This upcoming Saturday folks can interact with Iron Range pioneer Cuyler Adams and his massive, bipedal, sentient dog at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm.

CHISHOLM – See Hibbing resident Richie Johnson as pioneer and prospector Cuyler Adams in a family performance at 1 p.m. Saturday, December 3, at Minnesota Discovery Center. In real life, Cuyler Adams and his dog, Una, discovered the Cuyuna Iron Range. Learn about their adventures, sing songs and play games with Cuyler and Una during the show; all children will receive a free compass.

Exhibits currently showing include the Laurentian Northern Railroad Model Train Club display with children’s train table, and “Ray Segar: One Man’s Quest for History.” Musuem visitors should use the facility’s winter entrance. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 3-17, and free to children 2 and under, and MDC members.

A friend of the blog, Mesabi Misadventures, is taking on a bold challenge as November fades into December. She'll be highlighting different ways to give back on each of the 31 days of December. She'll be donating her own money and time and talking about her "31 Days of Giving" experiences on the blog.

I'll be reading. We're looking for ways to show our three boys that Christmas is not just about the presents (and show ourselves that Christmas is not just about stress and overindulgence).

Duluth News Tribune opinions editor Robin Washington gives us all advice on how to pose for a mugshot photo in the event we are booked on serious charges that could be detailed in a prominent regional newspaper. I accept this advice. Thank you.

The other night the family and I were enjoying the light show at Bentleyville in one of our rare trips to Duluth, northern Minnesota's regional center. In the glare of holiday opulence we caught a glimpse of a big laker gliding through the cold harbor on its way under the lift bridge, out the canal and into the expanse of Lake Superior. The holiday music made it impossible to hear the ship's engines, only its obligatory horn bleats to lift the bridge.

The sight reminded me of this recent WDIO story about the 1905 wreck of the Mataafa, a Great Lakes ship trapped in bad weather at the end of the Duluth pier. Along with the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975 it was one of the Great Lakes' worst shipping disasters, made more alarming by the fact that it occurred in full view of a Duluth population powerless to stop it. Modern rescue technology could have saved those men, but one wonders what effect it would have on the thousands of Bentleyville attendees to watch figures scramble for life across the paralyzed hide of a frozen ship within a snowball's throw of shore.

We find much to complain about these days, but so many things are undeniably better than they were before.

This is my Sunday column for the Nov. 27, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Holiday season inspires potpourri
By Aaron J. Brown

On the game show “Jeopardy” you sometimes see the category “Potpourri.” This is high-class way for intelligent people to say, “We don’t know where this stuff should go.” In rummage sale ads this is called “misc.” In a family, this is called “a recent college graduate living in the basement.”

The holiday light show at Bentleyville opened down in Duluth last week. New this year is a dinosaur themed light display. The dinosaurs signify a living reminder of the carbon-based fossil fuels needed to maintain electrical service to the annual attraction. In the spirit of the holidays, we are all reminded that the base elements of our earthly corpus maybe be used to turn the blades of a turbine many thousands of years from now. Also, Santa has a new house this year.

***

We’re doing a little better on Christmas shopping this year compared to last. Much of it was done online and now we’re going to fill in some odds and ends with local shopping. One thing is certain. Based on the bestsellers list on Amazon.com the other night we see that many people will be receiving a coffee cup in the shape of a toilet this year. Go tell it on the mountain.

***

A recent headline over at the rival newspaper in Duluth read “Winter brings gloomy outlook for SAD sufferers.” One could also argue that in addition to sandbagging those with Seasonal Affective Disorder, the season also promises snow, cold and the gradual shortening of days followed by the eventual lengthening of days as the earth’s axis tilt back toward the sun. In a related story, gravity continues to exert its powers disproportionately on the obese.

***

I have to congratulate our old friend and former neighbor Jack Lynch for his arts and sciences award from the St. Louis County Board. When we moved into the house next door in 2000, Jack had just “retired.” That obviously didn’t take. Good thing, because Jack has done some of his finest work just recently, documenting the unique and complicated history of Hibbing and the surrounding Iron Range.

***

Like many small-time writers littering the likes of newspapers like this, I hope to publish a novel. I’ve crafted quite a few compelling excuses why I haven’t finished my novel yet. “These kids are everywhere.” “It’s important to build a Twitter presence before completing a chapter.” “I must research in order to write the seminal work on fantasy football!” But the best excuse I’ve heard yet comes from blog discussion on 3quarksdaily.com. According to one modern thinker, advances in neuroscience might make the novel obsolete.

You see, the novel is considered by some to be the true expression of the human experience. Over hundreds of pages readers grow to understand characters and their motivations. But, Austin Allen explains a Marco Roth essay contending that that scientific understanding of the human brain might explain so much that such expression would become redundant. You simply need to read the brain scan. I am almost entirely certain this is why I can’t decide between first-person and third-person point of view.

