MinnesotaBrown

Love and Abomination, a poetry collection exploring gay rights & the Range

2012-02-13T09:05:00.000-06:00

Iron Range native Jacob Woods, whose public writing about growing up gay on the Iron Range is documented at his blog Good as Gay, spent January preparing a book of poems, Love and Abomination. That book will be released this week for Valentine's Day. In addition to themes of love, Woods seeks to oppose, in his words, "bigotry, discrimination and hate" along with the constitutional ballot question prohibiting gay marriage for this fall's election.

The official description reads, “Political poetry that rips into the souls by strumming the emotional strings of the bigoted consciousness. Touches the truth surrounding the gay and lesbian marriage debate facing the nation.”

Jacob Woods was born and raised on the Iron Range, growing up next to the mining pits on the outskirts of Hibbing where he attended most of grade school. He explored 40 acres of forest with his two older brothers. In the summers while his mother attended college to become a teacher, Jacob had spent time living with his grandma and grandpa as well as his aunt and uncle, experiences documented in his book. He shares this poem from the collection:

Macaroni and Tomato Soup

I remember one time my grandmother put leftover Mac N Cheese in tomato soup. It was disgusting and my grandfather said it tasted just fine. It’s like my grandparents forgot they lost their taste buds. I think the issue is I hide too much of what I honestly think. We live in a society that condones dishonesty and condemns honesty. That way, we can avoid our feelings. It would hurt their feelings if I told them the truth. And then they would condemn me, banishing me to hell. Over my opinions on Mac N Cheese and tomato soup. My best bet is to just shut up and eat it.

Woods now studies Creative Writing and Sociology at Hamline Univeristy. "Love and Abomination" will be available to purchase on Amazon Valentine’s day. Links will be available on the Good as Gay blog, Facebook page, and Twitter as well.

Magnetation still considering Range, Superior sites

2012-02-12T18:56:00.000-06:00

The saga of Magnetation's proposed pellet processing plant at one of four proposed locations continues. It would appear from public discussions that the company is focusing on finding ways to keep the site in Itasca County in Minnesota's Iron Range region or locating in Superior, where a recent economic boom has been happening.

Minnesota and local Range officials have been communicating with Magnetation after a rather negative early reaction to news that Magnetation was considering other options. My understanding is that there is a way for Magnetation to locate in Minnesota under current regulations; it is just that there has been a lack of communication. Magnetation also alleges a lack of urgency, though the state differs on that. I think the publicity of this situation has accelerated the efforts of both Magnetation and state regulators to address the issue. There remains a good possibility of the plant locating on the Range, though Superior certainly wants it and probably remains an equal possibility.

Meantime, Magnetation is addressing some of the anger exhibited by some Range lawmakers when news of the story first emerged. Last week, the company issued a press release showing how the company's scram mining operations have already paid back the public investment in the projects.

To date, 213 jobs have been created by Magnetation, more than ten times the original commitment to the State of Minnesota. The average pay, including wages, benefits, and pension contributions, for the Magnetation direct employees is $70,096 per year. In addition, there are another 60-100 direct and indirect jobs being created at a third Magnetation plant near Chisholm, owned by Mining Resources, LLC, a joint venture with a subsidiary of Steel Dynamics Inc. The construction jobs created to build out the various Magnetation facilities are in addition to the foregoing job totals.

In total, Magnetation received four loans from the IRRRB and one loan from DEED with a combined principal of $5,753,191. On January 3, 2012, Magnetation made the final payment to retire all loans in full, much earlier than required by the loan agreements. In addition, Magnetation has paid to date $946,089 in combined interest and special process royalties to the IRRRB and DEED. In 2012, Magnetation expects to pay an additional $2.5 million in special process royalties to the agencies based on concentrate production from the various Magnetation plants.

Last week I recorded a conversation with Scott Hall at 91.7 KAXE about Magnetation, the Iron Range and Superior that will air at 7:20 a.m. on the Monday morning show. Though some time has passed the central issues we talked about remain at the forefront of this story. Tune in or listen online to the Magnetation discussion Monday morning on KAXE.

COLUMN: This old LEGO house

2012-02-12T11:31:00.000-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Feb. 12, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

This old LEGO house
By Aaron J. Brown

Parenthood doesn’t necessarily move in the phases described in child development books or, as they’re called in our house, “projectiles.”

At the beginning is the spit-up, diapers and first steps-turned-thundering stampede. Then the house fills with an elaborate network of railroads (we have three boys, in case that wasn’t apparent), a labyrinth of wooden tracks that would surely intimidate a scale-sized James J. Hill. Along the way they’ve learned to read and operate the remote control. They grow faster and stronger each day.

We’ve entered a new phase and like most new trends this one is Scandinavian and expensive. We are a LEGO household now. I don’t have time to explain Legos*. If you don’t know LEGO you probably tuned out back when I referenced “children.”

At some point several months ago our son George was reading his older brother Henry’s copy of LEGO Magazine. He took special interest in the picture of a vast, opulent, crime-ridden LEGO city. George pointed and said, “I want that.” “Which one?” I asked. He stared back, incredulously. The answer was “all of it,” of course.

This was a preposterous notion to me then. How on earth could one attain so many LEGO blocks on a middle class salary? Well, the answer to that question is safely locked away in a safe buried beneath some Danish market research firm. Because we have a great many LEGO sets now and a fair number of unassigned Legos that may be assembled in many untold ways.

One of the most interesting things about Legos is that they are neither permanent nor temporary. They are semi-permanent. Old fashioned wood blocks may be assembled for a few hours before someone bumps the tower to the ground. Legos may be assembled and left up for a several days or weeks. You may choose to disassemble them, of course. And a truly fatalistic event could occur such as that time our boys were running around the house with a blanket and obliterated the fire house. But perhaps the enduring appeal of LEGO creations is that they are both durable and fragile, much like the very nature of human life.

My wife Christina made an observation that what makes Legos unique is that you can buy more and more of them and you still never have enough. There is always some brick that you need to finish whatever you’re working on.

A 2002 study by mathematician Mark Changizi and colleagues at Duke University studied the complexity and diversity of LEGO sets. Sam Arbesman at Wired.com broke down the study in a Jan. 6, 2012 article. The bigger the set, the more diversity in components you find. Additionally, the more diverse the set becomes the fewer new component types are used as the set grows larger. In other words, as a LEGO creation grows it uses more different parts but also becomes much more efficient. The Duke study applies this same principle to other complex systems, such as our own real life human cities.

So the LEGO-building lifestyle we lead in this house is a wonderment of imagination and philosophy, so long as you don’t step on the blocks in the night, bellowing expletives into a throw pillow so the kids don’t learn new words. I don’t know if we’ll ever complete the LEGO city our boys have coveted for so long, but in trying we will complete the lessons of their childhood and of parenthood, too.

