Obama to declare victory in MINNESOTA

Hell yes! The only better news would be if he did this at Zimmy's bar in downtown Hibbing.

This is the first true 21st century election of our lives. It's never been a better time in history to be a Minnesota political junkie with limited social skills and a laptop.

Get ready!

From the Associated Press

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is coming back to Minnesota.

Obama is scheduled to speak Tuesday evening at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. That's according to Tina Smith, senior adviser to the Obama campaign in Minnesota.

The event is free and open to the public.

The last time Obama appeared in Minnesota was the weekend before last February's "Super Tuesday." The Illinois senator drew almost 20,000 to the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.

Obama is trying to wrap up his Democratic primary race with Hillary Rodham Clinton. The last primaries will be held Tuesday.

Xcel Energy Center also is the site of the Republican National Convention, where John McCain is expected to formally receive the GOP nomination for president in September.

Optimistic news about Minnesota Steel on the Iron Range

Like a lot of people who have followed the story of the proposed Minnesota Steel integrated mining and steel making facility near Nashwauk, I've been getting nervous. While officials were receiving assurances that the western Iron Range project would go forward as planned, we were all getting mixed signals as Minnesota Steel's new parent company, Essar Global, bought up steel operations all over North America. Was this going to be an innovative new mine/steel plant or just another mine?

Today we are getting new assurances that Essar plans to build a steel plant. It will take a bit longer than originally hoped, but company officials are reassuring the press, legislators and local officials of the Iron Range that their original intentions have not changed. In addition, the company plans to be a fully involved owner of the plant -- overseeing operations and management -- which is also an encouraging sign.

From today's Hibbing Daily Tribune:

Minnesota Steel gets ready to ‘dig in’

Officials expect steel slabs will be cast within five years
By Melissa Cox, Saturday, May 31, 2008

NASHWAUK — The Essar Group announced late Friday that the much-anticipated groundbreaking for Minnesota Steel’s integrated ore-to-steel plant is planned for this summer.

Ravi Ruia, vice chairman of The Essar Group, which owns Minnesota Steel, told state officials of the company’s plan for the groundbreaking and of Essar’s expectation that steel slabs will be cast at the plant within five years, according to a company news release.

“We are committed to moving as quickly as possible to bring steelmaking to the Iron Range,” Ruia said in the release. “Minnesota Steel plays a key role in our North American steel strategy.”

According to the company announcement, The Essar Group will provide all necessary technical, managerial and financial resources for the $1.65 billion iron ore mining, process and steelmaking plant.

The plant, located in Nashwauk, will be the first steelmaking facility located on the Mesabi Iron Range and the only facility in North America to include iron ore mining, ore processing, direct reduction and steelmaking at a single site.

Ruia told Sandy Layman, commissioner of Iron Range Resources (IRR), as well as Iron Range lawmakers, during a meeting today that he is looking forward to groundbreaking. He also said he hopes various development agreements with local governments and other partners are reached soon enough to meet the timeline for work on the project.

Those agreements deal with infrastructure for the project, such as utilities, a land exchange, a railroad spur and transportation routes.

Rep. Tom Anzelc, who represents the Nashwauk area and chairs a mining liaison subcommittee, responded to the announcement Friday by calling the project “the beginning of the rebirth of the western Mesabi Iron Range.” Anzelc, who also serves on the IRR board, said, “This is a complicated financial and construction project.” He advises people to be patient as the project moves forward.

“We in the public sector, we in government, have done virtually everything that has been asked of us,” including committing $28 million in bonding money, Anzelc said.

Construction of the mine, crusher, concentrator, pellet plant and tailings basin is expected to take approximately 30 months, with the direct reduced iron plant and slab steel casting facility to take an additional 29 months.

Essar has conducted a number of economic and technological feasibility studies since it finalized its purchase of Minnesota Steel last October.

The project has been moving forward. Equipment has been ordered and an international team of experts, that will be supplemented by local resources, has been retained to build the pellet plant, the company news release said.

Engineering firms have been retained to start work on various parts of the plant, and some construction projects are out for bid.

Minnesota Steel will create about 700 full-time jobs with an annual payroll of $60 million, according to Madhu S. Vuppuluri, president of Essar Americas. It will also generate 2,100 spin-off jobs with an estimated annual payroll of $100 million. Vuppuluri said the plant will contribute $18 million a year in taxes and royalties. There will be an estimated 2,000 construction jobs.

