Those looking for a fun time on the Iron Range this weekend should check out the Hibbing Community College Theater's production of "Gypsy," which closes Sunday. The shows tonight and Saturday night start at 7:30. and the Sunday matinee is at 1:30 p.m. The wife and I shall put on our theater clothes to attend forthwith.

My weekly commentary for the Saturday, May 1, 2010 edition of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE joins the call-in/music program's rotating topic of "homemade." Are things you make on your own inherently better than the things you buy from the store? There's some annual thing about beer going on that day at the studio, making beer or some kind of jive and I suspect that will be dealt with also. We've done, like, three beer shows. So it's homemade this time. I go back to the vault of childhood and talk about the homemade t-ball uniform my mom made. Ethos, pathos, logos, baby, I shoot the moon.

An aside, I played t-ball for the united Forbes/Zim team. Try to imagine the hardscrabble youth of Zim joining the Forbes oligarchy a la "Remember the Titans" at the old ballfield outside the Forbes Elementary, which is now Boondocks, a bar and grill with karaoke and live music every weekend. Well, they tore down the ballfield this year, people. The backstop, the benches, the works. Simon and Garfunkel say to "preserve your memories, they're all that's left you." Well, that starts Saturday, suckers. Y'all tune in.

"Between You and Me" explores the culture and people of Northern Minnesota through stories, music and unusual discussion topics. It airs every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

It's been a gut check week for me and this blog. I had intended for MinnesotaBrown to be a titanic force at last weekend's DFL convention in Duluth. We had some fun, I guess. My convention re-cap got a little bit of attention, but mostly I was just another delegate struggling with the lousy wi-fi on the floor trying to figure out right from wrong. In the end, my writing was only notable in that my chiding of ReNEW proved more incendiary than what Michael Brodkorb had to say (ruh-row!).

As we hit the month of May on the Iron Range I'm behind on an unsettling number of projects. Dylan Days (May 27-30 in Hibbing) is approaching. I'll be editing an expanded version of our annual literary journal "Talkin' Blues." Next week we drop the third and final of the "Come Home Bob" videos I've been hosting for Iron Range Tourism. I owe a video post to MinnEcon and an Iron Range news analysis piece to the Scenic Range News-Forum. All of this as I begin my participation in the exciting new MinnPost Minnesota Blog Cabin, a cool feature you should check out. In short, I'm behind and Aquaman could use a little help here, sea creatures.

I've been posting less this year to focus on my writing and, as you'd expect, readership and participation have both dropped off. It's also impossible to determine (in the time I would allot such a task) how much of my readership has migrated to Twitter and Facebook. I'm going to continue the blog anyway, but if you'd like to see more variety and more Range news on here, please consider sending tips my way or tweeting me @minnesotabrown. Stay tuned for an exciting month!

While I was busy at the convention I missed this Bob Kelleher MPR story on the Canisteo Pit by Bovey from last Friday. The mine pit waters in the Canisteo have been steadily rising since mining ended there decades ago and the water is now starting to flood Bovey. If the pit wall fails, parts of the town could be lost. Needless to say, a lot of people are going to be very happy when the DNR and local mine planning board figure out their differences. Between this and my experiences at the convention last weekend I am about to flood my metaphor pit for the future novel. It's too bad the part of me that writes fiction and the part of me that blogs can't agree on how to drain that pit. That being the metaphor pit. We should also drain the real pit, too.

I've spent a day decompressing from my service as a delegate to the DFL state convention in Duluth this weekend (or, if you are not of that political ilk, I was instead gathering among the Bear People). Margaret Anderson Kelliher won party backing for the office of governor. That's well known. From my standpoint, the question I struggle with is whether to write a blog post about the proceedings or a novel.

Who am I kidding? Novels are hard! Here's a very long blog post. The novel will come friends, it will indeed.

There's plenty of speculation about the outcome. Fundamentally there are three reasons Margaret won this endorsement:

1. The MAK team had the most delegate votes at the start, something that was in question before the convention.
2. The MAK team had the best convention plan. Bigger demonstrations, more delegates working the floor as extra persuaders, etc. Others showed flashes of strength, but MAK's team had a plan for the entire night that was executed exactly as conceived.
   
3. The Iron Range delivered for her, thanks to the endorsement of outgoing candidate Tom Rukavina, labor backing and the floating of Iron Range Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) as a possible running mate. DISCLOSURE: I am a close friend and the campaign manager for Tom Anzelc. I confirm nothing; he has not been offered the job to date.

That's all fine and good. I'll be voting for Margaret Anderson Kelliher in the primary election and general election because I think she's got the most realistic and practical sense of how to handle the massive budget problems in Minnesota while delivering the services and leading the vision of what makes Minnesota a good place to live. Remember, without excellent schools and nice towns we are just a cold place to live. But this post is not about my personal endorsement and I don't want it to be any more partisan than necessary. Margaret is a nice, smart, focused woman who could probably break away from her 4-H forensics speaking style, but who is otherwise a solid progressive Minnesota leader worth getting to know. We'll leave the talking points alone from here on out.

