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Bakk whips votes to save session, career
I’ll be stepping away from the blog for a few days, but it is clear at this hour that the special session to resolve the 2015 legislative business is still a rocky proposition. At this point, the delay is fixed entirely on the DFL Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) still doesn’t have the…
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Great Northern Radio Show live Saturday from Grand Marais
(To the tune of “Do You Know the Way to San Jose“) Do you know the way to Grand Marais? I’ve been away so long. I may go wrong and lose my way. Do you know the way to Grand Marais? I’m going back up the North Shore to Grand Marais. 61 is a great…
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Minnesota’s self-induced legislative crisis nears end
Gov. Mark Dayton, House Speaker Kurt Daudt and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk have reached a tentative compromise on the bills vetoed by the governor, paving the way for an imminent special legislative session. Having already abandoned his demand for universal voluntary early childhood programs, and more recently the repeal of (probably unconstitutional) provisions that…
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On Graduation Day
Graduation Day is so much cliché, so much Pomp and Circumstance that they even named the song for it. You dress your best — new tie and dad’s clip, blue dress and subtle flash of white camisole — only to cover all with a plastic table cloth from the dollar store, topping your round head…
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The night Jesse Ventura ‘shocked the world’
Nate Silver’s popular polling aggregator and statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight.com, now housed with ESPN, is doing a series of short documentaries about situations where polling shaped the news. The one posted this week features the 1998 election of Gov. Jesse Ventura (I-Minn.), one of the most compelling political stories in state history. Well worth a watch:…
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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,…
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On shapes and letters, sound and fury
Today, the Minnesota’s legislative leaders and Gov. Mark Dayton remain in a standoff over education funding. GOP House Speaker and DFL Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk announced a comprehensive budget agreement in principle late last week, but they neglected to ensure that DFL Gov. Mark Dayton would sign the deal. That prospect is now in doubt. Dayton’s well-quoted…
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MN sulfate rule compromise treads water
While the economy will be the bigger story on the Iron Range this summer, we have a development in the ongoing saga of Minnesota’s wild rice sulfate standard and the industries and communities it affects. Earlier this spring, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency proposed adjusting the 10 mg per liter sulfate standard designed to preserve the…
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The emperor has no bandwidth
As I prepare to embark upon another summer of media production and online teaching from my rural Northern Minnesota home, my thoughts again turn to broadband. We already wrote about the blasé outcome for broadband projects in this year’s legislative session. Of course, the technology costs money — a sizable investment for private companies or government to build…
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An economy stuck on ‘trudge’
According to Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development data from late 2014, for the first time in the 14-year history of this survey, there are more jobs available for residents of Northeastern Minnesota than there are people seeking jobs. That sounds pretty good, until you read the fine print. Last week, the Jobs Now Coalition…
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The destiny of place in social class
Last week, the New York Times introduced a fascinating news graphic showing the power of place in determining the economic future of people born there. (“The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up,” May 5, 2015). The graphic accompanied the story “An Atlas of Upward Mobility” by David Leonhardt, Amanda Cox and Claire Cain Miller,…
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Local blog still breathing, feeling fine
For a community college instructor, the end of the school year is a wondrous time — but not particularly conducive to blog output. News, views and cultural tidbits swirl about as always, yet my keystrokes are needed elsewhere. Look for my Sunday column, followed by some new content next week that I think you’ll enjoy. I’ll be here if…
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The distant barons of Duluth and the Iron Range
As readers here know, we in Northern Minnesota are living in a time of speculation and bewilderment over the machinations of distant industrial powers. The regional economy of the Iron Range is dangling on a bouncing string pulled by unseen actors. But this is nothing new. Same now as it ever was. Zenith City Online, a…
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The mighty power of the freshwater seas
In Northern Minnesota, one’s eyes simply adjust to seeing the Canadian flag alongside the Stars and Stripes. Whether it started as a diplomatic favor, or a ploy to pull in Canadian tourists, the practice shows no signs of changing. The pep bands learn “O, Canada” and it’s widely understood that we have a lot more…
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City mulls animal layoffs at Duluth zoo
The Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minnesota, is a place of special memories for those of us who grew up in Northern Minnesota. On one hand, it was “our zoo,” the first place where we laid eyes on exotic animals like you see in the storybooks and subject of our youthful curiosity. On the other,…