It’s the worst-kept secret on the Iron Range: All indications point to a major expansion pending at Keewatin Taconite.

Owner U.S. Steel wasn’t commenting publicly, but told Range legislators to expect a Feb. 1 announcement that is “positive.”

U.S. Steel already has air quality permit amendments in hand for a mining expansion at the Keewatin mill. A rumored expansion on the order of $350 million would increase the plant’s production capacity by more than 3 million tons, making it second on the Range only to Minntac, also owned by U.S. Steel.
The operation produced 5.3 million tons of taconite in 2007, employing 375 Steelworkers.

Contested Case Hearing for Mesaba Energy Project

On Tuesday, almost two dozen people testified on behalf of the Mesaba Energy Project at a contested case hearing in Taconite. An administrative law judge listened to the testimony, and the public was allowed to ask the panel questions. The judge will take all of the testimony, and make a recommendation to the Department of Commerce on the site permit, the transmission line permit, and the pipeline permit. Then the Department of Commerce will present their findings to the
Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. That agency has the final say on the project, the permits, and the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Statement. Their decision is expected in the spring.

Union representatives and local leaders support the coal gasification plant, which is planned for Taconite. There is an opposition movement to the project, called Citizens Against the Mesaba Project. Attorneys for that group and other members were in attendance, and testified as well.

Another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Hoyt Lakes, which is the alternative site for the project.

Study: Bush, other officials issued hundreds of false statements before Iraq invasion
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL , Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.

"The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.

Clokey to run for Jaros’ seat
Duluth News Tribune

Following this election’s trend of earlier-than-ever campaigning, Brandon Clokey on Tuesday announced his bid for the Minnesota House’s District 7B seat, held by longtime DFL Rep. Mike Jaros.

Clokey, a 37-year-old residential designer, said he wanted to “ride the coattails” of excitement about this year’s contentious presidential and U.S. Senate races. He said he also wanted to tap into the enthusiasm Duluthians displayed in November for electing members of the 30-something set.

“I have the utmost respect for [Jaros], but he’s been there 32 years,” Clokey said, emphasizing that he wants to bring change to the Legislature.

Clokey, who has worked with Life House Center and Churches United in Ministry, identified reducing levels of homelessness and poverty among his top priorities.

“I’m very disturbed by a system designed for people to fail,” he said. “It doesn’t work when you have stereotypical multimillionaires deciding how to deal with poverty when they have no real-life experience.”

Clokey is also outreach coordinator for the Duluth Fathering Project and board president of the Hillsider Newspaper. The father of three was born and raised in Ohio and has lived in Duluth since 2004. Because it is so early, Clokey said he has yet to do any fundraising or to put together campaign staff.

Excelsior Energy Undertakes Major Water Quality Improvement Program

Excelsior Energy is planning on building Mesaba Energy, a coal-gasification plant, near Taconite. On Monday, they announced an agreement with local leaders, to recycle all of the water used in the plant. This is instead of discharging it into the Mississippi watershed. There was some concern about that discharge. Excelsior has also agreed to make significant investment, into the combined wastewater treatment facilities in Coleraine, Bovey, and Taconite, when construction begins. Local mayors and legislators say they are pleased with this outcome, and that it shows Excelsior has the new culture of environmental awareness.

Proposed power plant changes its water plans
Associated Press - January 21, 2008

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - Excelsior Energy says it has abandoned plans to discharge coolant water from a proposed Iron Range power plant.

Instead, Excelsior says it has agreed to install a closed-loop "zero liquid discharge system."

Excelsior CEO Tom Micheletti says the change will add about $20 million to the cost of the $2 billion project.

The company has also agreed to give up to $500,000 to upgrade wasterwater treatment facilities serving the towns of Coleraine, Bovey and Taconite.

Excelsior had sought to pump water from its cooling towers into surface waters just north of Taconite, where it wants to build a new coal-fired power plant.

Those plans have stirred environmental concerns because cooling water from the plant would probably contain heightened levels of mercury. The plant has also faced serious setbacks from state regulators.