“The project is going to happen,” said Anzelc. “The future is bright and this gives our young people a chance.”

Melissa Cox can be reached at melissa.cox@mx3.com. To read this story and comment on it online go to www.hibbingmn.com

Again, there is no complete security until we see shovels in the ground, but it appears that rumors of a July groundbreaking are gaining credibility.

Range school district deeply divided after failed referendum

I've been following the Greenway school district's financial woes for a while now. The district posed a major extension of three excess operational levies to keep its budget afloat for the next few years. The referendum, opposed by a group touting fiscal responsibility, failed by healthy margin. I argued, and maintain, that this was a survival referendum for the district. Without solving the financial mess involved here this district cannot compete in an open enrollment environment. The board and superintendent aren't publicly acknowledging this reality, but there is a great deal of debate about what to do next.

In today's Hibbing Daily Tribune, by way of the Grand Rapids Herald-Review, Marie Nitke writes a story about people within the Greenway community wanting to create a financial plan for the district before coming back to the community for support. Great idea. It would have been even greater before they ran this latest failed referendum. This district needs help and it's one of several across the Iron Range that will be coming to the existential crossroads before the end of the decade. The 2010 gubernatorial election couldn't have greater implications than they do here in Northeastern Minnesota. The erosion of Wendell Anderson's "Minnesota Miracle" education funding system is killing us.

A divided district

Former hockey coach hopes for healing
Saturday, May 31, 2008 By Marie Nitke

COLERAINE — In a heartfelt plea to the community to unite for the good of Greenway, Pat Guyer, a community leader and former Greenway High School boy’s hockey coach, captured the confusion, mixed emotions, frustration and unyielding spirit of pride that exists among Greenway’s residents today, in the wake of last week’s failed “revoke and replace” levy referendum.

“Through the whole ordeal of the referendum we’ve really become a divided community,” Guyer said at Wednesday’s school board meeting. “Family and friends are divided and not speaking to each other, on harsh terms; children are crying out of fear of the unknown, of what’s going to happen next; kids are saying they’re going to leave and go to other schools; businesses are being boycotted; we hear people accusing people of personal agendas, and probably many more things that I’ve missed.”

This divide progressively widened as the May 20 special election neared and two groups with opposing viewpoints -- one for the referendum and one against -- each campaigned for their causes. Ultimately, the “No” votes overcame the “Yes” votes, and the referendum failed. This means the district will start losing funding as its current referendums phase out, starting in 2009-2010. Now, Guyer says, the people of Greenway need to come together and work through their differences to ensure the school district’s survival.

According to Guyer, the biggest issue Greenway faces right now is a lack of trust: “I believe there is no trust. And because you’re divided, who do you trust? The school board? The Superintendent? The teachers? I believe that that has really been fractured through this whole deal, and that needs to be fixed in some way, shape or form. I do know this -- we do have common ground. In everything I’ve read and everything I’ve heard, in listening to school board members and people in the community, I believe...the people that are here are for Greenway. That’s what I hear ringing loud and clear. We all agree that we need a referendum at some point. We differ on when we want or need it, but we all want it at some point.”

Getting past the differences in opinion, Guyer admitted, will be tough. But he said the Greenway School District will survive as long as the school administration, school board, teachers, and community members of all ages and from all across the Greenway footprint are working on solutions together, sharing ideas and coming up with a solid plan for Greenway’s future. He proposed the formation of a committee, called “Greenway Now and Forever,” which would meet regularly to do just this.

Guyer said he’d like the committee, with the help of Business Manager Ben Hawkins, to come up with two 3-year financial plans for Greenway. One plan would include referendum dollars, in case a future referendum were held and passed, and one plan that would include no referendum dollars whatsoever. He said the committee would also have to address the teacher retiree lawsuits currently in litigation.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the teacher lawsuit,” he said. “I understand that and I’ve been told that. But you need a plan in place if it goes one way or if it goes the other way. We can’t get caught saying, ‘Ahh! What do we do?’ I’m not saying there’s not a plan in place, but that the public doesn’t know about it. It’s not something that you can grab and touch, and I think that’s the frustration of everybody that’s involved.”