The real story of this convention was the way Iron Range delegates delivered, in an old school way, in a convention that was a smoky haze away from being an old school convention. In the run-up to this event countless blogs, news stories and pundits expounded on what the ReNEW caucus, a group of progressive delegates that were planning to break for one of three candidates -- Kelliher, Mayor R.T. Rybak or Rep. Paul Thissen, (all DFL-Minneapolis) -- at a key time. For Thissen in particular, ReNEW was a key part of the strategy. ReNEW controlled about 10 percent of the convention floor, so their ability to swing one way or the other was the ninja in the woods everyone was waiting for.

The classic Iron Range/labor coalition that has swung conventions for decades took ReNEW out back and beat it with a pool cue until it cried. I'm not saying that because I think it's good, I'm saying it because that's what happened.

Everything ReNEW promised to do, deliver votes and victory for the candidate most aligned with its causes, was actually accomplished by the Eighth Congressional District and labor interests in other districts. At a key time, when the outcome was highly malleable, Tom Rukavina dropped and endorsed Margaret. From where I sat at the Itasca County table I could see Rukavina's sea of supporters, my friends from SD5, absorb the shock and disappointment of their dear friend's defeat and WITHOUT FLINCHING put on the red MAK shirts provided by the campaign. Old school, baby. This ain't a new thing. When ReNEW had a belated chance to counter in supporting their majority candidate, R.T. Rybak at the time, they blinked and let everyone vote how they wanted.

The top three finishers for this endorsement -- Kelliher, R.T. Rybak and Paul Thissen -- were all people who could have been slam dunk frontrunners had they not faced such a crowded field for such a long time. Rybak and Thissen are both top shelf candidates for future offices. As others have pointed out, a series of synthesized conventions might have produced many different ways for Rybak or Thissen to have won this one.

But why didn't they win this one?

I'll start with Rybak because, God's honest truth, I thought he'd win. Rybak was an early supporter of Barack Obama. (He joined me in being an early supporter of Howard Dean (2004) and Bill Bradley (2000) before that). His whole style is built upon the youth-oriented, independent-focused, intellectual, energetic approach shown by those candidates, particularly Obama. Why didn't it work? Short answer, the Obama strategy works when you flood the field with your people -- especially new people -- early. It doesn't work when you're working with the party regulars, and it sure seemed like this was a convention with fewer new delegates than the last two. Rybak had the right message and, time will tell, might have been at minimum as good a candidate as MAK. I enjoyed all my conversations with him and he's a pure star for the DFL faithful.

Same true for Paul Thissen, who -- OK, I'll admit it, even though I was a proud Rukavina vote at the convention -- was my straw poll choice. He's just such a smart guy, a good guy, a hard worker without the politician skin wrapped around him like you often see. He made a lot of friends at this convention and if he runs for any damn thing at all in the future, I'm committing early and not messing around.

But the real story of this convention was the Iron Range, its history and how its history influenced the turning points of this convention:

• Tom Rukavina's speech -- a flaming piece of pure Range populism and heart that flew through a space time rip from the 1930s. This speech was the only thing I heard all weekend that provoked an actual emotional response in me or most others.
• Labor politics -- for reasons, some imagined, Rybak was deemed unacceptable unless necessary. MAK played this factor to her advantage.
• Rukavina's endorsement and the Anzelc factor. These two guys are living examples of the Iron Range story. They ain't perfect; they're human; they care. That's the Range.

Did the right thing happen? The only answer is, the thing happened. The rest is a test of the character, will and endurance of the people involved. Any nervous DFLers now taste the exhilarating, frightening, uncertain, wild taste of being a 21st century young adult living on the Iron Range. Jobs are scarce, as are lattes. What will you do? Will you do anything? You should.

My first book's title sums up the struggle: "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range." I've read about and researched, talked to and grown up among the people of this place. I know it and yet I don't because, despite appearances, things are not the same as they used to be. Indeed, the central purpose of my work is to determine where we, the people Iron Range, are going and what we should be doing. This convention was revealing, but only in the way that a really good episode of "Lost" is revealing. There's always more to learn. I learned quite a lot this weekend, but I'm not even halfway to the truth.

UPDATE:

The Uptake has the Tom Rukavina speech that changed the course of this convention:

Perhaps you find yourself in the vicinity of the Iron Range and in need of quality entertainment and culture this week? Indeed, you're in luck. The Sutter Brothers, a poetry and music duo, is touring Iron Range libraries all week long.

A poetry-and-music duo, The Sutter Brothers have performed all over Minnesota and beyond—from Sandstone’s Quarry Days to the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, from the Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield, Wisconsin, to the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul. Ross is known for his rich baritone voice and mastery of an impressive array of instruments: guitar, button accordion, mountain dulcimer, and Irish drum. He has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and at The Winnipeg Folk Festival. The author of six books, Bart has won the Minnesota Book Award three times and was named the first Poet Laureate of Duluth. Though Ross and Bart have established individual reputations, when they perform as a pair, their work has the kind of counterpoint and easy intimacy unique to sibling acts. A blend of original poetry and traditional folk music, their show draws on their small-town roots and Swedish-American heritage. The Sutter Brothers have performed at the American Swedish Institute and were recently featured in the film Pretty Much 100% Scandinavian.Here's a list of their appearances:

Barton Sutter was part of the excellent creative writing education I received (along with my communication degrees) at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. He was kind enough to give a generously worded blurb for my book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range," which you should buy. You should also catch the Sutter Brothers when they come to your town, which is the point of me writing this.

