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A little less hooey, a little more Huey: the column
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, July 13, 2008 Hibbing Daily Tribune. You’ll notice that it’s based on a post I made here two months ago, but includes new information and perspective. A little less hooey, a little more HueyBy Aaron J. Brown It may not seem popular to emulate the late Louisiana…
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Seven words I won’t forget
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 29, 2008 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Seven words I won’t forgetBy Aaron J. Brown When I was eight, a stroke of luck changed my life and taught me the majority of the dirty words I currently know. That was the year I won the…
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Change to survive: growth in the 21st century
Rolf Westgard, who comments occasionally here at MinnesotaBrown, poses an interesting commentary in today’s Duluth News-Tribune, connecting human population growth, the use of natural resources and northern Minnesota’s economy. He even gets in a plug for high speed rail, which makes my recommendation even easier to give. An honors graduate in mathematics from Cambridge, [Thomas…
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Northern Minnesota can sustain forest-powered grid
It’s repeated often around the Iron Range, certainly here, that our wealth of natural resources in northern Minnesota will keep us alive in some form well into the future. One of those resources (and a renewable one at that) got some mixed news this week, though probably a net positive According to a story in…
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Iron Range Renaissance? Or Recovery?
Officials of all stripes engaged in back patting and speech-making on the Iron Range this week for the dedication of Mesabi Nugget, a new facility that makes iron nuggets from low grade iron ore near Hoyt Lakes. They also toured Minnesota Power’s new Taconite Ridge wind energy project by Virginia. This year we’re producing innovative…
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Tom Bakk: the MinnesotaBrown interview
Iron Range State Sen. Tom Bakk, chair of the powerful Senate Tax Committee, is exploring a run for governor in 2010. He’s been making the rounds to newspapers and blogs telling people his decision-making strategy. Paul Demko did an interview with Bakk earlier in the week for the Minnesota Independent. His political team approached me…
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Long, hot summer
Just as in the rest of my life, I deal with multiple audiences on this blog. Some folks come here for politics. Some come here to see what’s up on the Iron Range. Some come here because they read my columns or listen to my radio essays. And some come here because they googled “moonshine”…
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Steel barons of the 21st century
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 8, 2008 Hibbing Daily Tribune. It was held over from last week because Essar made an announcement reiterating their commitment to the Minnesota Steel project just beforehand. My original sentiment remains, though; the Range must not depend on large steel companies or consultant-driven projects to deliver…
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Fightin’ Eighth’s back bench is deep
Yesterday I gave you my list of potential DFL candidates to consider in the event that Democrats take the White House and longtime Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN8) is offered the position of Secretary of Transportation. As I said, this is not necessarily likely, but worth thinking about in the event that it happens. After all,…
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Mulling a Post-Oberstar World
According to an item in MinnPost, U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) is strongly suggesting that if Barack Obama wins the presidential election this fall that he nominate Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) to be Secretary of Transportation. Oberstar is the longtime ranking Democrat and chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Oberstar has represented Minnesota’s…
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Range project loan payments were extended as favor to company
Another Excelsior Energy audit story ran Sunday in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. This one focused on the decision by Iron Range Resources Commissioner Sandy Layman to unilaterally extend the interest payment deadline for this company a couple different times. The story seems fairly benign, but the bigger story for me is that the DFL dominated…
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Optimistic news about Minnesota Steel on the Iron Range
Like a lot of people who have followed the story of the proposed Minnesota Steel integrated mining and steel making facility near Nashwauk, I’ve been getting nervous. While officials were receiving assurances that the western Iron Range project would go forward as planned, we were all getting mixed signals as Minnesota Steel’s new parent company,…
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Whitepine talks about steel wars
Paul at Whitepine, my east Range counterpart, is writing about the same modern-day steel baron wheeling and dealing that I have been talking about. His main argument is that we Iron Rangers need to have a backup plan because there’s a lot we don’t know about Essar and the Minnesota Steel project. I agree. Check…
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Legal troubles for Minnesota Steel owner
The company that aims to buy and run the proposed Minnesota Steel plant near Nashwauk is running into legal problems related to its recent attempt to gain a larger share of the North American steel market. A MinnesotaBrown reader gave me this tip. From Business Standard: Domestic conglomerate Essar’s latest US possession, Esmark, is caught…
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Steelworkers endorse Obama
Here’s a union endorsement in the presidential race that has implications on the Iron Range. (Found via yellowdog) The Range was going to be John Edwards country on Feb. 5 and Obama needs to hold the big DFL margins up here to win Minnesota. The Steelworkers aren’t necessarily the largest constituency up here anymore, but…