My radio essay for Saturday's "Between You and Me" program (10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 KAXE) deals with the topic of cookies. Indeed, the whole show will talk about cookies, but I focus in on the grand poo-bah of cookies for my generation, Cookie Monster. You should tune in if only to hear me do the Cookie Monster voice. Heck you should just tune in anyway. "Between You and Me" is usually a lot of fun all on its own. You'll find the show at 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online at http://www.kaxe.org/.

Also this weekend, read the banana column I started working on about three weeks ago. It didn't turn out quite the way I expected, but it's finally done. You see, it doesn't take long for bananas to turn brown, but it takes a long time for Brown to turn in a banana column. Wocka Wocka! Yes, there's more of that coming this Sunday in the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

I see at MN Publius that State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) has endorsed attorney Mike Ciresi for Minnesota's upcoming U.S. Senate race. The editors at MN Publius believe this may portend future Ciresi endorsements from other Range legislators. It might, but this situation is indicative of the overall woes of this Senate race. Incumbent Norm Coleman is somewhat popular, but not in any meaningful way. People generally don't hate him, but believe that he's a pretty slippery political chameleon.

Part of the appeal is that he's been very good about the "process" of being a Senator; he's effective at responding to things and runs a pretty good office. When Dylan Days, one of my projects, needed some help with visas some years ago his office provided quick assistance. It's not nearly enough for me to forgive him for his war votes or fervent support for the Mesaba Energy boondoggle on the Range, but his quick reactions are why people don't have strong negative feelings about him.

With his allegiance to ultra-unpopular President George W. Bush Coleman would normally be a good target. But Minnesota is a funny state and there's no guarantee that the DFL can get this one. I believe Bakk is underestimating Franken and overstating Ciresi's skills, but still; neither Franken nor Ciresi will have an easy time in beating Norm Coleman. They should; either one would be better, but for some reason Coleman knows the formula for calculating political fortunes and might escape.

This race also represents a change on the Iron Range. Most of the time, the Range delegation unifies behind a candidate. Heck, in any year prior to 2004 this race would see an Iron Range candidate. But everyone up north now realizes that Iron Rangers don't have the political or financial capital to mount a successful statewide run. Our last success story, Gov. Rudy Perpich, was a truly remarkable exception. But even so, normally the delegation backs one candidate. This time, you have the West Range legislators -- Reps. Tom Anzelc and Loren Solberg and Sen. Tom Saxhaug -- backing Franken. Bakk -- the "north" Range senator -- is backing Ciresi. It remains to be seen what Reps. Tony Sertich, Tom Rukavina and David Dill will do, but I don't think any of them are going to make an endorsement whole-heartedly. If you didn't need $10 million to run a campaign Sertich, Rukavina or Bakk would be in this race.

Also, on the subject of MN Publius's post, Tom Bakk may have been crowned "King of the Range" during a committee meeting last session, but the title is largely a joke. Bakk is chair of the Senate Tax Committee -- one of the most powerful spots in St. Paul -- which makes puffery a staple of his diet. The truth is no one is really in charge of this Iron Range delegation. They just are the way they are. It may be many years before we regain the influence we've lost since the 1980s and years more before another Iron Ranger is elected to a statewide office.

UPDATE: Don't forget to take part in the Quick Poll along the right side of the blog. Do you believe Santa Claus is A) real, B) not real, C) real in our hearts, or D) State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook).

Check out Christina's new blog, Northern Cheapskate. Unlike my undisciplined, eclectic blog, Christina focuses on a specific topic: living frugally in the north woods. She talks about her experiments in running our household more efficiently, money-saving ideas and resources for trimming the family budget. She's a whiz at this stuff and her blog is clever, fun and useful. And she never, ever talks about Range politics or energy issues.

More on the Excelsior story. Read an op/ed from the Duluth News-Tribune by Charlotte Neigh, the co-chair of Citizens Against the Mesaba Project (CAMP). Here is an excerpt:

There was a hearing last night about the Environmental Impact Statement by Excelsior Energy for its Mesaba Energy Project near Taconite. The project would be a $2.3 billion coal gasification power plant. I didn't attend. Fact is, the EIS is a small part of the issue with this project. The TV news -- WDIO in particular -- always paints Excelsior Energy's project as a battle between a citizen environmental group opposed to the project and local leaders who support the project to get jobs, jobs, jobs. That's exactly the narrative that Excelsior expected and wants. It plays into old emotions on the Iron Range and, if perpetuated, will lead to the defeat of "those environmentalists."

