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Empire Mine backers pitch future project to Cliffs
Workers and local leaders in Northern Michigan want Cleveland-Cliffs to locate its next value-added iron plant in the U.P. rather than here on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. A community group in Marquette began organizing efforts to woo the mining company to its historic home in Michigan. This brings another twist to the ongoing saga over what…
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Up in Smoke: Superior disaster reminds why we watch industry
Just six days ago the Twin Ports of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin could have been blown to smithereens. A billowing fire engulfed the Husky Oil Refinery in Superior, encroaching just 150 feet from a tank of hydrogen fluoride. An explosion of that tank would have atomized Superior and released a deadly toxic cloud for…
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Dig Deep explores ‘White Knight’ ideas to fix problems
The Northern Community Radio podcast “Dig Deep” took on a new series of topics last week. The ideas came from our live event at Itasca Community College on March 21. During the Q&A after our live podcast event, one gentleman asked a question. “Is it time for a ‘White Knight” to come in and take…
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Notable Iron Range mutant making whiskey now
In so many ways, Bob Dylan is a Northern Minnesota mutant. And I say that with respect, in the evolutionary sense. Born in Duluth, raised on the Mesabi Iron Range, Dylan shot out of this place like a rocket almost 60 years ago. You know the rest. Dylan might never be like the kids he…
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Spring brings a new world on foot
And suddenly the road is clear enough to walk. A little mud but less than usual. Spring came late to Northern Minnesota, but like the prodigal son we welcome it into our hearts. Last month’s winter lamentations hang like deflated balloons in faraway trees. Fresh spruce fingers reach beyond last year’s grasp. Small dumb flies…
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2018 Homegrown Music Festival runs April 29-May 6
This Sunday, April 29, the Homegrown Music Festival opens in Duluth, Minnesota. This year marks 20 years of original music in the Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas. The Duluth sound, if you believe such a thing exists, was either created at or amplified by Homegrown. Duluth manages to support hundreds of acts. Full time…
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Sam Cook retires from Duluth News Tribune
Starting tomorrow, the outdoors page at the Duluth News Tribune will look a little different. Longtime outdoors editor and columnist Sam Cook will retire Friday, April 27. Cook held that post 38 years. Sam Cook is a gifted storyteller. His grasp of details makes any story he writes a portal into whatever forest or lake…
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Leaders scramble to save Hill Annex Mine State Park
Hill Annex Mine State Park is surely an oddity among state recreational facilities. You can’t camp there. Virtually every natural feature you see emerged from the wholly unnatural act of removing iron ore from the ground. Nevertheless, the Calumet, Minnesota, park represents a glimpse back into time, and provides important context to what happens to…
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Amid perennial politics, campaign workers unionize
My first experience with political campaigning came after I walked into the Democratic-Farmer-Labor campaign office in Virginia, Minnesota in 1996. I volunteered on the spot. My school just laid off some of my teachers. Further, I had no idea how my recently bankrupted family and I would be able to pay for college. Motivated, I…
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Stewart Mills offers surprising analysis on mining
When Stewart Mills announced he would not make another run for Congress in Minnesota’s Eighth District this year, he offered decidedly sharp words for the Republican political establishment. Now it appears that Mills found a new occupation: blogger. Mills writes a new blog called Outstate, which reports on a blend of national and state political…
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Busting trusts in the 21st Century
When Hibbing mayor Victor Power took the stage at a Minneapolis Labor Day rally in 1915, he lambasted the powerful steel trust for its abuses of working people. Every person in the sprawling crowd knew he was talking about U.S. Steel. Then the world’s largest corporation, the massive reach of U.S. Steel controlled the wages…
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Time to let our Iron Range flag fly
These days, the Iron Range seems divided. Used to be the arguments were about pickup trucks, but now they’re about politics, culture and religion. That angries up the blood, alright. Hard to have a conversation. For as long as I’ve been covering the Range, nearly all of my adult life, certain problems seem ever-present. The…
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Phifer drops out of Eighth District race
Leah Phifer announced today she would not seek the DFL nomination for Congress in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. Phifer had lead all ten ballots at last Saturday’s MN-8 Convention in Duluth. “My goal, since first declaring my candidacy in October 2017, has always been to win the DFL endorsement, bring new voices to the table…
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A billion reasons why PolyMet debate misses the point
“Look here, now!” the North-Going Zax said, “I say! You are blocking my path. You are right in my way. I’m a North-Going Zax and I always go north. Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!” “Who’s in whose way?” snapped the South-Going Zax. “I always go south, making south-going tracks.…
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After 10 ballots, 8th District DFLers opt not to endorse
Forty-four years ago, DFL delegates in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District met in Grand Rapids for a convention that lasted 30 ballots. They endorsed Iron Range State Sen. Tony Perpich. Perpich would, however, lose the primary to the candidate he beat at that convention, Jim Oberstar. Oberstar would go on to serve 36 years in Congress,…