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… Read More →
IRRRB mulls $33 million 2016 budget
May 18, 2015 by 2 Comments
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… Read More →
A simmering economic crisis on the Iron Range
May 17, 2015 by 3 Comments
You know the old saying. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water it will hop right out. But if you put a frog in a pot of cool water, gradually turning up the heat, the frog won’t realize it’s boiling to death. Politicians of all stripes have boiled a bog’s worth of rhetorical frogs over the years…. Read More →
The distant barons of Duluth and the Iron Range
May 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
The Iron Range is dead; long live the Range
April 26, 2015 by 12 Comments
“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… Read More →
Reeling U.S. Steel asks for relief on state mining leases
April 25, 2015 by 13 Comments
Socked by a global iron and steel price collapse, U.S. Steel is asking the state for a reduction in the cost of its state-owned mining leases, which currently fund trusts benefiting Minnesota universities and schools. The company needs to reduce costs by about $25 million to reopen its Iron Range properties. The 114-year-old Pittsburgh-based company announced earlier this… Read More →
Mesabi Nugget stays down; U.S. Steel continues cuts
April 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Business North reports that Steel Dynamics, owner of the Mesabi Nugget plant in Hoyt Lakes, will keep the plant idled as the price of iron remains lower than the cost of production. The idling was announced months ago with the hope that it would end after new equipment was installed during the shutdown. Though the upgrades… Read More →
Iron Range Earth Fest promises blend of heart and Sol
April 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
If you follow national and international news, it’s easy to see some underlying trends hovering just off the front pages. The cost of solar energy has gone way down in the last couple years, making it affordable and arguably a leading prospect for new energy production in the near future. Climate change continues to affect places all… Read More →
Iron Range mines must modernize to survive
April 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment
As the iron mining and steel industries gird for a hard year of low prices and intense international competition, iron mining executives and academics meet in Duluth this week for the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) Minnesota conference. WDIO reported on the Tuesday keynote by Don Fosnacht, director of the Center for Applied Research and… Read More →
An uncomfortable truth about Iron Range’s mining woes
April 6, 2015 by 15 Comments
Here on the Iron Range one cannot escape the talk of impending layoffs at area iron mines. You also can’t mistake who company officials and unions alike blame for this situation: foreign steel dumping. “Dumping” means foreign companies, sometimes as extensions of foreign governments, sell steel for less than it costs to produce, just to move it off their shores. Usually their… Read More →