* I made the choice to use the American term “Legos” interchangeably as a plural of LEGO bricks. LEGO ® is a registered trademark of the LEGO Group, a private holding based in the company town of Billund, Denmark. In most of the world LEGO is the plural of LEGO, much like the English words sheep or deer. A hockey player can play for the Minnesota Wild, but he and his teammates collectively also compose the Wild. The Wild score a goal. The Wild lose a game. Same for LEGO.

In researching this column on the internet I found that most American references to “legos,” “Legos” or “LEGOs” were met with a sprawling comment thread over the plurality issue, usually boiling down to old grievances about American cultural imperialism. Some people sure do take LEGO building components seriously.

I call them Legos because the two sets my twin sons desperately want for their birthday this summer cost a combined $187. I will call them Legos and if the prices go up any higher I will start calling them “Lego’s” and trigger some kind of uprising on the Jutland Peninsula. It is my suspicion that the fixed yellow C-shape hands of LEGO’s legal team lack the dexterity to type out a cease-and-desist letter.

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.

Hibbing demolishes landmark Dupont building

2012-02-10T15:39:00.002-06:00

I wrote two months ago about the city of Hibbing's plans to demolish the landmark Dupont Blasting Powder power station. I wrote then with hope the city would reconsider its decision. The Hibbing Historical Society took a stab at preserving the site somehow, but lacked funds to pay for a study. When those efforts failed and the building was marked for demolition on Feb. 20. I drove down to take some pictures of the site this Wednesday, Feb. 8, and discovered that the demolition had begun unannounced, two weeks ahead of schedule. I took the following pictures of the scene.

As I snapped these shots the editor of the local paper screeched up behind me and ran up to get some pictures, too. There was no announcement that this was happening and the city was unaware that the contractor was going to start early.

I maintain that it is good for a place to remember its past. I don't think the building was of any particular danger to the public, as suggested without evidence, and the fact that the city can't afford to assess such things is another reason why the squeeze on local governments is hurting society in unexpected and unintended ways.

When a culture dies it doesn't go out screaming and fighting. It goes out quietly, strangled by the hands of people just doing their jobs. I have seen the angel of death and its name is Indifference.

Photo: Wunderground

This building was blown up twice by industrial accidents and rebuilt twice. It is now down for good. Four immigrant men with families lost their lives there, just as scores of miners, loggers and other workers did in the complicated history of the Iron Range. This building was a "ruin" by all definitions, but also represented a part of our story.

I don't see any particular reason ever to return to Carey Lake park, some six miles outside town. There are better picnic tables and camp sites elsewhere, and better fishing, too. History, however, cannot be replaced. That is precisely its appeal.

"This woe-some news is of great providence"

2012-02-10T10:00:00.000-06:00

I don't always share the audio of my commentaries for the Saturday morning KAXE program "Between You and Me" here at the blog, but think you might enjoy this one. I wrote a radio sketch for the "accidental recipes" show last week, taking a look at the creation of a certain famous soap back in 1879. The sketch stars Scott Hall as Hiram and myself as Byron. Heidi Holtan did the sound effects work. Have a listen.

This week's show also looks to be fun, with the somewhat-related topic of "jury-rig" or "jerry-rigged." Will Minnesota's own MacGuyver be involved? Well, possibly. Truth is, "MacGruber" really gobbled up most of the tropes a guy like me would lean on. But Richard Dean Anderson really does have a place on the Range.

"Between You and Me" is music, conversation and commentary every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM or streaming and archived at www.kaxe.org.

MPR: The lesson in Superior's surprising economic win streak

2012-02-09T09:17:00.002-06:00

I have the commentary on MPRnews.org this morning, a discussion of the recent economic success in Superior, Wisconsin, and its meaning for the entire region, including here in northern Minnesota. As an added bonus it includes a poem I wrote in creative writing class at the University of Wisconsin-SUPERIOR. The easy, breezy relationship between Superior and the Range should be nothing to fear.

Read and, if inclined, recommend or comment on the piece. It helps them know that publishing this lowly Iron Ranger is good for business. It's also pledge week over at MPR.

What you need to know about MN-8; also, updated numbers

2012-02-08T21:00:00.000-06:00

With the conclusion to the MN-8 DFL straw poll the race for Congress in northern Minnesota enters a new phase. If you missed my radio piece about DFL candidates Rick Nolan, Jeff Anderson and Tarryl Clark on 91.7 KAXE you can hear it online now. KAXE has also compiled my candidate interview videos. I'll be doing the same with an upcoming interview with Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8).

Northern Community Radio sponsored those interviews and I encourage all of you to support this unique, independent public media source serving the region. They've got a fundraiser that starts next week. Listen for a while; you'll be hooked.

Meantime, MPR posted some updated numbers for the MN-8 DFL straw poll. They have about 2,850 votes in their count, though there are a few more areas yet to report.

Nolan 48.4%
Anderson 30.7%
Clark 12.8%
Uncommitted 8%

All three candidates have today vowed to continue on the campaign, which was expected. Clark's true strength would be in an open primary. Nolan is built to run with the endorsement. Anderson is stuck there in between, without much money but with a fair amount of support in Duluth and on the Range.

Hello readers! This is the Iron Range blog

2012-02-08T14:30:00.002-06:00

The day's political news is bringing some new traffic to the blog today. Welcome! Consider following MinnesotaBrown on Facebook or Twitter or Google+ or plug us into your RSS feed. These things help me keep the blog going in ways that aren't costly or annoying to you.

MinnesotaBrown.com is the fastest-growing web-log in all of the iron ranges located within the erstwhile Northwest Territory. It is written by one miserable offspring of Scandinavians, Finns and good Cornish miners. This strange expression of devilish technology aims to justify a modern life in the harsh environs of the steel trusts and God's Wrathful Weather. Here you shall find economic news, artistic expression, political reportage and an ongoing attempt to connect one place with a larger world.

Nolan wins MN-8 straw poll; implications abound

2012-02-08T09:01:00.000-06:00

Rick Santorum's massive win in the Minnesota Republican caucuses is dominating headlines this morning, but we should also take note of the nonbinding MN-8 DFL straw poll held in Democratic caucuses last night.

With incomplete returns and unclear origins of the reporting precincts, early results from the MN-8 DFL show Rick Nolan with a large lead in the straw poll. I would expect, barring an unusual revelation, he will be named the winner of the straw poll sometime this morning. The most recent results were posted at 1 a.m. over at the MN Progressive Project. Those results show Nolan over 50 percent.

Jeff Anderson is in second, somewhere in the high 20s or near 30 percent (I don't know enough about the vote totals and their origins to report them as fact). Clark trails in third with just under 10 percent, running more or less even with "undecided."

Nolan absolutely dominated the southern and western portions of the 8th, especially the areas he once represented in Congress when those areas were in his old district.

Anderson gets to claim some success, however, in that he performed very well in the traditional DFL corridor leading from Duluth up north to the Range. In parts of the Range he crushed Nolan and Clark.

As a nonbinding straw poll, these figures won't determine the delegate allocation that will ultimately decide the DFL endorsement. They do indicate the general thinking of the people who will serve as delegates at local unit conventions in a couple months.

