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The last days of the Republic
People use the word “nostalgia” to describe fond remembrances of the past. But that’s not the real meaning. Nostalgia comes from the Greek words nóstos álgos, or “pain of homecoming,” or perhaps “pain from an old wound.” It referred to the specific psychological aching that comes from remembering something that is gone. We feel nostalgia…
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Real hope for rural broadband on the Iron Range
Growing up I always lived just outside the towns of the Iron Range. Back roads. Cracked pavement and dirt roads. My family ran small businesses. Some lasted a while. Some not so much. Such is the nature of small business. The ‘80s were bad. They were for a lot of people. School changed my life.…
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The horrible, solvable problem of hunger
A mother flees an abusive husband with her four children. She hasn’t worked in a long time and her parents live out of state. She’s leaving the shelter soon, but isn’t on her feet yet. An retired contractor wracked with a bad back can’t pick up jobs anymore. He is alone. One day he finds…
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Survey to spur high speed internet across Iron Range
I have fiber optic internet service direct to my home in rural Itasca County. Why? Enough of my neighbors filled out a survey and kept pressure on local leaders to get our area added to broadband expansion projects by Paul Bunyan Communication. Residents of the east central Iron Range will now have the same opportunity.…
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LIVE BLOG: Primary Night on the Iron Range
Welcome to the Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016 MinnesotaBrown primary election live blog. Your intrepid host Aaron Brown will provide analysis of Iron Range results throughout the evening. We’ll pay close attention to the House 6A DFL contest and St. Louis County commissioner races. 11:00: There will be more to write in coming days, but we can…
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Mesabi Academy to close
The Kidspeace Mesabi Academy juvenile corrections and school facility in Buhl will close at the end of June. The move comes amid controversy over an American Public Media investigative report on allegations of abuse and interference with a county investigation at the facility. American Public Media is the parent organization of Minnesota Public Radio. Those allegations have…
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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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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.…
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MPR: Abuse cover-up at Buhl juvenile center
For residents of the Iron Range, the KidsPeace Mesabi Academy in Buhl is just a part of the tapestry of the region’s economic metamorphosis. Once the beloved neighborhood Buhl school, the building was “saved” by becoming a juvenile correction center for boys. This week, American Public Media Reports — a organizational relative of Minnesota Public…
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MI-B seeks collaboration funds for new school
Following legislative action in 2014, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board created a school collaboration fund from local taconite production and occupation taxes. The broad goal was to encourage fiscally challenged Iron Range school districts to share resources, curriculum and staff, or even consolidate. But in practical, baldly political terms, this fund was created…
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Mt. Iron-Buhl explores Plan B: new school
An unpopular plan to build a large new high school for the Iron Range districts of Mountain Iron-Buhl, Eveleth-Gilbert and Virginia now abandoned, MI-B is considering building its own new school. This according to Jana Hollingsworth of the Duluth News-Tribune and other local media covering the district’s board meeting this week. One interesting feature here…
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Shared Iron Range high school plan falling apart
A major effort to build a shared high school for three Iron Range school districts is on the ropes after two of the three affected community school boards backed out of the plan in separate votes last night. Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert school boards voted to end their involvement in the co-location of a new school…
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East Range shared school plan having bumpy roll-out
One of the biggest stories on the Mesabi Iron Range this year has been the proposal to build a new co-located high school in Mountain Iron that would serve students in the Virginia, Eveleth-Gilbert and Mountain Iron-Buhl school districts. Jana Hollingsworth of the Duluth News Tribune penned a Sunday feature on the shared high school…
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The understated coolness of the Mesabi Trail
There was a time I had a close relationship with my bike. When I lived in town I rode it to work, to interviews, to the Rotary meetings. My last night at the paper before I went to grad school, I rode the bike round and round over the thread bare carpet of the Hibbing…
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What/where is Britt? Find that and more Sunday
I never signed up to be a historian (an historian? See, I don’t even know) but write a book that tangentially involves history and BAM you be one. The bar is low, but I aim high. That’s why I’ll be the keynote speaker at the Britt Community Historical Society Annual Dinner on Sunday, July 11…