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Iconic ship slips past Duluth bridge
The retired iron ore ship William A. Irvin has been docked near Canal Park in downtown Duluth so long that it’s become part of the permanent landscape. Perhaps that’s why so many people stayed up practically overnight Friday into Saturday morning to see the immobilized ship move once again. This YouTube video by photographer Dennis…
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Real hope for rural broadband on the Iron Range
Growing up I always lived just outside the towns of the Iron Range. Back roads. Cracked pavement and dirt roads. My family ran small businesses. Some lasted a while. Some not so much. Such is the nature of small business. The ‘80s were bad. They were for a lot of people. School changed my life.…
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Governor, Mesabi Metallics to hold Nashwauk forum
On a sunny July day in 2016, Gov. Mark Dayton and a gaggle of mining officials took questions inside the Nashwauk Township Community Center about the former Butler Taconite plant just a few miles down the road. Now, just over two years later, Dayton will hold a similar event, only this production boasts a whole…
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Great Northern Radio Show at Hibbing HS auditorium
I’m spinning headlong into an intense couple of months of work projects. I’m teaching full time and continue working on my book. Now I have something new to announce: An exciting Nov. 17 Great Northern Radio Show broadcast at the Hibbing High School auditorium. We’ve played Hibbing a couple times, but never this ornate 1,800-seat…
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Some questions matter more in mining debate
I follow sports. I like to watch baseball and football in particular. Some of my friends are far more into sports than I am. Others don’t care about sports at all. For the first group, I sometimes fall disappointingly short in conversation. I just can’t recall the same statistics and analysis to explain why the…
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Cliffs vows ore for Hibbing Taconite, plans for Nashwauk
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves still wants to mine iron ore near Nashwauk. He vows that Hibbing Taconite will always have enough ore from his company, if they need it. Further he says Northshore Mining continues to make progress with direct-reduced iron products. Finally, he predicts smooth contract negotiations between his company and the United Steelworkers.…
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Trade war rattles even sturdiest American trucks
Understanding trade policy can be overwhelming. Tariffs. Trade deficits. NAFTA. Currency wars. But pickup trucks offer explicit clarity on how trade policy hits people where they live. Take the popular Ford F-150. It’s the top selling truck in America. You can find a F-150 in almost any parking lot on Minnesota’s Iron Range. This is…
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Essar rejoins Nashwauk project; ArcelorMittal looms large
The complex tale of an incomplete iron ore mine on the western Mesabi Iron Range took several new turns this week. Each twist reinforces a central truth. Distant, powerful corporate forces act on impulses far removed from Northern Minnesota’s hopes and dreams. Mesabi Metallics still holds state mining leases on land outside Nashwauk. This was…
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Minnesota’s Iron Range region can feed itself
Minnesota’s Iron Range region is known for mining. But that’s only one of the resources provided in the Dakota legend of the Big Man Hills, or Sleeping Giant. Another has provided food far longer: the soil beneath our feet. Minnesota’s three major iron ranges hold a bad reputation for farming, due to the high iron…
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Radinovich holds narrow lead in NY Times poll
Joe Radinovich holds an extremely narrow lead over Pete Stauber in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. Radinovich led 44 percent to Stauber’s 43 percent in the four-day poll that ended yesterday. Thirteen percent remain undecided in the survey, which did not name independent candidate Ray “Skip” Sandman. The…
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U.S. Steel balancing act offers economic warning
As the United Steelworkers union and U.S. Steel inch toward a strike, many on Minnesota’s Iron Range wonder why. The economy is good. Steel is selling for a high price. So, why is U.S. Steel playing hardball with its workers? The answer exposes some concerning facts not just in the steel industry, but across corporate…
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New York Times tracks Minnesota’s 8th District
Brace yourself, Minnesota political junkies. You’re about to have your mind blown. The New York Times hired Siena College to conduct polls in competitive House races across America. One of them is Northern Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District. They’ll be uploading polling results from the district as they come in, updating the results each day. That…
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Hibbing grad warns of economic crisis below ground
During the oil boom ten years ago I knew a number of guys who would pack a bag and drive from Northern Minnesota to western North Dakota to work weeks at a time in the Bakken oil fields. Classmates. Friends of friends. Parents from my kids’ school. During the Great Recession of 2008 this was…
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Will Minnesota’s 8th District swing or rust shut?
With Labor Day behind us, a nine-week political sprint awaits the next Congressperson from Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. This North Central Minnesota seat promises to be among the nation’s most expensive and closely-watched swing races for control of Congress. Several factors will influence whether our next Member of Congress is Republican Pete Stauber, Democrat Joe…
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Authorities recover Dorothy’s stolen ruby slippers
In 2005, someone stole a pair of ruby slippers worn in the 1939 classic film “The Wizard of Oz” from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. For the next thirteen years, Dorothy’s missing slippers became the subject of an exhaustive search that even included several dives into a nearby mine pit. Today, the…