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Mesabi Daily News calls for economic diversification
Today’s Mesabi Daily News editorial, “Diversify, diversify,” cheers the news that Minntac will soon resume full production, but primarily demands leaders to dedicate new focus on economic diversification. So, yes, let’s rejoice in Minntac going back to full operation in about two weeks. And let’s also hope that the company’s Keetac facility on the west Range will…
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Warm greetings from Minnesota’s northern hellscape
All through yesterday friends and neighbors collectively set ablaze my social media feed with a link to an article entitled “These Are the 10 Worst Places to Live in Minnesota,” posted on a website called RoadSnacks.net. To save you the suspense, Nick James of RoadSnacks.net lists the worst cities are as follows: Cambridge Brainerd Grand…
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Iron Range Original Music Association to host street show
IROMA, or the Iron Range Original Music Association, is a loose alliance of active bands producing original music based out of Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Its members include a couple acts I’ve booked for my Great Northern Radio Show and that you see on the marquees of a number of establishments here and around the state. On Thursday,…
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Authentic Finnish music at the B’nai Abraham
This week, the B’nai Abraham Cultural Center and Museum will host a Finnish Music Festival Wednesday, July 22 at 7 p.m. Kanteleen Soittajat, a group of 18 enthusiastic American-Finns from Duluth and surrounding area perform on the kantele, an ancient instrument that originated two thousand years ago and is now Finland’s national musical instrument. Since…
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Steelworkers negotiations underway in Pittsburgh
After a spring and early summer in which Iron Range mine owners tightened belts, idled workers and sought relief from taxes and environmental regulations, now we come to a new phase of the region’s simmering crisis. This week in Pittsburgh, the United Steelworkers, the union that represents most Iron Range miners, opened negotiations with ArcelorMittal…
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Northern Lights Music Festival brings classics back to Range
The Northern Lights Music Festival is returning to the Iron Range this summer with its annual classical music and opera tour across the region. Last summer, I spoke with Veda Zupancic, the accomplished musician and director from Aurora who founded the event. This year, the Northern Lights festival kicks off today and includes events that run through July 20.…
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Chris Pratt was born on the Iron Range
Last week, I joined the legions of Summer 2015 movie-goers to see “Jurassic World” starring everyman action hero Chris Pratt. I also delighted in a little known connection between this film and the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota. And no, it’s not this: Guy who unsuccessfully weaponized velociraptors in #JurassicWorld looks like MN Senate leader Tom Bakk…
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With contracts looming, Range mines crunch numbers
No matter your job or politics, ten dollars is always ten dollars. By some reports, that’s how much money some Iron Range mines need to shave off their cost for a ton of taconite iron ore to survive the coming global steel industry contraction. John Myers at the Duluth News Tribune reported on this last weekend, highlighting…
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See active Iron Range mines or tour virtually
This Thursday brings the first of the Hibbing Taconite mine tours available via the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. The tours run every Thursday afternoon from June 25 to Aug. 6. The Hibbing Taconite mine tour takes you through an active iron mine and processing facility. You see how iron is blasted out of the ground and turned…
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Metsa’s Cats Under the Stars to reunite on the Iron Range
Paul Metsa, the Minnesota folk/rock troubadour, will reunite his signature band from the 1980s, Cats Under the Stars,” for a reunion concert in the Iron Range town where they formed 40 years ago. Cats Under the Stars will perform 7 p.m., Thursday, June 18, at the Lyric Center for the Arts at 510 Chestnut Street…
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Highway 53 funding part of bonding bill deal
State leaders are announcing that a $373 million bonding bill will be part of the upcoming special legislative session, including $140 million in funding for the Highway 53 relocation/bridge project that fizzled out at the end of the regular session. From Patrick Condon in the Star Tribune: Dayton has yet to call a special session, which…
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Embattled RAMS settles on four candidates for top job
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…
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Hwy 53 funds fall victim to turbulent session
Among the many casualties of the rocky legislative session was primary funding for the relocation of Highway 53, the road that connects Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range to Duluth and the rest of the state. Now, local elected leaders and Department of Transportation officials say that unless Highway 53 funding is part of the anticipated special…
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IRRRB mulls $33 million 2016 budget
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…
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‘Onions’ to killer murder birds of death
Last week I was talking to a friend from out of the area who had picked up a Saturday edition of the Mesabi Daily News at a local gas station. “You’re in for a treat,” I said. “You get to read Orchids and Onions, the most vile opinion page in all of Minnesota.” And it is.…