***

The Spirit of Unity Parade is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1 in downtown Hibbing. This holiday promenade is a latter-day tradition downtown. As a member of the Cherry High School marching band back in the ‘90s I recall the parades early days. My memories of the occasion included temperatures so low my trumpet literally froze in the open valve position. I could only play low C, middle G and high C. You can actually play “Taps” that way, but that is very much not in the spirit of unity.

Nevertheless, the holiday season is here: the cookies, the family, the shopping, the songs, and – of course – the snow. Be ready to dig out or, if you prefer, dig in.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He is the author of the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and the host of the Great Northern Radio Show on 91.7 KAXE.

Iconic Iron Range and Duluth entrepreneur Jeno Paulucci has died just four days after the passing of his beloved wife, the philanthropist Lois Paulucci.

Paulucci died this Thanksgiving morning at the age of 93. The Duluth News Tribune has published a comprehensive obituary. Paulucci really is a rags to riches story, a poor kid from Hibbing who built national brands. His fascinating story intertwines with the complex narrative of our modern region and nation.

We lived in an apartment across the street from one of the family-owned groceries Paulucci's large family owned and operated in Hibbing. It is such a small little house. The store was in the front; the family lived in the back. He was 12 and heavily involved in the business, which was only the first of many.

Paulucci's time as one of northern Minnesota's most influential private citizens was not without controversy, but he earned deep respect, gave back to his community and accomplished many things through his own ingenuity.

Condolences to the family and friends of Jeno and Lois at this extremely difficult time.

Happy Thanksgiving from MinnesotaBrown! Unless major news happens we'll be going dark for a few days. Indulge my sharing of a snippet from one of my favorite shows of all time.

I've worked in the media since I was 16, starting in the mid-90s. That meant I got to watch what we now call "new media" come of age at same time as me. I worked in a radio station as it first adopted automated technology. I edited a daily newspaper that was switching from paste-up to digital. The technology involved was truly remarkable and unremittingly brutal to experienced workers. Youngsters like myself flourished because we were cheap and flexible. Now I am less young and new media is also showing some wear.

The new technology was made possible by capital infusion from a system of corporate consolidation, as larger and larger ownership groups took possession of the small town stations and papers most of us grew up with. This happened from small markets all the way up to the big networks. Frugal Dad recently posted a compelling graphic demonstrating how the editorial power in American media is now fixed in the hands of six companies (see more below the jump).

This graphic correctly shows the dangerous territory we are in regarding national media control. But I am equally concerned about local media as well. Some large companies control thousands and thousands of radio and print properties throughout the hamlets and burgs of the American landscape. Here in northern Minnesota, local boards and councils are being covered less accurately and less virulently than at any point since Prohibition.

All this being said, I do believe that the future is not in toppling the titans of national media (though that'd be a lot of fun to see). Rather, the future is in our own backyards. Local, independent media will be the antidote to our national media and, perhaps, our national woes and flagging discourse. This is the reason I write this blog (five years this month!) It's also the reason I think small producers could keep pace with the big companies weighed down by old media debt and delivery methods. Honesty and credibility will serve as currency, and the tired propaganda of corporate media apologists will not suffice.

Some unpleasantness lies ahead. We wait. We remain vigilant.

I've posted Frugal Dad's "Media Consolidation: The Illusion of Choice" below the break.

MORE

Photo: Possibilities remain in the bones of the past. My son Henry peers into his great-grandpa's car in 2009.

Several conservation groups have recommended the closing of two Minnesota locks to prevent the spread of Asian carp, which are currently advancing up the Mississippi River. As this Pioneer Press story indicates, closing those locks is a bureaucratic nightmare unlikely to occur.

One can't help but find in the comments of Minnesota officials a sort of parental tactic. Everybody knows the carp will get here and do carp things in our lakes. But no one wants to SAY that the carp will get here, that their inevitable advance was foretold the moment man began meddling with the natural order ages ago. "Don't worry, little Billy, if we're lucky the carp might not get here."

The carp are coming. They eat algae that our native species like to eat. This will be problematic for a time, but will gradually fade into the fabric of resource management. Our cold temperatures will prevent the carp from spreading easily in the north woods. We will be alright.

Unless, of course, the carp taste flesh. Then we are in trouble.

MinnesotaBrown is the leading voice for sarcastic commentary on the Asian carp debate. Show your support by liking us on Facebook, which is known to the carp as "GlubGlub."

This is my Sunday column for the Nov. 20, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Thanks, no thanks, for Black Friday midnight madness
By Aaron J. Brown

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because big shots haven’t figured out how to “monetize” the whole thing yet. Sure, it’s a big day for turkey farmers or cranberry magnates, but those are honest professions. The rest of us must simply show up to dinner on time, performing the chores prescribed by our gender or family tradition.

