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LIVE: Watch ONLY debate in MN’s Eighth District
Today at 10 a.m., the Duluth News Tribune and Duluth Chamber of Commerce host the only scheduled debate between U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN8) and Republican challenger Stewart Mills. National analysts describe MN-8 as a swing district. The contest started the year leaning toward the incumbent Nolan. In recent weeks, however, we’ve observed uncertainty over Iron Range…
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Road construction blitz mars Iron Range travel
Just as spring turns to summer, and summer gently fades to fall, so too will road crews hustle hard when the temperatures drop. The old joke goes, “Minnesota only has two seasons, winter and road construction.” Since road construction is limited by weather, the end of the season is often a mad dash against time.…
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On Swedish (American) Egg Coffee
If you spend enough time around older Scandinavian-Americans in Minnesota they eventually tell you about Swedish Egg Coffee. Then they make you drink it. They will not let you leave or change the subject until you agree that it is better than “regular” coffee. What is Swedish Egg Coffee? Don’t overthink it. It’s coffee brewed…
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Politics of power: PUC OKs industrial rate cut
This week, in a 3-2 split decision, the Minnesota Public Utilities approved a five percent rate cut for large industrial power customers, a deal targeted to help taconite mines in Northern Minnesota. Last February, the PUC rejected Minnesota Power’s proposed rate deal, saying the utility had not adequately proven it needed to raise rates on residents while…
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Great Northern Radio Show to broadcast from Tower
On Saturday, Sept. 24, I’ll bring my Great Northern Radio Show to Fortune Bay Resort and Casino near Tower, Minnesota. It’s exciting to start another new season (our sixth!) and to announce some changes. The Great Northern will remain a music and comedy variety show featuring the same talents as before. Instead of broadcasting one live…
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The Iron Range and Donald Trump
The Star Tribune led its Sunday political coverage with this Patrick Condon story about the perceived popularity of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the vaunted DFL stronghold of the Mesabi Iron Range. Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range has voted for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party since WWII, typically by massive margins. (The DFL is Minnesota’s unique version of the Democratic…
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Attracting hope years after 9/11
I was almost done editing the Sept. 11, 2001 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Then another. Then one more hit the Pentagon. What? Another in a field somewhere? At some point I knocked a tray of story ideas off my desk: press releases and notes…
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Northern MN co-op to further expand fiber network
As I pointed out in July, Paul Bunyan Communication continues working on its Central Itasca Fiber Project. In fact, this week they’ve been laying cable on the little dirt road that leads to MinnesotaBrown World Headquarters in Balsam Township. Readers know that I’ve long advocated for ubiquitous high speed internet as a means of economic diversification for…
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Automation on the industrial frontier
Labor Day on the Iron Range means more than just the last big car race up at the Hibbing Raceway, though that is without doubt a big deal. Here, Labor Day celebrates the broken bodies and fighting spirit of pioneering loggers, miners and entrepreneurs. Their sacrifices slowly built a better world and a better workforce…
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N. Minn., Canada share deep economic ties
The other day I got a note from a longtime reader saying something I wrote “sounded positively Canadian.” And while I’m a proud citizen of the U. S. of A., it’s true that my beloved homeland here in Northern Minnesota is very near (and rather influenced by) Canada. A Northern Minnesota accent sounds more like a Canadian accent than…
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MinnesotaBrown, KAXE at the State Fair
I’ve seen the numbers. Even though this is the only independent blog wholly dedicated to “Modern Life in Northern Minnesota,” nearly half of you live or work in the Twin Cities metro area. That’s fine. We’re cool. But it means we never get to have awkward exchanges at the grocery store, or silently wonder what’s…
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On ‘Clarence’ and wallets filled with gravity
My kids like to watch a show called “Clarence” on Cartoon Network. To be honest, I like it, too. This oddball kid Clarence lives in Aberdale, a suburb of a large city in the American Southwest. His mom is a hair stylist and her boyfriend Chad, Clarence’s father figure, is unemployed. All but one or…
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Radio consolidation swells in Northern Minnesota
Back in high school in the 1990s, two radio stations impacted my life. The first was the one I listened to: KQDS out of Duluth. Classic rock ‘n’ roll, something I preferred to pop. You couldn’t always get KQ on the Iron Range, but you could on the jacked-up antennae my dad put on our roof…
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Magnetation facing potential Sept. 30 shutdown
Magnetation, LLC, announced today it would prepare for a potential Sept. 30 shutdown of its Plant 4 scram mining operation in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and its processing plant in Reynolds, Indiana. Magnetation is an iron ore mining and processing company based in Grand Rapids. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) of a potential shutdown relates to an effort to…
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Essar owes $1.1 billion in bankrupcy
Bankruptcy proceedings began recently for Essar Steel Minnesota, the struggling subsidiary of the Indian company Essar Steel, which seeks to build a new iron mine in Northern Minnesota. The story draws rapt attention from residents and leaders on the Mesabi Iron Range. For good reason. The outcome of this case will determine if hundreds of new…