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U.S. Steel is officially rolling in its 5.0, with its ragtop down so its hair can blow
It’s official. U.S. Steel will invest $300 million into Keewatin Taconite, increasing taconite pellet production by more than 3.5 million. The whole project will take three years to fully implement. This also makes U.S. the big daddy steel company on the Iron Range as they now own the top two taconite operations here. PRESS RELEASEOberstar…
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Endorsements breaking for Obama
I just got word that two prominent Edwards supporters are joining the Barack Obama camp on the Iron Range. Minnesota House Majority Leader Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) and U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (also DFL-Chisholm) will endorse Obama today. Who else is on board? I only know of Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam) who endorsed Obama last…
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Brown on the Air: Mystery Theatre
Tune in for this week’s “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE to hear my 4-minute radio mystery “The DeRanger Code.” This week’s show explores the topic of mystery novels, so I wrote a parody of Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” set on the Mesabi Iron Range. Heavy-duty production work was involved and the I…
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Franken vs. Coleman comes to the Range
This e-mail I got from the Franken for Senate campaign shows an interesting window into how both Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman plan to operate on the Iron Range. Norm will try to tell us that if we vote for him he’ll open a box of butterflies and each butterfly will glow with a…
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Tomorrow’s news today
Business North is reporting the item about Friday’s U.S. Steel announcement in Keewatin. Here’s what they say: It’s the worst-kept secret on the Iron Range: All indications point to a major expansion pending at Keewatin Taconite. Owner U.S. Steel wasn’t commenting publicly, but told Range legislators to expect a Feb. 1 announcement that is “positive.”…
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Where do the Edwards folks go?
The Duluth News-Tribune has an interesting Associated Press story about John Edwards supporters in Minnesota. Interesting to me is that House Majority Leader and Iron Range State Rep. Tony Sertich is holding off on picking between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I think his endorsement will carry a lot of weight on the Range, especially…
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When the metal ones come for you
It was brought to my attention, correctly, that I’ve been sneaking far too many Obama posts into the mix here at MinnesotaBrown.com. It’s time to talk about something else. How about this? Death from above! The Register and other publications are writing about a U.S. spy satellite’s slow drop out of orbit. It now seems…
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Edwards to drop out, Range votes up for grabs
An update: The AP reports that John Edwards will drop his presidential bid today. The mad scramble is on to win over his supporters. Here on the Iron Range, many prominent Democrats who were supporting Edwards now hold a lot of influence over the Obama/Clinton race in Minnesota. I think this might turn Feb. 5…
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Pipeline? You wish.
So yesterday Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Energy Project got into another news cycle with their environmental hearing regarding the pipeline for their proposed coal gas plant near Taconite. This was a hearing about just the pipeline, which is step 18 of a 50-step process that will never get past the first step of getting the money…
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It’s the wind that’ll get ya’
You know what blogs often lack? A sense of place. Well, here goes. In northern Minnesota today it is FREAKING COLD and FREAKING WINDY. All the schools cancelled except the community college where I work. Most of my students are staying home so I will have to repeat everything I say today over the next…
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The wild ride continues
We are one week out of Super Tuesday and I’m betting it will seem like a month. John Edwards is planning some kind of special poverty speech today that might be part of an exit strategy for him. Barack Obama is courting his endorsement, which would make life very interesting in the 22 states voting…
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Now pitching for the Twins, some dudes …
We Twins fans knew this would probably happen, but I can’t help but feel a little sad to see Johan Santana be traded to the Mets. I am glad, however, that he was traded to an N.L. team. This way he can’t kick our asses every other week in the American League and also we…
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Franken in Grand Rapids today
Al Franken is in Grand Rapids today. He’ll appear with Rep. Tom Anzelc at Brewed Awakenings at 4 p.m. Three candidates are making a serious pitch for delegates in the DFL U.S. Senate race, Franken, Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. As I’ve posted before, I see a three-way split on the Iron Range over these…
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KeeTac Attack!
U.S. Steel will hold a press conference Friday at 2 p.m. at the Keewatin City Hall. My sources tell me the company is announcing a major expansion and environmental upgrade at its Keewatin Taconite plant, something like 3.5 million tons of additional pellet production capability. Yesterday, U.S. Steel announced that their Iron Range taconite production…
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The Caucus of the Walkus
The Minnesota caucuses are Feb. 5, joining the tidal wave of primaries and other caucuses around the country for Super Tuesday. I’ve already been getting a lot of questions about how caucuses work by people who have never done it before. The short answer is “It’s like attending a meeting.” But there is a bit…