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Range mines catch a Super Mario star
If Iron Range mines were Super Mario, they’d be blinking while knocking off Goombas left and right. More on that below. This week brought quarterly earnings reports from the two biggest mining companies on Minnesota’s Iron Range, U.S. Steel and Cliffs Natural Resources. Both companies show significant improvement from a dismal 2015. Cliffs posted a profit…
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Inside fundraising in House 6A Range DFL primary
Last week at the blog we dove into a debate over who funds Iron Range campaigns. At the time we didn’t have access to the first major campaign finance reports. Well, the Campaign Finance Board released those reports Tuesday morning. You can view them for yourself here. So let’s explore the fundraising for Northern Minnesota’s…
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Many credit Nolan for steel tariff success
U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN8) faces another tough challenge from Republican Stewart Mills in 2016. Earlier this year I described this race as a tossup, possibly the biggest fight of Nolan’s later-in-life return to Congress. That’s saying something. Minnesota’s Eighth District has been treated as a swing district since 2010, when Republican Chip Cravaack ended more…
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Breaking Broadband: progress in rural Minnesota
“If I were the hugging kind, I would hug you.” “OK, then.” I had clearly unnerved the surveyor on my township road, but I knew why he was there. He was mapping the route for new fiber optic cables near my home. You can see the little flags all over the Itasca County countryside.…
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The steel tariffs are working
The good news is that Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves is an avid reader of MinnesotaBrown.com. Apparently that is also the bad news. Tuesday, I received what I would describe as “corporate sass” from Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves after I asked a question at the public forum he and Gov. Mark Dayton held in Nashwauk Township. After the…
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Cliffs CEO promises iron clad future for Mesabi
Tuesday morning’s public forum with Gov. Mark Dayton and Cliffs Natural Resources CEO Lourenco Goncalves sounded like a battle cry before a coming war. Though everyone hopes the war will be short and successful, many unknown factors lie ahead. The meeting’s primary announcement was stunning. Goncalves said that Cliffs is planning a major shift to direct-reduced iron (DRI)…
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Clinton vs. Trump: a war within ourselves
It’s July 2016. Donald and Hillary are about to run the race of their lives. I’m referring, of course, to the two hogs who will sprint against each other this Sunday, July 10, as the main event in the Nevis Pig Races in north central Minnesota. It’s hard to say what motivates these cloven-hoofed animal athletes, but one…
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Duluth looking to remodel, not replace library
Last year it seemed the city of Duluth was barreling toward the demolition of its distinctive library building along Superior and Michigan avenues in favor of a new $35 million building. At the time, the consultant hired by the city was saying that it would cost $31 million to perform necessary repairs and remodeling to the…
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Mining’s musical chairs on the Mesabi
Iron Rangers are celebrating the reopening of United Taconite after parent company Cliffs secured a ten-year contract with ArcelorMittal. In fact, Cliffs is even moving up the opening of the plant to August, instead of October. But with this good news comes the reality that one of the Iron Range’s biggest public and private investments in the last…
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Bringing local food back home
We often hear the phrase, “you are what you eat.” It could also be said that “you are where you eat.” Here in Northern Minnesota, people subsisted off the land for millennia. But then came Wonder Bread, TV dinners, hot dogs and Cheetos: tasty, calorific foods that can be named but not necessarily identified. Cheap to buy, these…
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Competitive 2016 races set in Northern MN
The filing period for federal, state and many local races closed Tuesday, May 31. Here in Northern Minnesota some interesting races have emerged alongside many sleepy contests. Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District No surprises here. Incumbent U.S. Rep Rick Nolan, a Democratic-Farmer-Laborite from Crosby faces challenger Stewart Mills, a Nisswa Republican. The only news from filing is that there…
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Four advance to DFL primary in House 6A
After five ballots, Iron Range DFLers opted not to endorse a candidate in the race to succeed State Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) in House District 6A. The endorsing convention was held this morning and into the afternoon at Hibbing Community College. All five candidates had stated they would not abide by the endorsement anyway, so a competitive…
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We are not monsters
The world keeps turning on the Mesabi Iron Range. Lawmakers defend the IRRRB in St. Paul, while the local paper lambasts a city council for a foreign steel pipe found in a construction project. At risk, we are told, is “our way of life.” Controversies come and go. Another election year bulges on the horizon. Two…
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Future of the Range is ‘Mucho Si’
I’ll be honest. I chuckled when I heard that a vacant restaurant property on Central Avenue in downtown Nashwauk was going to become a Mexican joint called “Mucho Si.” For one thing, the site has been several restaurants over the years, each succumbing to economic doom. My cousin ran one of them. I knew the guy who…
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Mt. Iron-Buhl OKs $29 million school
UPDATE: On Tuesday, May 3, Mountain Iron-Buhl voters approved the bond referendum, paving the way for the new school proposal to move forward. The original piece, published May 2 follows: Voters in the Mountain Iron-Buhl school district will decide Tuesday on whether to accept a $29 million plan to build a new high school on Highway 169.…