MinnesotaBrown

Art in the Park closes tonight in Chisholm

2010-09-02T10:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm closes its "Art in the Park" concert series at the amphitheater. Admission is free with live local music, food, beverage and fun for all. "Slapshot" will be the headliner at this show, which runs from 5-9 p.m. I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises.

As I said last week, the series has been a big hit and a great opportunity for the local music scene. We can hope that Art in the Park and ideas like it can build the MDC's audience base and make it the self-sufficient Iron Range cultural venue it needs to become.

Look inside the Mesabi machine

2010-09-01T08:07:00.008-05:00

Hello, traveler. You've located a blog about the Iron Range in northern Minnesota. Stay! Stay!

Peek inside the machinery. See the wonderful gears turn like fingers of the gods. It is magic, magic I say!

In olden days Iron Rangers lived and died never seeing the powerful pen flicks and filed papers that controlled their very livelihood. Now Google news alerts have pried up the rotten board, exposing the teeming masses of insects and grubs. This information was intended for others! What will happen next?

Range roller derby team to thump girls from other towns

2010-08-31T14:29:00.008-05:00

Today I am confronted with two alarming facts:

Minnesota is home to a roller derby league reviving the all-female rollerskating battle sport phenomenon from the 1970s.
The Iron Range DOES NOT have a team in this league.

Well, we DIDN'T until I discovered this, the recruitment page for the Iron Range Maidens. They need 20 women roller athletes and all manner of coaches, equipment managers and referees. These can be guys. Lucky guys. Or maybe not. I really don't know. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time!

They're running this on "flat track," as the inclined roller derby rinks of the old days are cumbersome and cost-prohibitive. The Maidens will operate out of Grand Rapids, it appears, but I'm sure they'll take team members from anywhere in the Taconite Tax Relief Area. Other teams in the league include Duluth/Superior, Bemidji, Fargo/Moorhead and two teams from Minneapolis.

Added bonus: Women who participate create an alternate persona for themselves. (eg: Missy Thumpskull).

Here's the explanatory video from the site. It is exactly what you would expect and yet you will still watch it.

Join today, ladies!

How the Iron Range altered American history

2010-08-31T09:50:00.000-05:00

As a nerd engaged in a lifelong battle with body weight, an event called "Lunch and Learn" is a siren call to be heeded. Maybe for you too? Iron Range historian Pam Brunfelt will be the featured speaker at this Minnesota Humanities Center event Thursday, Sept. 9 at Valentini's in Chisholm. I'll be there. Join me! (RSVP) Here's the description:

What would U.S. history look like without Minnesota’s Iron Range? The discovery of vast iron ore deposits in Minnesota ensured that the United States would emerge as a world power in the Twentieth Century. It is no exaggeration to state that the history of the U.S. would be different without the iron ore produced by the people who lived and worked on the Iron Range of Minnesota. The Mesabi, Vermilion, and Cuyuna Iron Ranges produced billions of tons of high grade iron ore used to manufacture the steel that built America and resulted in victory in World War I and World War II. Iron Rangers have been at the center of the U.S. economy throughout most of the past century, and this Lunch and Learn program will illustrate why industrialization in the United States was largely the story of Minnesota’s Iron Range.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Ms. Pamela Brunfelt received her M.A. in History from Minnesota State University-Mankato and is currently a member of the faculty at Vermilion Community College in Ely, Minnesota, where she teaches courses in American History and Political Science. As a life-long Iron Ranger and historian, Ms. Brunfelt has the unique capability to blend her deep regional knowledge with her scholarship in American history.

Pam was a central source and important influence for my book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range."

The cold, cold circle

2010-08-30T13:29:00.000-05:00

Readers of my book, "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range," might remember that I'm a fan of the myth and historical impact surrounding the Northwest Passage. Northern Minnesota's Iron Range was just one of many regions that early European explorers believed might have been part of the fabled "sea route to the Orient." The St. Louis River, Lake Vermilion and the mighty Mississippi, all of which originate in this area, enjoy the fame of having once been fervently traversed by spice-hungry mapmakers. Like many who wander the north woods, these explorers did not find their prize, but left behind clues of minerals and timber for future settlers. I know people who've drank beer while floating on inner tubes in all these local waterways. Progress!

The dream of a warm, year-round waterway that connected the Atlantic to the Pacific proved to be just a legend. However, there is a real Northwest Passage that runs through all those jagged little islands in northern Canada. Until recently, this passage was usually closed off by ice, but climate trends have opened it, quite possibly because of "global warming," (quotes used not to dismiss the theory, but to reflect that "warming" isn't always what happens in human influenced climate change).

One of my favorite blogs TYWKIWDBI ("Things you wouldn't know if we didn't blog it") shared an image and description of a climatological rarity -- the opening of the Northwest Passage and the lesser known Northeast Passage north of Russia. For the third time in recorded history you can sail around the world entirely within the Arctic. In keeping with my theme lately, I present this information not as being good or bad, just as being interesting.