These results, if they hold, produce the following situations for each of the candidates:

Rick Nolan
Nolan can claim a big win, one that he absolutely had to have. But he should take comfort in that he delivered such a dominant win. He remains the front runner for the DFL endorsement, which he alone has agreed to honor.

Jeff Anderson
Anderson's support on the Range and Duluth shows he has strong support in areas that deliver most of the DFL votes in a primary. He has two options. The most likely is that he competes honestly for the endorsement but proceeds to a DFL primary banking on support from those areas. The other option he has is to try to knock Nolan out by using that primary election "electability" argument to snatch the endorsement during the complicated endorsement process at local conventions. He could gamble by agreeing to honor the endorsement that he would create a unified coalition to move forward to a primary with an endorsed candidate, should a primary occur.

Tarryl Clark
Clark's troubles with 8th district regulars was apparent last night. Her weakness in the poll is solely related to her move from the 6th district to the 8th for this run. She does, however, have the most money by far and support from national groups that could keep that money flowing. Her strategy now, should she choose to continue (and she almost certainly will) would be entirely focused on the primary.

Clark has an outside chance of winning a three-way primary, should Anderson and an endorsed Nolan end up in one, simply by splitting the coalitions that rejected her last night and turning out people predisposed to support her. Her risk, however, is the "Entenza Problem." In 2010, the well-funded Matt Entenza went into a DFL governor primary with the endorsed Margaret Anderson Keliher and Mark Dayton and lost badly, despite a professional campaign and big spending.

Clark needs a plan to somehow change the dynamic of this race, and it must involve reassuring people about her decision to run in a district that she's not originally from. I expect she now waits for the redistricting maps in two weeks to see if the new district is more or less favorable to her to make a decision about all that.

For that reason it would be politically wise for Anderson and Nolan's supporters to coalesce somehow. But because both are declaring some version of "victory" this morning that appears unlikely until we get to the Eighth District convention later this spring.

It would appear that one of the MN-8 DFL candidates would have to make a bold impact on the endorsement race to change the likelihood of a three-way primary that any of them could theoretically win.

Santorum wins MN GOP caucus; delays in MN-8 DFL polll

2012-02-07T21:34:00.001-06:00

Tonight brings a crushing victory for Rick Santorum in Minnesota's GOP precinct caucuses. Santorum also won Missouri and has a chance for the sweep in tonight's Colorado caucuses. That will add some intrigue to the Republican race.

Meantime, I am predicting slow reporting of the MN-8 DFL straw poll. I won't have it tonight. I don't think anyone will know until sometime tomorrow. Post comments if you know something.

Tonight's caucuses have added meaning in MN-8

2012-02-07T10:45:00.001-06:00

Tonight, Minnesota holds its biennial precinct caucuses, the first step of organization of the state's major political parties. Eligible citizens are asked to gather at 6:30 p.m. at their community location for their respective party. You can find out where you're supposed to go here. Voting begins at 7 p.m.

Republicans will vote on their contested race for President. Mitt Romney is the national front runner and won here four years ago, but Rick Santorum leads in recent Minnesota polling. Both Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich are within striking distance. It's fair to say that any of the four could win tonight's caucus under the right scenario, though Santorum or Romney are most likely.

The Independence Party will hold its first-ever online caucuses.

Democrats, or more rightly in our fine state, Democratic Farmer Laborites will also caucus around the state, mostly for organizational purposes and to renominate President Obama. However, here in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional district caucus-goers will also be voting in a non-binding straw poll to show preference for one of the three candidates running against Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8). Though the poll is not binding it will show the general thinking of the delegates who will be voting to endorse a candidate in a few months. A lack of consensus would portend a long battle all the way to the August primary election.

In January I interviewed the three DFLers, and you can click their names to see those interviews: Rick Nolan, Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark. Later today I hope to post audio from my recent summary of those interviews on KAXE. Additionally, you can find footage of a recent MN-8 DFL forum in Finland, Minnesota at the Uptake.

I don't have a hard and fast predication, as this will be the first large-scale public test of support for these candidates. I think Nolan should do well in this straw poll, first or a close second. Anderson needs to stay out of third place and could do well depending on where people turn out. Clark can probably afford to finish third the way she's managed expectations and raised money, but a blowout would be trouble for her.

Meantime, would you like to know who has endorsed the MN-8 DFL candidates? They have very kindly been reminding me of these endorsements on a daily basis for some time. For kicks, I've added the recent fourth quarter fundraising totals for the three candidates because that's going to end up being a big factor, me thinks. Click through for the full post. It reads like a list of characters in a Dickens novel. (Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Dickens!)

I will make a good faith attempt to report the results of the straw poll, though I cannot predict how long it will take for the DFL to report those numbers. The Republican presidential vote will be known sooner.

Rick Nolan:
$60,000 raised in fourth quarter, $35,800 cash on hand

House Assistant Majority Leader State Rep. John Ward, Brainerd
Iron Range Delegation Chair State Rep. Tom Anzelc, Balsam Township
State Rep. Kerry Gauthier, Duluth
State Rep. John Persell, Bemidji
State Rep. Bill Hilty, Finlayson
Former Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Marlene Johnson
Former State Rep. and Eveleth Mayor Current Citizen Rep. to the IRRRB Joe Begich
Minnesota Senate President Don Samuelson
Former State Senator George Perpich, Chisholm
Former Cuyuna Range State Rep. Kris Hasskamp
Former State Rep. Tim Faust of Mora
Northeast Area Labor Council President Al Netland
Iron Range Labor Assembly President Tom Cvar
Duluth Central Labor Body President Dan O'Neill
Carlton County Labor Body President Mike Kuiti
Jim Gleb & Tamara Jones - United Food and Commercial Workers Union Reps
Chisago County Commissioner George McMahon
Koochiching County Commissioner Rob Ecklund
Former State Senator Becky Lourey, Kerrick
Iron Range publishing icon Veda Ponikvar, Chisholm
Tina Welsh, Duluth Community Activist
Erik Peterson, Esko Community Activist
Aitkin County Chair Cordy Strand, Aitkin
Senate District 5 Chair Cathy Daniels, Hibbing
Thom Petersen - DFL Director & MN Farmer's Union Gov Relations Director, Pine City
Duluth Community Activist and Business Leader, John Goldfine

