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400 families respond to Itasca broadband push
Itasca County, continuing its push for broadband for all residents, gave an update on its progress since the reinvigorated effort to collect survey results from interested residents unserved or underserved by current broadband providers. The press release follows: Itascans want better broadband. Over 400 Itasca County families have indicated that they want better access to…
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Connect Itasca redoubles effort to expand rural broadband
UPDATE: Hear the Morning Show interview that I did with Itasca County manager Trish Klein and Northern Community Radio’s Scott Hall Tuesday about this topic. Itasca County’s efforts to bring broadband access to every resident continue despite an early setback. The initial goal is to gather survey responses from underserved residents. Early confusion made it difficult for many…
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Silent strain: growing hunger in community demands action
A kindergarten teacher ducks into the lounge shortly after first bell. She rustles through a collection of abandoned snacks: forgotten granola bars and leftover lunches. She got the call from a working mother who was running late. Her daughter would be here soon. “She never gets to eat on mornings like this,” says the teacher.…
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Grand Rapids investors plan brewpub in Old Central School
A Grand Rapids, Minn., bank executive and the president of Magnetation are teaming up to bring a brewpub restaurant to the first floor of the Old Central School in the Itasca County seat. Ed Zabinski, a city councilor and vice president at Grand Rapids State Bank and Matt Lehtinen, chief operating officer of the scram…
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Mississippi River Music Armada begins in Grand Rapids
With summer coming to its calendar-based conclusion (even if we have some good weather yet to come), I’ve heard about a really interesting concert series kicking off this week in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, just off the western Mesabi Iron Range. David Fort of the Canadian folk duo Twin contacted me with news of the 3rd annual Mississippi…
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Northbound Caravan brings some of MN’s best bands to Grand Rapids, MN
It’s been a good summer for live music in Northern Minnesota. Though I was too busy to write about it back then, the KAXE Mississippi River Festival last month, featuring past Great Northern Radio Show acts like Actual Wolf and the Roe Family Singers, was fantastic. The same venue — the Rotary Tent outside KAXE…
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On the fair, tall timber and Thomas the Tank Engine
In a quiet summer reverie I hear the chuffing of a steam engine around the tracks of a country bend. What could it be? Why, it’s a train with a face, of course. Our boys are officially too old for Thomas the Tank Engine and his Island of Sodor; Sir Topham Hatt and all the…
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Beware Iron Range hyperbole in Election 2014
Last week I was called into town to do another “Iron Range political pundit” interview with Northland’s NewsCenter’s Nick Minock. The story was about something presumptive Minnesota GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike McFadden had said about nonferrous mining projects in Northern Minnesota. McFadden had suggested that projects like PolyMet and Twin Metals, which have been mired in environmental…
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‘Gems of Itasca,’ exploring the 1,000-lake county
A pair of filmmakers with backing from stakeholders around Itasca County has produced a series of short films about life in this northern Minnesota county where the western Iron Range spills into the woods and waters of more than 1,000 freshwater lakes. Called “Gems of Itasca,” the series selects various topics about life here. As…
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75 years of Oz in town that gave us Judy, but lost Ruby Slippers
Starting Tuesday, June 10 and running until Sunday, June 15, Judy Garland’s northern Minnesota hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, will celebrate the 75th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz” with films, family events and entertainment. The 1939 picture based on L. Frank Baum’s fantastical novel (itself a thinly-veiled satire of late 19th Century American politics)…
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Grand Rapids city sales tax headed for ballot
Citizens from the far western Mesabi Range town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, will vote on whether the city will seek a $0.01 Grand Rapids city sales tax when they cast their general election ballots this fall. The Grand Rapids City Council unanimously approved the ballot measure at a recent meeting. The only northern Minnesota city with a…
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Iron Range Pizza Hut zero hour
I’ve encountered a number of reports that Pizza Hut restaurants in Hibbing, Grand Rapids and other locations in the region have closed today. I don’t yet know how many Pizza Hut restaurants have closed and I have not yet confirmed why they are closing, or if the closings are permanent. One employee suggested a franchisee…
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The unexpected poetry of northern Minnesota
April is National Poetry Month, and while I don’t normally remark on the passing of these chronological marketing designations, I do feel inclined to mention poetry here in Northern Minnesota. Most of my instruction regarding poetry came in college from my professor Barton Sutter, a working poet and author in Duluth. If you’re going to…
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Grand Rapids event adds voice to homelessness images
People tend to think of social problems being concentrated in the cities because population density forces people to see them. In rural areas and the small towns of northern Minnesota, the problems exist in similar proportion: just often outside the view of most people, most of the time. This is how so many people here…
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Iron Range mining boss wins dancing competition
It’s not every day that an Iron Range mining company sends me a YouTube video showing their company president dancing to a Ray Charles song from “The Blues Brothers” as he and a professional dancer win the Reif Center’s “Dancing with Our Stars” competition. In fact, this is the first time that has happened. Might…