Stan Rogers, "Northwest Passage"

Whitepine down

2010-08-30T07:57:00.002-05:00

When we first considered building our current house in the country, what struck me about the site was this tall white pine along the property line. The woods around northern Minnesota's Iron Range once teemed with some of the largest white pine in North America, a fact that literally put the place on the map as loggers, then miners, then tourists poured in from places with smaller trees. The biggest white pines were harvested away, building up many late 19th, early 20th century homes in Chicago and other Great Lakes cities. A combination of disease and habitat now limits the growth of most white pines from ever reaching the species' historic heights. But here on our land, a really big, pretty white pine towered above the collection of balsam, basswood, poplar, maple and other common Itasca County foliage. For me this was one of the signs that this was the right place for us.

Well, we cleared the scrubby growth up to the edge of this white pine, built our house and went about the business of producing and raising our three boys in its shadows. We started to notice the top of the tree die off a couple years ago and then the birds starting picking it apart from top to bottom this summer. As more branches began drying up and falling off we knew that the tree was dead and would be a risk to fall on our house.

Last week a tree service came and cut down the tree. I love this tree. I didn't want it to go, but it had to.

I had them cut four rounds out of the only marginally usable wood left on the tree. I'm going to make them into clocks, because lately I've been contemplating the steady passage of time.

COLUMN: School days spring fresh every fall

2010-08-29T12:52:00.000-05:00

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece ran in Saturday's edition of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE.

School days spring fresh every fall
By Aaron J. Brown

You have to love the unbending reality of seasons. A mere human can’t change the weather and holds only minimal ability to survive any given time of year without help from clothes and technology. Hot is hot. Cold is cold. The exponential power of wind may prevent walking even the shortest distance when the wind chooses. Seasons remind us that it’s not all about us. It’s about the world in which we live.

This is why I’ve enjoyed working in education these past several years. The American school year may be a vestigial reminder of our agrarian roots, but it serves to provide every citizen with an internal clock that ticks away the seasons for the rest of our lives. Those in education are always reminded of this clock. The clock tolled again for me this past week with the start of fall classes at our community college. Not everyone gets a beginning and an end to a work year, or at least benchmarks more interesting than the filing of fiscal reports and sales figures. For some, like the postal worker Newman from “Seinfeld,” “the mail just keeps coming.” Students and educators enjoy a starting gun and finish line, and it’s a special privilege.

But this year the bell tolls for another member of our household as our oldest son Henry prepares for kindergarten next week. Prepare might be a strong word because other than occasional work with letter worksheets and whatever he gleans from TV Henry is by and large conducting his normal routine. He knows he’s going to kindergarten but thus far the discussion has mostly focused on whether he’ll eat hot lunch or bring “regular lunch” in a box.

And it occurs to me that Henry is now old enough where my pontificating about the significance of his childhood isn’t doing him any favors. So enough with that. In truth any parent who reads into this sort of thing is really playing out their own memories and insecurities about school. Added to that is the realization of mortality, that young parents become regular parents when their kids go to school, and we’re all going to die, just like all the old parents in the local obituaries. But there’s the seasons again. It’s good to know what you can and can’t control.

I used to think I could control my emotions at times like this. That was until OfficeMax began lobbing bombs at my tear ducts with a TV commercial tailor-made to force new kindergarten parents cry, smile, laugh and then buy reams of paper and enough colored pencils to fill a whisky barrel. Some touching song plays while a bunch of kids get on the bus, again and again, different kids each like snowflakes and, well, here we are again.

The first time I got on a bus to go to school I was wearing a homemade pair of pants, shirt and jacket, with a homemade backpack and a Muppets lunchbox. In my memory I got on the bus the first day of school but my mother has since reminded me that the bus driver forgot us the first day, turning around just past our driveway and missing us again. Mom drove me to school in the station wagon with my younger sisters in the back, still in pajamas. It was actually the SECOND day of school that I remember climbing the steps of the bus looking for a friend and some comfort in a large, changing world. That bus rode straight and true to school, where the smell of fresh floor wax blended with the peanut butter and jelly sandwich lofting out of that lunchbox at midday. To this day the new floor wax at work conjures the phantom odor of peanut butter, and adrenaline, and the excitement of another chance for a new beginning. I hope this one is the best one yet.

Aaron J. Brown is an Iron Range writer, blogger and an instructor at Hibbing Community College. Read more at MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

Brown on the Air: BACK TO SCHOOL!

2010-08-27T11:18:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning's edition of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE explores a topic close to my heart, "Back to School." Guest host Maddi Frick, a college student about to head back to campus herself, will be leading the conversation. She's got a great name and a smooth drinkin' public radio voice, so give it a listen for that alone. My commentary will touch on the unique "back to school" nature of my life these days, both in my job as a community college instructor and in my oldest son's first bus ride to kindergarten in just a couple weeks.

