For observers of the MN-GOV race, particularly the DFL side, we now enter the strange lull before the April 23-25 DFL Convention in Duluth. Naturally, the candidates planning to go "all in" for the endorsement will be calling the thousand-plus voting delegates and doing events around the state. The only other thing they can do to change the current "conventional" wisdom (wocka wocka) is roll out endorsements or name their running mates.

Well, John Marty was first out the gate today to announce his running mate, State Senate colleague Patricia Torres Ray. Yesterday, Iron Range lawmaker Tom Rukavina garnered the endorsement of Congressman Jim Oberstar. The day before that R.T. Rybak announced the support of several legislators (and automatic delegates) from all over the state, all of this with the assumption that House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher already has dozens of superdelegate endorsements from her caucus. And everyone else has been endorsed by someone, for some reason, at some time. There is more of this to come.

Today I'm going to talk about the implications of the early April maneuvering by DFL candidates and offer a few ideas for general consumption.

Let's start with the hard truth of this whole topic. No one actually wants to be Lieutenant Governor. Anyone who wakes up each day with the desire to become the Lt. Governor and who works to achieve that goal is a sad, sad individual -- even by political standards, which are notably lower. The Lt. Governor generally has little independent influence on the actions of the Governor and, when they have attempted as much, or taken on additional duties in an administration, it's turned out mostly bad. As far as the public knows Lt. Governors do what their job intends: nothing, until and unless the governor dies or leaves office for a variety of uncommon but not unheard-of reasons. And then it sure as heck counts, doesn't it?

The wrong Lt. Governor can lose an election, either the one they are in or the unexpected election that might come later. Who was that guy who was governor of Wisconsin after Tommy Thompson resigned to become President Bush's HHS Secretary? I tell you what, I was going to college in Wisconsin when that happened and I still don't remember. I'm not even going to find out using the little search bar on the corner of the very screen I'm looking at now. It's just that insignificant. He lost.

Being a Lt. Governor might be important inside the management structure of an administration (usually not) and it's a handy position to keep a hatchet person for political attacks (press agents are more affordable and disciplined). But mostly it's a ceremonial role held by people who want to serve the governor and/or raise their own profile for higher office. Rudy Perpich famously said that the only way an Iron Ranger would get to be governor would be through the "back door" of Lt. Gov. and it worked. While he was ousted with other DFLers in the Minnesota Massacre of 1978, Perpich built a profile that allowed him back into office in 1982 and to become the longest serving (and STILL most recent DFL) governor. But had Perpich not clawed back to relevance of his own volition he'd be just another name on the list of Lt. Governors who few remember outside of their time.

There are two frontrunners in the endorsement race. There is an 80-90 percent chance the endorsement falls to Rybak or Kelliher. That leaves 10-20 percent for a spoiler or compromise candidate -- most likely Paul Thissen but I'm leaving a tiny window of hope open for my Iron Range homeboy Rukavina. Marty is least likely to win the endorsement, but I respect his style so I'll give him a sliver of "why not?" hope anyway. Others will bring high hopes to the convention, too, but the candidacies of Mark Dayton, Matt Entenza and Susan Gaertner are increasingly primary-focused and the delegates are unlikely to reward that with an endorsement.

Properly played, the Lt. Governor choice could be a pivotal game changer either right before, during, or right after the convention. The "when" in this situation is wholly dependent on the situation. The front runners might be best advised to wait until just after the convention to make a play for DFL primary voters. Everyone else might not have that luxury and may, in hockey vernacular, pull their goalies to get the extra bump at the convention.

As I've said, I recommend the #2 spot be held by an Iron Ranger. This would solidify the DFL base and give the ticket, regardless of which metro candidate heads it, a regional and stylistic balance. Everyone thinks I'm talking about Rukavina when I say this, and Rukavina would be great. But I don't know if A) he wouldn't rather be a commissioner with more influence on specific policy, or that B) he'd want to rein in his trademark outspoken style for 4-8 years. Former gubernatorial candidate Tom Bakk would also be a great choice. Rukavina and Bakk could probably move the most immediate convention votes. But there are other Rangers with great bios, both in and out of the legislature, who could move some convention votes and an equal number of primary votes later. And Duluth might even be OK ... in a pinch.

After all the political intrigue of this business has been wrung out, I would like to see whoever turns up in this job to then do something compelling with it. How about keeping an office somewhere in Greater Minnesota? How about finding a role for the Lt. Gov. office that would justify its expense? This is more than a political problem; it's an administrative one. Regardless of who is selected and, of course, who is actually elected, this business of horse trading is old school. Is it wrong that I find it so fun to talk about?

Probably yes, but it's too late now.

DISCLOSURE NOTE: I am an elected, uncommitted DFL delegate from Itasca County. I have favorites in this race, but am not publicly endorsing anyone until I feel there's some reason -- most likely when I'm handed a ballot and am compelled to write a name there.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 28, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. An earlier version of the piece aired on "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE.

About that accent
By Aaron J. Brown

The tricky thing about accents is that no one knows they have an accent until someone else points it out. The way we speak, our language and colloquialisms, all emerge from the simmering pot of our respective upbringings. Much like a slow cooker in the kitchen, we don’t smell what’s cooking in that pot until we leave the house and come back inside. Sometimes the smell indicates a well-seasoned roast, other times cabbage and bullion cubes.