The truth -- so seldom reported -- is that this project is a money-grab orchestrated by some very smart lobbyists, lawyers and consultants to exploit the financial resources of the Iron Range. The core of this company's resources come from public sources. Their risk is absorbed by taxpayers. Future profits would go to the owners, not the people. The electricity isn't needed in the amount they propose to produce. Existing power companies like Minnesota Power and Xcel think the whole thing is a joke, but don't make a big deal because of all the precedent being set for future plants they may want to build. The "clean" technology can't be used because of the geology of the proposed location and isn't even in the actual proposal anyway.

Permitting is the least of the Mesaba Energy Projects problems. Their real problem is their overwhelming costs, their lack of a customer and rapidly developing renewable energy technology that makes their "innovative" project look more like the boondoggle it really is.

I don't claim to know the level of sincerity on the part of Excelsior Energy's officials. I only know that there is little chance this plant will be built and no practical chance of this project producing the results promised. Guess what? That wasn't covered at the EIS hearing and you won't see it on the TV news. At least, not yet.

UPDATE: You will hear deeper perspective on the radio, though. Here's Minnesota Public Radio's story.

Toddler dialogue from this morning:

TODDLER: Santa bring Cranky? (the Crane, from "Thomas and Friends")

ME: That depends, are you a good boy?

TODDLER: Hmmm.

ME: Are you a good boy or naughty?

TODDLER: I like breakfast.

Sounds like someone is preparing for a congressional campaign.

I don't know how many people read this; 16 maybe? Anyway, I'm a political junkie and I'm just about OD'ed on coverage of next year's presidential race. I could cite polls, electability estimates, and resumes, but I won't. Just think about this: who could provide a spark of idealism in American citizens at a time when few have any at all?

This is a few days old, but look at this excerpt from the Hibbing Daily Tribune's Nov. 23 coverage of a recent Nashwauk Public Utilities Commission meeting (Nashwauk is a small town on the Western Mesabi, for those new to the Range).

The headline might be a little overly dramatic, but here is a sign that in all of our economic "hopin'" on the Iron Range we still have big problems. Since it would take at least five years for the economic development projects everyone is talking about (Essar's Minnesota Steel plant, PolyMet, etc.) to manifest as enrollment increases, we'll face some major financial issues in our schools in coming years. I predict a strong look at consolidation ... again ... between some of our districts. Remember, it's about the education provided to students; not the preservation of buildings.

I’m generally a positive, happy dude. But it’s hard for me to avoid cynicism
during the holiday consumerism assault. Every year we are treated to the false impressions that our economy relies on everyone buying plastic goods the day after Thanksgiving. We are told what toys are “hot” and what our rooftops should look like from the ionosphere (Answer: like a small star). People spend themselves into debt, creating stress and hardship. The kind of love we aim to celebrate during this season is replaced by the kind of love that is really just a rush of shopping mall oxygen and excessive eggnog. I better stop now before retail federation storm troopers raid my house and charge half a dozen dancing, singing animal decorations to my credit card. (Try explaining that one to CitiBank).

~ An excerpt from my Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 column in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Read it at http://www.minnesotabrown.com/ or archived here.

My radio essay for KAXE's "Between You and Me" is special for this week's topic, "Women Who Hunt." I've written about hunting in the past, including my family's hunting traditions and the local cultural significance of hunting. This time I focus on how the media likes to beat the heck out of stories like, well, "Women Who Hunt." I wonder aloud how many times I'll hear the same dopey "male/female" puns and cliches used for the same stories every year.

Tune in between 10 a.m. and noon tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 24) on 91.7 FM KAXE or online at www.kaxe.org.

The family and I decided to go shopping today despite the many predictable frustrations that would occur on "the biggest shopping day of the year." Things went fine, by and large, but it sure does raise the blood pressure.