Thursday promises nothing more than the work and rewards of a meal. There are no expectations of gifts, specific religious beliefs, clothing or musical repertoire. It’s a big enough holiday to inspire its own television specials, but really the only plot tropes available are “getting home” and “eating your eyes shut” and you just can’t argue with the awesomeness therein.

But Thanksgiving fans have long sensed the threat looming just past the holiday. I’m speaking of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that has become the massive white hot star of American capitalism.

There are certain trends about Black Friday that we’ve all come to accept. We know that big stores stock the Christmas trees and decorations the day after Halloween now. We know that coupons, circulars and advertisements have been pumping up Black Friday enthusiasm for weeks, long before turkeys even found their way into freezers.

Each year, however, new encroachments are made. This season it would appear that near-universal “midnight specials” by major retailers are the new normal. In other words, after consuming enough food to stoke a furnace for a cold winter’s night, people are expected to drive into the fluorescent shrine of a mall or big box retailer. Why? To save $50 on a television bearing the brand name “YuNerHerdoMe.”

This has to create an interesting practical dilemma in our retail economy. Surely, these still-of-night sales will include many shoppers who only go to avoid missing out on a deal, while being staffed by many people who only work to stay employed. I am reminded of what the rat said to the trash collector Tuesday morning at dawn: “We are here by happenstance, my friend.”

Some stores even promote the fact that you can shop with the same sort of ill-advised abandon seen on Black Friday right now. This is roughly equivalent to arguing that one can eat a pound of turkey and mashed potatoes every day leading up to Thanksgiving as some sort of way to prepare oneself for the real eating yet to come. Doing that is a good way to end up fat. Doing the same thing with holiday spending is a good way to end up broke.

Make no mistake, on Friday morning you will see a national retail industry lobbyist on television and they will tell you that we are poised for the greatest Black Friday sales in history. Their smiles and pinstripes will be very convincing. Behind them you will see active shoppers, happy cattle. The truth and relativity of the retailers’ claims, however, mean little.

Where is the spokesperson telling the media how well our aunts, uncles and cousins are doing after talking to them on Thanksgiving? Where is the press release reminding us that everyone is a year older and that life is a fleeting exercise in character and endurance?

I’m thankful that this week we get to see a wonderful contrast. Thanksgiving is a holiday about reality: eating and family. Black Friday is a holiday about the appearance of reality: shopping and spending. Enjoy it how you will. I intend to enjoy a good meal Thursday and sleep in Friday. The stores aren’t going anywhere. There are better things to do at midnight than push a cart around. There are only so many shopping days left on earth.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and college instructor from the Iron Range. He is the author of the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and host of the Great Northern Radio Show on 91.7 KAXE.

This week's edition of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE brings the semi-annual "jokes" show, with guest hosts Michael Goldberg, Gail Otteson and Frieda Hall. My weekly contribution explores a favorite of mine: puns. What I've produced is a 2 minute, nine second barrage of puns invoking topical news stories, sports and culture. It's a ton of pun, a punderful experience, the punniest thing I've ever done.

"Between You and Me" airs 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streaming live and archived at www.kaxe.org.

Rural air service to places like the Iron Range is somewhat controversial. It's expensive to serve areas like this, certainly less profitable for airlines than running regular flights out of populated hubs. Nevertheless, regional economies rely heavily on the ability to get people in and out of these places, where companies and entrepreneurs still have job-creating interests. That's why for many years the federal government has subsidized flights out of the Range Regional Airport in Hibbing and other regional airports.

The cost of these subsidies has been criticized by fiscal conservatives like U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8), a former airline pilot himself who represents this area. Yesterday, the center-left think tank MN2020 held a press event at the Hibbing airport defending the economic benefits of regional air flights. At stake is whether air service to these places will survive the decade. It's an important debate. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Kraker wrote a compelling story about the discussion this week as well.

Each year around this time elements of Winter take hold in the social fabric -- cooling the temperatures, stripping the leaves.

Winter-inspired political thinkers and writers have been organizing within our institutions. They are preparing the people for the idea of winter, touting its virtues, indoctrinating our youth. Winter has won elections. Winter runs the trains. Winter is forming plans.

Yesterday we got our first meaningful snowfall, about an inch or so. As I looked out over the horizon the snow clouds looked like a "V." It was a flight formation for the early raiders. "V" for Victory. It was not the the decisive blow that would establish the Winter Empire. It was, nevertheless, the beginning of Winter. Intelligence has learned that a snow storm is expected this weekend.

Winter will now occupy our cities and roads, our rails and our minds. A generation will pass and Winter will cement its power. Only much later will the idea ferment that Winter may be defeated: Sprigs of warmth, green shoots of hope. It is then that the opposition will thaw Winter's Empire.

This is a time in our distant future.

Virginia, Minn., Mayor Steve Peterson, fresh off his re-election last week, has been hired by the IRRRB to fill a new position: Executive Director of Development. This position is part of Commissioner Tony Sertich's reorganization of the unique Iron Range agency's management structure. Gone is the position of Deputy Commissioner. Now we find this more focused position dedicated to pursuit of economic development and diversification in this historic mining region.