Tarryl Clark:
$161,000 raised in 4Q, $275,000 cash on hand

Steve Raukar- St. Louis County Commissioner and Chair of the Minneapolis-Duluth/Superior Passenger Rail Alliance
Linda Krug- At-Large Duluth City Counselor, former Dean at UMD College of Liberal Arts, and small business owner
Mary Olson- Former State Senator (SD-4) representing parts of Beltrami, Cass, Crow Wing, Hubbard, and Itasca Counties
Peg Sweeney - Saint Louis County Commissioner and member of the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA) Board of Directors
Kriss Hakala- Chair of the Chisago County DFL
Dave and Laura Perry- long-time community leaders and DFL activists
Barb Peterson- Vice President of DFL Feminist Caucus, farmer and active member of the DFL
Mark Mandich- Itasca County Commissioner and member of AFSCME Council 65 Steelworkers District 11
the National Committee to Protect Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM)
womenwinning
EMILY’s List
The Women’s Campaign Fund
Harlan Tardy- Executive Director of the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA) covering 8 Northern Minnesota Counties, former longtime member of the Nashwauk Keewatin School Board
Will Munger - Longtime environmental and DFL activist and owner of the Munger Inn in Duluth
Lorrie Janatopoulos - Community activist, planning director at AEOA in Virginia and former candidate for St. Louis County Commissioner
Gail Kulick - Former State Rep (16-A) covering parts of Mille Lacs and Morrison Counties, former Milaca School Board member and city attorney for Foreston, Onamia, and Milaca
Rick Olseen – Former State Senator (SD 17) representing Isanti and Chisago counties.
Earl and Donna Gustufson- Earl served in the Minnesota House from 1963-1970 and then in the Minnesota Senate from 1971-1972. Donna is a long time community activist
Jeff Kletscher- Five-term mayor of Floodwood, MN. He also serves as the President of the Minnesota Association of Small Cities.

Jeff Anderson
$22,000 raised in fourth quarter, $13,000 cash on hand

State Senator Roger Reinert, Duluth
State Representative Tom Rukavina, Pike Township
State Representative Carly Melin, Hibbing
Former State Senator Jerry Janezich, Chisholm
Former State Senator Ron Dicklich, Pengilly
Duluth Mayor Don Ness
Ely Mayor Roger Skraba
Two Harbors Mayor Randy Bolen
Cloquet Mayor Bruce Ahlgren
St. Louis County Commissioner Frank Jewell, Duluth
Former St. Louis County Commissioner Gary Cerkvenik, Britt
Duluth City Councilor Tony Cuneo
Duluth City Councilor Dan Hartman
Duluth City Councilor Patrick Boyle
Duluth City Councilor Emily Larson
Duluth City Councilor Jennifer Julsrud
Former Duluth City Councilor Jackie Halberg
Virginia School Board Member Kim Stokes, Britt
IAFF Local 101 President Erik Simonson, Duluth
DFL SD 7 Associate Chair Deb Taylor

Weary yet? Steel yourselves. This is the part of the campaign we will one day regard as "quaint."

I endorse growly Clint Eastwood's vision for America

2012-02-06T13:09:00.000-06:00

Keeping up with my car theme today, this Chrysler ad with Clint Eastwood was probably my favorite Super Bowl commercial.

I say that for a few reasons. 1) It wasn't stupid or directed at people who are, which is enough these days. 2) It recognized that in a down economy you don't scream at people to buy Chryslers; you convince them to feel good about buying cars. 3) The fact that so many are reading political overtones in the ad tells us a lot about the state of the country.

I'll focus on that last part. First, in the ad Eastwood makes no specific political references whatsoever. The monologue suggests that America has known trouble in its history (true), that we "pull together" after the hard times (eventually maybe), and that it's "halftime" and that our best days are ahead (unknowable, but who cares). The only real issue one could make is that he says Detroit is "back," which is based on the fact that American automakers are entering fiscal solvency and selling more cars than before. Detroit as a city still has some problems, though it is a fair argument to say it's making positive progress.

The ad has been called a "gift" to President Obama's re-election campaign, which is also funny. Eastwood, a longtime Republican, endorsed McCain in 2008. He has said a few complimentary things about the president but is certainly no loyalist. That was a shrewd move by Chrysler, to find an ass-kicking Republican that Democrats also like. But what it boils down to is that if you have a problem with this ad you have a problem with the abstract concept of hope. This is not an easy political position from which to operate.

If this ad had aired in 1984 Democrats would have complained that it was an endorsement for the re-election of President Reagan. Today, Democrats love that ad and Republicans grumble. Chrysler doesn't endorse presidential candidates. Chrysler endorses selling cars. Cars sold means presidents get re-elected. Always has.

The car is only OK at guitar, but still

2012-02-06T08:28:00.002-06:00

Yes, I will share a music video that involves a song about unrequited love and a car that plays all the instruments. OK Go! is known for it's "one take" music videos, usually involving elaborate choreography of humans and machines. Worth watching.

Tune to 91.7 KAXE radio story on MN-8 interviews

2012-02-05T15:28:00.000-06:00

For some, the 35-minute format of my video interviews with MN-8 DFL candidates Rick Nolan, Jeff Anderson and Tarryl Clark might have been too long. If so, consider listening to a distilled version of my conversations with the potential challengers to Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) on Monday's KAXE Morning Show.

At 7:20 a.m. Monday I present an edited package of clips and background on the race in advance of Tuesday night's precinct caucuses.You can listen at 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live and archived at KAXE.org. I'll share audio here when I can.

KAXE paid my expenses in putting the interviews together. The Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm was a gracious host. Richie Johnson did the video work and extracted the audio for me. I spent a long Saturday night putting the radio package together. I hope you find it interesting and informative.

My interview with Rep. Cravaack is still being scheduled, but I do look forward to hearing his response to the DFL candidates and his perspectives on the issues of the day. That interview will be presented and shared in the same fashion as my DFL candidate interviews.

This is among the more ambitious "citizen journalist" projects I've done in a while. Please consider supporting this blog through the purchase of my book, following the blog on Facebook or Twitter, and sharing MinnesotaBrown.com with anyone you think might be interested in northern Minnesota news, culture and creative writing.

COLUMN: A Tuesday night civic tradition

2012-02-05T11:31:00.002-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Feb. 5, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. UPDATE: Well, heck, I don't know how it happened but there was an error in the day of the week in the first graph. It's obviously Tuesday, as the headline indicates.

A Tuesday night civic tradition
By Aaron J. Brown

In Minnesota’s precinct caucuses, which are coming up this ~~Thursday~~ Tuesday evening, power is shared between two vital groups: 1) people who go to almost everything scheduled at the township hall, and 2) people who are really angry about something. Sometimes these are the same people, sometimes not. Sometimes people even bring treats, a feature rarely seen in a dictatorship.

With an even year upon us we now gird ourselves for another modern election, an emotionally taxing exercise in telemarketing, propaganda and partisan self-sorting. It'd be easy to ignore if this weren't how we actually govern ourselves in this country. Believe it or not a hundred years ago the whole mess was actually considerably more crooked than now. Votes were traded for alcohol and road contracts; bosses bullied their workers into voting their way. It’s only our delicate modern sensibilities, throbbing electronic interconnectedness, and the presence of nuclear weapons in the federal arsenal that convey the sense of doom hovering over today’s elections.

So we gather in a hall this Tuesday night at 7 p.m. for a tradition that goes back generations: the Minnesota Precinct Caucuses. And while it might be tempting to ignore, this is actually a stage in the nonstop campaigning where a regular citizen can have a big influence, arguably as important as the general election in November.