I’m from Minnesota, which to an outsider conjures the accent heard in the movie “Fargo,” named for a North Dakota town but based almost entirely in Minnesota. When this dark comedy came out, many Minnesotans were offended by the way their accent was depicted. They would often berate the film in the very same accent heard in the actual movie. “What kind of a name is Coen, anyway, don’cha know.” The truth is, while “Fargo” often resorts to extremes in its interpretation of the Minnesota accent, we all know that some people around here, maybe most, really do talk that way.

My accent is a special case. I grew up here in northern Minnesota exposed to all the same influences as everyone else. I further grew up on or near the Iron Range where a sharp addition of several super charged ethnic accents piled up upon the Scandinavian standards of the rest of the state. This turns the “Oh, ya” known to Minnesota into the “Oh, ya, interspersed with a fair number of colorful words loosely translated from Slovenian and Italian, respectively. In a strange twist, from an early age I took an interest in broadcasting, a field in which accents are discouraged. The Americans most known for disguising their accents are southerners, however, we northerners, especially we Iron Rangers also have our work cut out for us in the media.

It helps (I think) that I went through high school watching nearly every nightly episode of “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and “Late Night” with David Letterman, and later his “Late Show” on CBS. Carson and Letterman were Midwesterners like me, who grew up in two different generations than mine, but yet in whom I, for some reason, felt a great deal of kinship. I would recite their monologue jokes to fellow students on my hour-long school bus ride, all in the same flat, wry voice of my TV mentors. Where others learned their regional accents from friends and family, I learned mine from TV.

I guess I shouldn’t be proud of this, but at one point, when I was promoting my book about Minnesota’s Iron Range, a reporter told me that despite my being a fifth generation Iron Ranger I didn’t have a hint of an accent. For some reason, I was pleased. I realized that anyone can absorb an accent all their own, if they watch enough Johnny Carson and David Letterman in the basement of their parents’ home, avoiding the high school social life and also working nights at a local adult contemporary radio station broadcasting Michael Bolton and Phil Collins tunes. OK, so my story is perhaps unlike the norm.

Even with my radically altered, freakish, warped Minnesota accent, there are elements I can’t avoid, especially when I’m at my least guarded lingual states. Recently, as I was reading stories to the kids, it was pointed out to me that I say: I’m’n’a. This is a shortened version of “I’m going to.” For instance, one could say “I am going to order a cocktail,” or one could say “I’m’n’a grab a beer.” I am capable of saying “I’m going to,” but when I am in my natural element I will always say “I’m’n’a.”

From this, there is no escape.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

I divulge one of my poor personal habits this Saturday: lead foot. The topic for this week's Saturday morning talk/music program "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE deals with "traffic tickets." My contribution joins the chorus of unique northern Minnesota voices that make this show a special treat for anyone who loves the north woods and its unusual people.

This week host Heidi Holtan will be leading a discussion about moving violations, the sort of things that lead to the traffic tickets that some of us -- maybe even me -- might have accumulated over the years. She'll have some guests with some very funny, outrageous stories and representatives of Minnesota's law enforcement community as well. My bit includes talk of how speeding comes natural to the overscheduled, and how difficult it is to maintain the anonymity of speeding when you know the cops.

"Between You and Me" airs Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org. I am one of several contributors who join other regular folks in exploring, expanding and showcasing our unique Minnesota culture in a fun, sometimes unforgettable way.

The second video for Iron Range Tourism's "Come Home Bob" campaign is here. This one ought to shake things up. Me and my crazy side projects!



Join the cause in welcoming Bob Dylan back to the Iron Range at "Come Home Bob."

Duluth's efforts to be selected as one of the test sites for Google's new super high speed fiber internet technology have reached fever pitch. In addition to filming a high end short film with the entire community last weekend, organizers have been using all sorts of online, grassroots efforts to demonstrate the city's desire for what could be a tinderbox of information age economic development. Today, however, might have been the biggest moment yet for many involved, particularly for one of the key leaders in the Google Twin Ports efforts: Duluth Mayor Don Ness.

I first heard about it on Facebook. It was something like:

"Holy f***ing s***, Donny Ness is on A1 of the New York Times!"

Don't quote me, it was early. And no, it wasn't Ness (a Facebook friend of mine) doing the posting, either. After a few more confirmations I started imaging what the picture must look like. Is it a trendy portrait of Duluth's hip new young mayor bringing the steel and shipping town into the 21st century? Well, you tell me:

That's Ness from A1 of the "gray lady" jumping into the frigid waters of Lake Superior to demonstrate just how very much they definitely want Google Fiber, for realz. The story is well worth a read. Here's video of the whole thing. My favorite part is Ness attempting not to swear on camera after getting out of the water.



It would be tempting to unleash some good-natured teasing of the very cold mayor, but the second video for Come Home Bob drops tomorrow and I wouldn't want to deal with the counter-punch. Who would have thought that when Don and I were both working our way up the ladder of the northern Minnesota political scene we'd both find ourselves simultaneously starring in different viral YouTube videos in fervent efforts to modernize the perceptions of our blue collar region? Life is funny sometimes. Funny ha ha.

In deference to the "Fail-Safe" principle, I'll re-share the Come Home Bob You Tube channel.