I find myself in agreement with some of Bill Hanna's Saturday editorial in the Mesabi Daily News, particularly this section:

Iron Range residents have a right to expect a lot more, especially considering that agency officials and area lawmakers during the last legislative session argued passionately that Republicans cannot be allowed to take any agency funds because they are, in essence, local property taxes.

Well, then those tax revenues must be spent in a much more responsible manner on behalf of Iron Range residents for economic development ventures that will create new jobs.

And this:

This new position can send the right message that the agency has heard the message from Range residents who have ownership of those mining production property taxes that fuel the IRRRB.

More of the same just cannot be an option. 

This is my Sunday column for the Nov. 13, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I'll be discussing this and other Iron Range news, including mining project updates (hot hot!), on 91.7 KAXE's Morning Show at 7:20 a.m. Monday. Listen live or pick up the archive later at www.kaxe.org.

Don’t rest on divides; climb past them
By Aaron J. Brown

Whether you’re talking about the Iron Range, Minnesota or even America as whole, it feels like we have been climbing a mountain for generations and now have tumbled forward onto some kind of plateau. We’re not to the top of the mountain yet; but this flat land is serviceable, despite the wind and hard winters. Moments like this give people the chance to fight and divide over every little thing.

Last year the Tea Party united fiscal conservatives over the largess of government. This year Occupy Wall Street protests the growing divide between rich and poor, the mounting power of corporations in our lives. Several versions of a cartoon have been circulating online that shows the overlap of these two movements, one being deeply relevant and the other full of miscreants (which is which is a matter of your politics). But our problem is not government or corporations, per se. It’s that government and corporations have a cozy relationship with each other and a distant relationship with us, the voter and/or customer.

This would normally be a great recipe for a new political party or a great reform movement, but the divides in our country are not really just about politics. There are many things Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street supporters could find in common, if it weren’t for the fact that they so viscerally despise one another on a cultural level.

Combined with the previously mentioned marriage between government and corporate interests, this brings us the sad fact that President Obama and his Republican opponent will spend a combined $1 billion on political advertising next year, mostly on emotional appeals that feed on our fear and hatred of the other side. The Citizens United Supreme court decision ensures that another billion in soft corporate and union (but mostly corporate) money is poured into the ruckus. Another billion bucks will be spent getting Americans to hate one or more people running for Congress. And then there’s the local races!

Meantime, back in the real world, a story by Kathryn Kohlhase in last Sunday’s edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune detailed the crisis situation faced by the Hibbing Food Shelf. Food Shelf director Carol Voss describes having $12,000 in the bank to pay for food through March 2012. More than 900 families remain on the food shelf’s computer list of clients, which are now entirely based in the relatively small city of Hibbing.

Quoting the story, “Last year, we had 700 a month during the holidays,” [Voss] said. “No way could I touch that now.”

Voss even cut her own wages in half to pay the bills. Despite all of it, money is only trickling in.

Another quote, “The money’s not coming in like usual,” she said. “It always has come before at the last minute, but this time it’s not.” … “A lot of people who donated money before, we’re now helping,” she said. “And we have new people coming in every day.”

We shouldn’t rest easy in a society that spends $2 billion on soul-sucking political garbage TV and can’t even figure out how to get people in poverty through transitions, educate them and get them into the workforce so they can help the next generation.

The real divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans. The divide is between the out-of-touch power structure, including leadership in both parties, and the apolitical, struggling lower and working classes. These are the people working nights at the gas station or nursing home, going home tired to kids that need help with their homework. These are the grandparents raising small children. These are the people watching their pay hold steady or drop while food, gas and insurance prices rise.

Right now these folks are on or near that food shelf database. If things get worse they’ll be in the street. I don’t mean living on the street. I mean banging on the doors of the kind of people who think our problems can be summed up by political invective and useless sound bites. I can’t wait. Maybe when this is settled we can go back to climbing that mountain, together.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He is the author of the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and the host of the Great Northern Radio Show on 91.7 KAXE.

It's 11:11 on 11/11/11. Let's talk about 11.

Eleven is the number that says, "Things are about to get different." Eleven is the number that says, "Stop right there, our numeric system is Base 10." Eleven teaches kids that one and one does not always make two. Eleven is beyond fingers. It needs more.

Eleven shows up and then you don't see him again. Does it send a birthday card? No, that is not how Eleven plays. Don't bother looking for Eleven. He ain't comin' back.

Sure, there's Twelve. But Twelve is just Eleven reheated. Eleven is Bob Dylan. Twelve is the Beatles after they got good. You can't have Twelve without Eleven. Thirteen? That's the Monkeys.

Eleven seems out-of-place, an odd reminder that numbers need language, too. Eleven sounds like Elevate. Up, beyond, more. Things will never be the same now that Eleven has passed.