In the end, Guyer said: “We can make something happen or we can wait for something to happen. I think that only with the unification of thoughts, ideas and practices from our whole community will we make a difference here. The words ‘pride’ and ‘care’ are only words -- unless you put them into action. And we can use pride and we can use care, put them into action, do it together, and we’ll find out what Greenway’s really made of. Because I know it’s time to become part of the solution. We need to find a way to get there and get everybody to the table and do that. It’s the only way we’re going to survive.”

At the end of the meeting, Superintendent Rochelle VanDenHeuval agreed with Guyer’s statements, saying, “We need to try to bring this community together... and decide, ‘What is our plan?’” She said a committee will be formed this summer.

Marie Nitke is a staff writer for the Grand Rapids Herald-Review, a Superior Publishing Corporation newspaper.

I expect another referendum in the fall, but need to see all of the above happen before I'll have any optimism about its passage.

Bakk again

OK, one more post on Tom Bakk's exploration of a gubernatorial run. Then I'm done with this 2010 nonsense for a while.

Folks have picked up that I'm skeptical about Bakk's chances. I've been down the old timey Iron Range statewide whistle stop tour before. It's like trying to occupy Russia in January. There is a fundamental barrier facing any Iron Range statewide run. And this comes from a fifth generation Iron Ranger who lives on the Range and loves the Range. People in the suburbs think we're crazy. Adorably crazy perhaps, but still crazy.

Our three recent statewide candidates have included Rudy Perpich (brilliant, but eccentric, known as Gov. Goofy nationally), Doug Johnson for governor in '98 (Johnson ran ads that spoofed Budweiser's frog campaign: "Doug" ..."Gov"); and Jerry Janezich for Senate in 2000 (Jerry's not very eccentric, but does own and operate a downtown Range bar). Rudy was the most successful, but he came to statewide prominence as Lt. Governor under Wendell Anderson during the Minnesota Miracle years. Johnson ran unendorsed in the primary and got killed. Janezich heroically won the endorsement but got killed in the primary by Dayton's money.

So if Bakk is going to win he's got to A) win the endorsement, B) assemble a coalition that includes the suburbs -- where he will be perceived initially as being another crazy Ranger (he's built like a shovel operator at any of our local mines), and C) do what all the other Range candidates always struggled to do, raise gobs and gobs of money; enough to outgun Dayton (who's back, by the way). Now, Bakk might (big time might) be able to do that. Bakk is one of the few state senators who is endorsed by both the Chamber of Commerce and virtually all of labor. But raising money from the chamber/labor overlap means digging in some dark corners of the fundraising world. We're talking lots of lobbyists, PACs and pinstripe suit types. That doesn't scream DFL endorsement to me. The Kelly Doran "business-friendly" end-around didn't work in 2006 and probably won't here, either.

So yes, I'm skeptical. Totally uncommitted, but curious how Bakk and the others will perform after (REPEAT, AFTER!) the 2008 election is over. Keep in mind, Iron Range political legend Tom Rukavina is still considering a run and would easily torpedo Bakk's local support if he does.

I do know this: far MORE likely than an Iron Range governor in 2010 is an Iron Range Lt. Governor. Rudy Perpich forged that path in 1974 and it's the only proven way for Iron Rangers to climb the ladder in the modern era. After all, we don't have you big city folks' major media penetration or foldin' money.

Brown on the Air: Words

My weekly essay for "Between You and Me" discusses words. Words can be deeply meaningful and strangely bizarre. Sasquatch. Squat. Kumquat. Syphilis. What a wild lexicon we live in! Creators of words and those who use them should tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday, May 31 for "Between You and Me," a call-in/music show that celebrates the people of northern Minnesota.

KAXE broadcasts at 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streams online at www.kaxe.org.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 5

Here is the final installment (this week) of "life as an Iron Range blogger," the diversionary exercise that allows me to keep content on the blog while I work on my book.

Here is the Hull Rust Mine on Hibbing's north side. This isn't natural. Every crook and cranny of this pit was dug by people over a hundred years of mining. The "mountains" are really piles of overburden, red iron mining waste cast aside as part of the process. I named my upcoming book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" after them. This is the central image of any visit to the Iron Range.

Bakk is running

Hate to be scooped on a Range story, but here it is from MNPublius (broken by MinnesotaDemocratsExposed I believe): State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) is running for governor.