"Between You and Me" is a call-in and music program celebrating the unique voices and culture of northern Minnesota. Tune in locally from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at 91.7 FM in most places north of Duluth or streaming online anywhere at www.kaxe.org. Shows and my essays are archived at PRX, available for syndication in public stations all over the nation, but mostly in my own ego where my work is always well received.

Introducing a new guest blogger series

2010-08-26T09:12:00.001-05:00

Today I'm introducing a guest blogger to add some variety and perspective to the content here. I met Jeff Manuel at a book event in the Twin Cities and he's been sending me some fascinating reading material ever since. He explains the series of posts he'll be sharing here in coming weeks:

Hello, Minnesota Browners! I want to thank Aaron for letting me contribute to the blog. As someone who is interested in the Iron Range’s past and future, I’ve enjoyed reading the blog for a long time. I’m happy to join the conversation.

You’re probably wondering who this is if it’s not Aaron. I’m a historian and college professor who has spent a lot of time reading, thinking, and writing about the Iron Range and where it fits in the larger sweep of recent American history. My interest in industrial regions like the Iron Range started a decade ago when I went to Youngstown, Ohio, to see what happened after Youngstown’s steel mills shut down in the late 1970s. As a history graduate student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, I wrote my dissertation on the Range’s recent history. I now teach history at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and live in St. Louis, Missouri. But I’m still thinking and writing about the Iron Range, especially as I work to revise my dissertation into a book about the Iron Range’s recent history.

I hope to add my two cents to Minnesota Brown from time to time. If it helps, you can think of me as a foreign correspondent for the blog--a chance to think about what the Iron Range looks like from the perspective of a sympathetic outsider. I welcome your questions, comments, and any ideas. Feel free to email at jeff.manuel@gmail.com.

Yes, I'm taking a hyperlocal blog trying to expand to a new audience and adding an additional voice discussing the impact of mining on culture. Hey, Garrison Keillor gets to go on and on about morel mushrooms. Is that better? At least this involves trucks and giant shovels. Those things are cool, to paraphrase my preschool boys.

More carping

2010-08-25T20:46:00.005-05:00

I'm still on the mailing list for the Asian Carp controversy. A ruling on whether the threat of this invasive species will close two of the Chicago locks is expected soon. MInnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher has the story. Mostly I'm writing this because I get to show more carp pictures. Is that wrong?

Probably.

Range fun for free: Art in the Park series nears close

2010-08-25T14:15:00.006-05:00

The next-to-final show of the "Art in the Park" Iron Range music series hits the Minnesota Discovery Center amphitheater stage Thursday night in Chisholm.

Support local musicians Thursday, August 26, at Minnesota Discovery Center’s Art in the Park event. Music begins at 6 p.m. featuring Deafman’s Radio, a blues and rockabilly ensemble out of northern Minnesota, followed by Full Range, a vocal quartet. The final performance of the evening will be by Mark Pommier and band with all original material. Admission to Minnesota Discovery Center is free Thursdays after 5 p.m. The trolley will make one run, at 6 p.m. Cost is $2 per ride. Mini-golf is open all evening for $2 per round. Food and beverages are available to purchase.

Visit mndiscoverycenter.com or call 800-372-6437 for more information.

This event has been a summer hit and shows the possibilities of building grassroots events from the ground as opposed to blowing vast amounts of capital in a hunt for big names and big numbers. Kudos to MDC's staff, though the road ahead remains long and winding. Keep Looking Up.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said that Art in the Park closed Aug. 26. It actually closes Sept. 2.

Wisconsin also has an iron range

2010-08-25T13:10:00.005-05:00

The Ashland Current reports that an Illinois coal mining company is looking at the feasibility of opening a taconite mine in northern Wisconsin. The Gogebic-Penokee Iron Range is a formation that runs from east of Ashland, Wis., through the western portion of Michigan's upper peninsula.

Though the politics of mining in this part of northern Wisconsin, which isn't accustomed to open pit mining, are sure to be tumultuous, this probably gives you a good sense of where steel prices are for the time being. The Iron Range of northern Minnesota is America's top producer of taconite and iron products. Here, we can bet that mining will enter a robust period that offers yet another, if not final chance to diversify and reorganize our economic structure before the next drop occurs.

(h/t Business North)

A new look at MinnesotaBrown

2010-08-24T21:35:00.003-05:00

You'll notice some changes here at MinnesotaBrown.com. With some fantastic help from my wife Christina we've implemented a new template and header. This is part of my long range plan to do more creative work here on the blog in addition to my established regional and state commentary. Think The Awl but with mostly one author and based entirely on the Iron Range. I am certain to succeed! And when I do, jobs, jobs, jobs.

I will be introducing a new guest blogger this week and hope to roll out some other exciting new things over the fall and winter.

Let me know what you think and if you have any loading problems.

