Today’s column (gift link) takes us to my home away from home, Chisago County. People sometimes think I moved to the Cities after I became a columnist for the Minnesota Star Tribune. Not so. I stayed right here at MinnesotaBrown World Headquarters in Itasca County. But it is true that I travel to the Cities…

Today’s column (gift link) is, as I put it in our editorial meeting, “for the fans.” Once again, and certainly not for reasons of algorithm, the state’s largest newspaper has allowed me to write about history. History is like a washing machine. You throw all the dirty laundry in there and something just a little…

When I mow the lawn I always turn on my garage radio. Because I’m mowing the lawn, I hear almost none of what’s on the radio, until I turn the mower off. You catch a song halfway through; an out-of-context news blurb. It’s like a friend that’s always there, but that won’t be mad if…

It’s hard to love a tick. For the past week, I’ve been researching for a column about the diseases ticks spread. Despite the angle, I ended up kind of loving ticks. Ticks only move 2-3 feet from where they are born, unless they hitch a ride. They live in the soil. It takes them half…

Today’s column (gift link) looks at the raging debate over hyperscale data centers from a new angle. I got the idea from an old friend, Chuck Marohn, who longtime readers will remember as my co-host on the KAXE podcast “Dig Deep.” Chuck’s a local guy. He’s conservative because he believes government should be local, not…

Ten years ago, the Iron Range swung hard to Donald Trump and the Republicans. Trump gave the United Steelworkers and mining companies something they always wanted: more tariffs on foreign steel. Then, last year, the steel industry started to stall. More than 600 Minnesota miners were laid off. Analysts quietly abandoned rosy projections about exploding…

Populism, like fire, burns until it runs out of fuel. Ten years ago, President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement ignited a dead forest far more combustible than many expected. Immigrants, intellectual elites and government became fruitful campaign targets.  With Trump back in office, and MAGA Republicans winning primaries against longtime incumbents, we see the populist fire still burns. And yet, this fire is not contained within one party, or even the two-party system. Amid increasing inflation and rising costs, economic warning signs illuminate the 2026…

When compared to the Roman Colosseum or Tower of London, we might call the United States a young nation. Here, an old high school being torn down might be younger than the people lamenting its demise. And yet our Constitution is the oldest governing document in the world. The nation that occupies this land is…

Wildfire season has been normal in northern Minnesota, at least by recent standards. Nevertheless, it’s been more dramatic than usual. Extreme wind and dry conditions caused a shotgun blast of fires last week. Highway 61 closed on the North Shore. Water planes filled up in Lake Superior. Over near Crosslake, an even larger fire flared…

I wanted to share some events I’ll be doing in Duluth and St. Paul over the next week. I leave the compound so little these days that this might qualify as news. On Saturday, May 23, I’ll be delivering the John Bushey Memorial Lecture for Duluth Dylan Fest from 1-3 p.m. at Zeitgeist Duluth, 222…

Today’s column (gift link) is about affordable cars. Cars dictate status in America. If you can afford a comfortable, reliable car, especially one that’s new, you’re in the middle class. Period. That’s all you need to know. And that’s good, because you need a car to safely navigate most American cities or live anywhere outside of…

After a year at the writer’s desk, my previous two decades in a college classroom already feel like a dream. Twenty-one years. More than 2,000 students. Innumerable committee meetings. One of the things that made my experience unique was that, from the start, half my teaching load was online. When I started in 2004, online…

For 25 years I’ve been writing about economic development on the Iron Range. In fact, I could blindly type the words “Iron Range economic development” on the underside of a dark car trunk as I’m being hauled away. One day I might do just that. Today’s column (gift link) is about Iron Range economic development,…