(Hibbing Community College Multicultural Director Sidra) Boutto feels it’s a great idea for communities to build awareness about different cultures, so if a negative life experience with someone who looks differently does happen, race won’t be an issue.

“So much of our community on the Range is one color,” Boutto said. “There are so many kids that have never seen a black person, or even someone who looks very much different than them.”

“We (HCC Outreach) are trying to reach as many people as possible, so the tolerance level for different cultures grows, hopefully.”

The HCC Outreach Movement was formed last year to strengthen the bond between Range communities and HCC by celebrating the cultural diversity of the campus and region.

HCC will hold a “Not a Day Off, but a Day On” celebration and information session in the college commons from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

DALLAS, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A Dallas minister who marched with civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said Monday's birthday observance holiday is an insult to his legacy.

The Rev. Peter Johnson, 62, director of the Texas operations for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, told The Dallas Morning News the holiday should be on April 4, the anniversary of the date King was assassinated.

"We have ignored the essence of his life and the horror of his death," said Johnson. "We've allowed white America to escape the guilt of his assassination and we've allowed black America to drift back into a coma."Johnson said. King is
considered a martyr by many but said, if he were alive, he would be considered an agitator by many people, the newspaper said.

"We remember him with parades and galas and banquets, things that are really irrelevant and silly regarding Dr. King's legacy," he said. "If we really want to honor Dr. King, we should do something about people who live under bridges. That would be a great tribute."

Gen. Butt Naked, Liberian ex-rebel leader, confesses to killing thousands

By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH, Associated Press

AMMONROVIA, Liberia - One of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, known as Gen. Butt Naked, has returned to confess his role in terrorizing the nation, saying he is responsible for 20,000 deaths.

Joshua Milton Blahyi, who now lives in Ghana, returned this week to face his homeland's truth and reconciliation commission, this time wearing a suit and tie. His nom de guerre is derived from his platoon's practice of charging naked into battle, a technique meant to terrify the enemy.

Anzelc predicts flush times on Iron Range
Calls region immune -- for now -- from recession
By Mike Jennings, Editor

BALSAM TOWNSHIP—A booming mining sector is likely to prevent the Iron Range
from joining the state’s and nation’s slide into economic recession, at least for the time being, says Rep. Tom Anzelc.

“Quite frankly, on the western Mesabi as well as on the entire Iron Range, I think ‘08 is going to be a very good year,” Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township, said Wednesday. He said mining exploration and mining development are flourishing in the region.

Anzelc said the Iron Range forms an exception to the recessionary pattern described Wednesday by Sens. David Tomassoni and Tarryl Clark. In a joint press release, Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, and Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, called for Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s help in passing an economic stimulus package to counter the state’s negative job growth and high rate of unemployment.

“It is time for the state to make strategic investments in sustainable job growth, before more Minnesotans find themselves in the unemployment line,” Tomassoni said in the press release.

Anzelc said in an interview that the legislature’s principal tool for stimulating the economy this year will be bonding.

“You need to invest, invest in people when your economy starts to slide,” he said. “And a large bonding bill puts people to work — construction people first and then other jobs to follow.”

Anzelc said the Iron Range seems poised for a cycle of growth, thanks to new ventures such as Minnesota Steel Industries, planned $1.6 billion taconite-to-steel plant in Nashwauk, which lies in his district. The wood products industry, another staple of the region’s economy, is unlikely to have a good year, however, he said.

“The linchpins of our Northern Minnesota economy have always been our natural resources,” he said. “And we boom and then we bust. ... Wood prouducts appears to be in the bust cycle.”

Clark, the assistant Senate majority leader, pledged that economic development would be the top priority of lawmakers during the legislative session that convenes Feb. 12. As part of that effort, Anzelc plans to introduce a $67 million bonding bill to help pay for such essentials as gas lines and road and rail access at the Minnesota Steel plant.

