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In building community, every little bit adds up to a lot
A few weeks back, my son’s Boy Scout Troop in Grand Rapids helped build 25 wheelchair accessible picnic tables. The extra long table tops will adorn parks across Itasca County, everywhere from Nashwauk to Deer River, allowing people who use wheelchairs to easily join in a family meal. Henry and I built one picnic table…
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New project seeks the meaning of ‘Grace’ in Bovey
You’ve seen the photo. An elderly man bows his head in prayer before a modest meal of bread and oatmeal. A large Bible rests on the table, perhaps read after dinner. Eric Enstrom took this picture in Bovey, Minnesota, in 1918. The subject, a local peddler named Charles Wilden. Wilden was better known locally as…
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Northern Minnesota already firing up the SAD bus
It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but Northern Minnesotans already grow weary with an early winter. In fact, stories about Seasonal Affective Disorder, or “SAD” appear on the news, seemingly months ahead of schedule. SAD generates depression-like symptoms in people, primarily during short, dark winter days. The lack of daylight is one of the leading causes.…
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1990 Minnesota election scandal parallels Alabama saga
It’s hard to remember sometimes, but there was a time when watching the news wasn’t actively disgusting all the time. But I do recall the first time a news story completely grossed me out. It was in 1990. I was just a kid, but I liked the news. That was the year the Republican candidate…
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‘Cool view’ at the Iron Range’s new Highway 53 bridge
Though it’s been in use for a couple months now, I made my first trip to the other side of the Mesabi Iron Range to see the new Highway 53 bridge last week. An online contest gave this 1,000-foot-tall span the moniker “Taconite Sky Bridge.” (The legislature must act to make that official). What the…
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The economics of dignity, how a tiered economy tears us apart
To read the local papers, a visitor might conclude that the biggest problems facing the Iron Range these days is whether or not we support our most powerful industry *enough.* I find this curious. Because when people talk about “the problem on the Range these days,” they usually mean people working multiple jobs to pay…
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The prodigal eelpout festival returns
After flirting with a move to Bemidji, the International Eelpout Festival will remain at Walker, Minnesota, on the shores of Leech Lake after all. Bemidji, it turns out, didn’t want the ugly fish fete, forcing organizers to flop their way back to their old ice fishing holes in Walker. This is essentially the same experience…
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Elections nudge Duluth political scene, but not much
Off-year elections generally only get attention because of “what it all means.” The year-round political speculation industry loves a taste of something real to add some heft to the conjecture. So we can look at yesterday’s election and say that Democratic success in New Jersey and Virginia means something. President Trump’s unpopularity seems to be…
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Minnesota moose decline stems from spread of deer
Scientists say they’ve solved the mystery of the missing moose. The brain-eating bacteria that kill so many moose, and leave others more vulnerable to wolf predation, is carried by the spread of whitetail deer into Northeastern Minnesota. For the past several years, we’ve been wondering why Minnesota’s moose population — once a strong feature of…
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A journey through time, to town and back
Just before the 20th Century a trip into town from Balsam Township in east central Itasca County took two days at full speed. The winding journey required paddling a canoe down the Prairie River, crossing several portages depending on the time of year. I imagine one might camp at the midpoint somewhere near the modern…
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Homogenized media for a divided people
I’m not very good at self-righteous anger. It weighs on me. I torture myself with it. More often than not I end up doing no good at all when I respond in anger. These are tough, angry times. So I’ve been strategic in what I write about, trying again to spend my time in ways…
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Competitive eaters pack away Indian Tacos in Tower
UPDATE: Results below. ORIGINAL POST: Four of the top ten highest ranked professional eaters, including world #1 Joey Chestnut, will compete at Fortune Bay Resort and Casino in Tower this Saturday for the World Indian Taco Eating Contest. Where to begin? Let’s start with Indian Tacos. These are tacos made with fry bread. Fry bread…
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Mills opts out of MN-8 run, hints at GOP woes
Stewart Mills announced Wednesday he would not seek the GOP nod in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District in 2018, ending the possibility of a Republican showdown in this tight swing district. Wrote Mills in a social media statement: I have decided not to have my name on the ballot this election cycle, this is not a…
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Lake Superior wave breaks records
By now you’ve heard your fill of Gordon Lightfoot’s wonderful but perhaps overplayed masterpiece, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The 42nd anniversary of the iron ore ship’s sinking in an early winter storm will be marked Nov. 10. The song’s iconic line “when the gales of November come early,” was on many lips this…
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The marauding bog of All Hallow’s Eve
October, month of the dead. The leaves fall and the flowers die. Colors fade to gray, brown and a deathly yellow. Hence the annual debauchery of Halloween, one final howl before the virginal snow and holy days of winter. Which monster will haunt you this All Hallow’s Eve? Dusk bathes the shoreline of North Long…