This is not surprising. Bakk has been hinting at this for a while. He's getting out early probably to shore up union support and carve his piece of the pie for what will likely be a very large field of candidates. I know some members of the Iron Range DFL delegation very well, but I have never gotten to know Bakk very well. On one hand I like the idea of an Iron Range governor, but on the other I have my doubts that Bakk is the guy who can pull it off.

I was a delegate and 100-plus hour volunteer for Doug Johnson's campaign for governor in 1998. Most non-Rangers don't even remember Doug Johnson's run for governor, but it's where I faced my first political fires. Back then, the thinking was that with so many "city folk" running in the primary, we could run a pro-life Iron Ranger, snap up the non-metro vote and squeeze through to the general election. Unfortunately for Doug, as I've written before, the Range is built around a political coalition like any place and our '98 Range coalition was split between the Range power structure backing Johnson and the unions which backed Mike Freeman that year.

So why is Bakk out so early? He wants to get the unions and keep the Range power structure. Let's say he is able to unite Johnson's and Freeman's people from 1998 ... that's good for about 40 percent in a primary. It also puts 40 percent on the first ballot of the convention in the conversation. BUT, this is not 1998. The party has changed in 10 years and I seriously doubt the Obama movement folks are going to be lining up for Bakk as a first choice.

So Bakk is in. He's a contender, but I need to see more before I list Bakk as top tier. I have poured a lot of my time and heart into Iron Range campaigns and saying this is not something I take lightly. Bakk is re-elected by wide margins in his 6th SD but a guy like Tim Walz or even someone like Margaret Anderson Kelliher could walk in and take a chunk of the Range vote. Probably not a majority, but enough to neutralize the regional appeal.

God, it ain't even November '08 yet. What are we coming to?

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 4

Book revisions continue through the week. Here I continue the visual tour of life as an Iron Range blogger.
It's not all good. Sometimes bugs like these land on your shoulder or leg. They're huge and they bite. This one is now a lobbyist working for a confederation of energy and transmission line companies. It will buy you drinks, but do NOT take its money.

For serious this time

Of course the Excelsior audit/review story has to break during my book-finishing week. For real, I'm going into my basement office and turning off the Internet now ... except maybe for occasional peeking. I've got some material scheduled for the next few days. See you on the flip side.

You say 'review,' I say 'audit': Either way, the Iron Range is getting bamboozled

As reported, the Office of the Legislative Auditor is spending two months reviewing two loans totaling $9.5 million given by Iron Range Resources to a collection of lobbyists and lawyers calling themselves "Excelsior Energy." Isn't that kind of like an audit? Apparently there's a difference. Anyway, the Hibbing Daily Tribune followed up on my post yesterday with its own story on this coal gas drama unfolding the Iron Range. Here's Mike Jennings's lede graphs:

ST.PAUL — The Minnesota Legislative Auditor’s office is looking into a complaint raised about money loaned by Iron Range Resources (IRR) to Excelsior Energy, which is seeking regulatory approval to build a coal-gasification power plant on the Iron Range.

The records review is apparently based on questions and concerns raised earlier this year by Citizens Against the Mesaba Project (CAMP), a citizens’ group that is working to defeat Excelsior’s proposed Mesaba Energy Project. The project would initially produce 603 megawatts of power, and the company’s preferred site for it is near Taconite.

Brad White, a manager of financial audits for the auditor’s office said, Tuesday that his division is conducting “a preliminary assessment of a complaint” but would not proceed to a formal investigation unless it finds some “point of financial concern.” White said his office had requested records from the IRR and would inform both the IRR and the Legislative Audit Commission, probably by late July or early August, whether it would proceed to a formal investigation.

The story goes on to quote Citizens Against the Mesaba Project co-chair Charlotte Neigh, who detailed some of the dicier practices used by Excelsior to shuttle this money around (Read the story). Rep. Tom Anzelc, who joined the Iron Range Resources board after these loans questioned the wisdom of issuing them in the first place. He also pointed out that we, the people, are unlikely to ever see this money again.

The kicker though was the reaction of Excelsior co-poobah Tom Micheletti to the story.

[Micheletti] said CAMP’s tactics could prove costly to Minnesota taxpayers.

“And it just seems to me that we’re coming close to a time when they’ve turned over every rock that they can think of to find some dirt on us,” Micheletti said.

“There’s nothing to hide, and I’m sure that the auditor’s going to find that there’s nothing in this,” he said.