Keep Looking Up

2010-08-23T08:25:00.002-05:00

When you live in a place like the Iron Range, you learn to cope with a lot of stuff that needs "saving." Local businesses need saving. Mines need saving. The arts need saving. Schools need saving. Everybody's got problems and no institution is really safe. The population is aging and the economy is stuck wearing moon boots like they were new. You can't save it all, so you save what you can. This is a problem that Superman never has to confront in the movies. You know that if Superman was real it would take 12 hours before someone complained that their relative was crushed by a train because Superman was "favoring Asia that day." Sometimes I wonder if Superman wasn't really J.D. Salinger, who just gave up on being super, smoking cigarettes in his yard until death finally came, later than expected.

The other day I was talking to a colleague about one of the Iron Range things that need saving, the Paulucci Space Theater in Hibbing. This planetarium is a truly unique facility, featuring a large panoramic screen, a star projector, large format movies and the ambiance of a place built just before space became old news. Until very recently it was the largest planetarium in the state, something that seems wholly out of place on the Iron Range. Named for Range native Jeno Paulucci, a microwave dinner magnate and vaunted entrepreneur, this facility is managed by Hibbing Community College but the state budget crisis now dictates a new management system, mostly likely one that relies on new funds from someplace else. (Space?)

Anyway, this colleague told me she looked into getting a famous science person to come in for an event raising awareness and support for the planetarium. Bill Nye the Science Guy was way too expensive, apparently, so she was wondering who that guy was, maybe he'd be cheaper.

What guy?

"That guy who was on TV. That space guy."

Oh yeah! That space guy on Channel 8, late at night.

"Yeah, that's the guy!"

He used to walk out on the rings of a planet and talk about space. And then they played the anthem and went to static.

"What's his name?"

Oh, man, I used to watch that guy all the time when I was a kid. What WAS his name?

And I was telling the truth. That guy was awesome. I'd have to find out his name. He'd be great.

See, I'd spend my nights when I was 15 and then 16, the summer I delivered pizzas in Eveleth, up late, way later than should have been allowed. It was around this time that I abandoned my room upstairs for the cooler, more private basement, where there was an unfinished bedroom that I didn't use until I was even older. For a year prior I slept by choice on a rollaway mattress, the kind of thing you'd find in a shelter. I chose this because the amped-up TV antennae my dad installed on the roof sent a cable snaking down to an old color TV and VCR perched on a table at the foot of this cot. For most of my teenage years I'd spend every night watching Johnny Carson, and then David Letterman and later Conan O'Brien on this old TV, drinking Sprite and eating peanut butter toast or microwave popcorn, piling the bags in a corner of the dingy basement, clearing them monthly when my mom could see the heap from the laundry area across the basement. Somewhere in all this my parents' marriage was falling apart, along with the family business. But I was pretty damn happy on that cot, reveling in all the monologue jokes because I read the paper every morning, sometimes before the sun rose.

I couldn't sleep back then. This reminds me that I've never slept especially well without some kind of medication. But they don't let kids buy the right kind of medication and the cigarettes I snuck from my dad just got me thinking. I'd stay with the broadcast channels until, one by one, they would sign off the air. Channel 8, the PBS station, retired later than most. The last thing they showed was this guy, this space guy, walking out on the rings of Saturn.

This show was "Star Gazer" and the space guy's name was Jack Horkheimer, also known as "The Star Hustler." The day my colleague and I were trying to remember his name was last Wednesday. Horkheimer died last Friday. I hadn't seen his show in a long time and I read now that he had been suffering from a lung ailment. I wish I had remembered his name, because this guy deserves to be remembered. I remember the musical interlude from his show, a sort of soothing techno riff, and his catch phrase, "Keep Looking Up," that he dropped at the end of every program. And I would run outside in the summer air to look up at clear skies and bright stars. Some things you can save, some things you can't. But you can save more if you keep looking up.

Local Blogger to Convert Angry Screed into Spoken Word

2010-08-22T19:34:00.001-05:00

I'll be on the KAXE Morning Show at about 7:20 Monday morning to talk Iron Range news and politics. I wonder what we'll talk about?

COLUMN: Even Bob the Builder has it rough

2010-08-22T12:09:00.001-05:00

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Aug. 22, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Even Bob the Builder has it rough
By Aaron J. Brown

In this dim economy, even Bob the Builder struggles. The animated Bob, found locally on public TV, builds and fixes ecologically friendly outbuildings with his sentient pieces of heavy equipment. Or at least he did, before the recession apparently swallowed his capital. Though still somewhat popular, Bob has been fading off the airwaves, toy shelves and consciousness of kids. Disney’s “Handy Manny” and his talking tools push Bob to the margins with a slick corporate message. To make matters worse, the exact opposite trend is happening in our house. Our twin 3-year-old boys can’t get enough Bob. Here we begin today’s elaborate, possibly strained Bob the Builder metaphor. Join me, would you?