My Hibbing Daily Tribune column for this upcoming Sunday deals with the Christmas shopping concept, so tune in for that. Meantime, I'll be finding time to get my new LED Christmas lights up on the house. I was limited to buying just four strings because they cost more, so I have to rework my design pattern.

I did make one humorous observation that serves as a metaphor for our economy AND our society. Picture a guy about my age (mid to late 20s) looking over the blenders and food processors on sale at Wal-Mart. He's on his cell phone, presumably with his significant other, and I pick up the conversation from here: "Well, what DO you want then? ... How will I know if you don't tell me? ... Well, OK fine." Must be a young relationship. Most seasoned pros know that you shouldn't buy kitchen appliances unless specifically told to do so, and you never stand by the product you're considering buying for your lovey, call her and ask her if that's what she wants. Doing so in regards to a kitchen appliance violates two major laws at once. I had to laugh when I saw the same guy later leaving the electronics section with a digital camera. Heh-heh. Someone had to PAY OUT.

I guess they don't do this in other countries. I heard something about that, somewhere.

During college, when other people were "hooking up" and "having fun," I was editing my college newspaper. I like to tell myself this was a personal choice.

I'll be taking a break from the blog on Thursday, mostly to eat and eat and eat. Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's the news from International Falls. My analysis is below.

RRCC ends football program; Provost cites college’s
loan default rate as reason
By LISA KACZKE, International Falls Daily Journal

The football program at Rainy River Community College has been terminated.

Provost Wayne Merrell said Monday that the termination is related to the fact that RRCC had the highest loan default rate in the country. The majority of the defaulters were on the football roster during the most recent reporting time frame.

RRCC’s default loan rate for 2005, the latest year of data, was 31.1 percent, according to Merrell. The college’s rate was 16 percent in 2004 and 11 percent in 2003.

If the default trend were to continue, RRCC would no longer be eligible to provide student loans, called Department of Education Title IV funds, to any students, according to Merrell.

If an institution’s loan default rate reaches 40 percent in any year or if its rate is above 24 percent for three consecutive years, the institution is no longer eligible to distribute Title IV funds.

Merrell said he received the notice from the Department of Education about the college’s default loan rate two months ago. Since then, he has discussed the issue with U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar’s staff, state legislators representing the area, and the loan providers.

“There was no other way to save the program,” Merrell said.

A question about the program’s status was answered in December 2006 when Merrell decided to keep the program at RRCC in response to support for it from about 130 people who attended a forum on the future of the program.

RRCC’s football program has come under criticism in the past for the players’ academic performance. Merrell said the criticism did not influence his decision to cancel the program.

The college began several new initiatives for the 2007-08 school year, including intervention strategies, to help the players academically. Football head coach Tim Myles also had his players sign a contract. At least 14 players from the team of 60 were cut because of unexcused absences or lateness. Players were also required to attend an “early arrival” program to connect students with the community and the campus.

Myles will stay with the college. He serves at the minority services director and a recruiter at the college. He will also assume other duties, as will assistant coach Evan Amdahl. Coaching assistant Jon Butler will continue his primary responsibility as the residence hall director. The program was assisted by volunteers Glen Anderson and Derrick Olson.

The football players are welcome to stay at the college to continue their education, Merrell said, adding that he would love it if they stayed.

Merrell said the elimination of the football program will not impact enrollment rates at the college.

The college added the industrial technology program, which brought 30 new students this year. Merrell expects to add 24 students to the program next year, as well as 25 additional students to the building trades and welding certification program.

The football program is not expected to be replaced with a different sport, Merrell said.

My view is unchanged since last year when my employer, Hibbing Community College, suspended its football program over academic concerns. This isn't about football. Our regional community colleges, partly by choice and partly by accident, got into the business of welcoming people from out of state who need extra help academically. These students don't receive scholarships or any help that isn't already available to local students. They simply choose to come to school at a place with football. This is in keeping with the community college mission of helping those who can't yet attend four-year colleges. We need to find a way to make the cultural and academic transition work for these students because doing so is a statement about the ability of our communities to enter the future.

If cutting football is necessary from a budgetary standpoint, then colleges need to eliminate athletics entirely to focus on academic and career preparation for all students. Cherry picking cuts to go after specific demographic groups is wrong.