What an absolute insult to the intelligence of Iron Range citizens. Waste of taxpayer dollars? This man spent most of that money on law firms in the Cities in an effort to raise more money from federal taxpayers to build a power plant that isn't needed, as clean as promised or likely to function efficiently. And he's going to get rich -- fat, stinking rich -- off the people of the Iron Range, even if the plant is never built. And he's decrying any question about where this money is going as a waste of taxpayer dollars? That's so funny it's just not funny.

Oh, and you don't have to turn over rocks to find dirt with this crowd. Julie Jorgenson's (Micheletti's wife and co-poobah) second-to-last company NRG literally rattled apart in the California deregulation scandal of the late 1990s very shortly after she left. That was public, but never discussed, when the IRR gave out the loan. Nor were the circumstances of Micheletti's departure from Minnesota Power and Xcel respectively. Who are these people and what have they done to deserve so much of the people's money and attention? That would have been a great question to ask SEVEN YEARS AGO. Now we're chest-high in political sewage.

Let's run through this again:

• Excelsior Energy has never produced a single kilowatt of power; it is comprised of lawyers and lobbyists who worked for power companies in the past ... companies that now want nothing to do with them or their new company.
• This "company" came into existence because of these original Iron Range Resources loans. These loans were the original sin that allowed Excelsior to set up shop and (legally) trade money and promises for favors at the federal level. All the "good news" you see on local TV news about this project is contingent on having the government mandate that power companies buy their overpriced, unreliable electricity. It's like if I pointed a gun at my neighbors and ordered them to buy lemonade from my kid's lemonade stand at $5 a glass.
  
• At the time of the IRR loans, Excelsior was promising job creation that was unrealistic to even a casual observer of the energy industry. Our elected officials at the time asked few questions and dropped the ball. Now everyone -- Democrats and Republicans -- have their arms caught in this wringer and no one knows what to do ... except the people fighting this and the Micheletti gang.

It's time to take sides. I have put so much thought into this never-ending issue that it hurts. I am pro-development in general but this project makes the Iron Range look stupid and dirty and I will not abide that. Not when there is still hope for a better future for this place and my kids.

Greater Minnesota job seekers are hurting

I've written about the work of the folks at the Jobs Now Coalition in St. Paul in the past. Basically, they're doing research and spreading the word that the jobs currently being created in rural economies do not pay the bills for average families, which makes positive employment statistics cited by the government fairly misleading. I normally don't post press releases verbatim, but this one has been sitting in my inbox for a week and I haven't had the heart to delete it without sharing the contents.

Greater Minnesota Job Seekers Outnumber Job Openings by Three-to-One

The latest Job Vacancy Survey shows that in Greater Minnesota there now are 61,000 job seekers competing for only 20,000 unfilled jobs. This means that job seekers outnumber unfilled jobs by three-to-one. *

Other major findings for Greater Minnesota include:

• Forty percent of job openings are in four large occupational groups—sales, food preparation/serving, transportation/material moving, and healthcare support. The combined median wage for these groups is $8.20 per hour.
  

• Two-thirds of job openings require no education or training beyond high school.
  

• One out of four openings pay less than $7.75 per hour.
  

The median (50th percentile) wage for Greater Minnesota job openings is $10.00 per hour. JOBS NOW’s Cost of Living in Minnesota research shows that in a Greater Minnesota family of four with both parents working, each worker must earn at least $10.58 per hour to meet basic needs. **

I'm not trying to be overly negative here. Lord knows the recession talk is everywhere. But I do agree with the notion that we need to judge the health of our economy not by a series of numbers and indexes, but by the quality of life -- as best we can judge it -- of people who work hard and play by the rules. That's a story that's often overlooked here on my native Iron Range and in other rural parts of the state. Poverty is generational and often independent of what is an otherwise hearty work ethic. When hard working people can't pay for housing, food and transportation, there's a problem.

And the solution is ... well, that's the question, isn't it?

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 3

Work on my book continues, so I continue with the tour of images that make up life as an Iron Range blogger.

One of the interesting things about living on the Range is that you need to find entertainment in unusual places. We don't have night clubs and Tom Petty never comes here. The names of the bands that play our bars are not whimsical and there is no chance that their music will appear on Grey's Anatomy.
This is a picture of a liberal friend of mine being pulled on an easy chair behind a snowmobile driven by a former Republican candidate for the legislature going about 60 miles an hour. I could explain the details, but that's much less important that the fact that this image -- and ones like it -- will remain in my memory forever.