• April 26—6 p.m.—Silver Bay
• April 27—1 p.m.—Aurora
• April 27—6 p.m.—Hoyt Lake Public Library
• April 28—10 a.m.—Chisholm Public Library (Children)
• April 28—3 p.m.—Hibbing Public Library (Children)
• April 29—noon—Virginia Public Library
• April 29—7 p.m.—Grand Rapids Public Library
• April 30—1 p.m.—Bovey Public Library

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, April 25, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

A dry spring fires up conversation
By Aaron J. Brown

The big red plane lumbered across the sky like a heavy hawk over Lake Boony, the small but serviceable loch set amid the pines down the path from our house. The aircraft looked just like the toy fire fighting plane that our three boys fly low and slow over their Cheerio bowls most mornings. Except, of course, that this one struck a massive shape in the sky, emanating a resonant rumble that shook the earth. In the time this plane passed from one corner of vision to the other was enough for my three small boys to wander from the excitement of “Look! Plane! Ooo!” to “That’s kind of scary” and run back up the hill.

The bone dry spring we’ve experienced demands such flights of the fire bombers. Forest fire danger rises every day it doesn’t rain. You don’t need Smokey the Bear to tell you that in his James Earl Jones condescending bear voice. Just ask the fire bombers. The skill needed to pilot one of these hulking birds is astounding. This is especially true for a non-pilot like myself who would quickly off himself even in one of those new tiny private planes with the built-in parachutes and two-button Nintendo-like controls. Tinking tree tops with steel wings, these pilots must guide their planes through heat blasts that can alter the all-important lift under a wing faster than one would desire vis-à-vis large metal objects not bound by the earth.

I’ll always remember doing a newspaper feature story on the water bombing planes at the airport in Hibbing. First I learned that many of the seasonal flight crews come from Canada. I was told that a particular captain was going to be the subject of my interview. When he entered the room he looked like a blond Tom Cruise, complete with flight suit. He strode across the room the way only a wily, experienced pilot wearing a flight suit could, in my memory, which is badly addled by the aforementioned child-rearing and a variety of other factors, most of them related to the passage of time. He approached me and from his cut square jaw emerged the words “Well, let’s go show you what this plane is all aboot.” It was the classic case of “accent does not match preconceived Hollywood image,” something we Iron Rangers see every time someone with a consonant-laden Eastern European name says “like, whatever” in a valley girl voice.

Perhaps the strangest part of the dry spring is not the lack of water, the slow greening of our foliage or the increased danger of fire. Indeed, the strangest part is how all of these things now become the regular topics of conversation among people who push paper and poke at keyboards for a living. That’s what it is, really? What on earth is going to get these kinds of people to talk about something they don’t see on Facebook or cable TV? The answer is simple: Incendiary fire risk and gargantuan Canuck fire lords flying above tree tops like the ride of the Valkyries. That’ll get us every time, at least until the “Lost” finale.

A couple weeks ago the boys and I were playing outside, picking up all the sticks that fell over the winter. We came in just in time for the nightly bath time and Christina remarked to our oldest, Henry, that he smelled like the outside. After a pause, Henry said, incredulously, “I smell like a stick?” This was good for a laugh at the time, but then again it bears mentioning that these days the outside really does smell like a stick. A dry stick that could burst into flames at any time, particularly if you smoke near it, improperly burn brush in its general vicinity or run an internal combustion engine that’s been maintained by a guy like me, a guy who can’t stop such thing from spewing devil sparks.

Fly low, fire bombers. Fly low for the people.

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.”

If you happen to be at the DFL convention in Duluth this weekend, consider stopping by to buy a signed copy of "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range." I'm a delegate out of the Itasca County group and will be on the floor. The books probably won't be on the floor, but I'll be selling them out of my trunk in the parking lot (Range style!) during lulls in the action. "Overburden," published by Red Step Press of Duluth, won the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award and has received fine notices. It's a book that will explain, through humor, history and stories, how the Iron Range has such an influence on the process this weekend and why those ore docks you see on Lake Superior are there in the first place.

Yes, this is pure tom-shillery, but look at the bright side. I'm not asking you to vote for anyone or commit to anything. Just give me money in exchange for goods. America, yes! For Republicans and independents, just send me an e-mail and we'll figure out a way for you to buy your signed copy, too. I will invest the money in America on behalf of my family. As you can tell, I am not a socialist.

I may be politicking out of town this weekend, but elements of my normal routine continue. Tune in for my weekly contribution to the Saturday morning call-in and music program "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE. This week's topic is "junk drawers," one of our annual shows where callers reveal the contents of their junk drawers live on the air for host Heidi Holtan and special guest John Bauer. My essay explores the topic of junk drawers from the standpoint of a guy who's kids have completely taken over his junk drawer.