This Saturday morning's "Between You and Me" on KAXE features a guest and a prompt: "Tell Me Your Good Idea."Author Steven Johnson will be discussing his book "The Innovator's Cookbook" with host Heidi Holtan, along with your calls and contributions from a cadre of commentators.

My essay shares how good ideas so often follow a series of bad ones. Or, at least, that is how I am justifying a good number of amusing bad ideas I've had in the past.


"Between You and Me" airs from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streaming live and archived at www.kaxe.org, where you can also find the backlog of my commentaries.

Two items of news from the growing din of the 2012 MN-8 race.

First, Former St. Cloud-area State. Sen. Tarryl Clark received the backing of the Steelworkers yesterday. The Steelworkers represent Iron Range miners and some medical workers in the region. This is big news, as the Steelworkers are among the top organizers in DFL politics in this traditionally labor-oriented district. The endorsement is not particularly surprising given that Clark has spent the last year working for the Blue-Green Alliance, of which the Steelworkers are a major partner.

The Steelworkers represent the first major constituency to line up with Clark, as the other three candidates have already been racking up various endorsements. Clark has previously been playing up her strength in fundraising, having outraised both her DFL opponents and incumbent Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) in the last quarter.

Normally the Steelworkers can swing 5-10 percentage points in a Range primary and it will be interesting to see if they can do so for Clark, who has faced criticism for her decision to move into the district for this run.

The only other candidate who can tout a labor endorsement is Duluth City Councilor Jeff Anderson, who won the backing of the firefighters a month ago. Yesterday, Anderson released a well-produced campaign video commemorating the rifle deer hunting season, which also not-so-subtly points out Anderson's Iron Range and Duluth bonafieds and his blue-collar roots.



The video is good, but there are more messages buried within. The film was produced by Victor Rukavina, an Iron Range native filmmaker and son of the well-known Range lawmaker Tom Rukavina. Victor had produced some astounding work for his dad's 2010 campaign for governor. Next week, Rukavina the elder, other members of his family and a cavalcade of Iron Range politicos, including IRRRB Commissioner and former House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, are hosting a fundraiser for Anderson at Tom and Jerry's, still the epicenter of Range DFL politics.

This suggests that while Clark scored a major organizational coup, the Iron Range DFL is still very much in play for what appears to be a likely DFL primary.

Former Congressman Rick Nolan of Crosby and former Senate staffer Daniel Fanning are also seeking the MN-8 DFL nomination. Both of them have also announced endorsements from the Range.

CORRECTION: I incorrectly listed Tony Sertich as an Anderson event co-host. It is his parents, Joe and Nancy, who are among the co-hosts. Tony, like me, remains unaffiliated in this matter. 

In memory of the 29 sailors who lost their lives Nov. 10, 1975 in the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. There are many other tragedies to report in our history, but none associated with such a good song that also highlights the dangerous work people in the upper midwest have done to build America's industry.


Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by StonewallStudios

Up on the north side of Virginia, Minnesota, along a stretch of road some still call the Finntown Flyway you'll find an old temperance hall built by Finnish immigrants to impart future generations with music, literature and the power of the mind necessary to overcome demon liquor. Unfortunately, the fire water is still around, but so too is a vibrant tradition of arts and letters on the Iron Range. Fifty-fifty ain't bad.

To that end, one of the Range's most celebrated latter day musicians is the folk rocker Paul Metsa, who recently penned a memoir, "Blue Guitar Highway," that's been getting fine notices.

The Lyric Center for the Arts and Kaleva Hall Association present:

Book reading

and Music
with Paul Metsa

Thursday, November 10th  7:30pm
Kaleva Hall 
125 3rd St. N.,
Virginia, MN

$5 suggested donation

Coffee will also be available.

A mild set of Tuesday elections nestled in amid a sea of voter apathy and general outrage, yielding only one lesson: the message matters

Some school referenda passed, others failed. Statewide, 70 percent of all referenda passed -- indicating some level of support for education amid state budget cuts. In Duluth, however, voters overwhelmingly defeated school bonds. Those same voters approved a city services referendum by a similarly wide margin. Residual anger over the recent reorganization, closures and expensive remodeling projects in Duluth schools can probably explain the contradictory results.

Same for Mesabi East, where a few years after an expensive remodeling voters rejected an operating referendum.

But in Range districts like Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert, voters OK'd bond referenda.

In the city of Duluth, Emily Larson and Linda Krug easily won the two available at-large city council seats. In District 1, Jennifer Julsrud appears to have narrowly defeated Todd Fedora by just 18 votes. A recount is expected there. In the District 4 special, former councilor Garry Krause defeated appointed incumbent Jackie Halberg by four percentage points. Mayor Don Ness and Councilors Sharla Gardner and Jay Fosle were all unopposed for re-election. Despite that, the city council will have a dramatic new look when it reconstitutes.

