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Homogenized media for a divided people
I’m not very good at self-righteous anger. It weighs on me. I torture myself with it. More often than not I end up doing no good at all when I respond in anger. These are tough, angry times. So I’ve been strategic in what I write about, trying again to spend my time in ways…
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Mills opts out of MN-8 run, hints at GOP woes
Stewart Mills announced Wednesday he would not seek the GOP nod in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District in 2018, ending the possibility of a Republican showdown in this tight swing district. Wrote Mills in a social media statement: I have decided not to have my name on the ballot this election cycle, this is not a…
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Lake Superior wave breaks records
By now you’ve heard your fill of Gordon Lightfoot’s wonderful but perhaps overplayed masterpiece, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The 42nd anniversary of the iron ore ship’s sinking in an early winter storm will be marked Nov. 10. The song’s iconic line “when the gales of November come early,” was on many lips this…
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The marauding bog of All Hallow’s Eve
October, month of the dead. The leaves fall and the flowers die. Colors fade to gray, brown and a deathly yellow. Hence the annual debauchery of Halloween, one final howl before the virginal snow and holy days of winter. Which monster will haunt you this All Hallow’s Eve? Dusk bathes the shoreline of North Long…
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The sky before snow
The first touch is warm. The heat of the incubator or mother’s arms. Tight swaddling keeps the heat in. The first sense. Touch. In the hours before the first snow falls, the sky warns of change to come. The sky reaches down to touch you. This embrace is cold. The cold air surrounds us today…
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Talking journalism on ‘Dig Deep’
Last week Northern Community Radio broadcast another series of episodes of “Dig Deep,” a podcast exploring contemporary issues from unique points of view. The show features Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns, a conservative, and yours truly, a known liberal. We attempt to collaborate on solutions and sticking points in current political issues, rather than just…
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‘The claw is our master’
The penguin sat atop a veritable iceberg of stuffed animals outside the Chinese restaurant. Penguins can’t smile in the wild, but this one grinned like a Cheshire cat under the bright lights of the machine. I’ve always had a thing for penguins. Perhaps I’ve just got a soft spot for any awkward misfit with hidden…
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Zany MN-8 may see contests on both sides of ballot
In some ways, 2010 seems like a long time ago. It wasn’t really, but future political scientists will easily identify that election as the moment Northeastern Minnesota’s 8th District went from being considered a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party fortress to becoming one of the most expensive, competitive seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The higher stakes,…
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DFL candidates debate Friday in Grand Rapids
This Friday I’ll moderate a DFL candidates forum at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids. All six announced DFL candidates for governor are scheduled to attend the debate, which begins at 7 p.m. The forum is free to the public and will be held at Chuckers Auditorium. Itasca Community Television (ICTV) will record and rebroadcast…
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The Hunt for Bob October
All this brisk autumn air reminds me of the first time I saw Bob Dylan perform at the DECC in Duluth on October 22, 1998. The show was an elaborate excuse for me to see my girlfriend from Hibbing after I had moved away from the Iron Range for college. She wasn’t as much of…
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Leah Phifer announces DFL challenge in MN-8
This summer, national security analyst Leah Phifer of Isanti drove more than 7,000 miles of Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District on her motorcycle to meet voters and decide if she should run for Congress. Today, Phifer announced she would seek the DFL endorsement for the MN-8 seat, challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan of Crosby. Though…
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The pasty, perfect food above ground or below
Minnesota’s Iron Range gets plenty of attention for its ethnic foods. Melting pot. Immigrants. Grandma’s kitchen. Yada yada. But you’ve got to reckon with the fact that it’s a lot easier to nosh on a can of pizza-flavored Pringles at the gas station than it is to get your hands on some halfway decent krumkaka.…
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Great Northern Radio Show returns to Hibbing Oct. 14
On Saturday, Oct. 14, I bring my Great Northern Radio Show back to the site of our first broadcast. This show at Hibbing Community College represents our sixth anniversary of doing live radio variety shows from small towns and forgotten places around Minnesota. We’ve got a lot to talk about in Hibbing. The mine is…
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Gov. Dayton OKs Chippewa Capital Partners plan
One way or another, a long awaited new taconite mine and iron briquette mill near Nashwauk, Minnesota, puts new meaning in the old phrase “take a slow boat to China.” On Saturday, Gov. Mark Dayton said he was satisfied with the financial package put together by Chippewa Capital Partners, the new owner of the former…
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Learning to love swamps, even the dismal ones
Another northern Minnesota fall brings me to the family hunting shack in Greaney, a scrubby stretch of land near Cook and Orr. Most folks would get there on Highway 53, but I live north of Nashwauk. That means I get there by cutting across the back roads of Itasca and Koochiching counties, through the ghost…