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MINOS lab departs Soudan mine cavern
This week crews remove components from the MINOS laboratory on the 27th level of the Soudan Underground Mine on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. The picture above shows massive steel “neutrino tracking” panels” being removed from the facility. Since 2003, the lab hosted notable experiments testing the nature of subatomic particles in a beam fired underground…
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Lab seeks new science 2,341 feet below ground
The biggest science experiment on the Iron Range ended just a few weeks ago. Workers now dismantle the neutrino detector at the University of Minnesota laboratory at the Soudan Underground Mine while state officials ponder new use for the unusual facility. This was the topic of a Sunday feature by Jenna Ross in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.…
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Uncertain fate for Soudan underground physics lab
I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that advanced physics research takes place a half mile beneath the earth at the retired Soudan Underground Mine on the Minnesota Iron Range. True, what they do there can be explained. (Mostly it’s research related to isolating the neutrino, a sub-atomic particle believed to be critical to understanding the universe). Yet it…
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ANALYSIS: Rob Ecklund wins 3A race
Rob Ecklund was elected State Representative for Minnesota House District 3A Tuesday by a wide margin. The Koochiching County Commissioner and Boise Cascade union paper worker earned 64 percent of the vote to Republican Roger Skraba’s 19 percent and independent Kelsey Johnson’s 16 percent. Ecklund carried 80 of 83 precincts, losing a pair of small…
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LIVE BLOG: MN House 3A Special Election today
Today voters head to the polls in Minnesota District 3A. This district is the state’s largest geographic House seat sprawling across Koochiching, northern and eastern St. Louis, most of Lake and all of Cook counties. This is a special election to replace the late Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake), who died last summer. Polls will…
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The not-so-special election in MN House 3A
Remember when the Iron Range political structure appeared poised for street riots heading into a closely-watched DFL primary in House District 3A? Anyway, that was a thing that happened not that long ago. Today we are just shy of a week away from the Dec. 8 House 3A general election that will determine who actually heads…
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Neutrinos in the news
Two scientists, one Japanese and the other Canadian, are sharing this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics. Their combined research helped confirm that neutrinos — the tiny, invisible particles that abound throughout the universe — have mass. From the Reuters report: Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald’s breakthrough was the discovery of a phenomenon called neutrino oscillation that…
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In House 3A, geography & labor politics shaped outcome
On Tuesday, Koochiching County Commissioner Rob Ecklund won Tuesday’s DFL Primary in the Minnesota House 3A special election to replace the late State Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake). Ecklund beat Tofte businessman Bill Hansen by about 450 votes, or 6 percentage points. I live blogged the election here. There are a few different ways to interpret…
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Polls open in House 3A special election DFL primary
Polls are open until 8 p.m. in today’s Minnesota House District 3A special election DFL primary. It’s been a fascinating campaign, full of inky barbs and clashes between Northern Minnesota political factions. Going into today’s election, Ecklund and Hansen have emerged as frontrunners, but with the potential for low turnout and the general unpredictability of this vast, rural…
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Hear the House 3A DFL showdown
Tonight at 7, the four DFL candidates in the House District 3A special election will participate in a forum at Vermilion Community College. The forum will be aired live on WELY and recorded for rebroadcast on Ely TV. The four DFL candidates are Koochiching County Commissioner Rob Ecklund, Tofte business owner Bill Hansen, International Falls…
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Everybody to the primary in House 3A special
The local DFL will not hold an endorsing convention for the Sept. 29 primary in the House 3A special election to replace the late Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake). This settles an important question many had about the process spurred by the loss of the popular, moderate DFL lawmaker to cancer last month. That means Koochiching County…
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Big mix of candidates, intrigue in House 3A special election
Filing has closed for the Sept. 29 primary and Dec. 8 general election in the House District 3A special election to replace the late State Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake). Six candidates spanning the wide geographic and ideological spectrum that characterizes this enormous rural Northeastern Minnesota district will vie for one ticket to St. Paul. Early…
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McCollum bill seeks to protect BWCA from mining
As the mining industry readies its strategy for the next few years, those seeking environment protections in Northern Minnesota generated headlines this week as well. Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), representing the St. Paul metro district, introduced legislation that would prevent mining in the same watershed as federal wildernesses like the Boundary Waters Canoe…
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Getting ‘Happy’ on the Iron Range
Because it’s Friday and because I’ve been so dang grumpy lately, here are the students and staff of Tower-Soudan Elementary doing a music video for “Happy” by Pharrell Williams: Have you heard this song before? Yes. Has this kind of video been done before? Yes. But I still share and recommend this work of art as anthropological…
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MN iron ore: changing history for 130 years
William Henry Brown was born in Northern Michigan during the peak of copper and iron mining in the Upper Peninsula. He was the son of a Cornish immigrant whose family had perhaps known mining since the Roman Empire. When he was a child he would have heard about new iron mining to the west in…