In Virginia, voters overwhelmingly approved a change to city charter that would allow the municipal hospital system to merge with a private company. Mayor Steve Peterson and three incumbent city councilors all easily won re-election.

Whether it was Duluth or the Range, measures and candidates who could point to cohesive messages usually ended up winning. Though, to be clear, political organization also matters. I sense a malleable electorate as we approach what will be higher-drama elections in 2012.

A full list of results is available at WDIO.

The MPR online forum for Minnesota's 8th Congressional District DFL candidates concluded earlier today. They've posted the feed of the questions and responses, which is worth a read. The question I submitted made the list. Reading the archived feed is a little like stumbling into a very polite Facebook battle a couple hours after the fact. I don't know how I feel about that, but it is all four candidates talking about the issues. Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) is due to submit his response to the forum before 5 p.m., along with closing statements from the four DFLers.

I'm not going to "score" this debate, but I do think you can see some of the stylistic differences between the candidates. I think the untold story is the nonverbal reaction to some of the tougher questions, one sacrifice for the format.

The first steel beams for the Essar Steel Minnesota plant in Nashwauk arrived yesterday. The steel arrived on tractor-trailers from Baltimore, where the 120 metric tons arrived from its point of origin in India.

The decision to use Indian steel, part of a financing requirement for the India-based Essar, was controversial here on the Iron Range. Nevertheless, construction now begins on the equipment shed for what will at minimum be a new taconite plant on the Range, built over the bones of the old Butler Taconite site -- the first major casualty of the 1980s industry collapse.

Plans call for the eventual development of a steel plant on site, though Essar officials have suggested that can only happen if steel demand continues to rise from its current historic highs.

Minnesota Public Radio will host an online forum featuring the four DFL candidates for Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Though Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark, Daniel Fanning and Rick Nolan have all appeared at many of the same events, I believe this will be the first event in which all four of them appeared in a formal back-and-forth. The 8th District DFL held a forum in Hibbing Oct. 15, but Clark declined to attend.

These candidates seek the DFL nomination to oppose Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8), the unlikely tea party-inspired incumbent who upset Jim Oberstar in 2010.

So I will take a gander at this forum after I get my kids to their preschool. I haven't done an update on MN-8 in a while, so here goes a few tidbits:

Money. Clark turned in a bigger fundraising quarter than not only her DFL opponents, but also Cravaack. From a political organization standpoint this is a huge coup. It does not, however, seem to answer questions about Clark's move from St. Cloud into MN-8 to run for this seat after her underwhelming performance against Rep. Michele Bachmann in 2010.

Endorsements. There have been more of these. Hyper-locally, my friend and state rep Tom Anzelc endorsed Nolan a couple weeks ago. This was Tom's call and I am maintaining my practice of not endorsing anyone in this race. I've commented before that Nolan, Anderson and Fanning seem to be drawing (and touting) the most local endorsements, in that order. Clark has few local endorsements to speak of and appears to be running a campaign based on buying a lot of ads, something that I've said portends a donnybrook three- or four-way DFL primary.

Sometime in the winter I aim to sit down with the four DFLers and Cravaack individually for video or audio interviews to be shared here. The best coverage of this race seems to be coming from MPR, Politics in Minnesota and the Strib, with only the Duluth News Tribune doing much locally. It is my goal to ask some "real people" questions in my interviews without pushing a particular candidate, or even party, though my own personal opinions can probably be divined through my outside affiliations. It's something of an experiment and I hope to prove that citizen journalism can be done objectively.

You can tune in to that online forum at MPR Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.

Another big vote tomorrow will take place in Virginia, Minnesota, on the eastern Mesabi Iron Range. Voters there will decide whether to sell their municipal hospital system to a private health care company, most likely Essentia -- the conglomerate that recently took over the St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic system.

Financial trouble for the Virginia Regional Medical Center has been a major issue in that town for years. MPR has a good primer. The medical sector is the second largest employer on the Iron Range behind mining and this will create waves across the region either way. Virginia will also hold council elections.

Working media in northern Minnesota means operating in the sphere of the Duluth TV market. Duluth, the largest northern Minnesota city, is the seat of the state's largest geographic county, St. Louis. Politics in Duluth, though still dominated by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, have nevertheless been contentious and sometimes hard to predict.

That's less true this year as Tuesday's city elections approach. With the exception of a tight race in the Fourth District, city council races have not drawn as much attention as they have in years past, mostly because popular Mayor Don Ness is running unopposed for re-election. District 3 and 5 councilors Sharla Gardner and Jay Fosle are also running unopposed, respectively.

The races of interest are the At Large council seats, where incumbents Jeff Anderson and Tony Cuneo did not seek re-election. (Anderson is running for Congress. Cuneo is focusing on professional opportunities). Incumbent Todd Fedora, one of the council conservatives, faces a challenge from DFL-backed Jennifer Julsrud. The special election to fill the 4th District seat is also a nip-and-tuck affair between appointed incumbent Jackie Halberg and former councilor Garry Krause. The school board contests also show some sparks of life.

