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A new podcast worth your time
Starting Friday, May 2, you can listen to “Worth It,” a new podcast from the Minnesota Star Tribune and Lemonada Media. Night editor Nicole Norfleet and I will co-host this lifestyle talk show highlighting all the cool and important stuff happening around Minnesota. You can listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.…
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A strategy of pragmatic hope to improve mental health
Mental health is often in the news these days. It’s an epidemic putting enormous pressure on our health care system. It’s a burden weighing down our kids as they navigate a more complex and cruel world. We hear about ending the stigma of mental illness through open dialogue. I’ll start. Mental illness in my immediate…
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Bringing back the shanty craze, for safety
Today begins with a question. Will the Minnesota Star Tribune let their newest columnist write a goofball satire in the form of old time workers’ shanties? The answer, to my own surprise, is yes. Please enjoy, “Why have regulations when you can have safety shanties?“ About nine years ago I became more serious about historical…
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Logging off from myths in forest products
Even today, logging shapes life in the North Woods. Sure, most people here aren’t loggers. Even in rural areas, most people don’t even own their own chain saws, though many do. But logging is all around us. It’s even the subject of my latest column. As I drive from Balsam to Grand Rapids these days,…
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Building energy resilience in rural Minnesota
My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune is out today, entitled, “Green shoots of hope: Despite harsh political winds, renewable energy can help communities weather the storm.” If we boil all things down to ideology and opposition, there are some people who will never accept renewable energy as anything worth their time or consideration. Meanwhile,…
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When the thundering noise hits home
It’s been a momentous couple of weeks on the Mesabi Iron Range, notably marred by a major layoff at two mines. But let’s be honest, it’s been a momentous year for the country. Our world is changing. American political institutions are falling apart. People disagree about whether this is good or not, but it’s happening…
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Kindling a small, but growing flame in rural manufacturing
The manufacturing industry has always been a tough nut to crack in northern Minnesota. This place produces great amounts of raw materials, such as iron ore and timber, but lies far away from customers who buy manufactured goods. Thus, only small scale and specialty manufacturing has succeed, and less so as time has gone by.…
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On joining the Minnesota Star Tribune editorial page
At last, I can share a really big update. This week, I joined the Minnesota Star Tribune as a full time columnist and member of the editorial board. I’ll be working remotely, based here at MinnesotaBrown World Headquarters in Balsam Township, with liberty to travel the state as necessary. In fact, I’ll be the first…
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Solving high costs, low availability of child care
My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune is out today: “Child care is expensive, but no one is getting rich from it.” Monday is “Day Without Child Care” in Minnesota. Child care providers, families and employers will raise awareness and lobby for policies that reduce the cost and improve the availability of child care…
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All good things end
This will be my last column in the Mesabi Tribune. No sense in burying the lede. But to end something, you really should start from the beginning. My first professional byline was in the erstwhile Hibbing Daily Tribune shortly after I graduated high school. I met my wife Christina in the newsroom. In June 2001,…