CONFIRMED: Complaint prompts legislative auditor to assess Iron Range coal gas project loan

Today, Brad White of the Office of the Legislative Auditor confirmed to me that his office is assessing a complaint that the $9.5 million loan by Iron Range Resources to Excelsior Energy for its coal gas Mesaba Energy Project was used inappropriately. After a month or more of assessment, White says the OLA will release its decision whether it will formally audit the expenditures approved by the agency for project expenses.

So, to update my post over the weekend, the state is looking into that loan because of a complaint, not for a routine scan. I've been told by others this complaint comes from a citizen group in northern Minnesota that is questioning the project, but similar concerns have been raised by State. Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) in public meetings and interviews this year. And I wrote a column about this last summer. Point is, plenty of people have been asking about this.

I will tell you, having looked at the list of expenditures myself, that it does not take an expert to realize there are many, many questions about exactly how Excelsior spent that loan money. They burned a majority of it on several law firms in the Twin Cities that each offer a variety of services, ranging from legal prep, to business consulting to lobbying. Some of that is allowable, but lobbying is not (You can't, certainly shouldn't, use public economic development dollars to lobby for more public funding; that's why this is a boondoggle). But the actual purposes of many expenditures were "redacted" from the public documents. The expenditures that weren't redacted included the complete furnishing of Excelsior's corporate offices in Minnetonka and a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, among other such things.

There are only two kinds of people who take out an 18 percent interest loan and use it to buy newspaper subscriptions: A) Chumps, and B) People who don't intend to pay the money back.

I hope the OLA finds the answers. I further hope that this project can one day soon be exposed as the heartbreaking waste of taxpayer dollars that I suspect it is.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention two other recent items about Excelsior.

First, V.P. and CFO Renee Sass has left the company. Don't know why. And Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a project supporter, failed to mention the plant in a discussion about coal power generation on his weekly radio show for May 20. It's only Norm Coleman's entire Eighth CD strategy for this year's Senate race ... why didn't he plug it? So many "hmmmms," so little time.

UPDATE II: Things are happening quickly. CAMP (Citizens Against the Mesaba Project) issued this release a few hours after this post.

Franken weathers bad month like freight train full of rocks

... er, smart rocks. Something clever. I have to work on my blog headlines.

There was a time there a few weeks ago when my favorite candidates, Barack Obama for president and Al Franken for Senate, were going through their respective former preacher and faux tax controversies at the same time. And, boy howdy, I was a sad panda. Moody, averse to television, I was no treat to be around. Today things are looking up in MinnesotaBrown land. Obama's posting 15 point leads in Minnesota and Franken has pulled back within two of Sen. Norm Coleman. When people start to associate candidates with actual issues like Iraq and the economy instead of the tripe that's dominated coverage of these big races, it stands to reason that both these candidates will pick up at least a few more points. That means that Obama could win Minnesota by Klobucharian proportions and Franken could win it by Wellstonian proportions.

This outcome is certainly not a done deal; this is a very volatile, competitive year. (and Hillary, McCain, Coleman and JNP fans among you, I know that you like your people, too, I'm just analyzin' here, friends). The headline for me, however, is that Franken weathered the worst month of his campaign so far and has nearly recovered his earlier numbers. Coleman and Franken both suffer from high negatives and low loyalty, according to the Rasmussen poll I cited earlier. So any race between them will be closer than the DFL/GOP index. But Franken has proven his bounce-back ability, just as Obama did a few weeks earlier. When he is endorsed next week, Franken will unroll his general election strategy and Apollo Creed will turn to his manager and say, "He doesn't know it's a damn show; he thinks it's a damn fight" and blah, blah, blah, something with Mr. T or the Russians and the good guys win eventually. That's the plan, anyway.

We must not forget, however, that there are pockets of trouble to watch out for. Bill Hanna and the Mesabi Daily News, the Range's largest daily paper, has taken a not-so-subtle editorial position ("How Heavy is the Baggage?" May 24) that anyone who doesn't A) have eerily shiny teeth and vote for coal gas tax breaks; or, B) ride an ATV from his bed to the breakfast table, is unfit for the United States Senate. With hit pieces like this raining down in a DFL stronghold, Franken must work on holding the line up here and winning new voters elsewhere to replace those who might be flecked off in areas like mine. (And kudos to my friend Tom Anzelc for sticking with Franken so forcefully).