Listen from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota (unfortunately, reaching just north of and not quite into Duluth) or streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

My 2010 DFL Convention blogging is off to a slow start. Good thing there's a generous dropoff rule, or I'd be out of the running for most awesome bloggy person writing vaguely accurate information on an iPod Touch. Ever try to get out of the house with three screaming boys under age 5 when you haven't worn a tie in more than a year. Where are the ties? In which decade did these ties look good? Yikes.

All this is why my oft-promised e-book regarding the state of DFL politics and the role of the Iron Range and greater Minnesota in shaping this election is, in fact, non existent. There are easier ways to make $58 and jeopardize your personal relationships than writing and publishing an e-book, it was determined. Instead, how about I hook you up with live convention floor crack and valuable, indeed irreplaceable, insight on the machinations of Iron Range delegates and the strategies of the campaigns? Oh yeah! @minnesotabrown

I hate Twitter. Twitter hates me. Sounds like a good buddy cop comedy to me. Perhaps by the end of the weekend we'll have learned something and formed a meaningful bond, a bond we share with you, reader.

Follow my feed @minnesotabrown for everything. I will post here as well, but the fast, totally unsubstantiated stuff you're looking for will be on what the kids down on the mean streets of Canal Park call the Twitter.

Looking back...
SOUTH to Duluth

While most of the state's DFL bloggers and politcos pack up their stuff for tomorrow's state party convention in the great "northern" Zenith City of Duluth, Minnesota, some of us look to the southern horizon with a sense of uncertainty and excitement. Unlike most, I'll be driving a hundred miles south to fulfill my duties as an uncommitted Itasca County delegate and Iron Range writer/blogger. On both fronts I am neither objective, nor unaware of how unusual I am. Not special, just unusual. Strange, really.

I'll be releasing a series of posts before the convention begins and hope to live blog at least portions of the activities from the floor. I understand this puts a burden upon my nonpolitical and/or conservative readers, but I hope to keep the reports lively and fun. There's just no hiding that I'm involved in the civic world and that I have political opinions. If you don't like my particular brand of politics, pretend that I am instead traveling to Duluth for the convention of a large fraternal organization -- the Bear People -- and that there is a closely contested Supreme Bear election between five or six people with unpronounceable Eastern European names and that there is much to do about all this, but nothing to get worked up about.

Meantime, brush up on my 2008 and 2009 interviews with the remaining DFL candidates (listed, with some exception, in chronological order). I placed the six contesting and honoring this weekend's endorsement. Perennial candidate Ole Savior did not respond to a request for an interview.

I neglected to mention that a community meeting will take place in Hibbing tonight at 6 to discuss the possible fate of the Paulucci Space Theater, until recently the largest planetarium in Minnesota. The place has been a longstanding favorite for Iron Range school kids in the months of April and May as it displayed the night sky, educational programming and the super wide format movies that necessitate a helicopter to shoot. It's also been a tourism attraction for the city, but has struggled in recent months.

Hibbing Community College (disclosure: my primary employer) runs the planetarium and, because of both present and future state budget cuts, will no longer be able to fund the planetarium in its current capacity. The meeting tonight will invite citizens and organizations to share possible solutions, other funding sources or any creative idea to use the space in an educational/community-focused way. Lacking solutions, the planetarium will otherwise close. If you have an idea, stop on by or contact the college for more information.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, April 18, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on the April 17 episode of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE.

The unspoken deal in pet ownership
By Aaron J. Brown

“Sammy needs a cheeseburger.”

And I don’t mean just a beef patty. On one impromptu visit to their house, I learned that Sammy, my grandparents’ late dog, needed a full cheeseburger with a bun and the dressings. So did Kato, her – well, I guess you’d call him her stepbrother. These dogs certainly enjoyed many of the same benefits of children in their short (though long in dog years) lifetimes. Heck, grandpa even pulled the camper out west with a Mack truck so the dogs would have access to the full sleeper cab. That’s a luxury not even available to all truckers, much less dogs. And that’s how it is for dogs in my family.

I married into a family that shares a similar love of dogs. Most members of my wife’s family, particularly on her dad’s side, display a reverence for dogs that borders on parental doting. Whether a dog was throwing up or learning new skills (but most likely throwing up) he-dog or she-dog (never “it”) was a central part of the family, sometimes enjoying leeway that a son or daughter would only dream of.

All this reminds me of a questionnaire we filled out while seeking veterinary care for our bird, Beaker, a neurotic cockatiel we owned before we had kids who eventual died from complications related to anxiety. One question read “Do you consider this animal to be a member of your family?” That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

First of all, the use of the word “animal” suggests another option. Maybe this thing in our house is really just some critter rounded up from the woods and made up to be a proper member of society. Maybe we could treat it like a critter, or something that will eventually be eaten. Maybe we should eat it, this critter. Sooner than later! Eventually this logic leads one down the path of considering a pet to be an animal with strictly limited privileges, something to remind the other animals who’s boss.

Second, “member of your family” is another loaded phrase. There are members of my family that aren’t accorded this distinction and yet we did not hesitate to list this mentally ill bird. This was a creature of a common breed probably raised in some trumped up bird mill on the edge of town, a bird who firmly believed that he might die at any moment due to the crushing weight of the world, and eventually did just that.