Several outlets, including the Duluth News-Tribune, report delays to the Essar Steel Minnesota plant outside Nashwauk on northern Minnesota's Iron Range. Essar has cleared the site but because of changes to the original plan the company now must refile its Environmental Impact Statement to amend its permits. Overly optimistic predictions of production in 2011 are now being amended to 2015.

Essar's public statements unflinchingly declare that this project will include both a mine with production plant AND a steel plant that harnesses efficient technology to make slab steel on site. However, the company's actions and estimates, coupled with its ownership and plans of the Algoma facility near Sault Ste. Marie across Lake Superior, seem to indicate that Essar might operate a taconite plant alone for a period of years. With a 15-year lifespan estimated on the plant, it would take steel demand of massive proportions to justify finishing the steel mill portion. Proposed, yes. Possible, yes. Probable, only maybe.

Essar is upping its taconite pellet production estimates from 4.1 million tons to 6.5 million tons. That's great, but when it's all being fed to Algoma I think the company is hedging its bets. It's going to get its raw North American materials from the Iron Range, but where it produces its secondary steel products will depend entirely on the demand for steel. Indeed, it'd be foolish to believe otherwise for this or any other private company.

I still welcome Essar to northern Minnesota, but must also remind all of us who live in its economic sphere of influence of something important we should already know. One project, especially a big one, is more likely to under-perform its promise than not. One project, or even two or three, won't even begin to replace the jobs we've lost -- including the ones lost in the 1980s at the former Butler Taconite site near the current Essar location. One project won't fix systemic, decades-long demographic change. We need to build a 21st century economy. Patching the 20th century economy will buy us years, not decades and certainly not generations. Start small. Consolidate efforts where possible. Focus on quality of life, schools and services. That's what will bring jobs. It won't be easy and we'll need all hands.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 21, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Where’s my jump suit?
By Aaron J. Brown

The year is 2010. I can’t be more clear than this. I was promised a jump suit by now and I haven’t received one.

In the not-so-distant past science fiction writers inferred that the year 2000 (or 2001, for true believers) was “the future” and than the year 2010 was “the sequel to the future.” In any event, the hard reality of the ‘90s, with its baggy clothing and lingering 1980s hair product was supposed to fade by now. Instead what we see on commercials, in catalogues, and on the racks of our local clothing stores is, in fact, a greatest hits celebration of the last 50 years of fashion. 1970s avocado greens collide with 1960s design and 1950s hair and we’re suppose to buy it all, quite literally purchase a modern version of the past and pretend that it is current. Indeed, our economy depends upon as much.

I say again, where is my jump suit?

Of course, I know the answer. And you do, too. If I were to wear a jump suit to work, to civic occasions and social engagements I would appear much like a Dr. Seuss or “Far Side” figure; an irregularly proportioned creature not from the future but from the funny pages. I am shaped like a modern human, which is to say that my middle exceeds my bottom and top and that I sure do enjoy the cheese and related products. This is not true of all humans, just most Americans and certainly the ones who write newspaper columns in the Midwest.

The concept of a jump suit is simple. Everyone is the same. Everyone looks good in a shiny, universal garment that never needs to be washed because IT’S THE FUTURE! In the future, concerns such as moisture wicking, body odor and BMI shall not inhibit the human race from its claim on the sort of uncomplicated clothing that thousands of years of human sacrifice presupposed.

Even 15 years ago, the idea of a jump suit seemed plausible. A variety of “Star Trek” spinoffs were still functioning, selling us the myth of the uniform-for-life. But a cold reality set in. Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC to appear healthy and then released a sandwich last year that replaced bread with slabs of fried chicken: a paradox that appealed to the base nature of our times. We want to eat fat and be skinny. That’s the premise we’re sold, and our clothes tell the tale.

In the old days pants had a button and a zipper. Every day you’d fasten your button, ascend your zipper and enjoy the promise that one day there would be no buttons and zippers, just the everlasting glory of a form fitting jump suit around your taut figure. As I write this I am wearing new pants: trousers from the present, which is to say that they are the pants of the past’s future. These pants have a zipper, a button, and a catchy-thing that serves as a backup in case my waistline exerts too much pressure on this whole mechanism. Is this a personal affront on my body type by the pants-masters of our times? I doubt it. Rather, my pants speak not just for me, but for a multitude of consumers who are not yet ready for the jump suit era.

This past week I began a new project. The jump suit era won’t begin until I take action. I’m going to shed enough weight to plausibly appear in a jump suit. No, I don’t think I’ll ever appear like a young Captain Kirk. Rather, I merely hope to appear like the visiting officers from Star Fleet. These men are not sex symbols, but they can pull off a jump suit, by gum. Because this is the future and that’s what people do.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

Iron Range State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) has dropped out of the DFL gubernatorial race before next month's endorsing convention. As the Iron Range guy in the Minnesota blogosphere you might be curious if I have any insights on this. Well, I'm from the Midwest. So if did, I'd never say in the first paragraph.

Here's what I do know. The conventional wisdom is that Bakk's exit helps fellow Iron Range candidate State Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia). That's true. But it's not the whole story.

Rukavina should indeed vault from the third tier up to the second, not yet with as much support as the front runners R.T. Rybak and Margaret Anderson Kelliher, but in the ballpark of Paul Thissen and John Marty. Interestingly, all four of the people I just mentioned live near the central core of the Twin Cities. Rukavina lives in a house he built himself in the woods north of the Iron Range. I'm not saying that to boost Rukavina; just pointing out the contrast that Rukavina will no doubt emphasize to Bakk delegates and the rest of the convention. Rukavina is now the presumptive non-metro candidate.

