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RAMS board members plan reform, but no action yet
The Range Association of Municipalities and Schools board held a special meeting last night to reorganize and discuss its appointment of Sen. David Tomassoni as executive director. RAMS is a lobbying organization that advocates for units of local government on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Many at the Capitol and in the media, including me, have been…
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MN House hearing on non-ferrous mining today
Today at 2:45 p.m., the House Committee on Mining and Outdoor Recreation will hold an “informational hearing” on non-ferrous mining. When Republicans took over the State House after the 2014 election, some questioned the name and unusual structure of this committee. As I wrote, it appeared designed to serve the specific political aims of putting Republicans…
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Tomassoni can’t have it both ways with RAMS job
If you haven’t heard yet, the duly elected State Senator from the Iron Range, David Tomassoni (DFL-Chisholm), recently announced he would take a job as Executive Director of the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools (RAMS) while continuing to serve in the Senate. RAMS is a public influence group that helps Range cities and schools…
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Campaign Finance Board offers vague OK to Tomassoni
Earlier this week I wrote that I was worried that the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, lacking jurisdiction on the matter of Sen. David Tomassoni’s new job as head of a lobbying organization, would issue some vague shrug-turned-nod in his direction. That, after all, was probably why Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and Sen. Tomassoni requested the…
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On ‘Transportation Monday,’ a call for reform
Later this morning, Gov. Mark Dayton (D-MN) will introduce his transportation proposal for this year’s legislative session. In the new Minnesota legislature — now featuring a Republican House and a returning DFL Senate — transportation was one of the issues some believed could unite the two parties. The new GOP majority in the House was…
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President Obama’s State of the Union deserves attention
Two of the biggest domestic policy proposals that President Obama plans to introduce in his State of the Union address tonight are right in my wheelhouse: community and technical college being affordable for all, and broadband infrastructure throughout rural America. Their connection to one another? Both involve investing in people and their own ability to access…
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Range leaders beginning to talk broadband
This morning, the Mesabi Daily News and Hibbing Daily Tribune published a Bill Hanna story about rural broadband. It begins: ST. PAUL — The governor and lawmakers, both in northern and southern parts of the state, agree that better broadband is needed in rural areas, especially as an economic development tool. But there is real concern…
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Cliffs CEO strikes positive tone with Range lawmakers
According the reports I’ve read and gathered on my own, Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves had two goals for the private meeting he held Monday night, Jan. 12, with Iron Range lawmakers: 1) to stress his company’s commitment to its Iron Range operations, and 2) to vehemently oppose state funding of the Essar Steel plant near Nashwauk.…
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Big meeting Monday between Cliffs CEO, Range lawmakers
On Monday, Iron Range lawmakers will meet with the new CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources in St. Paul. The meeting has the potential to be hugely influential in several political matters facing Northern Minnesota, particularly the Essar Steel project on the western Mesabi. CEO Lourenco Goncalves was installed by the board of directors that prevailed…
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Three drunk birds
Winter birds eat what they can to survive, including some berries that have been out a little too long. This leads to a common phenomenon this time of year: birds drunk on fermented berries. National Geographic wrote about this last month, even describing a sort of rehab program used on some exceedingly drunk waxwings in…
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Journey to the Center of the Sax-Zim Bog
Like a gnarled oak, the world below the Iron Range is as complicated as the one above. This becomes clear riding underground in the DrillRover 5000X, boring a bullet’s highway from the long forgotten I. Tripplarbee underground mine south of Eveleth into the moist morass of the Sax-Zim bog. The DrillRover 5000X is a curious…
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Longyear finally buys former Ainsworth site in Grand Rapids
Two years ago, I wrote about one of the Iron Range’s oldest families of mining and logging tycoons after Longyear, Inc., signed a purchase agreement for the former Ainsworth mill site in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The story slipped out of sight for 26 months, until late this last week when the deal was finally completed.…
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Northeastern Minnesota: jobs a’ plenty, wages a’ thppphtt
For the last year I’ve written fairly consistent economic observations of living and working on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range: There are jobs here, but most of them pay low wages and are found in the service sector, not in mining. An overwhelming majority of the region’s workforce is found outside the “traditional” blue collar careers typically associated…
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Billion dollar surplus could yield bipartisan fruit
On Thursday, the Minnesota Office of Management and Budget issued its revenue forecast for the next legislative biennium, showing a whopping $1 billion surplus. Fueled by the strong state economy and budget measures taken in the last biennium, this surplus will be the basis on which the next legislature will negotiate its new budget. This…
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On the Range, Race and Healing
Race is one of the main variables of American life. This fact was written directly into our flawed Constitution more than two centuries ago, a truth demanding hard reckoning ever since. Sometimes it can be comfortable to pretend that race isn’t one of the main variables of life here in Northern Minnesota, however. This is an…