It appears my dream of an all-writer top-of-the-DFL-ticket is coming true. For anyone who cares about this stuff, now is the time to get to work.

Oh, and postscript, the New York Times ran a story last weekend showing the importance of blogs in this Minnesota Senate race. I must admit, both camps have strong presences in the blogosphere. This could be a study case in the sophisticated new tactics of online campaigning.

The important difference between wi-fi and high speed

A recent column from Mark Stencel of CQ Politics details the woes of major municipal Wi-Fi networks. The one in Philadelphia is currently going down in flames. I continue to advocate that northern Minnesota's Iron Range must use its unique revenue and public governance structure to create a universal high speed internet network, whether that network is public, private or, most likely, some blend of the two. And it's important to know that Wi-Fi is not the same as a high speed network. These huge wireless networks are actually quite slow, relatively speaking, and are harder to maintain and secure. And the wireless internet we know today is probably going to go the way of the 8-track before the end of the decade. The troubles in Philadelphia should not deter us for an historic opportunity to leap ahead of every other rural, industrial, economically-challenged region in the country when it comes to e-commuting, homegrown businesses, educational opportunities and much more.

Some have recently asked me if I'm in the tank for FiberNet or any of these other public high speed internet projects. No. I just want high speed internet across the region for the economic viability of the next generation. If Qwest doesn't want a public entity like FiberNet then they should get off the can and propose a better idea to make this happen. If they won't, forget them. This is an idea in the public interest but has the curse of being something that most good, hard working Iron Rangers don't understand. But that's the point. We're not building this infrastructure for today's generation; we're building it for the next one. Southeast Asia is exploding with growth in part because of high speed internet that allows them to do business cheaply all over the world. All we need to do is ensure that this project doesn't fall into the pattern of other major economic development projects that eventually become little more that job security for lawyers and lobbyists. (It'll be here in five years; pay me now).

This is where leadership and community activism comes in. I may only get 100 unique readers a day sometimes, but I'm betting you 100 know what I'm talking about. Unless those 100 are just Qwest lobbyists getting Google alerts. In which case I'll be in the back, drinking.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 2

I'm working on other projects this week, so instead of my normal posts I'm sharing a glimpse into some of the images that make up my life as an Iron Range blogger.

When people think of the Range they might think of mines, rough-looking blue collar towns, piles of red dirt, pine trees and lakes. And the Range does have all these things. But all sides of the Iron Range are surrounded by tamarack marsh like this.

I took this on the side of Highway 7 near Kelsey in St. Louis County at sunrise. I grew up just a few miles from here in the same Sax/Zim peat bog. Stark, wet, wide and foreboding, it's this vast marsh around the Range that really gives the area its sense of independence and isolation. And it's a special kind of people who live in the marsh itself.

Whitepine talks about steel wars

Paul at Whitepine, my east Range counterpart, is writing about the same modern-day steel baron wheeling and dealing that I have been talking about. His main argument is that we Iron Rangers need to have a backup plan because there's a lot we don't know about Essar and the Minnesota Steel project. I agree. Check it out.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 1

It's officially summer in my world, which -- unlike other teachers -- means more work than ever. I have a book due June 16, a summer course starting next week and a legislative campaign committee to fire up. Therefore, this week and perhaps the next few weeks will be light on blogging. Instead I'll be giving you a visual tour of life as an Iron Range blogger. Here's the first installment.


This is out my back door at sunrise. This is also why I laugh when people suggest I move to St. Paul to work for the DFL caucus or take some fancy radio job or get my Ph.D at the U.

HA! You know what's on the other side of these woods? Additional woods! You know what's out the front door? My driveway, then more woods. Keep your freeways, suckers. I can watch "traffic cam" on my Internet if I want to, and I don't.

Boondoggle vs. Audit

I may be slowing the blog for the next few weeks but I do have a couple stories that I'm following, including continued educated rumors that the expenditure of a $9.5 million Iron Range Resources loan to Excelsior Energy is being audited by the Office of the Legislative Auditor. I'm getting very plausible reports that there's an ongoing audit but have not been able to get the OLA to confirm or deny. Anyone who's seen (or attempted to see) the way Excelsior spends its public money knows that it's worth an audit to find out what they heck they're doing on the taxpayers' dime. If an audit reveals evidence of shenanigans that might be the news bump that finally buries this coal gas boondoggle called the Mesaba Energy Project. But I'm sure the company will have a spin on that as they do for most things. There's enough smoke and mirrors in that loan's language and reports that we might never know exactly what is what.