Here, in random order, are some things that conventional wisdom brokers might not realize:

• Bakk supporters are not going to reflexively move from Bakk to Rukavina. It's a mistake to assume that these delegates are all Rangers who simply preferred Bakk. In fact, some of these delegate are moderate Democrats who will be shopping for the most moderate option. Who's that? Hard to say when everyone has their primary hat on, but my bet is that Matt Entenza, Paul Thissen or maybe even Susan Gaertner might be a better ideological fit for some of these delegates. I noticed that Entenza and Gaertner were the first out the gate citing the great hole in the campaign that Bakk's departure would leave. Thissen, meantime, is placing all bets on finishing third on first ballot and becoming the compromise candidate if Rybak and Kelliher become locked up. He could do that, if he picks up Eighth CD delegates somehow.
• Rukavina might appeal to Marty supporters as a second choice, as he is one of the few candidates committed to single-payer, universal health care. People often cite Rukavina's pro-mining, pro-logging, pro-ATV environmental record as evidence that's he can't win liberals, but his record also contains more economic and health care populism than many liberals would ever expect.
• This is a tangent, but it should be said that Bakk and Rukavina represent two sides of the Iron Range DFL political coin. They are friendly and bound by many of the same principles, but emerge from two different denominations of political thought and tradition. Rukavina emerges from a school of thought that emphasizes early labor organizing tactics -- a Steelworkers kind of guy. Bakk emerges from a later labor tradition, one more in sync with business -- a building trades kind of guy. If these distinctions mean nothing to you just keep reading. I can't help you in one post.
• Rybak and Kelliher are the front runners. By default, some Bakk delegates will likely join their ranks.
• Further complicating this matter is that, insofar as the DFL endorsement is concerned, we are no longer dealing anything resembling a popular vote. We are dealing with a party political convention, same as the GOP, that relies upon citizen activist delegates with all manner of axes to grind and crosses to bear. This is old school politics. That's not all bad, but it's also not all predictable. A Bakk delegate is not a nebulous number at this point. It's a real person with a name. And that person might want to jump on with a front runner, remain loyal to an Iron Ranger, or hold back for a deal. My personal prediction is that most Bakk delegates do move to Rukavina, but that several others don't -- particularly Bakk's wealth of State Senate superdelegates.

In short, GAAAAAACK! I can't predict a damn thing. I'll be writing later this week about Minnesota's next Lt. Governor, a person who has not been named and in whom I hold no special knowledge, but whose most important contribution will occur over a one-day period in April 2010, long before taking office.

Before closing, let me join others in thanking Sen. Bakk for his run. He represented an important part of any winning DFL coalition and the eventual nominee MUST NOT forget to do what Bakk was doing in reaching out to small business people, rural people and tradespeople. I am from a family described by all three of those terms and I know that there are many swing votes in families like mine that may be won or lost in 2010.

The topic for this Saturday morning's "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE will be "Act Happy." You may not know this, but it's national "Act Happy Week," a time of willing yourself to a better state of mind. My regular contribution is entitled "Work Smile." I talk about the special smile you use, often at work, that is not real but is designed to make you appear happy, industrious and indispensable.

It's radio, people, so there will be none of this: :-)

"Between You and Me" explores all sorts of topics, a new one each week from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org. Heidi Holtan leads the discussion, fueled largely by the people of northern Minnesota who call in to share their stories and thoughts.

Craig Stellmacher from the Uptake has penned an excellent piece of analysis from a recent state House hearing regarding the proposed PolyMet project in Hoyt Lakes. He's not trying to pull hard for one "side" or the other in this contentious Iron Range economic/environmental debate; rather he's asking some good questions. PolyMet is going to end up a litmus test for all things Iron Range in the upcoming election, but I don't think it deserves stand alone status in that category. How we handle PolyMet is one part of a very big economic development process that has a lot of moving parts. I'll respect the candidate who owns up to that fact. If there was such a thing as a JOBS button even our most clueless political leaders would have figured out how to push it by now.

In any event Stellmacher and the Uptake deserve credit for enduring what was, by all accounts, a very long, very boring day of testimony. Doing that is just so much harder than writing a sternly-worded letter to the editor. Or a blog post that links to actual content (curses, the jig is up).

Iron Range Tourism's "Come Home Bob" campaign to bring Bob Dylan back to his home region is getting attention. The video, which includes a bulbous, strange-looking version of yours truly, is spanning the internet. More and more people are becoming fans and signing the petition to get Bob to come home.

Minnesota Public Radio has the AP story which spread quickly off the Duluth News Tribune story. Wednesday's Duluth News Tribune and Hibbing Daily Tribune will have stories, and we'll just see what happens from there.

In all this we learn that Bob Dylan is currently in Japan. That's far away, but the good people at Iron Range Tourism, upon consulting numerous resources and a handy Japanese-to-English translation guide, stand ready to help Bob figure out the flight configurations that could bring him to the Range Regional Airport or another nearby airstrip impervious to the relentless flashbulbs of our local paparazzi. Stay tuned.