Emily Larson, Linda Krug, Tim Riley and Chad Smith are seeking the two at-large seats. Larson and Krug have enjoyed overwhelming support from the DFL and should be considered heavy favorites. This contest will only produce news if one of them falters.

The Fedora/Julsrud race will be interesting, though I can't say how it will go. I tend to think Fedora has some advantages here, though Julsrud has the backing of the DFL in a DFL town.

The Halberg/Krause race seems to be a true battle, Halberg aligning with the progressive majority on the council and Krause being more of a self-described independent, conservative-minded option. Both are running strong campaigns.

The more interesting aspect of Tuesday's election is the city services referendum. Mayor Don Ness, an effective city leader who received a historic free pass in his race, is backing a ballot item that would fund city parks, libraries and other services otherwise slated for massive cuts.

The city budget is strained with the decline in local government aid precipitated by last year's budget stalemate at the state legislature. This is a rare use of referendum to put a question of local government spending directly to voters. Whether it passes or not should rightly be perceived as direct feedback on the actions of the legislature. At this point it looks like a toss-up.

* All links in this story go to the Duluth News Tribune's election guide, which was well done.

This is my Sunday column for the Nov. 6, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It's an expanded version of the "Mr. Smith" essay I shared yesterday on KAXE's "Between You and Me." 

The lost causes are not lost forever
By Aaron J. Brown

In 1939 Frank Capra directed Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," a heartwarming tale of a regular guy who finds himself appointed to the U.S. Senate. The movie depicts American government during the Great Depression, including political corruption, near-constant smoking, with whiskey and gin dispensed the way they give water to marathon runners.

Many archaic attitudes about gender and race sour the film for modern audiences, but in one regard the film remains hopeful. At the time, the idea of a scout leader and civic hero becoming an accidental senator who stands up to graft was merely outlandish. Today such a prospect is wholly impossible.

As “Mr. Smith” begins we learn that an unimpressive senator has died, leaving a vacancy to be filled by the governor of some western state. The governor, like the dead man and most of the politicians from this state, is a tool of a political machine that holds all the actual power. Our contemporary ears have to suspend disbelieve as the machine boss is a man named James Taylor, someone who does not sing “Fire and Rain,” but who almost seems able to control the weather with his vast newspaper and industrial empire.

They need a patsy to fill the seat until the next election while they finish up a bill to build a federal dam back in the home state, a shady deal that will net kickbacks for Taylor and his machine. The governor’s son is a Boy Ranger and recommends his dad appoint his patriotic, painfully earnest scout leader, Jefferson Smith. And Smith proves to be in over his head from day one, until he finally gets his bearings and proposes a bill to build a camp back home. His preferred site is the picturesque Willet Creek, the same place Taylor wants to put his boondoggle.

We learn early in the movie that Smith’s father, a small town newspaper publisher, was shot for printing populist editorials years ago. His father’s friend, Joe Paine, went on to become a senator himself. Paine has long since compromised his idealism for the pragmatic need to do business with the machine. The movie balances power with idealism. The machine tries to crush Smith with a false scandal and Smith fights back with a long-shot filibuster.

So why do I still like this movie? Why raise hope when it can sometimes seem so fragile in a hard world? Well, even as the circumstances of the movie seem out of reach, the film demonstrates what people need to do. It explains the moral imperative, which is not one bit different from now to then, or through the pantheon of human history. And this following scene, when Smith confronts Paine at the end of his very long speech, never fails to score an emotion hit for me:

[TEXT] “I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don't know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once, for the only reason any man ever fights for them; because of just one plain simple rule: 'Love thy neighbor.'... And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any other. Yes, you even die for them. Like a man we both know, Mr. Paine.”

The movie would be different today in many ways, not least of which are the even more arcane rules and practices by which national debates are held in Congress.

“The filibuster scene sure would look a lot different [today],” wrote Chris, an online friend of mine, when I said I was writing about this. “Mr. Smith would walk into an empty chamber, file an objection to proceed, followed by 30 hours of nothing. Then the 24-hour cable networks and blogs would move on to something else, since the scandal his enemies tried to nail him on didn't involve sex or race.”

Ultimately, the machine would have crushed Smith were it not for the conscience of Sen. Paine, who self-destructs in a rant of truth-telling at the end of the film.

At one point in the movie a hardened reporter reassures the overwhelmed Smith with the words, "Don't worry, Senator. A hundred years from now no one will know the difference." We’re not far from 100 years since the line was uttered and I'm still unable to determine if he was right.

I suppose I still like this movie because my heart tells me that you should fight and die for lost causes, and my head tells me that the long progression of time sets us all in our rightful place. This was as true for the characters in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” as it is true today for the characters we see on the Sunday morning news shows.