For Republicans, the big story is the presidential race. Mitt Romney has had momentum in the race and is widely regarded as the frontrunner. However, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his fiery conservatism have scored numerous blows on the former Massachusetts governor. Gingrich lead Romney by a considerable amount in the only published poll of likely Minnesota GOP caucus-goers a couple weeks ago, but the race is very fluid.

For his part Romney won Minnesota by a large margin in 2008, trouncing the eventual nominee John McCain. The libertarian-conservative U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and socially conservative former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum are also vying for delegates in Minnesota and have committed groups of supporters hoping for an upset.

For members of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, a vestige of our state’s unique political history, the presidential race is a little less exciting than 2008. President Obama is expected to perform well against his opponent “Uncommitted.” However that is no reason for DFLers to ignore the caucuses, as an important local race will be highlighted on Tuesday.

The DFL party is holding a nonbinding but still important straw poll for Congress on precinct caucus night. U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) shocked the political establishment by defeating House Transportation Chair and Chisholm political scion Jim Oberstar in 2010. Now three DFLers seek to challenge him in his first bid for re-election.

Former Duluth city councilor and Ely native Jeff Anderson, former Crosby-area Congressman Rick Nolan and former St. Cloud-area State Sen. Tarryl Clark are each hoping for support in the straw poll. While the result won’t eliminate any of them, it will be an important statement of support as the party endorsement process plays out. If the three don’t agree to abide by the party endorsement, an August primary will prove the ultimate arbiter. Nevertheless, the precinct caucus is the first chance for voters to offer an opinion and elect delegates to serve in the process. Votes will be even more influential at this early stage.

You can find your precinct caucus site at the Secretary of State’s website (http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us). The DFL and Republican parties are holding live caucuses at sites all over the area. The Independence Party is holding online caucuses.

Regardless of your party politics, or your lack thereof, now is an important time to get involved and speak your piece. Parties are polarized and often ineffective precisely because so many independents have given up on them. In a process dominated by money, corporations and interest groups, Minnesota still offers a point of access for the least of its citizens to participate in a process that influences candidates before they’re on the ballot. If you can, consider attending your caucus to represent your family and future on Tuesday night.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and community 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.

Brown on the Air: ACCIDENTAL RECIPES of RADIO FARCE

2012-02-03T12:30:00.001-06:00

This week's topic on "Between You and Me" is one of those classic ones: Accidental Recipes. That would be recipes improved by unexpected changes. And of course, they don't have to be good. Maybe it was bad. By all means, call in.

My contribution to the show is not about food, however. I talk about accidental invention, and do so in the time-honored tradition of radio comedy sketch. Perhaps you've heard of the "accidental" invention of the Ivory soap recipe, the famed "soap that floats?"* Well, I bring that moment to life using a metal serving dish, a large mug of water, a rotary phone, the guest voice work of Scott Hall and, of course, everything Wikipedia has to say about the 1870s.

This is one worth seeking out. "Between You and Me" airs 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 KAXE in northern Minnesota, streaming live and archived at www.kaxe.org. My commentary generally airs in the first half hour.

* Actually, Proctor and Gamble has admitted that the accidental floating story is not true. Pssst, neither is my radio play.

Tarryl Clark: the MinnesotaBrown/KAXE interview

2012-02-02T10:54:00.000-06:00

Today I feature an interview with Tarryl Clark, DFL candidate for Congress in MN-8.

Tarryl Clark is a former State Senator from the St. Cloud area. She is now co-chair of the Jobs 21 initiative based in Duluth.

This interview was conducted Jan. 18 at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm as part of a series that includes Clark's DFL opponents, Rick Nolan and Jeff Anderson. Later in February I plan to interview the incumbent, Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8).

The interviews are presented by this blog and KAXE-Northern Community Radio. Richie Johnson of Hibbing shot and edited the footage for us. An audio package is being prepared for KAXE to air sometime before the Feb. 7 precinct caucuses and the DFL nonbinding straw poll. You'll be able to see the full video interviews on local public access television. We are working on a way to share excerpts from the interviews elsewhere.

Click here to see the interview

The first segment of my interview with Tarryl Clark covered her introduction, a discussion of job creation, the federal budget, taxes and health care reform. The second segment of my interview with Tarryl Clark covered her positions on transportation and infrastructure issues, high speed internet, foreign policy and nonferrous mineral mining on the Iron Range.

The final segment of my interview with Tarryl Clark covered criticism over her move from MN-6 to MN-8 after being defeated by Rep. Michele Bachmann in 2010. We also talked about whether she'd abide by the DFL endorsement. She gives some closing thoughts.

For more on Tarryl Clark, visit her website.

Thanks to Richie Johnson, Minnesota Discovery Center and KAXE for supporting this project.

Polymet delays environmental review in Range mine project

2012-02-02T10:15:00.001-06:00

Also this week, Polymet has announced another delay in releasing its environmental review, a step in getting the necessary permits to mine copper and other minerals in northern Minnesota. The debate over nonferrous mining, or sulfide mining, continues to consume much of the region's political energy.

This news is perhaps welcome in that a more thorough job is being done on Polymet's environmental work, but also a sign that these projects take great amounts of time and are subject to setbacks for any number of reasons.

The Duluth News Tribune reports that the review will be released in the spring. Permits could still be issued in 2013 with potential construction in 2014, though that is the most optimistic of schedules. Additional litigation over water permits will likely slow that timeline.

Range reels as Magnetation considers other locations for plant

2012-02-02T10:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, the Duluth News Tribune wrote about the reaction of some local leaders to the news that Iron Range-based Magnetation might locate its proposed taconite plant in Superior instead of near its scram mining operations in Itasca County. Give it a read. Notably, Rep. Tom Rukavina appears to be in open revolt.

Yeah, after reading this I'd say there's a good chance Magnetation ends up in Superior. That is, unless the Iron Range has a good "fixer" to patch up the anger situation. My understanding is meetings with Minnesota regulators are underway to determine the problems Magnetation is having getting the necessary permits. Any hope the Range has in getting this project back must be seized in the next week or two.

Bluegills fight terrorists to the death

2012-02-02T09:46:00.000-06:00

On the wall of my boys' bedroom is a poster picked up at the county fair a few years ago. It's a picture of a bluegill with the caption: "The Bluegill: A Creature of Fresh Water."

Bluegills hold a place of honor in our family. My father-in-law is an avid "pan" fisherman who eschews trophies for food and cooks up the best fried fish I've ever had. We live in Itasca County, which sports more than 1,000 of Minnesota's famed "10,000 Lakes." Most of these pristine small lakes are home to a number of bluegills, which serve a valuable part of the ecosystem.

But that's not all.

I read a wonderful daily newsletter by Dan Lewis called "Now I Know,: which presents an off-the-wall trivia story every day. Today's entry was about the bluegill, not only it's unique attributes (a bluegill population eats six times its weight in insects every summer), but also its role in national defense.

That's right, the friendly bluegill is on the radar of the Homeland Security Department. Many large municipal water plants use penned bluegills as a sort of "canary in the coal mine" in city water supplies. Because the freshwater bluegills are so sensitive to minor changes in water conditions they act differently when foreign elements are introduced. They are particular adept at detecting suspected poisons. (And by "adept" I mean they die almost immediately).