Maybe what I’m getting at is that by personifying our lovable pets, and they are quite lovable, we earn ourselves a convenient backup to our actual human relationships. If things aren’t going well with our sons or daughters, husbands or wives, mothers or fathers, we can always lavish love on a creature that will love us for our food and petting, two things humans dole out a lot more freely than trust, respect or loyalty. Pets, on the other hand, have nothing but trust, respect and loyalty to give. What THEY want is the lunch meat from the fridge and to scritch that one spot down there, the one right there, no over there, there … that’s the one. In many ways this establishes the perfect symbiotic relationship.

Just tonight I found myself making a nest of blankets for Molly Dog on our couch. It’s all part of the deal. The dog sits next to me when I’m focused on typing. I make the blanket nest for her, she keeps the couch warm and doesn’t give me any guff. The things we do for animals, indeed, but how about the things they do for us?

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.”

Here's an update on yesterday's Iron Range Resources Board decision to help reopen the former Ironworld research center and museum in Chisholm. Brush up with this story from the Duluth News Tribune. As I posted last night the IRR has allocated $1 million from the mining tax revenue paid in lieu of local property taxes to the nonprofit that runs the formerly state-run Ironworld. I point that out because many make the mistaken assumption that this comes straight out of the general fund. It doesn't. This is a little like all the cities of the Iron Range pooling their money to have a large cultural and historical center that they all share. In fact, that's exactly what this is.

I spoke to Rich Puhek, chair of the nonprofit Ironworld Development Corporation, last night and there remain some details to be hashed out by the board. Notably, they need to figure out exactly who among the approximately 50 laid-off staffers they can call back to work based on what the budget allows and who is still available. The IDC needs to set reopening dates for the research center,which will open first, and then the museum, which needs some work in the exhibit area before it's ready. Sometime in May looks likely.

Also on the "to figure out" list is the infamous name debate. One of the reasons last year's economic downturn and the effects of the Highway 169 repair project were magnified into a catastrophe for Ironworld was the name change undertaken right before the collapse. I suppose I'm going to have to type the name again, huh? Minnesota Discovery Center. Lots of people, including me, were somewhat mystified by that choice. That, coupled with other management problems and an overly ambitions fundraising goal, led us here. OK, so Ironworld has to decide what to call itself when it has no money to change what it is currently called. Not a lot of great options there, so good luck IDC board. Everyone knows that people will just keep calling it Ironworld so the question is to what degree do you attempt to fight this. My friend Rep. Tom Anzelc authored a bill that suggested new names for Ironworld, the research library and, for a rather dramatic piece of flair, the Douglas J. Johnson Economic Development fund (Iron Range Heritage Center, Perpich Archives and Mesabi Miner's Memorial Fund, respectively). The Mesabi Daily News editorial page nearly lost its stuff over this, a subject for another private discussion when you buy me a drink, reader. Tom's bill is hung up anyway and really, it's the board will have to decide.

Finally, and fundamentally, Ironworld's board has to figure out what it is and what it isn't. Many in the historical and cultural studies corners of the Range thought that the previous management was overreaching and rather schizophrenic in its vision for the facility. With less money the board's job just got harder and even more important. My understanding is that there is a leading contender for a new CEO, and one hopes that the new person is able to right these wrongs.

Somewhere in all this there lies a metaphor about Range institutions and challenges. When I figure out how to express that properly I'll revisit this topic. As it is, I think this might end up being my vlog for my next contribution to MinnEcon.

UPDATE: Text of a press release from the Minnesota Discovery Center:

MINNESOTA DISCOVERY CENTER TO WELCOME VISITORS IN MAY

Chisholm, MN—The Minnesota Discovery Center soon will resume sharing the cultural heritage of the Iron Range with school groups, tourists and other visitors. The Center plans on re-opening to the public by Memorial Day weekend.

“The Minnesota Discovery Center is excited to resume its mission of creating exciting and educational experiences for our guests as we share the unique history and cultural heritage of the Iron Range,” said Rich Puhek, chair of the center’s board of directors. “We still have plenty of work to do to prepare for reopening, but we have a solid plan for success.”

The Research Center portion will open simultaneously, or slightly before, the rest of the museum.

Minnesota Discovery Center, formerly known as Ironworld Discovery Center, closed temporarily in mid-November. The Center will re-open under a new business plan developed jointly with Iron Range Resources.

The business plan provides a blueprint for a sustainable operation that will fulfill the Center’s mission of preserving and interpreting Iron Range history and culture while meeting financial targets. The plan includes a step-by-step plan for implementing recommendations of a risk management report on ways to strengthen internal controls.

Minnesota Discovery Center will be increasing its fundraising activities, developing new exhibits and reconstituting its board as it implements the plan.

“The Minnesota Discovery Center has a bright future,” Puhek said. “We have an excellent facility, informative exhibits and a strong blueprint for moving forward.”

The Iron Range Resources Board approved investing $1 million annually to help the Center achieve its mission to preserve and interpret Iron Range history.

“We are grateful for the support of Iron Range Resources staff and board members,” Puhek said. “The agency is an important partner in the long-term success of the Minnesota Discovery Center, and we appreciate their investment in our future.”