These debates -- no matter what the pretext (grades, loan defaults, "community support") -- boil down to an argument about race, poverty and intercultural relations. Our communities suffer when the outside world sees us place barriers between us and people who need help. Any short term gains made in removing a problem rather than solving it are lost in the greater context. I don't have an easy solution for Rainy River's problems. This is just another disappointing development in a story that involves so much more than one town or one college.

The Duluth News-Tribune had a story out Monday about a surge of new small publishing houses in the Duluth area. One of these new companies -- Red Step Press -- is set to publish my book "Red Dirt and Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" next fall. You can read Jane Brissett's story in Monday's business section. My book isn't mentioned but we're not due out until October '08. It's exciting to see so many local authors and publishers find a niche. Just be sure to save some of your book budget for next fall. It seems like there's a lot of fiction and poetry in the mix. I like fiction and poetry, but it's got to be hard to make regional fiction work financially. I like Red Step's chances a little better because Lindsy is focusing on specific market nonfiction, something demonstrably supported by local book buyers. But then again, I'm biased.

It's funny how historic trends just keep on rolling on the Mesabi Iron Range. Bad times, then good times, then labor trouble, then pretty good times, then a crash, then bad times ... repeat. We're just about to hit good times, so here comes the labor trouble.

As a writer, I find an article like this to be troubling:

They say the Iron Range is entering a modern age, a time of renaissance and progress and probably even fancier words that will be invented when the new noun factory opens just outside Buhl. I have seen proof that this is true but it has nothing to do with our impending new steel plant or nonferrous minerals. We’ve seen economic booms before, followed by busts and more booms. No, the proof of the modern age may be found on the highway from Hibbing to the locations.

~Excerpt from "Highway 63 Revisited," my weekly column for Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. Read it at my website or in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It will be archived at this location.

Saturday brings my weekly essay on KAXE's "Between You and Me" with Heidi Holtan. The show runs as usual between 10 a.m. and noon at 91.7 FM and streaming online at www.kaxe.org.

This week's topic is our favorite books from childhood. I talk about how some of the books from my kid and teen years shape my life even today. Also I make fun of beatniks. A two-fer, really.

Tune in and participate. This show strives to be an open forum exploring the culture of northern Minnesota and the people who live here or wish they did.

My big goal in life is to participate in the modernization of the Iron Range. We've got a lot of work to do and I've often said that our current "economic development" funds should be spent on infrastructure and community enhancement rather than endless incentives for private companies. I've already written plenty about the need for an affordable network of high-speed Internet on the Iron Range. This would provide new opportunities for e-commuters and new tech businesses. Today I'm charged up about high-speed rail.

The Duluth City Council voted down funding to continue studying a high-speed rail between Duluth and Minneapolis. However, there is still hope for the project, as evidenced by a Brandon Stahl story in today's Duluth News-Tribune. The council will revisit the issue and I hope they fund the continued study. Critics point to the failures of rail travel in recent decades, but I believe those failures don't reflect societal changes that are happening right now. Read this excerpt from Stahl's story:

First, the older train line dropped riders off in a part of Minneapolis where they would have had to rent a car, take a cab or ride a bus. The new line would drop riders off at a central hub across from the new Twins stadium in downtown Minneapolis, connecting to light rail and other train lines that travel the Twin Cities area.

Higher train speeds would beat drive times to Minneapolis. The train would make up to eight round trips a day, and all train cars would be equipped with wireless Internet.

Most importantly, the train probably would make at least three stops: in Superior; in Hinckley, where the Grand Casino brings in 3 million to 4 million people a year; and in a northern Minneapolis suburb. Those riders would make the train feasible, the study says.

Travel time is now more than just traveling. A train ride like the one proposed is shorter than a drive to the Twin Cities and offers Internet access. This allows people to convert their current drive times into potential work time, which is a crucial efficiency in the modern economy.

Why am I so concerned about Duluth? Because high-speed rail to the Iron Range won't happen until Duluth demonstrates feasibility. One day this state will be connected by a rail network that runs fast and clean. There will always be cars, but repetitive commuting between cities should begin converting to mass transit.