While no attempted terrorist attack on the water supply has been detected by a bluegill, we should all feel safer that this "Creature of Fresh Water" represents the thin, blue(gill) line between freedom and tyranny.

I strongly recommend Lewis's "Now I Know" newsletter, to which you can subscribe here.

Laskiainen 'slides' into many Iron Range weekend plans

2012-02-01T15:17:00.001-06:00

The Laskiainen Finnish Sliding Festival weekend is coming up. Saturday and Sunday bring this longstanding east Range tradition in Palo. The description:

Finnish sliding festival celebrating the ethnic heritage of customs, crafts, music, sports, marketplace, foods and of course sliding! A true family event.

Loon Lake Community Center is located 10 miles south of Aurora on Hwy 100 or 1.4 miles north of Hwy 4.

For More Information: 218-638-2551

Let's not overthink this, people. Finland is a winter nation that distrusts its neighbors. Do you think its American descendants know how to put on a sliding festival? Helsinki Yes!

Have I mentioned the junkyard before?

2012-01-31T14:25:00.000-06:00

The other day I was driving the family somewhere and one of the boys pointed out a junkyard along the highway.

"Hey, boys," I said to my three sons. "Did you know Daddy grew up on a junkyard?"

A pause, then George, 4, uttered a begrudging, "Yeah." Then he sighed.

My wife laughed at me. And so it is.

Between recent writing at this blog, my book, and pretty much every damn thing I am able to translate into memoir, I talk about the junkyard constantly. Did you know? Did you know I grew up on a junkyard? I did, you know.

A recent story by Candace Renalls in the Duluth News Tribune profiles Don Kotula, who grew up on a Hibbing scrap yard in the 1950s and went on to build Northern Tool and Equipment into a major international supplier of parts and supplies. I suggest you read the story for its own merits, a testosterone-drenched love letter to machines and violence.

One passage stood out to me, though:

Being the kid from the town’s salvage business created challenges that toughened him.

“Because you came from a junkyard, you had to strive to prove yourself,” Kotula says. “Up to sixth grade, everything was good. After that, everybody wanted to kick my butt.”

His father’s advice was to pick out the biggest kid and fight. Kotula, who was average size and not much of a street fighter, did just that.

“I knocked out a couple of front teeth,” he says with a tinge of pride. “Dad said you always had to stand your ground.”

Now, I never fought in school. It wasn't my nature. It was the late '80s and early '90s. Fighting was bad, m'kay. Dad did, however, instruct me in the fine art of knocking a bigger kid to the ground and beating his head on the ground until he stopped moving, a fact I still keep tucked away for future use.

When Kotula says that at some point all the kids wanted to beat him up because he was from the junkyard I was reminded of a Louis CK joke about the song "Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band. In that song, CK highlights the first line "And the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply." He says, "First of all, no it didn't." That is not what the sign said. That is what a long haired freaky person projects onto everything because he is defensive and driven to become exactly what others hate about him. (Ha Ha! Believe it or not, this is funny when Louis does it).

I suppose this story shows one of the ways you can go after growing up on a junkyard. Kotula went all in on junk and parts. I went the memoir route. But we are still driven, still angry, still overcompensating for those childhood feelings of isolation, swimming in a sea of junk that lapped against the retaining walls shielding it from the good and decent public who would never understand us.

Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just an egghead writer. Can't even turn a wrench.

I'll show you where you can put that wrench.

Yeah, I grew up on a junkyard.

Photo: Jim Orsini, Creative Commons

"Time Between Trains" rides new rails

2012-01-31T13:09:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite professors during my time at the University of Wisconsin-Superior was Anthony Bukoski. I took his creative writing workshop as an undergraduate and then again a few years later as a graduate student. Was it then that I became a writer almost entirely obsessed with time and place? It's as good a reason as any other.

Bukoski, a Polish-American writer from Superior's east end, writes short fiction almost entirely based in and around this northwestern Wisconsin port city. His complex, vivid working class characters could only come from a writer who knows and loves the people of this place.

Another of my favorite writers, the late Paul Gruchow, one distilled the moral question facing any writer as asking yourself what you've done to "honor and protect the lives of your people." Bukoski honors his people very well.

Last Saturday the Star Tribune featured the re-release of Bukoski's short story collection "Time Between Trains" by the Duluth publisher Holy Cow! Press. This is a wonderful book, and the title story is a pitch-perfect example of Bukoski's style: Taconite trains, loneliness and love.

Jeff Anderson: the MinnesotaBrown/KAXE interview

2012-01-30T08:09:00.000-06:00

Today I feature an interview with Jeff Anderson, DFL candidate for Congress in MN-8.

Anderson is a recent Duluth city councilor and radio ad executive who grew up in Ely.

This interview was conducted Jan. 18 at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm as part of a series that includes Anderson's DFL opponents, Rick Nolan and Tarryl Clark. Later in February I plan to interview the incumbent, Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8).

The interviews are presented by this blog and KAXE-Northern Community Radio. Richie Johnson of Hibbing shot and edited the footage for us. An audio package is being prepared for KAXE to air sometime before the Feb. 7 precinct caucuses and the DFL nonbinding straw poll. You'll be able to see the full video interviews on local public access television. We are working on a way to share excerpts from the interviews elsewhere as well.

Click here to see the interview.

The first segment of my interview with Jeff Anderson covered his introduction, a discussion of job creation, the federal budget, taxes and health care reform. The second segment of my interview with Anderson covered his positions on transportation and infrastructure issues, high speed internet, foreign policy and nonferrous mineral mining on the Iron Range.

The final segment of my interview with Anderson covered Iron Range economic diversification, his role as a pioneer in marriage equality and gay rights in Duluth, and his experience as a city councilor. We also talked about whether he'd abide by the DFL endorsement. He gives some closing thoughts.

For more on Jeff Anderson, visit his website.

Thanks to Richie Johnson, Minnesota Discovery Center and KAXE for supporting this project.

COLUMN: To-do or not to-do: a life of lists

2012-01-29T12:12:00.000-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Jan. 29, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It's an expanded version of the piece I wrote for "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE the previous day.

To-do or not to-do: a life of lists
By Aaron J. Brown

We live a life of lists, parsing our rented time on this spinning rock into arbitrary sections. We catalogue our days because that is how we know what was and what must be.

But lately these lists have grown shallow. Websites and magazines bellow: “Five ways to use bacon as a garnish” or “The eight most famous short people.” There are three moves that will drive your man wild and four that will keep your woman from hassling you all the time. Just last week I wrote a column listing five things to be grateful about. Why five? Why not? It’s a number. And, of course, there are the to-do lists. I write a lot of those.

Time management experts recommend using to-do lists. To be clear here, these are people who make a living telling other people what to do with their time, people who while away the hours as time agents, who spend vacation time forgetting about time, retiring from their work having managed millions of hours they never lived. These are the people who tell us what to do with time.