Tune in Saturday morning for "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE, the weekly call-in and music program covering all manner of topics and featuring several astute commentators, including yours truly. My essay joins this week's theme in the general remark: "Oh, the things we do for our pets." I'll explore some of the over-the-top things done for pets I've known. For fans of ink a longer version of the essay will run as my Sunday column in the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

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

Word has come from St. Paul that the Iron Range Resources Board has approved a plan that would reopen of the Minnesota Discovery Center to the tune of about $1 million. This would entail a stripped down version of the operations seen before the facility closed amid financial struggles late last year. Details will be released tomorrow and even more information will be available when the nonprofit Ironworld Development Corporation board meets to approve certain actions.

The research library and archives will open first with a second phase of reopening the museum in time for summer tourism. After that, the board will focus on long term fiscal stability. The MDC was known as Ironworld prior to the name chance which occurred just before the major financial troubles were realized.

I'll offer more on this tomorrow.

This Mary Lahammer post from TPT reminds us that there are some serious Iron Range implications in the upcoming gubernatorial endorsement and 2010 election. Naturally, we've got a Range legislator in the scrum at the DFL convention trying to get endorsed (Tom Rukavina is considered to be in the second tier, according to MinnPost, MNPublius and others). But one of the two front-runners for that office, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher is leaving her office regardless of the results later this month.

That means House Majority Leader Tony Sertich is the odds-on favorite to win the Speaker job, particularly if Kelliher wins the endorsement and resigns early. Even if she doesn't she'll be done next winter. The only complication there is that the DFL would need to retain its House majority in what could be a tough, or at least unpredictable political climate. With just shy of a 2-1 advantage, that's highly unlikely and Sertich would still be the likely choice.

Obviously a Republican wouldn't love everything about that scenario, but regardless of your politics the unique nature of geographic politics means that northern and rural representatives in leadership is generally better for northern and rural interests.

The odds might be long for a northern Minnesota governor this upcoming year, but it's not hard to imagine an Iron Range House Speaker and Lt. Governor. Not too shabby. If we can't finish Highway 169 and drain the Canisteo Pit under those circumstances I am going to become a Whig. A radical Whig.

Eighth Congressional District Republicans have endorsed Chip Cravaack to take on longtime northern Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar. Cravaack is an airline and Navy pilot from central Minnesota. Oberstar, from Chisholm, remains heavily favored and will still almost certainly win. That said, he'll take some heat from Tea Party types and he might lose some of his pro-life voters angered over his vote health care reform bill. I don't that's fair, given Oberstar's pro-life consistency, but I'll not be wading into the scary, scary waters of what passes for debate on this issue.

Given the monumental task ahead of him, it should be noted that Cravaack is a little better organized than some of the candidates the GOP has fielded recently and will be enjoying the tailwind of the traditional midterm advantage for the minority party. Cravaack, if you recall, spoke to this blog a couple months ago. Unlike most MN-8 Republicans, Cravaack has done the math and knows that to win he'll need Democrats and independents to change their votes in order to win. As a DFLer I was hoping they'd never figure this out, but those glory days may finally be passing -- which could set up quite a skulltussle whenever Oberstar retires.

NY Times columnist David Brooks casually mentioned that he was cheering for Duke in the men's college basketball final last week, and that Duke beat the smaller, working class team not because it was rich, but because talented people get rich through hard work (I'm paraphrasing, you can read the original dialogue). Matt Taibbi wrote today's best read in response. As an "idea pusher" like Brooks and Taibbi I, too, feel a little sheepish calling what I do work when I think about what others I know do for a living. Here's a highlight from Taibbi's column:

Only a person who has never actually held a real job could say something like this. There is, of course, a huge difference between working 80 hours a week in a profession that you love and which promises you vast financial rewards, and working 80 hours a week digging ditches for a septic-tank company ...

Most of the work in this world completely sucks balls and the only reward most people get for their work is just barely enough money to survive, if that. The 95% of people out there who spend all day long shoveling the dogshit of life for subsistence wages are basically keeping things running just well enough so that David Brooks, me and the rest of that lucky 5% of mostly college-educated yuppies can live embarrassingly rewarding and interesting lives in which society throws gobs of money at us for pushing ideas around on paper (frequently, not even good ideas) and taking mutual-admiration-society business lunches in London and Paris and Las Vegas with our overpaid peers.

Read the whole thing. Taibbi's a fun guy to follow.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, April 11, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Bird, not smoke monster
By Aaron J. Brown

The male ruffed grouse, commonly referred to as partridge, is known for its drumming – repetitive mechanical-sounding thumps designed to attract females and declare its territory. Using its powerful wings and chest the bird creates a wholly unique and resonant noise against the ground or nearby logs.

Hey, don’t I sound like a wily, woodsy sage? I’m dropping grouse references like Ornitho … uh, bird guy. Here’s the thing. It took almost a year of wild speculation after five years of living in the woods for me to properly explain the sound we kept hearing behind the house.

THEORY #1: “Sounds like the neighbor’s having a hard time starting his generator.”

“The neighbor doesn’t have a generator. Why would he be starting a generator now, anyway?”

“Maybe it’s a tractor.”

“The neighbor doesn’t have a tractor. Why would he need a tractor?”

“Huh, well, whatever it is, it’s not starting.”

