Graduation day approaches for five northeastern Minnesota community and technical colleges. And as it so happens, this will be the last graduation day before the beginning of a new era in the region’s long tradition of higher education. The festivities start Tuesday, May 10, when commencement takes place at Vermilion Community College in Ely. Vermilion… Read More →
Five northeastern Minnesota colleges merge
March 16, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Today the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees approved the merger of five northeastern Minnesota community and technical colleges. The colleges include Hibbing Community College, Itasca Community College, Mesabi Range College, Rainy River Community College and Vermilion Community College. The new college will be called Minnesota North College with campuses in Ely, Eveleth,… Read More →
Iron Range 4th of July returns with gusto in 2021
June 22, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Today I present one of my favorite annual features at MinnesotaBrown: the annual Fourth of July weekend lineup of Iron Range regional parades, street dances and fireworks displays. I’ve only been posting my newspaper columns this year as I finish my book. But I just had to come out of my book-writing cave to put… Read More →
Five NE Minnesota colleges move toward merger
January 30, 2020 by 2 Comments
On Wednesday, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees approved plans to merge five community and technical colleges in Northeastern Minnesota. After a two-year planning period the board will vote again on whether to go through with it. The new college organization, if approved, would be in operation by Fall 2022. These five… Read More →
Labor faces unresolved peril in new mine deals
September 1, 2019 by 3 Comments
It’s Labor Day weekend on the Mesabi Iron Range. So let’s talk about labor. You might have noticed a burst of media attention for a project labor agreement between the proposed Twin Metals mine in Ely and local construction trade unions. It was a front page story in this and most regional newspapers and a… Read More →
Ely police talk down raging deer
May 23, 2019 by Leave a Comment
When I was a reporter I would often have to translate police reports into normal human words. For countless journalists, this is a full time job. However, this tweet from the Ely Police Department requires no editing: Press Release: pic.twitter.com/V2HU9cHOT5 — Ely Police Dept (@ElyPolice) May 23, 2019 That’s one bad-ass momma deer ready to… Read More →
Bankruptcy claims remaining ShopKo stores, including Duluth
March 18, 2019 by 1 Comment
ShopKo announced today that bankruptcy would force it to close all its remaining stores, including six in Northeastern and Central Minnesota, by June 16. Stores in Duluth, Ely, Two Harbors, Aitkin, Mora and Moose Lake are among those that will close. ShopKo’s woes are nothing new, and are in keeping with general problems in the… Read More →
Some questions matter more in mining debate
September 17, 2018 by 3 Comments
I follow sports. I like to watch baseball and football in particular. Some of my friends are far more into sports than I am. Others don’t care about sports at all. For the first group, I sometimes fall disappointingly short in conversation. I just can’t recall the same statistics and analysis to explain why the… Read More →
Science can solve mining risks, but only if we demand it
July 15, 2018 by 5 Comments
As a nerd who grew up on an Iron Range junkyard, I appreciate anything that combines groundbreaking science with homemade contraptions. That’s why I’m fascinated by a daisy chain of unobtrusive barrels floating in an old Erie Mining pit outside Babbitt, Minnesota. They may save our world. Jeff Hanson put them there. Hanson is an… Read More →
Northern Lights brings Barber of Seville to Iron Range
July 3, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Each summer the Northern Lights Music Festival brings a fully staged classical opera to stages across Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. This summer, festival founder Veda Zupancic and her company bring Rossini’s Italian comic opera “The Barber of Seville.” The festival also backs chamber orchestra, instrumental trios and kids programming across the region. Events kick off… Read More →