When I was still in college, commuting 85 miles from Hibbing, Minnesota to the University of Wisconsin-Superior, I forget a meeting I had schedule with a professor before I drove home one night. For a GPA-hungry nerd this was unforgivable, even if my professor seemed utterly unfazed when I called him. It was at this time that I began formally recording my schedule and to-do lists every day.

These reams of lists now sit on a shelf in my home office. Years of records document the birth of my children, the construction of our house, new jobs, tedium and triumph, failures and redemptions. Most items have been checked done, if not on one day, then the next, or the next and eventually. The only thing that didn’t survive the churn of my lists was a novel I wasn’t ready to write, and this only serves to benefit the unsuspecting readers who might pick up such a thing.

It is indeed the mark of civilization that we must list our goals. All writing is really just lists. To do, to done. Even to-do lists, however, are becoming vapid with the times. And I’m not innocent in the least.

An honest list includes everything. While a casual observer might not be able to discern all the contents of my lists, if only because of my terrible 21st century handwriting, the lists do tell. In code you can find the distractions and fool-hearty notions of the past. Nothing specific, just the rings of a tree, the high watermark of an ancient river bed. Over the last ten years you gradually see my life move online – away from reporting on city council meetings and toward Twitter exchanges with reporters.

Today, you can mostly find lists of tasks to be completed on the internet, as though social media optimization were an acre of timber to clear. And I suppose it is. “FB.” That means Facebook. “Boards.” That means my online course discussion board maintenance.

I’m glad I keep paper lists if only because it gives three dimensions to a modern world that includes so many electrons dancing through the wires. And something seems that this will all come in handy. How long can we go without turning shovels and chopping wood? My working theory is the first day that the Diet Coke truck fails to make its appointed rounds we will learn the limits of the internet.

Wilco has a song “You Never Know” that goes “every generation thinks it’s last, thinks it’s the end of the world.” Well, this generation is doing a fine job convincing itself that there won’t be anything left when we’re done. Truth is we will fade to the next generation as surely as last week’s shopping list.

The lists will tell our story. To-do, or not to-do. Here’s hoping those lists are worthy of our time.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and community 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.

Blogging from a 'man camp'

2012-01-27T10:24:00.000-06:00

Covering politics and economic development in the upper Midwest these days invariably brings about a conversation about North Dakota.

Have you heard? North Dakota is booming.

And it is, mostly owing to massive new oil drilling projects in the west. Conservatives like to point out North Dakota's more lenient regulatory environment and lower taxes as the reason for the growth. Liberals like to point out that if it weren't for the demand for the natural resource found beneath North Dakota the state's economy would in the same boat as the rest of the Midwest.

I don't think the truth is exactly "in between," but I do think the two theories melded together -- high-demand natural resources and an "all in" political approach -- in some form explains the massive scope of North Dakota's economic boom in the west, which is actually visible from space.

But regardless of your opinion about the "why" and "whether," I think everyone will find fascinating the details of the "what" and "how."

This new blog by a oil field worker living in what is commonly called a "man camp" near Williston, N.D., is a simple personal blog detailing life in western North Dakota, making good money and working like a dog.

Something about this guy's perspective, which is a little rough around the edges at times, reminds me of descriptions of workers on the Iron Range some 100 years ago. Camp life. Wondering about loved ones and friends who are far away. The only difference is the modern labor practices and internet access.

I am happy for our brothers and sisters in North Dakota, but as you can see "man camp" economic development is highly specialized sort of thing, not something that's easy to transfer across state lines, if only because there is no oil here.

Follow "I Am Here" for stories from the western oil fields.

h/t Bob Collins, NewsCut.

More MN-8 candidate interviews on the way

2012-01-27T08:43:00.001-06:00

I was hoping to run all three MN-8 DFL candidate interviews this week but we have experienced delays. Rendering these massive digital files has taken longer than expected and Richie has been working hard to polish the videos up for broadcast. I still hope to run Jeff Anderson today, but it looks more like we'll have to run Tarryl Clark on Monday. I am running the interviews in the order in which they were conducted and trying to be conscious of when the "traffic" is relatively equal, to be fair to all concerned.

This has been an good training exercise for us. We had a little unexpected trouble with the sound quality because we didn't have a mixer available as planned. It's OK, but more like documentary sound than studio sound. We'll have this problem addressed for the next interview with Chip Cravaack and will also apply the lessons of this exercise to future content here at the blog. I'm still glad to have done this and it only paves the way for better content into the future.

UPDATE: Word is that both Anderson and Clark will likely have to wait until Monday. Sorry!

Superior vs. the Range: Business North explores Magnetation story

2012-01-26T21:52:00.001-06:00

Business North has an update on the Magnetation pellet plant discussed here yesterday. Their sources place Superior, Wisconsin, as a leading contender for the facility, though it sounds like the deal is not yet done and Itasca County remains a logical candidate as well.

It could be that the smokestack chasing and economic development gamesmanship of the past 20 years has finally come to this: a reality TV show.

I'll have more on Superior's recent string of economic development successes in a future post.

Cravaack pens op/ed on Range mining permits

2012-01-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

The next couple days will feature the thoughts of DFL candidates seeking to replace Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) in this unique northeastern Minnesota district. I'll be talking to Cravaack in a couple weeks, but for those who seek an immediate counterpoint Cravaack has an op/ed in today's Duluth News Tribune about Iron Range mining projects. I'll be asking him about this during his interview.

Rick Nolan: the MinnesotaBrown/KAXE interview

2012-01-26T09:11:00.000-06:00

Today I feature an interview with Rick Nolan, DFL candidate for Congress in MN-8.

Nolan is a former Congressman from the Crosby area. In 1980 Nolan opted not to seek re-election and has since run a sawmill and international trading business.

This interview was conducted Jan. 18 at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm as part of a series that includes Nolan's DFL opponents, Jeff Anderson and Tarryl Clark. Later in February I plan to interview the incumbent, Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8).

The interviews are presented by this blog and KAXE-Northern Community Radio. Richie Johnson of Hibbing shot and edited the footage for us. An audio package is being prepared for KAXE to air sometime before the Feb. 7 precinct caucuses and the DFL nonbinding straw poll. You'll be able to see the full video interviews on local public access television. We are working on a way to share excerpts from the interviews in other places as well.

Click here to see the interview.

The first segment of my interview with Rick Nolan covered his introduction, a discussion of job creation, the federal budget, taxes and health care reform.

The second segment of my interview with Nolan covered his positions on transportation and infrastructure issues, high speed internet, foreign policy and nonferrous mineral mining on the Iron Range.

The final segment of my interview with Nolan covered his approach to serving in highly partisan times after having left Congress in 1980 amid what he described then as excessive partisanship. We also talked about his long absence from politics and whether he'd abide by the DFL endorsement. He gives some closing thoughts.

For more on Rick Nolan, visit his website.

Thanks to Richie Johnson, Minnesota Discovery Center and KAXE for supporting this project.