First, a disclaimer. Yes, we’re those kind of parents, the kind that lets their children watch a “Bob the Builder” show instead of teaching them how to speak Chinese. We’re not going to stop doing this. Don’t write. Allow our actions to silently feed your sense of superiority. I’ve got the feeling we’re not alone. Maybe you have slightly older children, boys perhaps, and remember the Bob the Builder lifestyle we’re currently experiencing. You know the song, right? Can we fix it? Yes we can! Bob the Builder owned that catchphrase long before President Obama. In fact, Bob debuted in Great Britain in 1999, quickly emigrating to the United States and Canada not unlike the Cornish miners of my ancestry, but without the pasties.

“Bob the Builder” contains numerous holes that can only be filled with the phrase, “Well, it is just for kids, I guess.” Let’s start with how there is no money in Sunflower Valley or in nearby Bobsville (named for Bob’s father, a stoic patriarch whose unqualified love young Bob seeks but shall never receive). Bob acquires all the supplies from the building yard or recycle them from large, convenient piles of pristine demolition waste.

Periodically, some eccentric person will arrive in the new development and demand a deeply impractical customized home with no discussion of financing. The talking backhoe, cement mixer, crane and roller, never flummox these transients despite scant evidence that any OTHER talking equipment exists elsewhere. The homes become part of the backdrop of this town, which has no visible government other than an unseen mayor mentioned occasionally by the only real authority figure, a powerful capitalist named Mr. Bentley.

Naturally, a sunflower farmer named Mr. Pickles lives in Sunflower Valley, and he employs a sentient scarecrow named Spud and tractor named Travis. Spud is the single most destructive, inefficient creature that could be devised by man’s imagination. While he enjoys moderate, though inconsistent, results in scaring away crows, every episode usually involves him stealing, scheming, lazing, or accidentally incinerating key props in that week’s teledrama. Nevertheless, Mr. Pickles retains Spud’s services, indeed even going so far as to name his new house Scarecrow Cottage, sharing the space with his straw minion despite his loud snoring.

Then we have the aforementioned talking equipment. Scoop, Lofty, Muck, Rolly, Dizzy and other ancillary motorized characters dutifully obey Bob and his assistant Wendy, who loves Bob despite his detached unawareness of her affections. The assembled machinery are not paid, nor do they require food or anything but the most basic overnight storage. Yet despite being self-aware these characters do exactly what regular equipment would, only less efficiently and with more near-fatal accidents.

In other words (here’s the payoff), Bob the Builder’s rise and fall from top kid status explains the discontinuation of the Bob the Builder toy line my kids love so much. More than that, Bob the Builder is in its own way a metaphor for our economy as a whole. In Great Britain, the sluggish aftermath of the recession is actually being called the “Bob the Builder” recovery, criticized for depending too much on superficial construction projects. But sadly, one cannot feel joy for the pain of dear, sweet Lofty, or the collapse of Bob’s business, Wendy’s unspoken love or the Utopian dream of Sunflower Valley. Bob’s story is an American story, even though he’s secretly British. (Psst. So are we!) We’ve got to figure out a happy ending.

Aaron J. Brown is an Iron Range writer, blogger and an instructor at Hibbing Community College. Read more at MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

Brown on the Air: SUMMER WHATNOT!

2010-08-20T15:20:00.003-05:00

And in a dramatic change in tone, we move on to this week's delightful homespun radio program. "Between You and Me," the Saturday morning call-in and music show on 91.7 KAXE features "summer recipes" this week. This will be a wide ranging celebration of the end of summer and the things we like about the season. My regular contribution will be my own personal recipe for a crazy summer helping raise three preschool boys. It's delightful! And I only say "shit" twice, unless you count "shit sandwich." Then it would be three times.

Just kidding! It's radio! This is the internet, where this sort of wordplay is amusing?

"Between You and Me" airs 10 a.m. to noon Saturday on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org. My essays and the program itself are available through PRX for syndication on YOUR public radio station. I'm looking at you, Midwestern State of Some Note!

This Iron Range blogger is done apologizing for Iron Range cronyism

2010-08-19T21:40:00.003-05:00

Well, they went and did it. Today I'm breaking with my party and conventional political wisdom in describing a great injustice being done to the people of the Iron Range. That's not a light word, injustice. I aim to defend its use here.

The matter, of course, is an old one, something I've railed on in language both subtle and deliciously over-the-top: Excelsior Energy's proposed Iron Range coal gasification power plant known as the Mesaba Energy Project. Today the Iron Range Resources Board approved the commissioner's request not only to extend the deadline for the original loan payments, but to revise the loan agreement itself to require lower interest payments over the next six years, at which time Excelsior would supposedly pay back all the money and some sort of bonus on any revenue collected in any potential sale of the Mesaba project. Of course, that doesn't get this boondoggle any closer to an investor or a workable engineering plan to turn coal into magic juice, but I suppose it was foolish of me to think officials might start thinking about that now. In truth, we've just started a new chapter in an ongoing farce.

This project, as it was originally proposed in 2001, was to become an innovative new way to burn coal that captured and stored carbon, providing untold numbers of new jobs and reinvigorating the East Range, which had then been knocked flat by the announced closure of the LTV mine. Initially, developers floated vague job numbers in the upper hundreds, with thousands of related jobs. Over time the project grew, shrunk, moved and changed to accommodate political and logistical reality. As it stands now, the Mesaba Project would be a somewhat clean coal power plant along the Scenic Highway 7 in Itasca County on the West Range that would employ 100 permanent people in a generous estimate.