THEORY #2: “Is that ice forming on the lake? What a spooky sound!”

THEORY #3: “Neighbor’s having a hard time starting his truck. It’s not that cold. He must need a new truck.”

THEORY #4: “Is that ice breaking up on the lake? What a spooky sound!

The most outlandish theory came after watching the TV show “Lost.” For today’s purposes, all you need to know is that there is a smoke monster in the show that makes this “putt putt putt” sound right before it goes “aoooo aoooo!” and throws people into trees and other hard objects.

THEORY: #5: “Are we sure that isn’t a smoke monster? It sounds like Smokey.”

“What would a smoke monster be doing here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you go check?”

“I don’t want to.”

Eventually I did muster the courage to stand outside and check. It was morning. I was wearing a bathrobe and it was about 45 degrees outside. I mention that only because it was the most important factor to me at that particular time. The sound had been repeating since before dawn, dozens and dozens of drumming noises from what seemed to be 18 feet from our bathroom window. Maybe it was some kind of maniacal gopher.

THEORY #6: Gopher

But it was not a gopher. Rather, it was … The noise had stopped.

I stood outside on the porch for a few minutes. Total silence. If there really was a smoke monster in the woods it surely would have picked me up and smashed me against the garage apron by now, if only because people under 30 aren’t supposed to wear bathrobes. Oh, wait. I’m 30 now. Never mind.

Anyway, I went back inside to take a phone call and the sound quickly resumed. The mystery remained. It was later, at Easter dinner, that we mentioned the sound to my wife’s father. He thought about our description, the ice, the engine, the smoke monster. Then he replicated the sound exactly.

“That’s it!”

Yeah, he said, it’s a partridge. He must be lonely, looking for love.

The end. Except it isn’t. I’m not exactly city folk. I grew up in the country and can recognize a grouse when I see one. If I can go this long without knowing something so basic to the realm of partridge-dom, maybe I really do need to log off the computer more often and experience the natural world.

That said, do you know how we found out that my father-in-law was right about the sound? We looked it up on the internet and downloaded the sound. Maybe it should be my ring tone. What’s that sound? It’s the future. And also the past. Either way, if you happen to be a female grouse reading this column (I don’t hunt!) please consider choosing Mr. Birdy VonThumpsalot behind our house as a mate. We could use some peace and quiet.

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.”

My weekly Saturday morning contribution for the 91.7 KAXE program "Between You and Me" deals with the show's topic of bowls. That's right. That's really going to happen. You see, the Itasca Empty Bowls fundraiser is Saturday and we're using the opportunity to get people talking about an unusual topic, something this show is probably best known for.

My essay is an ode to a particular bowl from my past, a bowl that was my friend when I went from boy to man, and whose time ended far too soon. If you think I can't extend that into 500 words with a theme, you'd be wrong, chump. You'd be wrong.

"Between You and Me" airs every Saturday morning from 10 to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org. Callers discuss the topic, tell stories and, in doing so, share the culture of this region's unique people and their kindred spirits from all over the world.

The show is syndicated through PRX, so you can hear archives here. If you want to hear the inspired insanity from my essay last week, that's here.

Today I pull another media crossover/convergence/synergy gambit with this inaugural contribution to the MinnEcon blog by Minnesota Public Radio. I'll be offering occasional video and text reports on the Iron Range economy as it relates to the state economy as a whole. This first one talks about how the Range economy is emerging from a terrible year with a lot of unanswered questions about the rest of 2010 and beyond. The MinnEcon post features my vlog and some interesting employment statistics for the region.

If you just want the video, here it is:


Posts that inspired and/or informed this piece include my most recent column "Fiber and Steel," this item about Essar and this item about Duluth's bid for high speed internet.

I was almost rousted off of HibTac land by a couple of miners who thought I might be the guy turning all their "Stop" signs into "Don't Stop Believing" signs. I'm not. They were very friendly. I wish I had kept the Flip Cam running on that outtake.

Video: mxylkaxl by way of History Channel, found via MinnPost.

This is the geeky sort of thing that inspired my book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range," though I throw in more jokes and talk about my feelings.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, April 4, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Fiber and Steel
By Aaron J. Brown

I’m going to talk about the Iron Range economy today but it’s not really about the economy, is it? It’s about us. From the workplaces and bars, coffee klatches and school functions, Iron Rangers wonder about the future. Too often, the content of these conversations wander close, but not close enough to the hard reality of our situation.

As Range demographics irrefutably change to an older society, one with fewer young families than in the past, the path to keeping or attracting young people becomes more difficult. It’s not different here than in most other places, the rust belt cities and flat states, just pronounced because of this region’s unique nature.

Since the catastrophic regional depression of the early 1980s – an era from which we have yet to recover – our leaders, men and women of different political ideologies, have deployed a single plan. The “3T” plan: Taconite, timber and tourism. This plan is essentially a default. Default works great when things are working well. They aren’t. You don’t need me to tell you this.