You might know that in addition to writing, teaching and whatever it is you want to call doing this blog I am one of the organizers of Dylan Days in Hibbing, Minnesota. This year the Iron Range Convention and Visitors Bureau is going all in to get Bob Dylan back to the Iron Range. They're using a series of (satirical?) videos to woe the folk bard former known as Robert Zimmerman back to his old stomping grounds. Yours truly was tapped to write and host the films. Good times.



And the best is yet to come! Check out the website where they've stashed the first video! Share with your friends and follow the whole works on You Tube or on Twitter @comehomebob.

I've been getting a great response to my humor commentary about "Sound" that was broadcast on 91.7 KAXE last Saturday. It features the first professional voice work by young George and Doug Brown (don't worry about the budget; they work for Goldfish crackers). If you'd like to know what my radio work sounds like, take a listen. Every week "Between You and Me" covers a different, sometimes VERY different topic and I write to suit.

Find out more about KAXE, a great independent public station, and its diverse programming for and about the people of northern Minnesota.

Last week I began an exciting new endeavor that marries this fancy, 21st century blog with a small town weekly newspaper. (Or, as the kids say, we're going to hook up somewhat regularly for the foreseeable future). Electrons and ink! Quaint small town meeting notices and snark from around the globe! Every month I'll be writing news analysis pieces for the Scenic Range News Forum, a growing weekly paper that covers the swath of western Iron Range towns from Coleraine to Keewatin -- essentially the Itasca County portion of the Range. The "Scenic" is the only source of news about the fast-growing rural townships just north of the iron formation where I live.

What does "news analysis" mean? Well, that's to say that it won't be a column and it won't be a straight news story either. Ask the Associated Press. They've been running this game for decades. I've been given free reign to identify issues that affect people on the Iron Range and explore them, not necessarily to form conclusions but to get people thinking and working to solve problems. I am not without my conflicts of interest but I am nonetheless in a unique position to gather and share information. I aim to do so responsibly.

My first piece, "Wanted: Young People," ran Thursday, March 11, 2010, and focused on demographic change on the Iron Range. For instance, you might be surprised to know that the population of the Iron Range, particularly in Itasca County, is actually growing. School enrollment, however, is shrinking at a dangerous rate. The changing demographics of the region actually cause most of the major political and social problems Iron Rangers have complained about since the 1980s. Read more.

Meantime, I'll still be writing original weekly columns for the Hibbing Daily Tribune and commentary for KAXE-Northern Community Radio. My burgeoning, deeply unprofitable media empire will soon be somewhat less stoppable.

The following is part of my news analysis series for the Thursday, March 11, 2010 edition of the Scenic Range News Forum of Itasca County, Minn.:

For the Iron Range, demographic change is the challenge
By Aaron J. Brown

The demographics on Minnesota’s Iron Range, trending toward an older society with fewer young families, may have turned an Olympic gold medal to silver.

“It’s the reason the United States lost that hockey game to Canada,” said state demographer Tom Gillaspy. “There weren’t enough Iron Rangers up there to play.”

Gillaspy is kidding about the 2010 Olympic Hockey Final in Vancouver, but not really. The loss of young families explains not just fewer Iron Range youth taking part in the sport that made the region famous, but also declines to school enrollment, political clout and employment. In short, nearly all of the region’s problems can be summed up by looking at a sheet of Census data.

On the central and eastern Iron Range in St. Louis County people are leaving. A composite of U.S. Census data shows most east Range towns losing about 26 percent of their population since 1980. Here in Itasca County, on the western Iron Range, the population has grown. But people arrive in different ways and to different places compared to when immigrant miners and loggers arrived 100 years ago.

It’s a mistake, however, to assume that the region’s prospects are solely related to population. In fact, Itasca County defies conventional wisdom about the Iron Range having gained 24 percent in population since 1970, including an increase each of the past ten years according to U.S. Census estimates. The change, according to Gillaspy, comes in the kind of households being established in the county. Itasca County has become older and more rural.

Gillaspy said that while many focus on population as the most important indicator of a region’s demographic health, the better indicators are the number of households and the people per household.

For instance, consider that the largest Range towns have lost 10 percent of their households since 1970.

“When you lose 10 percent of households that means vacant housing and lower housing prices,” said Gillaspy. “Vacant houses get torn down and then you have a vacant lot. You have less human activity and more social and health care needs for older households.

“When I see a number like that I see all sorts of things happening,” said Gillaspy. “It suggests whether or not lawns are being maintained. It indicates the income and attitudes of the people living there. It’s sometimes hard to convince local officials that I can see all that in the numbers, but I can.”

In another example, Keewatin declined from 2.55 persons per household in 1980 to 2.14 in 2008. Bovey fell from 2.45 persons per household in 1980 to 2.12 in 2008. These represent 10-12 percent declines. Meantime, the school districts that serve these two towns – Greenway and Nashwauk-Keewatin –both report an approximate 40 percent enrollment decline in that time, an astounding correlation.

Mark Adams, the superintendent of both the Greenway and N-K districts, deals with the effects of these numbers every day.

“The population growth we’ve seen hasn’t been in new families,” said Adams. “People often aren’t bringing children with them so it doesn’t change the dynamic. The question we face every day is how do we raise the academic bar in a model that won’t include new revenue for the foreseeable future?”