I'm doing book interviews and a couple meetings today. I might only get an hour at my desk, so not much time for writing or blogging today after yesterday's equally fruitless blog day. I'm still ticking away at the banana column for Sunday's paper which may take a different turn before it's done. Stay tuned for news on this week's radio essay.

I'm going to give readers a glimpse into the creative process. I write two things on a weekly deadline, a newspaper column and a radio essay. The radio essay topic is generally dictated by KAXE's "Between You and Me" show topic that week. In a way, that makes this piece easier to write because it's essentially like working off a prompt. The weekly column can be about a topic of my choosing, which means enormous freedom but also, ironically, more writer's bloc.

If you add your out-of-pocket insurance expenses to your taxes that support existing government health care programs, you’ll probably find that you’re already paying plenty for health care, more than enough to cover actual medical expenses. So converting to a universal system is really more a matter of getting the money we already pay devoted to the care, rather than the middlemen.

~ Excerpt from my weekly Sunday column in the Hibbing Daily Tribune for Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007, the second of a two-part look at local health care issues. Find my weekly column at www.minnesotabrown.com. This week's column is archived here.

I'm on the air Saturday morning with another of my weekly radio essays. "Between You and Me" with Heidi Holtan will visit the topic of Veterans Day tomorrow between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 KAXE and online at http://www.kaxe.org/.

This essay is the early form of a longer piece I plan to include in my book due out next year. I'm interviewing folks that have perspective on Iron Range veterans for a look at the Range's role in the nation's most trying times.

Today is your last chance to vote in the online poll at the bottom of the site. The question? Which DFL figure would be most likely to defeat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) in the 2008 U.S. Senate race. Your options are Al Franken, Mike Ciresi, Norm Coleman from 1996 (then a Democrat who endorsed Paul Wellstone), and legendary Iron Range State. Rep. Tom Rukavina, who recently announced he may seek the 2010 DFL gubernatorial nomination. So far, Rukavina is beating Franken 2-1 with one sympathy vote for Ciresi. I interpret this as a sign that I am reaching my target audience with this blog.

Scroll down and vote. The results will be published tomorrow and just might influence the race. Like, for serious.

UPDATE: The vote totals held; Rukavina beats Franken 10-7 with two votes for Mike Ciresi. I'll try to think of another poll next week.

I'm no stranger to letters to the editor taking issue with something I've written, but today was a first. I got a letter opposing a column that never ran.

In a recent column, Aaron Brown made several inaccurate statements as he reviewed my editorial from the Duluth News Tribune. That editorial was in support of the Mesaba Project for a variety of reasons. Mr Brown suggested that the editorial was “spin job” orchestrated by Excelsior. I had no contact with Excelsior in writing the piece. Mr Brown stated that I opposed using “a combination of wind, solar, biomass, hydro, natural gas and -- maybe, but not likely -- nuclear.” I am not so opposed. I pointed out the serious limitations of wind, biomass, hydro, and solar which limit them to being a fairly small percent of the fuel for a large power plant. Natural gas works, but it probably won’t be available, and its cost is usually well above coal. I am a strong advocate of nuclear power, but it is not on at present.

My concern with wind is not the transmission lines, as Mr Brown claims. It is difficult to integrate more than about 10% wind into a power grid. Many claim Denmark is getting 20-30% of its grid energy from wind. The true number is less than 7%. Germany has the largest wind power capacity in the world and gets less than 6%.

The big problem with Mesaba is sequestering the CO2. The Midcontinent Rift is one posssibility, and it needs to be studied. Another little known fact is that the segment of the IR band that CO2 absorbs is actually saturated because of CO2's relatively high concentration. Additional CO2 is still a problem, but not as much as other gases like methane and nitrous oxide which have a much greater global warming impact per molecule.

Rolf Westgard
Deerwood, MN

Writer is a professional member of the Geological Society of America, and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists

The only problem with this response is that I wrote no such column. I did write a blog post at my old site that was probably confused for my weekly column that does run in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Mr. Westgard submitted this letter to the Tribune, which apparently ran it anyway even though I doubt they knew what it was responding to. (As the kids say, WTF). The blog post that Westgard is referring to is at my old blog archive here. (Scroll down to the third item).