Grills, grills, grills!

This is my weekly Hibbing Daily Tribune column for Sunday, May 25, 2008. I archive my columns at my writing page.

Grills, grills, grills!

I think it’s safe to say that summer has arrived. I thought that a while ago but then we got eight feet of snow with sustained winds of about a billion mph along the Iron Range (numbers based on my irrationally emotional memory). That’s really what separates us northern Minnesotans from the rest in the Midwest. We are never allowed to collectively believe in the end of winter without at least one climatological test of our faith and mettle. God keeps a wary eye on this place, as well He should.

The thoughts of many turn to meat this time of year. We bake and stew winter meat but summer meat is grilled – a primal method of cooking that involves open flames and vastly more masculine aprons. People have grilled a long time, since the beginning probably. If it weren’t for grilling, morning television news shows might have to go dark between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m. The “Today Show” cameras would simply train in on a sad Matt Lauer contemplating life in silence as the assembled street crowd chants angrily.

My own personal journey of grilling began when I went camping by myself after my senior year of high school. I hope that doesn’t seem as pathetic to you as it sounds. It was supposed to be a journey of self discovery, but the only real discovery I made was that, until then, I had never cooked a steak. Seriously! They don’t come cooked! In addition to being a greenhorn steak cooker, I was an incompetent camper. It took me an hour and half and a can of lighter fluid to get a fire going and then I simply cooked the darn steak over the removable grill provided with the campfire ring. Is that what it’s for? Or is it some kind of toilet seat for bears? All the camping I had done before was with groups of people who knew what they were doing. Anyway, grill or toilet seat, I cooked my first steak on it.

Years later, a married home-owner thus culturally expected to operate a backyard grill, I bought our first charcoal grill. Like the campfire steak, I never quite mastered the technique of getting the fire going evenly. I tried making “the pyramid” formation that the side of the charcoal bag suggested, counting the recommended number of charcoal briquettes. Hours went into the process, not much food came back out.

Over the years since, we’ve come to rely on the grilling of others – glomming on to people with sleek gas units or those with the mystical knowledge it takes to quickly build a charcoal fire. Our briquettes lay unused in the garage until I made the unwise decision this winter to use them as snowman eyes. (Note: do not attempt this. The charcoal absorbs the sunlight and melts the snowman’s face like those guys at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie). Now, with the good weather upon us, we’re thinking of taking the big step of getting (drumroll) our own gas grill, one simple enough to be operated by monkeys, large dogs and me.

Having our own grill will allow us to properly enjoy the season. It will also re-introduce an old argument that I often encounter around the grill, be it gas or charcoal. How rare is too rare? My answer is, “I reject the premise of the question!” I love rare cooked food, especially beef. Your so-called “medical doctors” would advise otherwise. Them with their fancy “book learning” would prefer you eat your meat well done and flavorless. I like a red-centered steak and a pink-middled burger. You might be worried about tapeworms but let me tell you that my tapeworm, Larry, is much more charming than you’d think. He did my taxes last year, too (don’t ask how; it’s truly appalling).

On that high note I wish you all a happy Memorial Day. Grill how you see fit.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog, www.minnesotabrown.com.

Dylan Days literary showcase today

Today at 2:30 p.m. I'll be emceeing the Dylan Days Literary Showcase featuring the winners of the Dylan Days Creative Writing Contest, Toby Thompson and the world premiere of the first-ever Dylan Days One Act Playwright contest winner, Demetra Kareman's "Lessons and Carols." The event takes place at the Hibbing Community College Theatre. Admission is free with a $5 Dylan Days button. Our annual literary journal and program "Talkin' Blues" will be available for purchase, also at $5.

This event is one of my favorite arts activities of the year. It always delivers something special. Come on down.

Brown on the Air: Exercise (for real)

The "exercise" show scheduled for last week's "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE was postponed and will air, for real, this Saturday. My audio essay talks about exercise from an evolutionary standpoint, but don't worry it's not nearly that serious-sounding. Tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM or streaming online at www.kaxe.org.

"Between You and Me" is hosted by Heidi Holtan and involves a mix of music, features and listener calls that creates a sense of northern Minnesota's character and culture.