Indeed, local schools have faced a combination of challenges recently. School bond referendums are harder to pass in communities with older residents and fewer children. Budget cuts and funding formula changes have reduced state allocations. And the economy just endured its worst year since the Great Range Recession of 1982.

“This is not a short run event,” said Gillaspy. “It’s not like the Iron Range fell on hard times just this year. What you’re seeing now is a different event, the long term outcome of an aging society with not enough young folks to build a population.

“There will be jobs,” said Gillaspy. “There will be economic development that will stabilize things. It’s going to create several dozen jobs for every hundred lost, though. You don’t need nearly as many people to mine the same amount of ore. It used to take hundreds to run a steel mill, now it’s not quite dozens in some cases. Productivity has changed everything.”

Indeed the story of today’s Iron Range has been building since the steel recession of the early 1980s. Older residents pass away after long, full lives of working the mines, raising families and propelling the commerce of our towns. Unlike previous declines in the Range economy, families are smaller and the economic recoveries include fewer jobs. Young people leave for jobs, for lovers, for lack of excitement or simply in frustration. Meantime, people moving to Itasca County often seek a quiet, unchanging, inexpensive retirement destination.

Thus, the challenges facing schools, towns and the economy may only be solved by adjusting to the reality of these numbers. Only then can the region’s leaders begin the arduous task of reversing them.

“We have to redefine our communities on broader scales,” said Adams. “Our expectations need to include everything it takes to get young people ready for college and the economy.

“This might be an opportunity in disguise,” Adams said. “By working across the county we might still be able cut costs and provide 21st century classrooms. But we have to reorganize.”

Aaron J. Brown is an Iron Range writer and college communication instructor. His book is “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 14, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Where ignorance comes natural
By Aaron J. Brown

When the seasons change, skilled naturalists “strut their stuff,” a phrase often associated with certain mating rituals that nature experts customarily abandon when they finally identify all varieties of North American pine. These days, plants and animals kick off an elaborate stage play that ends the same way every year but that many people watch anyway, just like “It’s a Wonderful Life” at Christmastime. While I respect the people who have figured out this clockwork, something prevents me from accumulating the same knowledge. It’s probably Google’s fault.

So spring has sprung, except not really. You know and I know that there’s going to be some random winter storm this month or next that buries us under two feet of wet, white sludge and then laughs by melting that mess into your basement (That’s right, I’m talking to you, reader, about YOUR basement). Nevertheless, we have tasted spring this past week and that means we want more. But we aren’t the only ones that want more spring; nature wants it too.

In nature, spring expunges life on the landscape. Spring populates the wilderness and brings new purpose to the humans who build and destroy the natural world in the name of feeling superior to people who live in dense urban areas. For those like me, the woodland residents with no knowledge of woodlands, here are my most recent nature journal entries:

March 8; 3:30 p.m.
When I was playing outside with the boys our dog Molly caught some kind of critter in the back yard. I know it was a rodent because of its little rodent teeth but it was all messed up. I got a shovel and threw it into the part of the woods where we throw all the dead things and also where the tennis balls land when they fly over the garage roof. Note to self: wash tennis balls.

March 9; 11:46 a.m.
I saw a bald eagle eating a dead deer in the ditch. When the eagle saw me coming it leaped into the air and soared majestically as though to say, “Don’t judge me. That dead deer was an enemy of freedom.”

March 10; 10:26 a.m.
Man, did you see that bird? That bird was brown. That bird was fast. Was that a partridge? No way. That bird was way too fast. I think it was brown. Do you think the mail is here yet?

March 10; 3:12 p.m.
Out-of-state Facebook friend to me: “Are the loons back yet?”

Me to out-of-state Facebook friend: “No, the ice is still on the lakes and the loons won’t be here for a few weeks, unless you count the human versions.”

Ha-ha-ha! I know nothing about loons! They are the state bird!

March 11; 2:21 p.m.
A few days ago I saw another road kill deer on the side of the highway. A day later there were birds. The birds only picked at part of the upper haunch and then there were no birds for a few days. Then, more birds. Then I realized that this is exactly how people buy produce. Except that these carrion birds got their food for FREE.

There are a lot of birds in this world. They are as strange to me as people. People, as Doors fans know best, are strange. Perhaps the mere fact that I’m aware of my lack of outdoors knowledge is the first step toward actually learning the difference between species of bird, tree or fur-bearing mammal. Maybe in paying my ignorant attention to these types of details I’ll become the wily outdoorsy mountain man (person) who lives in my mind, mocking me for being a newspaper columnist. In my mind this person can also fix cars and maintain household appliances without professional assistance. I can hope.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

What's your favorite sound? What's your least favorite sound? My weekly contribution to the Saturday morning call-in/music show "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE joins the unique program's rotating topic of "sounds." I share both good sounds and bad in an essay that I originally titled "The Sound and the Furry" because I thought I was going to record the many adorable and grating sounds of Molly dog. Instead, I ended up capturing the good and bad sounds of my children, particularly our younger twin boys George and Doug. So now I don't know what I'm calling it, even though this one turned out pretty good. I will try to share the piece when the audio is ready next week.

"Between You and Me" airs from 10 a.m. to noon every Saturday on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live online all over the world at www.kaxe.org. Thanks to the Minnesota Arts and Culture fund, "Between You and Me" is shared with radio stations all over the country through the public radio service PRX. The show features host Heidi Holtan, a cast of contributors including me, and the voices of the people of northern Minnesota. Tune in!