Never mind the coal. That's the least of our problems right now. The real problem is that the developers have shown bad faith in their dealings with the Iron Range and have nothing but billable lobbying and legal service hours to show for the almost $9.5 million in Iron Range Resources loans and many millions more in state and federal grants they've received. Truth is, most members of the Range legislative delegation simply realize they're soaked for $9.5 million and, lacking pleasant alternatives, humility and/or guts, they're going double or nothing on another spin of the roulette wheel with their good friends, their old hockey buddies at Excelsior Energy.

My friend Rep. Tom Anzelc was the lone "no" vote on the agreement today, and had pushed to table the matter until the developers would explain their real plan for the next seven years and how their project would change (as it certainly will) to accommodate the new reality facing this kind of technology. As it stands, there is NO explanation for what the company will do and Excelsior faces no obligation, other than $100,000 a year, until 2017. At that time this discussion will have been going on for almost two decades. I should say there is no PUBLIC explanation for the changes, because I have since learned that some board members heard a proposal from Excelsior in a recent private "liaison" subcommittee meeting. Yes, they have legal private meetings at the agency so that unpleasant issues may be resolved quietly.

Let's get back to the deal, though. $100,000 a year is chump change for developers who have $2.3 million remaining in their federal energy fund. Excelsior can declare bankruptcy at any time and still walk away clean. They'll take some time now, try to lure a few unwitting municipal utilities into an ill-advised power purchase agreement. More likely Excelsior will draw another set of snake eyes and start looking for an exit plan.

Why would Range public officials entertain another decade of back-and-forth on this job creation dud? I submit for your consideration the following observations:

Aug. 4 - Sen. Tom Saxhaug/Rep. Loren Solberg golf fundraiser. Saxhaug made the motion to accept the altered agreement this morning.

Aug. 5 - Sen. Tom Bakk golf event and fundraiser. Bakk has carried more water for Excelsior at the legislature than anyone other than David Tomassoni.

That same week Sen. Tomassoni, chair of the Iron Range Resources board, held his cabin fundraiser. Excelsior developers attended all of these events, writing numerous checks. They've been attending events like these and writing checks since the dawn of the concept of the Mesaba Energy Project nine years ago. These checks didn't always go directly to the candidates. More often they went to local party units, which often fly under the radar for campaign finance report snoops. All of this is 100 percent legal. No laws were broken. But the economic development machine on the Iron Range is most definitely broken, if not rotten to its core. This one-sided money exchange is a crooked, cronyistic loophole built on personal relationships and a Midwestern desire to please the people who attend your gatherings. Tom Anzelc is the only Iron Range legislator who has never taken a donation from an Excelsior Energy official.

It is politically imprudent of me to talk about this just a couple months before an election where members of my own local political party, once again lumbering onto the biennial ballot, are greatly responsible for this Mesaba monstrosity's birth and continuation. But then again it was politically imprudent of them to do any of this in the first place. Only a combination of political sloppiness and arrogance would allow this matter to be frog marched in front of the board in a turbulent electoral environment like the one we have. Since I am free from the constraints of wanting to be elected to political office, I am free from caring what the powerful, dim-witted architects of this scheme think of me personally. I think they are killing my homeland through cronyism and bullshit boosterism. I'm sorry if I don't play ball like the old days.

Indeed, this is simply a rank injustice, which now transcends the matter of routine economic development policy and has become a metaphor for everything that is wrong, and everything I hate, about a place and a people I truly love. If you believe me, my decade of writing about the hope and potential of the Iron Range despite its many challenges, you know that I am telling the truth. I would gladly leave this issue to history, allowing the long arm of time to confirm my beliefs. My grandkids would sure get a kick out of that when they come up here to visit their summer cabins, maintained by hired hands from the dwindling local rabble, unless of course they end up in the rabble. Time is the one element the Iron Range cannot afford. Waiting on empty promises will kill our best chances for genuine innovation and entrepreneurship if it hasn't already.

I'm still a member of the DFL. I serve in my local DFL organization. I have dozens of friends in the local and state DFL. I am close now to resigning and becoming an independent as I have ever been. And I mean independent, because Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Iron Range Resources agency and former Sen. Norm Coleman were vital Republican co-conspirators on this whole operation. I'm not alone in my disgust, but the deafening silence from most in the Iron Range DFL on this topic is what troubles me most.

DISCLAIMER: I am Tom Anzelc's friend and campaign manager. We have obviously spoken about this matter and, while we are in agreement on his vote today, this post reflects my opinions only. I've covered this issue in some form since I was editor of the Hibbing Tribune in 2001. My single greatest regret about my time in journalism was not asking harder questions back about this project when I had a chance to expose the problems at the outset.