I wrote an e-mail to Mr. Westgard with my response. Below is a portion of that e-mail I am posting for the 8 people who follow this convoluted old media/new media dust up. (And I promise I won't make a habit of publishing my correspondence with people I have public disagreements with. I'll leave that to Harry Welty).

... on the subject of your letter: I grant you that wind in particular is limited as an overall percentage of the grid. But my problem with your piece was that you -- if not opposed -- certainly dismissed multiple renewable sources of energy but then failed to put Mesaba's Excelsior proposal to the same standards. Again, I grant you that gasification is a cleaner technology with potential, but Mesaba's proposal does not include sequestration and will be prohibitively expensive to build and operate. For the money it would take to develop this technology to its potential, we might be able to invest in any number of other options that wouldn't involve coal at all. Further it is telling to me that most other major coal gas plant proposals in the country and world are stalling or dying -- mostly on grounds of economics, not permitting. The CEO of Duke Energy says that these plants work best near the mouth of coal mines with easily accessible sequestration fields.

I also agree that my wording in my blog post was a bit conspiratorial. It merely seemed unusual to me that an op/ed so clearly in line with Excelsor's argument would appear amid a storm of bad news for that particular company in the region's largest newspaper. I accept that you acted of your own will and apologize for the insinuation. Anyhow, I'm sure we could have a spirited discussion. Your points are well taken.

~AB

Don Ness will be the next mayor of Duluth.

It's election day! In the odd years this only excites nerds like me, but if you have an election in your area you should get out to vote.

In my section of Itasca County all we had to vote on today was the District 318 school referendum. In Hibbing, where I work, residents are voting on their own school referendum. There are dozens of these referendums going on all over Minnesota and it's because the state still isn't living up to its funding obligations for school districts. That's the conservative plan, Gov. Pawlenty's in particular, to shift the financial obligation from the state income tax to property taxes which are more regressive. This is essentially a reversal of the tax reforms of Wendell Anderson and Rudy Perpich of the 1970s that made Minnesota the pride of the nation for education, community strength and service delivery. So what's better? Vote "Yes" to authorize this shift or vote "No" to harm school districts in the short term? No one wins until we fix the state tax trends.



Meantime, here's a roundup of the other elections that seem worthy of following:


Regionally:
There's a humdinger of a mayor's race and several competitive council races in Duluth today. In the main event, city councilor Don Ness is battling businessman Charlie Bell for the mayor's office. Ness is a longtime DFL activist and former Congressman Jim Oberstar campaign manager. He's also the city council's youngest member and even with eight years in office is still in his early '30s. Bell is a community activist of sorts and is making his second run for this office. Both have been well financed and I really think this one could break either way. We'll see tonight.


In the Iron Range town of Virginia, longtime incumbent mayor Carolyn Gentilini is on the ropes against city councilor Steve Peterson. These two have been squabbling for years. Peterson crushed Gentilini in the primary (if this were Louisiana we wouldn't even need a general election) and she has a lot of ground to make up if she's going to prevail. There will also be some turnover in the Virginia council but even if all the incumbents are swapped out I get the feeling that not much is going to change in Virginia.


Statewide:
Lots and lots of referendums. Like I said above, if they pass Pawlenty gets to justify not funding eduction as well as he should and middle class property owners are burdened with an unfair portion of the bill. If they fail, the next two years will be hard for districts all over the state. It's hard to celebrate a victory for either Yes or No in my mind.


Nationally:
Not much to report. Governor's races in Mississippi and Kentucky. In Mississippi a portly ex-lobbyist Gov. Haley Barbour will cruise to re-election and the short list of GOP V.P. candidates. In Kentucky, a scandal-laden incumbent Republican will probably fall to a Democrat in an election that won't prove much about Kentucky's electorate. Meantime, the state of Virginia has legislative elections that might be an interesting bellweather for the state's recent Democratic swing. If you hear the Dems took the Virginia legislature, they might have a shot at that Republican stronghold in 2008.


Meantime, my friend and former news director Cindy Kohlmann is running for city council in Dubuque, Iowa. Do the right thing, Dubuque's 4th Ward. She'll treat you right.



Internationally:
You know, everything up until this part is irrelevant. If Pakistan falls to extremists in their January elections we'll all be farming potatoes with grow-lights in our bomb shelters within the decade. Our solution so far? Give Pakistanis only two choices: President Musharaff or General Musharaff. Uffda! Democracy is hard.

