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Child care: a defining issue mired in status quo
Working people with children will tell you that child care is their biggest day-to-day challenge. The logistics are maddening and the cost is overwhelming. The stakes are no less than the well-being of the next generation. Yet, if you talk to child care providers, they’ll tell you the same thing. Frustrating logistics and high costs…
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Iron Range’s most active live music venue to close soon
In a blow to the Iron Range music scene, the 218 Taphouse and Shop Coffeehouse in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, will close April 15. Owners issued the news via an April 3 Facebook post, which reads as follows: Due to unforeseen circumstances The 218 Taphouse and Shop Coffeehouse will be closing April 15th. We would like…
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Minnesota’s 8th District losing bellwether status
After five consecutive nationally-significant campaigns in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, this rural blue collar bellwether slips out of the spotlight. Simone Pathé of Roll Call reported yesterday that national Democrats aren’t even targeting new incumbent U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber in their early plans for 2020. Meantime, they are focusing on new suburban districts in states…
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Generational payback on sleepovers
I’ve forgotten much about life between the ages of 10 and 13. I suppose there’s a psychological reason for that; something something brain development, something something puberty. A lot of it might be self-preservation. In most pictures from this time I resemble an oversized grub with greasy blond hair. I’m wearing sweat pants and Coke-bottle…
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The stunning cost of keeping what we already have
The Minnesota Department of Transportation recently announced that Duluth’s John A. Blatnik Bridge, known locally as the “High Bridge,” would need to be replaced in 2028, less than seventy years after it opened to traffic in 1961. Brady Slater of the Duluth News Tribune reported March 14 that Minnesota would be on the hook for…
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Great Northern Radio Show returns to Bemidji April 13
Spring slowly seeps into Northern Minnesota. Celebrate with the April 13 broadcast of my Great Northern Radio Show at the Chief Theater in Bemidji, Minnesota. Get your tickets here. I always tell you these things are good and that you should come. I suppose by now you either believe me or you don’t. The Latelys…
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Critical thinking for automated times
I like to watch old black-and-white movies. In these films you see several scenes involving jobs that no longer exist. People appear very skilled at these jobs. We are led to believe they made a decent living off them. But practically no one makes the same living in the same jobs today. In most cases…
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With final permit, PolyMet project enters ‘prove it’ stage
Today the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the last required federal permit for PolyMet’s proposed copper-nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. With this permit, the company now enters the next phase of its development: proving that it has the capital and ability to execute its mine plan. Local news and Northern Minnesota social media…
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What next for long-suffering Nashwauk mine project?
I drive past the former Butler Taconite mine site near Nashwauk, Minnesota, nearly every day. As such, I have ample time to join my neighbors, local leaders and international iron ore traders in wondering what might happen with the long-stalled construction of a new mine there. All this comes more than three decades after Butler…
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Bankruptcy claims remaining ShopKo stores, including Duluth
ShopKo announced today that bankruptcy would force it to close all its remaining stores, including six in Northeastern and Central Minnesota, by June 16. Stores in Duluth, Ely, Two Harbors, Aitkin, Mora and Moose Lake are among those that will close. ShopKo’s woes are nothing new, and are in keeping with general problems in the…
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When the levee breaks
Tailings basins are a key part of Mesabi Iron Range mining history, but are also making headlines across the world. Balancing responsible mining with environmental risk is a critical question going forward.
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Arts provide economic, aesthetic boost to NE Minnesota
Last year I wrote about the economic impact of the arts in Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range region. An organization called Creative Minnesota explored the total reach of the arts, including the revenue generated within the economy and the number of jobs created. Today, the same organization released a new 2019 report as part of Arts…
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After 10 years, final Minnesota ‘all hockey hair team’ video drops
Iron Range hopes for a state high school hockey championship fell just short with Greenway’s Saturday afternoon loss to St. Cloud Cathedral. It was an amazing run for the Raiders, though, with some great games, hearty effort and exciting play. And they placed respectably in the 2019 Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team…
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It ain’t over ’til it’s oven
We come here not to mourn the oven, but to bury it. Northern Minnesota author Aaron Brown relates the fiery final minutes of his family’s electric range.
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Dylan monument at Hibbing HS to be revealed fall 2019
Like an eddy in a fast-moving stream, Robert Zimmerman matriculated from Hibbing High School in 1959. Just three years later, under a new name of his own design, Bob Dylan began transforming the musical world from the stage of Carnegie Hall in New York. Decades before I was born, Dylan lived in the same neighborhood…