Excelsior Energy to seek huge break from Iron Range Resources

2010-08-18T22:59:00.001-05:00

This story explains my rather foul mood tonight. Excelsior Energy, a nearly 10-year-old front company staffed by lawyers and lobbyists with Range roots, is seeking a rather profound sweetheart extension on what was already a rather appalling $9.5 million in sweetheart loans from Iron Range Resources. If the terms of this proposal are upheld, the local political class would be breathing another half decade of life into the biggest mistake ever made by Iron Range Resources.

The MEP is a proposed coal gasification power plant that I've roundly criticized as a boondoggle here at the blog. Large investors and government agencies alike deemed the project not to be viable. It would provide jobs, jobs, jobs, though, if it is built. But it will never be built. Not as advertised. Not with the impact of its lofty, false promises. Not without some serious, even more appalling help from all levels of government. Apparently that last item is on the menu Thursday.

The IRR board meets Thursday morning. I expect some discussion on this matter. If this proposal is passed as described I'll have some things to say Thursday evening. These will not be pleasant things.

In which my shocking party affiliation is revealed

2010-08-18T09:04:00.002-05:00

The internet is littered with link bait and spam sites, robot-generated content that mindlessly spews random (usually stolen) content. But one of these sites is good for a laugh. "Voter Factory" allows you to search a person's name and hometown and find out if they are a Democrat or Republican. I was shocked to learn my true nature:

If I had to guess I'd say that this a site that got a bunch of voter data, names and addresses, and then randomly assigned party affiliation. I did some searching and found several names of "known partisans" that were occasionally correct, but often totally wrong. The site is selling(?) a Facebook app to determine the party leanings of your "friends." Strange. I wouldn't recommend purchasing this.

Then again, maybe this site knows something we don't. Is half the population waiting for a latent party switch to take hold of its sensibilities? Do I have a Palinmania tumor growing deep inside me, waiting for just the right amount of imagined socialism to set off a spell that ends with me making homemade signs about taxes and buying more guns than I would otherwise need? Only time will tell. Stay tuned! Oh, I am so hot on politics right now. So hot.

I go jobs (times 3) crazy at MinnEcon blog

2010-08-17T10:16:00.004-05:00

I'm on the MPR MinnEcon blog again today with a vlog version of a post I wrote a little over a week ago about the true meaning of "jobs, jobs, jobs." Check out the MinnEcon post.

"Burning Ring(s) of Fire" on the Iron Range or "Prove Your Metal"

2010-08-17T08:47:00.003-05:00

Much has been made of the Minnesota Discovery Center (formerly Ironworld) and its efforts to find footing after the community heritage and entertainment venue reopened last May after an abrupt closure in 2009. I'll say this, they are finding some low cost ways to connect with the Iron Range community. The Art in the Park live music series has been a big hit, and now they're trying a creative new contest for artists and metalworkers.

The Ultimate Fire Ring Competition Begins!

CHISHOLM, Minn. – Minnesota Discovery Center is seeking entries for the first-ever Ultimate Fire Ring competition, an event that will showcase the talents of northeastern Minnesota’s welders, fabricators and metal artists.

The Ultimate Fire Ring competition was designed to recognize craftsmanship, industrial arts and the enduring tradition of the campfire.

The competition will be based on votes cast by Minnesota Discovery Center guests October 5 through November 3. All entries will be on display at the museum, and all fire rings will be auctioned and/or raffled as a fundraiser for Minnesota Discovery Center arts and education programming. The winning fire ring will be on display through the winter.

The competition’s format, guidelines and other details are available at mndiscoverycenter.com or by calling 218-254-1220.

That's right; a competition for people who superheat metals and form them into objects, in this case rings that HOLD FIRE. That's a win. And you know this will end with fire: Sweet, controlled, ready-to-stare-at-while-drinking-beer fire.

Look! In the skies above Minnesota: The Blog Signal

2010-08-16T10:26:00.004-05:00

As we speak I'm making plans to attend the first ever, (FREE!) Minnesota Blogger Conference in Minneapolis on Sept. 11, 2010. I usually don't leave the wooded highlands of the Iron Range, except for court dates, speaking gigs and the procurement of rare goods and sundries. Conferences are the sort of thing I avoid, preferring to burn old boxes in my driveway while pretending that the can of Diet Coke in my hand is really a cigarette.

But this conference is different. My wife Christina, the Northern Cheapskate, is presenting at the conference and I will be accompanying her. The Minnesota Blogger Conference was put together by some Minnesota bloggers who thought it'd be a good idea for all the people in the state who so routinely communicate online to actually meet one another and share ideas. This conference is designed to have something for all bloggers, regardless of genre. For instance, my blog is a mix of creative writing, politics and Iron Range observations. I'll be interested in some of the sessions on blog writing style and design. Christina, a frugal living blogger whose blog is a business, will be part of the panel discussing how to make money off your blog. She also just moved her blog to WordPress and there are several sessions on how to make that work. I'll be going through a redesign myself soon, though I am sticking with Google's free hosting for now.