He said he also supports vigorous investment through Iron Range Resources in mining communities’ water and sewer systems and other basic needs to heighten their appeal to entrepreneurs. The region would also benefit from fresh investment in its community colleges, he said.

Anzelc said he’s also seeking a $4 million appropriation to dewater the Canisteo Pit, which he called a threat to the towns of Bovey and Coleraine.

If the state’s recession deepens, its effects will ultimately reach the Iron Range, Anzelc said.

“And being a progressive person, I believe that economic stimulus packages proposed by government in cooperation with the private sector historically shorten recessions,” he said. “It’s all really about creating jobs and keeping people here.”

A formerly hibernating bear and its two cubs were moved today to a bear sanctuary in northern Michigan by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, apparently ending a life-and-death saga.

Solo the bear, which was hibernating under a home in Eagles Nest Township near Ely, had been marked for death by the DNR because it had threatened some people in the area. The DNR said the bear had lost its fear of humans and could become dangerous.

The word of Solo’s demise struck a chord with bear lovers, many of whom protested the death sentences. One Herman-town woman offered $1,000 to the cabin’s owner to let the bear family sleep out the winter. There was even talk of bear lovers buying the cabin so the bear could stay. The bear also had become famous as part of ongoing bear research by controversial Ely bear researcher Lynn Rogers.

In December Gov. Tim Pawlenty even weighed in, commuting the bear’s death sentence and ordering the DNR to move the bear somewhere else.

...

When DNR officials arrived at the property Monday, the bears were no longer hibernating under the cabin but were found awake nearby.

All three showed evidence of severe eye irritation from pepper spray, DonCarlos said. DNR conservation officers found an empty can of pepper spray on the property, and the area under the cabin where the bears were denned retained a heavy smell of the spray.

Conservation officers are investigating the attack on the bears.

Iron Range residents who realize we are in a battle for the very economic survival of the region don’t need to hear from elected officials that they need more details on several mining projects. What they need to hear are strong words of support for those initiatives.

But, unfortunately, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is being far, far too meek in her general support for some resource-based projects, calling for “more details” on them.

In a Mesabi Daily News story last Sunday, Klobuchar said regarding the PolyMet copper/nickel/precious metals project slated for the former LTV Mining site near Aurora and Hoyt Lakes: “Support economic projects, yes ... but I want to see more details.”

In the same story regarding the Franconia Minerals non-ferrous project at Birch Lake near Babbitt, Klobuchar said: “Open to the project ... but want to see more details.”

Those remarks sound like something that would be voiced by a spokesperson for any of several environmental groups that continually pour money and effort into trying to block darn near every mining-related venture that comes along.

“Support .... but.”

No, no, no, no. It should be, “Support, period.”

Greg Sellnow: Feeling at home on Da Range
Rochester Post-Bulletin

HIBBING -- You can grow up in Minnesota. You can prepare wild rice soup, walleye cheeks and tuna macaroni hot dish with the best of them.

You can know the difference between a forecheck and a poke check and wear a gold and maroon sweatshirt to bed every night. You can eat lutefisk twice a year and claim to like it.

But you cannot call yourself a true Minnesotan until you've spent some time on Da Range.

I tell folks I'm from Up North. I've even told people I grew up just a few miles down the road from Da (Cuyuna) Range. But the truth is I'm just a Ranger wannabe.

I spent last weekend in Virginia and Hibbing for a youth hockey tournament, and the timing was good. After trips over the past year and a half to places like Ireland, Wyoming, Ohio and, well, the Mall of America, I think I'd begun to lose touch with my inner Minnesotan.

Our state's iron ore and taconite mining region, which covers much of the northeastern corner of Minnesota, has played a vital role in our history.

A place where entire towns were moved so miners could get at the rich ore deposits below.

A place that's sprouted Olympic and NHL hockey players, a pop/folk singing icon, and even an eccentric dentist-turned governor.

A place populated by folks with grit, guts and the political will to move on when the mining industry began to play out.

If the Twin Cities metro area is our state's lifeblood, then Da Range is its soul. It's Humphrey Bogart to the metro's Cary Grant.

