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Brown on the Air: Souvenirs and ‘C is for Comfort Food’
I am a triple media threat this weekend. Jump back! Old Media (TV): I will be baking fudge bars using a recipe from Bob Dylan’s mom’s personal file on “C is for Comfort Food” on WDSE Channel 8 in Northern Minnesota from 1-4:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 1. I promise to tell you the story…
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The "Coleman Letters" controversy
By now, you may have read the news about Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign distributing mass letters to the editor for supporters to submit to papers around Minnesota. (MPR, MNPublius, AP). The letters were criticizing Coleman opponent Al Franken, the leading Democrat. While encouraging supporters to write letters to the editor is common practice, the concept…
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Session battles cast eerie light
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) lashed out harshly after the legislature overrode his veto of the transportation bill. Today, the Senate is expected to oust Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau from her dual role as Transportation Secretary by denying her long-delayed confirmation. The Senate’s bonding bill does not match the governor’s (the House’s bonding bill is expected…
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Help a Range family this weekend
This Saturday night, March 1, there will be a fundraiser for an Iron Range family at the Hibbing VFW. The Kempas experienced tremendous joy and a terrible scare all within one week last year. Just six days after Ben and Katie welcomed their first daughter Aunika into the world, Katie suffered an almost fatal brain…
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I am a cooking fraud, but no one is calling me on it … yet
Sometimes in life, strange opportunities will come your way. My philosophy is to always embrace them, no matter how bizarre. This strategy is the only possible explanation for why I will appear on a cooking show this weekend and was featured in the “Taste” section of the March 27 Duluth News-Tribune. A couple weeks ago…
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House Republicans purge the infidels
A lot of DFLers were surprised that the six Republican state representatives who supported the transportation bill stuck with the coalition in overriding Gov. Pawlenty’s veto. But the roads need to be fixed and I suppose these six finally got sick of the “no new tax, unless it’s a fee” games played by Pawlenty and…
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Graphic designers lining up with Obama
This might be for strung out political junkies like me more so than “normal human beings,” but check out this story about Barack Obama’s unprecedented use of branding and design in his campaign. A graphic designer tells an interviewer how Obama’s font-choice represents a much larger future trend in political branding. Yes, it’s a story…
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Excelsior’s new strategy?
Excelsior Energy is running large, color ads in the Mesabi Daily News thanking the Iron Range for all its support for their boondoggle coal gas power plant called the Mesaba Energy Project. Of course, the lobbyist-run company’s most important supporters are the ones on their political contributions list, but I suppose the sentiment is nice.…
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Yeah, we’ll fix the roads anyway
On Monday, the DFL-controlled Minnesota House of Representatives overrode Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of the transportation bill, which fixes roads and bridges around the state by raising the state gas tax five cents a gallon. They were able to win over six Republicans to aid in the override. While no one wants to pay more…
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UPDATE (sort of) on smoking ban loophole
I see Duluth News-Tribune columnist Jim Heffernan has already written a humor column about the “theater loophole” in the Minnesota smoking ban now being used by northern Minnesota bars. Fortunately, the piece I’m working on takes a different angle. Good thing, because Heffernan is phoning his columns in from Florida and I’m within a smoke…
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Sing it, Minnesota!
A state lawmaker is suggesting that Minnesota turn “Hail, Minnesota” into the state anthem and adopt a more contemporary state song. Any suggestions? Related posts: No related posts.
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Clinton and Iraq: a metaphor?
Frank Rich from the New York Times wrote a great column yesterday (“The Audacity of Hopelessness“) detailing the logical fallacies about Hillary Clinton’s current campaign strategy as she makes her final push for Ohio and Texas. It’s not just that her candidacy’s central premise — the priceless value of “experience” — was fatally poisoned from…
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Out-of-town small town paper profiles a Range small town landmark
Many Iron Rangers know that Hibbing, positioned in the heart of the Mesabi Range, is the birthplace of the Greyhound Bus Company and home to the Greyhound Bus Museum, an interesting destination that is both informative and included on most lists of government pork projects released by public watchdog groups each year. Hey, what’s an…
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Smoky logic abounds in bar theater scheme
During last year’s debate about the statewide workplace smoking ban in the Minnesota legislature, I kept asking, “why, oh why, does the Iron Range have to strike this pose again?” Here we are, a land of change-resistant Don Quixotes who howl at the moon to keep smoking rights but snooze when public dollars are funneled…
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Hey Old Media, getting warmer …
Last summer we got a DVR service to go with our satellite TV. The digital recorder allows us to record shows, pause or rewind live TV and basically watch programs any time we want with the ability to fast-forward commercials. Someone told me before we got it that it would change how we watch television…