Ultimately, the lost causes are doomed, until those with power realize their responsibility to fight for them. The promise of America is that we usually get there, eventually.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and college instructor from the Iron Range. He is the author of the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and host of the Great Northern Radio Show on 91.7 KAXE.

A shout-out to my online pals Chris Saunders, Jacob Grippen and others on Facebook who contributed thoughts and audio to this project. Follow MinnesotaBrown on Facebook to join the conversation.

This Saturday morning's "Between You and Me" program on 91.7 KAXE explores the topic of movies with music, commentary and your calls. Guest hosts "Mom of Pop Culture" Julie Crabb and retired film professor Jack Nachbar will guide the discussion.

My regular contribution explores what is still my favorite movie, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." It's easy to see all the ways the story would be different in today's political world, but the prescription for reform is no different. I'll get into that and more.

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. Programs are archived on the show site, along with my individual essays.

I have the daily commentary over at Minnesota Public Radio's site this morning. The topic is my experience with daylight-savings time (which is this weekend, by the way) dating back to my stint as an overnight disc jockey in my high school years on the Iron Range. There's a lot that goes on for daylight-savings time that you only see if you stay up through the night.

Read and recommend, if you feel so inclined. Regulars here might recognize the story from last spring. It's been fancified for the people to read.

Minnesota's famed rifle deer hunt begins tomorrow morning at dawn. Indications suggest a strong deer population for the shootin.'

The deer hunt is one of those cultural touchstones one must learn to embrace or at least tolerate to succeed in northern Minnesota. In this place, all men are asked if they hunt and those who do not must provide a serviceable reason why they don't.

For instance, I don't hunt. I don't own a gun, but I don't say that. I don't want to shoot animals unless I have to, but I don't say that. I don't want to field dress a still-warm animal in the woods unless I have to, but I don't say that either.

It is OK for me to say that I'm too lazy to hunt when I can afford hamburger at the store (Ha-ha!). It is OK for me to say that my family hunts so much that someone has to keep a job through the season (Ha-ha!). It is OK for me to say that I kill deer with my car, which is true (and, thus, Ha-Ha!).

Women don't have to answer the same way. For instance, they're allowed to have compassion for the deer and still be OK. But they do need to do answer for the hunting or non-hunting of their male partners. More women are hunting now, so there is some variation on the gender norms, but mostly the whole enterprise is an immovable glacial stone from a time when many families in the region lived off venison through the winter. Now some hunters spend more on Slim Jims and grill steaks than they do on ammo.

The most important thing you need to know is that everything that's about to happen this weekend is OK. Happy hunting. Everything is fine. We go back to normal in time for Thanksgiving.

If I failed to mention it before, the Great Northern Radio Show has been picked up by 91.7 KAXE for a 2012 season. If you missed our October 2011 debut in Hibbing you can still hear the program online (Hour 1 and Hour 2).

We've been trying to build an audience for the show on other independent public radio stations and I'm excited to announce that the first new station to pick us up is 90.7 WTIP, North Shore Community Radio, in Grand Marais, Minnesota. They'll be running our show Saturday, Nov. 5, 2-4 p.m.

There will eventually be a fully functional podcast stream on iTunes. We have four shows slated for 2012 in four unique northern Minnesota towns. I'll have an announcement on those soon.

Another development on the growth of salvage mining operations on the Iron Range was reported today. Magnetation and a related company are teaming up to recover ore from an area near Chisholm. The St. Louis County Board is expected to approve the work at a meeting today, according to a story by the Duluth News Tribune.

I neglected to mention in my related post yesterday that Keewatin Taconite received some of its necessary permits to expand its operations in the small town just over the Itasca County line from Hibbing.

There's so much mining news these days it's hard to keep up. The net effect is a great amount of stability in the Range's largest industry. However, our unemployment numbers aren't particularly great and that's owed to the fact that mining doesn't employ as many people as it used to. Even with all the new and proposed mining activity there is a distinct ceiling on employment in that sector and only the most optimistic of projections would generate enough economic growth to single-handedly restore local schools, for instance, to the quality and program availability of the early 1980s or even 1990s.

We have a new 21st century economic conundrum on the Range: What do you do when the good news is mixed with the bad? We need look no further than the taconite process. You separate out what you can use, you pile up what you can't use on the edge of town and you make something that people want to buy or do something people want to pay for. Pellets, yes. And more.

With my foray into live radio production this year I've made mention of the creative influence of A Prairie Home Companion on my work. Today I join others in mourning the loss of that show's famed sound man Tom Keith, a longtime MPR host and personality. He died of a heart attack Sunday. A Prairie Home Companion has posted a lovely tribute page to Keith. My limited recent experience with live variety show radio only reinforces the idea that Keith's skills were epic and irreplaceable.

Abe Sauer, the Midwestern voice on the coastal-dominated culture/A&E blog The Awl, wrote a piece putting Keith's work in context.