-
See active Iron Range mines or tour virtually
This Thursday brings the first of the Hibbing Taconite mine tours available via the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. The tours run every Thursday afternoon from June 25 to Aug. 6. The Hibbing Taconite mine tour takes you through an active iron mine and processing facility. You see how iron is blasted out of the ground and turned…
-
The lobbying cycle that limits Iron Range progress
Last weekend, the Star Tribune continued its investigative reporting on Iron Range politics and economic development with a Jennifer Bjorhus story that focused on Iron Range lobbyist Gary Cerkvenik and one of his highest profile projects, Mt. Iron’s Silicon Energy. The story received almost no attention on the Iron Range, but I’d like to revisit…
-
Vincent Bugliosi, a Range kid who left his mark on the world
The most commercially successful author ever to hail from Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range region was Vincent Bugliosi. An accomplished Los Angeles attorney, the man who prosecuted Charles Manson and wrote on topics from conspiracies to philosophy, Bugliosi died Monday at the age of 80. His book “Helter Skelter,” an account of his involvement in the Charles Manson case,…
-
‘Mr. Power’s undaunted fighting spirit’
There isn’t much in Iron Range newspapers these days that can rightly be called “refreshing,” but something in this Sunday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune surely fit the bill. Too bad it was a story originally published 100 years ago. Jack Lynch, my former colleague and neighbor from my Hibbing Tribune days, always does a good job finding…
-
Embattled RAMS settles on four candidates for top job
The Range Association of Municipalities and Schools (RAMS) has announced four candidates for its long vacant position of executive director. The position drew significant controversy earlier this year when the RAMS board named State Sen. David Tomassoni to the position, presenting a widely-perceived conflict of interest for Tomassoni and the group that lobbies St. Paul…
-
Essar ramps up Nashwauk construction
Construction is accelerating at the long awaited $1.9 billion Essar iron mine near Nashwauk, while Essar now says it’s optimistic about producing direct reduced iron products here. In a tour of the site on May 21 with Mitch Brunfelt, Essar’s assistant general counsel and director of government and public relations, I took pictures and observed…
-
Whatever gets you through the night
As a teenager l slept in the basement on a mildewed, brown-speckled mattress in the same room as a sump pump that rattled to life every time it rained. No, this isn’t the start of a long lost Dickens novel set on the Iron Range. I slept here by choice, giving my sister my warm,…
-
Bob Dylan among Letterman’s last guests
I’m working on a column about David Letterman’s retirement from the Late Show this week. I wrote about Letterman and late night TV some back in April, but the reality of it is upon us. Wednesday will be Letterman’s last show and the guests haven’t been announced. But Tuesday’s show brings a big name with…
-
IRRRB mulls $33 million 2016 budget
Even though the legislative session may go to the wire tonight at midnight, Iron Range lawmakers — who comprise the statutory Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board — will meet Tuesday morning in St. Paul to hash out the agency’s $33 million FY 2016 budget. “I am pleased that over half of the proposed budget…
-
Duluth Dylan Fest opens Sunday
My May schedule is a little different this year. For the first time in 14 years I’m not organizing a Bob Dylan-themed music, literature and arts event in the folk/rock legend’s Northern Minnesota hometown of Hibbing. We announced the reasons why we folded Dylan Days late last year, but the reality of it has arrived. Nevertheless,…
-
Mouthing for a cause: Iron Range Lip Sync Battle
It is an arduous pop culture trek that brings a hot new trend from the lips of Jimmy Fallon to the theater stage of Hibbing Community College. On Thursday evening, another fad completes its journey as the first-ever Iron Range Lip Sync Battle will take place at 7 p.m., with proceeds benefiting Advocates for Family Peace. Participants will include…
-
Cliffs lays off 100 Iron Range salaried workers
On Monday, Cliffs Natural Resources announced 100 job cuts at its Northern Minnesota mines affecting salaried workers at Hibbing Taconite, United Taconite in Eveleth and Northshore Mining in Babbitt and Silver Bay. Cliffs had declared optimism about avoiding Iron Range shutdowns just last week, but also unveiled a mine closure in Michigan and huge first quarter losses.…
-
Cliffs optimistic even as other Iron Range mines struggle
UPDATE: Post amended to add Cliffs plant shutodown in Michigan. We’ve spend an exhausting amount of digital ink and radio blathering on the struggles facing Iron Range mines amid a global contraction in steelmaking and iron ore. U.S. Steel properties in Northern Minnesota are preparing for shutdown that could last the rest of the year, while…
-
The Iron Range is dead; long live the Range
“The king is dead; long live the king.” This saying from the height of European monarchies meant when the person at a nation’s helm physically died, the title lived on with the next person in the royal line. Massive change could be seen as mere progression. This simple continuity kept order even at a time…
-
Mining may displace yet another Iron Range highway
By now we’ve talked plenty about the rerouting project for Iron Range Highways 53 and 135 near Virginia and Eveleth to accommodate new mining activity at Cliffs’ United Taconite mine. Now Cliffs says it will need to move Highway 5 between Hibbing and Chisholm to allow Hibbing Taconite to continue mining. The project would happen…