My friend Paul Ryan wrote a nice column about the passing of our advisor from when we both worked on the UW-Superior Promethean college newspaper. Bruce Kasden was a good man who left us far too soon. A lot of the funniest stories aren't ones that I'd necessarily publish, but he was one of the few I've met who absolutely and totally believed in people and challenged the whole world to become better.

The firearms deer season opened this weekend, a time-honored tradition on the Iron Range that I'd never participated in ... until now. On Saturday I joined the festivities at my family's hunting shack in the woods that separate the Iron Range from Canada. My grandfather, dad and uncles have spent a lot of time putting together a pretty nice hunting setup with dozens of acres of hunting land, a nice shack with copious bunk space and a campus of amenities including a sauna, fire pit, outhouse and skid steer for impulse landscaping.

I didn't bring or shoot a gun. In fact, I didn't even buy a license. My mission was simply to observe and join the fun. My family's tradition includes a very casual attitude about hunting. A couple people try hard and the rest make brief patrols along the trails hoping that a depressed deer wanders into their line of sight and asks for a quick death. My brother-in-law shot a deer but when I left Sunday that was the only success the group could cite.

But that's not really the point. Hunting season has been a longstanding male tradition in my family, one that puts revelry and conversation ahead of actual hunting. I expected to drink some beer when I got up there, but sometime before midnight my grandpa asked a dubious question: "Want to try some of the 'shine?" He had a clear bottle that read "MOON" in permanent marker letters. That's right: moonshine. The stuff of Roger Miller's "Chug-a-Lug" and George Jones' "White Lightning." There used to be quite a vital moonshine industry on the Iron Range, but the craft is starting to disappear. Nevertheless, there I was on Saturday drinking 'shine while wearing an orange hunting jacket.

Moonshine is partly what you'd expect ... a very potent alcohol that goes straight to your head. In truth I thought I handled it just fine. In combination with a glass of whiskey and, well, "more than one" beer I had a little headache the next day but nothing terrible. But then I started noticing something. I got home and changed one of the boys' diapers. "Hey, baby pee smells like moonshine," I thought. Then I noticed that hot dogs also smelled like moonshine. And so did toothpaste. And most of my clothes. And then I realized that these things did not smell like moonshine but that I had in fact suffered some kind of nerve damage. I think I'm OK now, but I just might categorize moonshine as something I've tried but won't seek out again.

I don't mean to suggest that drinking was the only activity at deer camp. The men of my family can and do drink at other times. And my dad has given up drinking entirely. But we are a hard working family and these weeks in the fall are a chance to cut loose and catch up. I heard plenty of stories and came a little closer to figuring out how it is that I ended up here. My hunting season is done for the year but most serious hunters have plenty of time left. Stay safe in the woods and enjoy your time at the shack, everyone.

I need to hold off my predictions until closer to the election. This is my third prediction for the Duluth mayoral election tomorrow. I had said that Bell would win by 8, but that was before another of Bell's poor choices of words and resulting public tussle -- this time over the issue of a race.

Duluth remains a solid DFL town and, thus, offending young professionals and minority groups is a real good way to alienate the whole place. Bell made news after the primary by suggesting that his opponent Don Ness had his priorities out of whack for running for mayor with a young family at home. Then, late last week, he suggested that the crime problems in Duluth stemmed from people who "don't belong here," clarifying that that would include people from Mississippi or Detroit which added racial overtones to the comment. I don't think Charlie Bell is such a bad guy and might be an OK mayor, but he's very prone to these distracting comments and Duluth voters might be done with that. Ness has run a disciplined but overly slick campaign and hasn't handled the perception of him being too young or opportunistic as well as he should have. That said, I think he's got the potential to be a great mayor if he remains willing to challenge all of the many groups who influence Duluth politics. My new prediction: Ness, 51-49. The variable is a somewhat more conservative groundswell that I see growing in Duluth that might favor Bell. In truth, this one's a tossup.

Tune in Tuesday for election results. WDIO of Duluth has demonstrated complete superiority in election reporting. They'll tell you first how wrong I end up being in this prediction.

