary for President,” were spray-painted in green…
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Drug bus visits Iron Range today; hauls propaganda, drugs
From Wednesday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune: HIBBING — Area residents who are uninsured or having difficulties financially have a way to connect with programs that provide prescription medicines at low or no cost. The “Help Is Here Express” Bus Tour will stop in Hibbing on Thursday, May 1. From 2 to 3 p.m., the bus will…
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OMG! I’m a Millennial! WTF!
Good news. I’m a Millennial (born after 1978). Apparently that’s a good thing. There’s more of us than there are living baby boomers. We like the Internet. A lot of us have blogs. A recent research paper available at this Case Foundation blog suggests that we Millennials might try to survive without a government in…
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Taking Requests: Range Retail Rumors
I’m working down my list of “Questions and Request” posts. This is Day 2 of the series. If you have a request, please let me know in the comments or by e-mail. Jeff writes: How about commenting on all of the rumors in Hibbing. Every time you turn around there is another rumor about Target,…
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The magic number is 22%
From AP via Yahoo: The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the “Mission Accomplished” banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq. Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s dramatic…
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Minnesota is Mullet Country
My friend and former Minnesotan Paul Ryan sent me this Star Tribune link about the 3-year-old winner of the Minnesota Mullet Contest. There’s a picture at the link. It is indeed a fine mullet, but this is no day to celebrate. A mullet is a conscious choice for which a child cannot legitimately give consent.…
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Taking requests: Bob Dylan Fudge Bars
Over the next few days I’ll be responding to questions or requests that I’ve been getting via e-mail. The next few days will include idle speculation on local retail developments and the Minnesota Steel project. Today I’ll clear out an old request, the posting of the recipe for the Bob Dylan Fudge Bars that I…
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Creature Comforts is back … on cable
Some of you might remember that I was one of several key interviewers for the show “Creature Comforts,” which aired last summer on CBS. In essence I and others interviewed real people about a broad range of topics and then the show’s producers, writers and animators made it look like animals were saying the lines.…
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Franken handles tax situation with perfect P.R.
Sure, you can dismiss this because my blog has been supportive of Al Franken’s bid for the U.S. Senate. But I also know quite a bit about public relations and the news as part of my past career as a newspaper editor. I don’t think Al Franken could have handled this tax story any better…
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Governor signs miners’ health study funding bill
This was out earlier, but I’ll make belated mention that Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a bill funding research about the cause of higher-than-average rates of a rare form of cancer in former Iron Ranger miners. As I’ve said, this will provide a whole lot of people a whole lot of answers about the risks of…
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"Good Morning Northland" now hosted by Jim, Pam from "The Office"
For those in the Duluth TV market who watch morning TV, let me recommend the new morning team at WDIO/WIRT Channels 10/13 (the ABC affiliate). Cassie Limpert was named the new Good Morning Northland anchor this week after having filled in for a few weeks. She joins weatherman Kyle Underwood who used to do evening…
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Souls of future candidates at stake in Democratic race
Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic has a good post today putting perspective on the situation for Barack Obama and his supporters. Watching shows like “Good Morning America” and any of the 24-hour cable news networks reminds me that the national media is increasingly devoid of perspective. Hence why the last 72 hours of news has…
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Wide open spaces (will build to suit)
The Duluth News-Tribune reports today on the practice of public entities building speculative buildings on the Iron Range to attract business. The appeal, according to the stories sources (all governmental), is that these buildings are modern, attractive and can be customized at public expense for any company willing to sign a long term deal that…