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The quarterlife crisis of the Information Age
Like most “kids these days” I keep my cell phone with me at all times. I post etherial tidbits to social media and turn to Google to find the lyrics to a song or the location of a restaurant. I’m writing this column in the “cloud.” Nevertheless, I’m conscious of the fact that I taught…
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Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature
Bob Dylan, born in Duluth and raised in the Mesabi Iron Range mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, has won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. Though Dylan made several short lists for the prize in recent years, few thought the most prestigious writing award in the world would go to an artist whose primary medium was songwriting. This…
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Hibbing elementary school mulls future of gun range
In one of those “only on the Iron Range” headlines, today’s top banner on the Hibbing Daily Tribune reads “Lincoln Elementary gun range may close.” The story isn’t that there’s a gun range in an elementary school. It’s been there for 60 years, and other Range schools have gun ranges too. The story is that after all…
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Candidates debate in northern MN
With only a month to go before the Nov. 8 general election, folks are finally tuning into their local elections after 18 months of hardcore bloviation about the U.S. presidential race. Here in Northern Minnesota, legislative, city council and school board forums will take place over the next few weeks. These are often the best way to learn about…
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‘Makers’ in the STEM spotlight on the Iron Range
The Range Engineering Council will host its annual Iron Range STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Showcase this Friday, Oct. 7, at the Hibbing Memorial Building. Among the exhibitors will be Iron Range Makerspace, the new company seeking to create space for creative people to build and design things using sophisticated technology that few garage tinkers…
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Bob Dylan’s ironwork built to last
Bob Dylan is only a few years younger than my Grandpa Brown. In fact, Robert Zimmerman grew up just down the street from Pops in Hibbing, Minnesota. Pops would have been one of the tough kids revving engines past the Zimmerman place on 25th Street, perhaps prompting young Bobby to look down from his bedroom…
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Radio consolidation swells in Northern Minnesota
Back in high school in the 1990s, two radio stations impacted my life. The first was the one I listened to: KQDS out of Duluth. Classic rock ‘n’ roll, something I preferred to pop. You couldn’t always get KQ on the Iron Range, but you could on the jacked-up antennae my dad put on our roof…
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‘Be Prepared’ for change
When a Boy Scout or Girl Scout heads into the woods, he or she is prepared for any number of changing conditions. Rain. Wind. Long hikes or vigorous paddling on a choppy lake. The one thing constant in life is change. And really, all you can do is what the Boy Scouts preach: Be Prepared.…
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Sandstede wins House 6A DFL primary
As we reported last night, music teacher and union leader Julie Sandstede (DFL-Hibbing) advances to the Nov. 8 general election in Minnesota House District 6A. She’ll face Republican special education teacher Rob Farnsworth of Hibbing and active write-in candidate and union equipment operator Steven Hakly of Cherry. Sandstede’s win surprised many, including me. But looking at the…
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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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Help on the way for St. Louis County workers
County government is probably the most overlooked part of our democracy, and yet in Minnesota it’s the point of contact for the people who need the most help. This includes the messy work of law enforcement, child protection and family welfare, social services and the very apparatus of humane treatment of our citizens. When county government…
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Range DFLers hurtle toward Tuesday’s 6A primary
It’s Primary Election Eve in Minnesota. Tuesday, Aug. 9, brings the statewide primary election, in which local candidate pools will be narrowed and parties will sort out their nomination battles for state and federal offices. Today I’ll analyze the only major Iron Range legislative primary: the House 6A race to succeed State Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing).…
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Researchers list ideas for Range economic resilience
Economic diversification on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range has been a hot topic ever since I learned how to spell those words, and surely long before that. The darnedest thing about the subject is that most folks will support the concept of diversification, but fewer will accept a role in making it happen. This is only amplified by what is,…
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Hibbing disc golf course will survive mine expansion
When Hibbing Taconite announced it was expanding its mining footprint in May, most were relieved. Here was an Iron Range mine that, in the short run anyway, would avoid a shutdown. But there was a cost. The iconic North Hibbing mine view and Hibbing Disc Golf course would be blown to smithereens. The attractions will…
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Inside fundraising in House 6A Range DFL primary
Last week at the blog we dove into a debate over who funds Iron Range campaigns. At the time we didn’t have access to the first major campaign finance reports. Well, the Campaign Finance Board released those reports Tuesday morning. You can view them for yourself here. So let’s explore the fundraising for Northern Minnesota’s…