Most of our team's players and their families stayed in a hotel in Virginia, Minn., where they give you an actual key for your door -- a metal one with grooves.

The cable TV reception wasn't so good, but that just added to the ambiance. While clicking through the channels, I came upon Hockey Night in Canada, featuring a game between the New York Rangers and the Edmonton Oilers.

During breaks, they ran commercials for a prime-time drama called MVP, which the promo says chronicles "the secret lives of hockey wives," and for a sitcom titled "Little Mosque on the Prairie." (I'm not exactly sure what the show is about, but the clip I saw involved teenage girls in head scarves competing in a curling competition -- the kind you play on ice.)

During the hour-long post-game wrapup it was explained that the player from the game they'd planned to interview wouldn't be joining them because he was on his way to the hospital. Instead, there was a call-in segment in which viewers addressed this question: Will new thermal skate blades affect the integrity of the game?

Only in Canada. Only on Da Range.

They take their mining, hockey and curling, seriously here. The legendary U of M player and coach John Marriucci got his start here. So did Miracle on Ice stars Mark Pavelich, John Harrington and Buzz Schneider; along with Jack and Steve Carlson, the Virginia, Minn., natives who were depicted as "the Hanson brothers" in the greatest hockey movie of all time, "Slapshot."

My son's team played at Hibbing's Memorial Arena, an ancient, cavernous building filled with plaques, trophies and banners. It oozes history.

Da Range is, to borrow one of my son's phrases for most of what he says about my generation, "old school." And I mean that in a good way.

Folks on Da Range are a proud, history-revering people who understand the importance of having what sociologists and anthropologists call a sense of place. I call it an identity.

What's ours?

Nothing gets people thinking about the past or future better than a bland, even foreboding present. Possible economic recession? Yuck. Uncertainty in the presidential election? Nothing but ulcers for political junkies like me. And since the past involves “quantified research,” it’s so much easier to just envision the future.

That’s what folks did last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Maybe you saw some of the coverage on the news. I saw one reporter asking about a robot ice bucket that delivered beer using technology very similar to the “Roomba” vacuum cleaner. Anyway, the future includes much more than “smart beer.” The item that caught my eye was the Chief Executive of GM, Rick Wagoner, telling the convention audience that we are only 10 years away from a driverless car, if there proves to be demand.

_The Carlson-Mondale plan would create a panel of five retired judges who have not been active in partisan politics. DFL Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller is sponsoring the bill, which would require the commission to define and consider political competition when drawing new lines.
_Rest's bill would ask voters in November to amend the state constitution to create a redistricting commission of nine voters. Legislative leaders would select four of the voters, but lawmakers would have no vote on the redistricting plan.
_A proposal from Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, would make the revisor of statutes and the heads of House research and Senate counsel draw the lines before legislative votes.

Mum’s the word on high-level meetings at Minntac Mine
Lee Bloomquist, Duluth News Tribune

Several top-level U.S. Steel executives made a rare visit to Minntac Mine in Mountain Iron this week to discuss company strategies with Iron Range legislators.

Such visits usually signal a major company decision. Iron Range legislators said U.S. Steel asked them to keep the subject of the meeting confidential.

State Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, characterized Wednesday’s meeting as positive, saying that U.S. Steel’s strategies could lead to a significant boost for the Iron Range.

U.S. Steel officials have also contacted steelworker leaders about company strategies.

U.S. Steel owns and operates two Iron Range taconite plants, Minntac Mine and KeeTac in Keewatin.

KeeTac produces about 5.4 million tons of iron ore pellets annually. However, it has one production line that has been mothballed for years. Minntac can produce about 14.6 million tons of iron ore pellets annually.

Scott Coleman, Minnesota Ore Operations general manager, said Thursday he could not comment on the nature of the discussion.

Iron ore pellets are in high demand globally as rapidly developing countries such as China and India build infrastructure. An 800,000-ton per year expansion at Northshore Mining Co. in Silver Bay is due to become operational near the end of the first quarter.