It’s true that the “3T” plan is part, maybe even a majority of our future. Taconite and iron mining is an inextricable segment of the Range’s economy; indeed, it’s the reason we all live where we do (even if we don’t know it). Timber, by virtue of our massive stores of wood products, is also a vital part of the economy. Tourism doesn’t need explanation. Beautiful lakes, woods, parks and history make this region special, not just to us, but to the many millions of people who want to escape the relative hellscape where they live. All of these things equal dollars and jobs for us and people we know. All of this is warm and comforting and inadequate. Indeed, it’s the opiate of our masses.

In recent years there has been token acknowledgment of a fourth “T,” Technology. On the Iron Range this “T” has been embraced with same enthusiasm as the metric system. That is to say that there is tacit acknowledgment that it’s a real thing that the world is doing; just no follow-through.

But there is a place nearby where this is changing for the better. The city of Duluth has been courting Google to choose Duluth as a test site for its new Google Fiber technology, the vague, purportedly revolutionary sort of thing I’m talking about. Google Fiber would be a super high speed internet service available to households and businesses that could make cities in its sphere of influence competitive in yet unknown ways with other parts of the world that are beating us, whipping us in the new economy.

Maybe Google Fiber is a salvation; maybe it isn’t. Something else caught my eye. When Duluth was presented with the opportunity to pursue Google, it did so wholeheartedly and with a broad coalition that included more than the usual suspects. Duluth is pursuing Google Fiber with creativity, and yet with understanding of itself, both its limitations and potential. From YouTube to Facebook, from the Chamber of Commerce to students playing online video games, Duluth is trying something new.

Iron Rangers are the brothers and sisters of Duluth, indeed many of our people now live there. It is now time for the Iron Range to deploy modern tactics of its own. Failure to do so will mean nothing to us, but everything to the people who could deliver the Range the jobs, people and future it so desperately wants. Moreover, the process of stepping outside our normal bounds could prove the ultimate truth: We control our own destinies on the Iron Range. No solution for the future can exist without us all doing something difficult to benefit our children and grandchildren.

We sit here waiting for Essar Steel to build a plant in Nashwauk that will not even remotely replace the jobs lost over the past 30 years. Even if the Essar project is wildly successful it won’t completely solve our problems, specifically the problems that face our local schools, cities and businesses. We need more. No one else will give us what we need unless we ask for, then demand, then create our own solutions. New industry, telecommuters and innovative ways to harness natural, renewable resources are the only way out of this anxious wilderness.

No one worries about the mettle of the Iron Range people. Strong and belligerent as ever, we stand ready to do something. The question is what? And for whose benefit? The future of the Range depends on fiber and steel, timber, tourism and technology. We must do this for our children and grandchildren. Period. We need a 21st century economy, not 20th century excuses.

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.”

My contribution to this Saturday morning's edition of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE will join the call-in and music program's weekly topic of "favorite small towns." Listeners will be able to share stories and insights about their favorite small towns, particularly the many excellent small towns here in Minnesota. This topic arrives in honor of Ely's lead in the Budget Travel "Coolest Small Town in America" online poll. Kudos to Budget Travel for figuring out a way to drive up web hits on the cheap.

I hit a wall this week. I write about the Iron Range all the time. All the damn time, to tell the truth. And rather than pick one Range town and try to be all cute and whimsical I had what appears to be some kind of breakdown. Instead of doing my usual bit, I wrote a monologue from the perspective of a grizzled resident of a town wholly dependent on the economic influence of a marshmallow factory. It's every bit as good as that sounds.

Tune in for the madness, and the fun, and don't forget to tell your small town story along the way. "Between You and Me" airs from 10 a.m. to noon every Saturday morning on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online all over the world at www.kaxe.org. You can check out past episodes and my previous essays at PRX, Public Radio Exchange.

You all know I love living in northern Minnesota and talk about it all the time. But why? Well, there's the trees and lakes and history, but that's just stuff I write books about. No, I'm a media person and I judge a place by its media. And northern Minnesota is the only place in the NATION with a mustachioed news anchor.

That's Dennis Anderson. He's been anchoring the top rated news program in the Duluth market on WDIO Channel 10 (and "lucky" WIRT 13 for us Rangers) since the '70s. He doesn't just win the time slot, he just cold bull whips the competition every year. Yes, that's a toupee. He speaks openly of his toupee. What of it, hoss? What of it?

That's all well and good, but then you have the WDIO morning show, "Good Morning Northland," the prime lead in to ABC's "Good Morning America."

This show features news anchor Cassie Limpert (right), who kindly interviewed me awhile back for my book "Overburden," and Charlene Malin (left), the weather reporter, who details the conditions that determine what our three boys wear outside every single day. We watch this program reliably, partly out of tradition (we've watched previous incarnations of GMN before) and partly out of love for a media world that would allow a morning anchor staff that so closely resembles Peppermint Patty and Marcie from "Peanuts." I'm sorry to bring this all up, maybe it's the elephant in the room, but look:
We just watched "The Easter Beagle" on Channel 10, so I believe this is a fair point. I ask you, where else in this fine nation would such a configuration be possible? Only in northern Minnesota, where the people are kind, smart, bold and impervious to irony.

We watch Cassie and Charley every morning so don't take this as anything bad. They're great fun and are good at their jobs. Wouldn't you watch this? It's worth moving to northern Minnesota to watch this. This is good, people. This is good.