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Iron Range districts eye shared school, new model
Student desks form even rows on hardwood floors. A chalkboard at the front of the room frames the teacher’s heavy, spacious desk. Heavy vinyl maps roll down from the ceiling. Most of us recognize this picture as school. In fact, this scene so imprints our minds that decades later we still dream about it. It’s…
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Jim and Silent Bob pitch whiskey on Tonight Show
Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, marks the changes in his sprawling career with bemused resignation. Nevertheless, some folks still wonder what the boy they knew as Robert Zimmerman is up to. Earlier this year Dylan announced his new whiskey label, dubbed Heaven’s Door. And while his “never-ending” concern tour keeps rolling, Dylan has adopted the…
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Your turn Player Two
Right about now parents across Christendom receive handwritten notes from their children explaining what they’d like for Christmas. Ostensibly these lists are for Santa Claus, but everybody knows Santa has helpers. Most of them are clerks at a store within driving distance. I’m kidding, of course. Santa’s real helpers are faceless Amazon drones that document…
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Domino’s picks Duluth for pothole marketing scheme
Tonight, the Duluth City Council is poised to accept $5,000 from Domino’s Pizza to repair some of the city’s legendary potholes. You might have seen Domino’s “Paving for Pizza” nationwide television ad campaign that ran over the last several months. The premise is that potholes cause pizzas in the backseat of cars to go flying…
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Architecture that holds up
Last night I hosted my radio show at the newly restored Hibbing High School auditorium. Workers spent months renovating this town’s “castle in the woods. Now it looks as resplendent as when it first opened nearly a century ago. I can assure you that words did the scene no justice. Some high school auditoriums are…
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Celebrate with the Great Northern Radio Show
It’s been a wild fall here at MinnesotaBrown. An unexpected research trip to San Francisco. Election coverage that culminated with a live appearance on National Public Radio. And now I’m getting ready for Saturday’s Great Northern Radio Show at the historic Hibbing High School auditorium. It’s been a banner year for this mid-level regional writer.…
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Fire destroys Cook store, but not community spirit
Last Sunday, my family struck deer camp a week early. I got sent home with a large amount of cheese curds, which is never a bad deal. My uncles always pick up the cheese from Zup’s in Cook. Monday night, a large fire destroyed the Zup’s Food Market, Cook’s only grocery store and heart of…
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Northern Minnesota’s new political ethos
Rifle hunting season is almost over. That’s the sure sign of winter in Northern Minnesota. Though just a week ago, the hotly contested election of 2018 safely recedes into the past. The first weekend at deer camp was awash with political theorizing. But we spent last weekend arguing the merits and mechanics of mounting a…
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More smoke than fire: Election 2018 on the Iron Range
For much of 2018, we labored under the premise that Northern Minnesota’s 8th District might be the pivotal race in all of the nation. This would be the place that single-handedly decided whether Democrats or Republicans would control the U.S. House of Representatives. In visions of late night counting and recounting, the eyes of America…
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Oral history of this blog with notes
Earlier this week I appeared on the Duluth News Tribune Pressroom Podcast with co-hosts Christa Lawler and Brady Slater, produced by Samantha Erkkila. The podcast team and I had been trying for years to figure out when I’d be in Duluth on a weekday with time to spare. We finally found a moment after my appearance…
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LIVE BLOG: Election 2018 in Northern Minnesota
Today is Election Day 2018 in the United States of America. This post concerns itself with one small but consequential part of this great nation: my present environs in Northern Minnesota. Let the live blog commence: 11:30 p.m. One more post. To conclude our evening’s business, MinnesotaBrown projects that State Rep. Sandy Layman (R-Cohasset) has…
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Minnesota’s 8th District campaign rumbles to finish line
With a day to go, the race for Congress in Minnesota’s 8th District appears to be competitive again. Last month, it seems like Republican Pete Stauber had pulled ahead but now it seems that Democrat Joe Radinovich is catching up. Too little, too late? A thundering rally? Only tomorrow’s vote can say. The 8th District…
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Vote local; it matters most of all
Every day the children board the school bus. Begrudgingly, perhaps, but they go. We drive to work, quickly or slowly, depending on our enthusiasm and/or punctuality. People walk the streets, gathering in coffee shops and gas stations to jaw over the day’s news. At dusk, the parks and trails. By night we find the theaters,…
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NPR coverage of Minnesota’s 8th District
National Public Radio’s Morning Edition broadcast live from Duluth, Minnesota this morning. A team of NPR journalists was covering Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District with an eye toward the people who will be making the decision in next Tuesday’s election. I was honored to join the broadcast as a contributor. If you missed the show, here…
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State issues mining permits to PolyMet: Now what?
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources issued permits for PolyMet Mining on Thursday, ending one long chapter of this story and beginning another. The permits mean PolyMet is now free to mine copper, nickel and other minerals from its proposed location near the former LTV iron mine at Hoyt Lakes. But doing so is not…