Saturday brings my weekly essay for the "Between You and Me" program on 91.7 KAXE. This week's topic is "five minutes." The idea came from the stories of those evacuated from the California wild fires. Many of them were given just five minutes to collect things before they had to abandon their homes. What would you take with you if you had just five minutes? Anyway, that's the topic. The show runs 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM and online at http://www.kaxe.org/.

Meantime, I'll be heading north on Saturday for my first trip ever to the Brown family hunting shack. The Minnesota firearms deer hunting season opens this weekend. I won't be hunting; but it's high time I experience the rituals of the shack. Bambi's mom will be safe. I promise.

The state PUC almost killed the Mesaba Energy Project yesterday. Readers of this blog know I've been wailing away at this boondoggle for a long time. It's encouraging that the commissioners are starting to realize the risks and trends involved in this "clean coal" debacle.

The only thing that caused the PUC to hold off on completely killing the project was one commissioner's statement that the legislature and governor "want" this project and that it's not the PUC's place to kill it. That tells me that the last stand for this risky, overpriced project will occur during the upcoming legislative session. Excelsior will expend every remaining dollar in their coffers to flood the field with lobbyists.

Now for the reckoning.

PUC cools to idea of 'clean coal’ plant on Iron Range
Commissioners sounded pessimistic on the proposed Iron Range facility but didn't ax it.
By H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune
Last update: November 01, 2007 – 9:57 PM

Minnesota regulators Thursday came close to scrapping a plan to compel the state's energy companies to buy from a proposed $2 billion "clean coal" plant.

Citing growing disillusionment with coal, and assurances from several utilities that they have their energy needs covered, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission nearly rescinded its Aug. 30 directive to the state's utility companies: that they try to buy from the proposed coal gasification plant when they go shopping for new power sources for the next 10 to 20 years.

The commission stopped short -- for now -- but only after a series of pessimistic prognoses for the Excelsior Energy plant proposed for Minnesota's Iron Range.

"We have a whole paradigm shift now," said commission Chairman Leroy Koppendrayer, pointing to news accounts that coal gasification plants have been delayed or canceled in Colorado, Florida and Arizona.

"We don't ever want to foreclose on the future," Commissioner Phyllis Reha said, "but I think we're all in agreement that what we have in front of us isn't going to fly."
It was the latest setback in a two-year process for Excelsior, including an administrative law judges' advisory ruling in April that the project is "not in the public interest."

Still, Excelsior is not without some victories. It received a $36 million clean-energy grant last spring, and it heard last month that it's on a short list for possible loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy.

My web host is having some kind of server problem over at http://www.minnesotabrown.com/ where I post my columns. I don't know how long the page will be out. Over here at the blog we're still in business, thanks to the good people at Google. I love Google. Google is wise and benevolent.

If problems continue I'll post columns here. Do you care? Meh. Probably not. That's what I love about this blog format. Posting is so easy that it only occasionally needs to be relevant.

UPDATE: All is well. The server appears to be working normally now.

A business news broadcast on MSNBC yesterday flashed this title over the ticker at the bottom of the screen: "No more cheap mac and cheese."

You know, I've watched price increases for gas, produce, cereal, dairy and corn products of all kinds. But nothing hit home like this. If Mac and Cheese, the world's most perfect food, becomes expensive then our economy truly is broken beyond all repair. To the streets! Nationalize Kraft now!

Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced Wednesday that state support for Essar Global's Minnesota Steel plant near Nashwauk is back on after the company assured him it wouldn't violate U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The whole ordeal became a rather fast and scary lesson in international trade and politics. Fortunately, it has worked out in the favor of the Iron Range.

Today's Duluth News-Tribune has a comprehensive story. My state Rep. and quasi-neighbor Tom Anzelc said it best, in the future let's hope that due diligence precedes press conferences. There's no reason Pawlenty couldn't have confirmed details with Essar before he declared his potential withdrawal of state support.

Pawlenty got in a good line, though, saying that he needed to clear this matter up before the governor's hunting opener this weekend near Hibbing (in the heart of the Iron Range) or else "the hunter would become the hunted." He must have been hearing some of the same things I heard around the Range before yesterday's good news.