Another clever video from Google Twin Ports, seeking the selection of Duluth, Minn., as the Google Fiber test city. Kudos to Sen. Franken for lending his efforts to this one.

A little bit o' the profanity, but a worthwhile summary of cable news:

(h/t Sullivan)

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 7, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It was originally written for last week but rescheduled to run today.

Rural homeless: out of sight, out of hope?
By Aaron J. Brown

It’s easy to forget that poverty, mental illness and personal crisis leave people homeless in every corner of Minnesota – including here on the Iron Range – and those affected don’t always fit neatly into stereotypes.

“While most people think of homelessness as the stereotypical chronic alcoholic in an urban area, the reality is that half the homeless in Minnesota are children, and one-third of the homeless are in Greater Minnesota,” said Liz Kuoppala, Executive Director, Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless. Of those homeless children, Kuoppala said, many are dependent upon a single mother fleeing domestic violence.

Kuoppala, also an Eveleth City Councilor, was busy recently, not just connecting homeless people across the state to services, but in guiding a tour of analysts from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office as they investigated the matter of rural homelessness here on the Iron Range two weeks ago. These officials met with public officials, service providers, but most importantly with homeless Iron Rangers in a quest to recommend the best way to improve current government practices.

“We heard from people who slept in tents, in abandoned houses, even at their job with no one knowing,” said Kuoppala.

Indeed, according to Kuoppala, that’s the challenge of addressing homelessness in northern Minnesota. In large cities, the federal government identifies homelessness based on the number of people reporting to shelters. With no major overnight shelters in the region the federal government doesn’t have any way of knowing how many people really are homeless.

Part of that, Kuoppala said, is the culture of rural, working class places like northern Minnesota.
“People here don’t think of themselves as homeless,” said Kuoppala. “They just think of themselves as down on their luck. Rural people are hearty, tough, and pride gets in the way of getting help. They’re more likely to hunker down in the woods or an abandoned school bus.”

And while this may be preferable to people lying destitute on the streets of our towns, the fact remains: many homeless people struggle with medical, mental health and transportation issues that prevent them from gaining employment and security, something they want and everyone else wants for them.

That’s why the recent federal GAO tour exploring rural homelessness is only part of the story. A much more troubling development continues here in Minnesota. In the state’s staggering $1.2 billion budget deficit, the General Medical Assistance Care program – slashed to the core in Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposed budget, was restored in the legislature only to be vetoed again by the governor. DFL lawmakers attempted an override last week that fell short.

The GMAC program is expensive, as any health care in the country tends to be. However, it’s sometimes the only program that covers medical and mental health needs for people who want off the streets and into our economy, an action that has the dual benefit of being more cost-efficient and morally defensible. Cast a stone on the Iron Range and you just might hit a friend, family member or neighbor in just such a situation, a person most likely enduring his or her struggle quietly.

Kuoppala described the plight of one low income woman who had spent a lifetime struggling with untreated mental illness and who finally received medication. The treatment was helping her adjust to a new life of possibility, but with the specter of losing her prescription drug coverage as soon as April 1, she lives in dread of returning to homelessness and despair.

“She told us that if she knew that her treatment would just be taken away, she almost wishes she had never tried in the first place,” said Kuoppala. “Because now she can’t imagine returning to the life she once knew.”

Minnesota might be a cold place, but Minnesotans don’t have cold hearts. No excuse, particularly a political one, will suffice for failure to solve this problem. Nor should we pretend that the rough landscape of northern Minnesota absolves us from knowing the struggles of our fellow people and helping them.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

I attended the Itasca DFL convention today in Bovey and can report the following: Nothing I say will make the 2010 DFL endorsement process any more understandable or predictable.

I expected Tom Rukavina, fresh off a big win at his nearby home convention in SD-05 last weekend, to win handily. He did win the most votes but came away with only 3 of the 11 Itasca County state delegates.

Two candidates performed better than I expected. John Marty, backed by a very strong progressive, universal health care-focused community in Itasca County, also won three delegates have received the "bump" from the crazy reciprocal fractions that determine the final delegate.

Matt Entenza won two delegates, all owing to what was a very strong local organization that boosted his numbers from their organic base. An uncommitted marriage equity caucus also won a delegate, likely to back Entenza. I heard that a Tom Bakk delegate may have snuck in somewhere in that Entenza mix but I'm not sure about that.

The remaining two delegates went to "Itasca Uncommitted," the caucus I called and of which I now represent as a delegate. We're reserving the right to support one of several candidates at the convention based on what will serve our region the best. Personally, I am honestly undecided, something that is finally starting to bother me. The people in our subcaucus were supporting any combination of Kelliher, Rybak, Paul Thissen, Entenza, Marty, Bakk, Rukavina or others I wasn't aware of. Point is, our two delegates aren't sure bets for any campaign.

The really wild and wacky fact is that this is happening all over the state.

I just talked to my friend in Duluth and while he couldn't account for all the delegates in today's SD-07 convention it sounds like "uncommitted" had a huge day, with only a R.T. Rybak and Marty tying the pledged delegate race (3 delegates apiece, I heard, with Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Bakk and Rukavina at 2, and Entenza with 1 ... nothing conclusive).

