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‘Not Dark Yet,’ but iconic Zimmy’s Restaurant in Hibbing closes
Today my friends Linda Stroback and Bob Hocking announced that they would be closing Zimmy’s Restaurant tonight until further notice. A year of tough economic conditions in downtown Hibbing and back taxes is forcing the closure, with the hope of the restaurant restructuring and reopening in the near future. Linda described the company’s woes in…
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GOP’s Zellers: ‘We are all Iron Rangers’
It might have made for a fun parlor game back in the late ’80s. “What set of circumstances would cause a Republican candidate for governor to use ‘We are All Iron Rangers,’ as a slogan?” One must admit the smart money then and perhaps even recently would have been on “horrific natural disaster.” The Iron…
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Filmmaker set to release Minnesota wolf documentary
Last winter, a California director filmed scenes for “Medicine of the Wolf,” a documentary on the Minnesota wolf featuring renowned wildlife photographer and writer Jim Brandenburg. Julia Huffman now seeks to finish her movie, adding some crucial interviews and perspective, and she’s almost halfway toward doing so on Kickstarter. The political battle since the onset…
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Olympics have me wondering, ‘what’s my time?’
Watching the Winter Olympics always makes me glad we don’t have to walk around knowing where we rank at this point in our lives and how many seconds off the leader we are. If you’ve been watching the Olympics you know what I’m talking about. Alpine skiers screech down a mountain at 80 mph, faster…
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MN DNR OKs controversial deer feed amid harsh winter
For the first time in 17 years, the Minnesota DNR is making widespread plans to feed starving deer as this harsh winter enters its long conclusion. John Myers has a story in today’s Duluth News Tribune. The issue is controversial. DNR wildlife managers don’t believe it’s wise or necessary to feed wild deer, as the…
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Notes on a changing Iron Range
The wheels of fate keep turning on the Iron Range. Over on the east central Mesabi, Mountain Iron-Buhl, Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert schools are considering a new shared high school. We await resolution of some sort on expensive, long anticipated mining projects like Essar Steel and PolyMet, all while the reality of our lack of economic…
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Internet access for all Minnesotans? Live coverage now
The Uptake is providing live coverage of the Border to Border Broadband conference presentation “The Future of Rural Minnesota Broadband.” I’m happy to share the coverage here on my blog at the bottom of this post. Coverage begins at 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5. I’ll post archive footage afterward when its available. The huge…
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So, what is International Metallics Corp., anyway?
I caught this story in the Mesabi Daily News last weekend: Reston, Virginia-based International Metallics Corp. is apparently proposing some kind of direct-reduced iron plant in Superior, Wisconsin. The Douglas County Board of Directors and Superior Redevelopment Authority are working on some kind of deal to help make this happen. The Duluth News Tribune had…
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Controtastrophegate Crisispocalypse
Where were you when you heard that they might run out of Velveeta before the Super Bowl? Maybe you were rushing the kids off to school, mindful of your long list of chores for that day, such as maintaining your social media persona. Perhaps you were on the phone with a friend or relative, chatting…
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2014: The Year Ahead for Northern Minnesota
It was at least 26 below zero at the bus stop this morning, though our thermometer is near the kitchen window and it was probably colder. I saw someone post 40 below up near Bigfork, which is just a few miles north of us. It’s funny how the early cold snap in December had everyone…
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Northern Minnesota 2013 Year in Review
Happy New Year, dear reader. And Happy Cold Time of Pregnancy and Eating Bark, deer reader. (See what I did there?) I’ve already written about my excitement over turning Kirby Puckett (34) in the year of Hrbek (’14). So I have reason to be optimistic about the new year. But it’s also time to look…
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Failure is the theme in top words of 2013
Language tells all there is to know about people. Death of a language is the death of a culture. Complex languages denote complex people. Languages change, so do we. If this is to be believed, our times shall be designated as the error message one gets when clicking on something that isn’t really there. To…
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Paging Dr. Strangelove? Nuclear code was “00000000”
From 1962 to ’82 the nuclear launch code at all U.S. missile silos (if they were password protected at all) was set at “00000000.” Military leaders openly defied orders to tighten missile launch safeguards, in part using the lax nuclear code. Full security improvements weren’t implemented until 2004 when a guy published an article explaining…
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Governor urges caution on Northern Minnesota mining
Today the three largest newspapers on the Iron Range published another edition of their “MINE” special section. Like “MINE,” “MINE II” is a collection of stories about northern Minnesota mining, stressing its positive impact on communities. Normally I would just let this stand, but I did see something really interesting: Gov. Mark Dayton declared his…
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Ely man ‘Bushwhacks the Boundary Waters’
UPDATE III: From Ely Outfitting Company and Boundary Waters Guide Service: Post by Ely Outfitting Company and Boundary Waters Guide Service. UPDATE II: Marshall Helmberger of the Timberjay reported on this morning’s KAXE Morning Show that Zabokrtsky is nearing Ely and that friends plan to welcome him home sometime today. UPDATE: As expected, Jason Zabokrtsky’s…