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46 coal plants stopped in ’07
I got an e-mail this week from someone detailing 46 different coal fired power plant proposals that were cancelled or shelved around the United States this year. One of them is Excelsior Energy’s $2.3 billion boondoggle Mesaba Energy Project. There will be no new coal fired power plants — even if they use “clean coal”…
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Big U.S. Steel story remains unconfirmed
Here is what the Duluth News-Tribune is reporting about that credible rumor I heard the other day regarding U.S. Steel’s operations on the Iron Range. Mum’s the word on high-level meetings at Minntac MineLee Bloomquist, Duluth News Tribune Several top-level U.S. Steel executives made a rare visit to Minntac Mine in Mountain Iron this week…
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Highway 53 expansion prospects
The Mesabi Daily News has an interesting story today about efforts to expand State Highway 53, the major north/south byway of northern Minnesota and the Iron Range. Coupled with State Highway 169, (the Range’s east/west route) these highway improvements are absolutely necessary for a safer, more efficient infrastructure in our region. Highway 53 matching funds…
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Freaking beobabs everywhere!
Who remembers “The Little Prince?” In this French children’s book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a pilot meets an alien who looks like a little kid. This “Little Prince” lives on a tiny planet where all he does is pull up the baobab trees so they don’t take root and choke his world. C’est une métaphore!…
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MPR posts ‘Select a Candidate’ quiz for 2008
Minnesota Public Radio posted their “Select a Candidate” feature for the election year. I wouldn’t recommend using it as your only method of selecting a candidate for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race or the presidential caucuses, but it will help show you which candidates line up with you on your most important issues. I took the…
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New look at Ironworld
For those interested, Ironworld is going through some changes this year. Check out the Hibbing Daily Tribune story. Dylan Days — one of my many side projects — is working with Ironworld to put together a Dylan exhibit next May. Stay tuned for this and potentially even more exciting news. Related posts: No related posts.
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New Hampshire speaks tomorrow
The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday. There is a good chance that my “endorsed” candidates, Barack Obama for the Democrats and John McCain for the Republicans, will win on both sides of the aisle. The biggest story of this election so far has been Obama. I feel like his candidacy could be remembered as a…
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JOBZ analysis in Hibbing paper
One of the primary economic development strategies of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s administration has been the use of tax-free zones in rural areas, called “JOBZ.” The program gives businesses a break from property, payroll and sales taxes during a fixed period to encourage growth. It’s one of those ideas that sounds foolproof at first blush, but…
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A ‘surge’ of ‘hybrids’ last year
With politics in full swing after last week’s Iowa caucuses and next week’s New Hampshire primary, it’s easy to overload on words right now. Candidates pour words aplenty upon the voters, some true, some truish, some true lite, and the rest regular old false. But while people sometimes distort the truth, words themselves don’t lie.…
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Brown on the Air: Coffee
My weekly radio essay for Saturday’s “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE is about coffee, which is also the show’s theme this week. Breaking a recent trend I don’t wax philosophic about the deep meaning of coffee. Rather, I talk about the base value of coffee: a fast, reliable source of caffeine. I do…
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No U.S. Senate candidate has Range advantage
The Iron Range doesn’t always line up votes in statewide endorsement battles, but often it will. Not so this year. If you recall some of my earlier posts about Range politics (Part 1 and Part 2) the Range has three basic DFL factions: labor, progressives and opinion leaders. Sometimes they line up and sometimes they…