With all this confusion the campaign that wins the endorsement might well be the one that makes the dramatic move at the convention that establishes good will across this fractured landscape.

Here's to remind everyone in the Bemidji area to stop by the Headwaters Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 522 America Ave. NW in Bemidji Sunday morning at 10 a.m. I'll be the featured speaker for the regular service. After the service I'll be hosting a book reading at 11:30 where I'll read some hot new material, discuss my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range,” and sign books. Both the service and the book event are open to the public and you're welcome to attend one or both.

Tune in to 91.7 KAXE's "Between You and Me," a call-in and music program featuring the voices of northern Minnesota, this Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon. The topic this week is "Stranded." Have you ever been stranded? Where? Why? I'll be joining the fray as usual with my regular radio commentary. Trust me, you'll want to be stranded with a radio somewhere. It's that good. Just don't ask any questions about it right now.

You can hear "Between You and Me" between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live online all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

My book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" has been out for 18 months (gack, the time!) but I've yet to do an author event west of Grand Rapids. That sad reality ends this weekend as I make my first speaking/book appearance in the great city of Bemidji on Sunday. I'll be the featured speaker at the Headwaters Unitarian Universalist Fellowship service at 10 a.m. with a book reading and discussion at 11:30 a.m. Both events are open to the public.

My awareness of Bemidji began as I attended public schools on the Iron Range in northern Minnesota. Many of my teachers had gone to school at Bemidji State so I began to imagine the place as some sort of foreign encampment where teachers trained like commandos before being dispatched to my school. The actual details of what Bemidji was, what it looked like and who lived there were hazy. The teachers would say something about a lake, make some veiled reference to parties, train off into how they started dating someone and WHAM they were married and teaching 8th grade at Cherry High School. Were they warning us? Promoting Bemidji State? (Go Beavers!) This was unclear and remains so.

Headwaters Unitarian Universalist Fellowship welcomes guest speaker Aaron Brown at 10am this Sunday at 522 America Ave NW in Bemidji. He will also hold a book reading at 11:30 following the service. An author, blogger, columnist and radio commentator, Brown will share excerpts from his book, “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range,” which addresses questions such as: What’s it like to be a blogger in a place where most people still don’t use the internet? What do you do when you love where you’re from but see an outside world full of possibilities? How can you shape the future when the people of your town can’t stop talking about the past?

This particular talk, on account of the different audience and format, will focus more on northern Minnesota cultural changes over the period I have termed "the modern Iron Range." Stop on by, Bemidji readers!

For years I've been pushing high speed internet and 21st century e-commuters as perhaps the most important way to diversify the natural resource-based economy of northern Minnesota. We can't out-sprawl the suburbs. We can't out-hipster the big cities. We can be ourselves and attract people who like the laid-back, comfortable, yet education-focused atmosphere of northern Minnesota to do the work of the 21st century.

Well, you might have heard that Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., (the Twin Ports) have been courting the new Google Fiber initiative, an effort by the global leader in Internet searches and servers to expand the speed of internet in the United States. The Twin Ports join several cities in seeking the first test site status of Google Fiber, but perhaps scored an important jolt to the first tier by the following response to the move by Topeka, Kansas, to temporarily rename itself "Google, Kansas."



At first I thought it was weird that Duluth Mayor Don Ness got out in front of the sketch to do an intro and outro for the video, explaining that it was satire. Then, after thought, I realized that the audience for this video is not the typical mouth breathing internet addict like myself, rather, it's the people at Google. I think Duluth's answer here demonstrated that this community can do more than a symbolic gesture to get a corporate nod. Instead, Duluth responded to Topeka immediately, creatively and professionally. The Google way.

Nice.

Hey, Google. Duluth is the regional seat of an area with more freshwater lakes, forests, parks and alcoholic beverages than Topeka on Mardi Gras. If you want a place that's flat and desperate, go Topeka. If you want an area with an advanced network of higher education facilities that could use a job or two and wouldn't mind your company, don'cha know, try Duluth.

Any effort to get such an innovative effort closer to the Iron Range, just north of Duluth, with its unique network of local economic development funding from iron mining revenue, is a good thing. Unlike other "rust belt" places past their industrial bloom, the Duluth/Iron Range/northern Wisconsin region remains a beautiful, affordable place to live. The place could just use a little juice. You know what I mean, Google.

(h/t Mashable)

So back in college I used to have this summer job where I would travel around the seven-county area of northern Minnesota's Arrowhead region, including the Iron Range, to inspect youth summer work sites and write press releases. That's boring, except for the part where the guy who took the job after me is on "Rules of Engagement" at 7:30 CST tonight on CBS. He's pictured at right trying to sell an affordable zipper sweatshirt that is NOT FOR SALE. Seriously though, Jaime's a great guy.

The Hibbing Daily Tribune online-only Monday edition has the story (subscription only) with the amusing headline "Hibbing native to appear on comedy sitcom." Better that than a tragedy sitcom!

Jaime plays the part of a bible group leader who has a role in the presumably hilarious antics of the program about people, some of whom are David Spade. Anyway, Tintor is a hardcore Ranger living in L.A. and you should send him hearty huzzahs on this eve. Fans of this blog might remember Jaime as the guy who played Elwood Blues on the Hibbing Community College Theater stage and who reprised that role to help save the theater program at a benefit last summer.