I'd like to invite all bloggers, but particularly my fellow Minnesota political, news and culture bloggers to sign up. This isn't about echoing a particular opinion, rather just an opportunity to share a craft and lifestyle that -- if you're like me -- often must be explained to perplexed older neighbors and relatives.

More at www.mnbloggerconference.com or at the Twitter hash #mnblogconf.

COLUMN: High speed internet can create new jobs on the Iron Range

2010-08-15T14:09:00.005-05:00

This is my column for the Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

High speed internet would create new Range jobs
By Aaron J. Brown

I write this entire column, every word of it, while I am uploading a large but not unusually large piece of video to YouTube for a statewide media organization commissioning my thoughts on the Iron Range economy. In this video – stay with me, this gets hot – I talk about how the video, the one I am uploading right now, is a living example of what the future of northern Minnesota’s economy might hold.

If people can produce media in a wonderful place like northern Minnesota, edit and upload it from their homes or offices, our geographic location is no longer a hindrance, but a major help to our appeal for new entrepreneurs, creative types and young families. It doesn’t have to be a YouTube video. It could be a blueprint, schematics, graphics, a report or software used for any function. The work would be done where the worker wants to live, and “sold” to the employer where he or she needs it.

CRASH!

What was that sound? A sound so loud it was in ALL CAPS. Why, it was the crashing of my upload in a giant ball of e-flames, sending little bits of my video skittering across my computer’s innards, lost forever. Don’t cry for me, reader. If you’ve read this far you probably have an idea where I’m going with this. I’ve got another window open on my computer and I’m taking another stab over there while my brain is formulating this very sentence. Here goes.

I live in the woods about a half hour northwest of Hibbing in Itasca County. We subscribe to a satellite internet service for two reasons: 1) my day job and my sideline gigs both depend on fast, reliable internet access, and 2) dial up is so slow out here it’s a joke, even by 1998 standards. Satellite providers deliver fast download times (except when it’s raining). However, upload times are much slower – a lot more like dialup. For us, other methods of connecting to the internet are not an option, even though DSL hubs and other infrastructure lie just a few tantalizing miles away. Furthermore, our service is expensive, justified only by my specific vocation. Most families prioritize more basic needs ahead of this.

More and more work in our digitized, connected economy can be completed outside a traditional office, while other “real time, real place” work tends to follow wherever people live. If you have a community of 50 middle class creative workers – engineers, writers, software designers, etc., you’ll need a gas station, grocery store, school and clinic to support them, among other things. But even jobs with a hard location (mining for instance, no pun intended) increasingly depend on high speed communication between work sites and parent offices. Where 80 years ago a mine boss like John C. Greenway might have been summoned to New York for orders, today he could attend a video conference with all members of a global ownership team. The same is true for training, re-training and other basic work functions. That’s not to diminish the important of the physical world, just to say that routine matters no longer need to be conducted in person.

Whether public or private, having the fiber optic cable wired to everyone’s house and business is vital, but not the only part of the picture. Education about how the internet can be used to do work and provide for a family is the next, equally important step. Many of the young adults I know in our area are finding ways to start business or hold jobs based in far-away cities because of high speed internet. If those connections were universal and could be advertised as such, we might be able to attract new young families and some of the people who left. All of this is possible, and – for the impact – far less expensive than a billion dollar, publicly financed “jobs, jobs, jobs” project.

Well, I just took a break to eat dinner, go swimming with the kids and build a perpetual motion machine. I see that my upload is complete. I sure hope the next one goes faster. That sure would be a lot more productive and profitable for me, and others. The future of the Iron Range is only partly tied to its past. Today’s mining opportunities are great, but only a concerted effort to create a blended, globally connected economy will create the true prosperity and growth the Iron Range so desperately needs.

Aaron J. Brown is an Iron Range writer, blogger and an instructor at Hibbing Community College. Read more at MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

Dr. Oz getting Embarrass(ed) right now

2010-08-14T09:11:00.003-05:00

I forget to mention the Embarrass Fair going on now in Embarrass, Minnesota, the lowland intersection between the Mesabi and Vermilion ranges. Right now at the Timber Hall the famous TV Dr. Oz, or at least his crew, will be at the fair filming people asking "embarrassing" medical questions. Ha ha! Embarrassed in Embarrass! The Timberjay has the story.

Dr. Oz won't be there, so don't "follow the yellow brick road" or you might get your hopes dashed.

As a longtime pun enthusiast I get the reason Oz sent his crew to Embarrass. What the producers fail to realize though is that not only is Embarrass in the Midwest, where people don't say "poop" without blushing, it's on the Iron Range. Here men and women learn at a young age to bury their feelings in a place deep, deep down below, and accept the resulting cancer. The best this crew is going to get is "If I punch you in the face, will you cry?" Or at least that's my prediction. My other prediction is that the crew will opt for the hard liquor upgrade on the Duluth to Chicago flight tonight. We'll see!