Magnetation mulls Northland pellet plant

2012-01-25T22:19:00.000-06:00

This has been rumored for a while, but Magnetation is now confirming to WDIO they are considering several sites for a new iron pellet plant in the region. A site near their scram mining operations in Itasca County and a site in Superior, Wisconsin are among those under consideration.

I had heard whispers about the Itasca site, which is near their ore reserves. Superior is news to me, though as a major rail and port city serving Minnesota's Iron Range it would fit in the company's supply line. More on this in the morning.

UPDATE: The story goes on to reveal that sites in Indiana and Illinois are also among the four being considered. It would appear that the company is choosing between locating this processing plant near its ore supply (Itasca County), a major distribution hub (Superior, Wis.) and potential steel-making customers (Illinois and Indiana).

Unlike the many taconite plants on the Iron Range today, this mill would produce taconite pellets from material salvaged from old red ore dumps around the Range. Question is, does the ore leave the Range as unprocessed concentrate or as finished pellets ready for the furnaces?

Young thespians add heat (hot air?) to January air

2012-01-25T13:53:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since I've shared much in the way of Iron Range arts and entertainment news. There are always things going on around here, especially in the winter. We're still in the juicy center of winter. By March it is all bones and gristle. I don't mean culturally. I mean spiritually.

What I am saying is that we are still in the part of winter in which we of northern Minnesota are capable of hope.

And there is no hope quite like the hope of young thespians. From the wires:

The Subsection 7A-3 One-Act Play Contest will be held at Mesabi Range College this Saturday, January 28th, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tickets (an all-day pass) may be purchased in the lobby on the west side of campus where there is easy access from the parking lot: Adults $8, Students $5.

The Section 7A One-Act Play Contest will be held at Hibbing Community College on Saturday, February 4th, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tickets (an all-day pass) may be purchased in the theater lobby before the shows: Adults $8, Students $5.

Anzelc introduces bill demanding IRRRB loan transparency

2012-01-24T09:09:00.001-06:00

Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) has officially introduced a bill demanding more transparency in the loans given by the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) to private companies.

The IRRRB is the unique state agency that governs mining production taxes paid by iron mines in lieu of local property taxes. The agency's economic development efforts over its 70 year history have had mixed results, producing both quantifiable job creation and large scale failures.

The IRRRB was heaped with bipartisan criticism over its early loans to the proposed Excelsior Energy coal gasification power plant project on the Range, a project that has failed to garner necessary permits, financing or purchase agreements and appears unlikely to do so. Rules shielding the use of those loan funds were tucked into a conference bill late in the 2008 session by Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) and signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Anzelc now seeks to repeal that language and require more openness in private expenditures of public money.

As the Duluth News Tribune story by Peter Passi shows, Anzelc has gained some support for his bills and might find more yet. However, he still needs a Senate sponsor and several Iron Range lawmakers remain cool to the concept.

Disclosure: Though I was not involved in drafting this bill Anzelc is a friend of mine and I have run his legislative campaigns.

Dylan Days in Hibbing calls for poems, stories

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

The week ahead will be full of a lot of northern Minnesota political discussion here at the blog. I want to take a moment to share one of my non-political projects.

I have been one of the lead organizers of Dylan Days in Bob Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota for more than 10 years now. We just unveiled a great new website, DylanDays.org, which was put together with the help of Hibbing native Dan Bussey and Byers Communications. This year's Dylan Days is May 24-27, 2012.

One of my big parts in Dylan Days is to coordinate the B.J. Rolfzen Memorial Writing Contest and edit the literary journal which all happens before Dylan Days. Are you a writer? A poet? This one's for you.

B.J. Rolfzen Memorial Dylan Days Creative Writing Contest

HIBBING, Minn. ─ Dylan Days of Hibbing, Minnesota, announces its 2012 B.J. Rolfzen Memorial writing contest for poetry and short fiction. All fiction will be judged in one category; poetry will be judged in a student division and an open division for all other poets.

The deadline for the contest is March 1, 2012. For more than a decade, this contest has built itself from modest roots to its status today as a national and international competition that still manages to provide an opportunity for new, emerging or off-the-beaten-path writers and poets.

Winners of the contest will be published in the "Talkin' Blues" journal and official Dylan Days program and receive copies of the publication. First place winners will have their names recorded on a plaque in Bob Dylan's hometown. All are invited to participate in a reading at Dylan Days on May 25, 2012.

For poets, Dylan Days accepts a single poem up to 1,000 words on any subject. The contest is divided into an open division for most poets and a student division for currently enrolled high school or undergraduate college students.

For writers, Dylan Days accepts a short story in any genre, limited to 4,000 words. All writers are invited to submit stories on any subject.

Entries need not be about Dylan or emulate his work. Contest organizers are calling for creativity, strong writing and compelling themes.

Read the detailed entry information at DylanDays.org.

The cold touch of metal, the language of machines

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

I grew up a mechanic's son of a mechanic's son on the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. My family has long lived around the Range's tamarack swamps, seldom within its cities and often many miles out. Always more focused on the machines, the woods and the work than the machinations of the region's booming, busting ways, the only consistent connection between my family and Range culture is stubbornness.

And I am still here, still in the woods with a sight line to a taconite plant but so far away as to not hear the industrial hum of its concentrator. Like all the Iron Range children of the 1980s I was raised to leave, but I did not. I nevertheless failed to learn the language of machines, the tongue heard in my home as I matured. My dad tells of hearing Finnish in the home of his grandparents, even being able to understand some of it. But he lost the language and I never learned it and my memories of machines run more or less similar to his of Finnish. I am now more likely to learn Finnish than to overhaul an engine.

I write and teach. I can fix a toilet, mow my lawn, haul my own garbage. But I am a denizen of the Information Age and the service economy. I plot podcasts and websites, delicate vases in a sea of engine blocks.

The other night the wind blew hard. It was 20 below. I was washing dishes when the lights blinked. Just a blink. The split second of threatened darkness reminded me that if the power were to go out for a day, which has happened in the past, the whole works would freeze. So much depends upon our machines, or rather our command of them.

I call out in the language of the machines, a prayer to the power behind fate and motion.

Above, my son Henry peeks into an old car parked out at my grandpa's hunting shack a few years ago. Thanks to Historically Minded for a post that inspired these thoughts, a thoughtful essay on the man who started a tractor encased in Antarctic ice. Additionally, I am always inspired by the complex simplicity of my friend C.O.'s "What's in the Shop" blog -- one of my remaining windows into the language of machines.

COLUMN: Good things come in fives

2012-01-22T12:14:00.000-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Jan. 22, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A shorter version of this aired Jan. 21 during "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE.

Good things come in fives
By Aaron J. Brown

We creatures use modern minds to operate machines, systems and philosophies that would once have been considered possible only through black magic. I drove a car to work, a job in which I teach communication classes to people who hold powerful tiny computers in their hands, each capable of communicating with people in every corner of the world on a whim. These devices also allow you to play Angry Birds (but not in class, OK? Now is not the time).

The problem with complex thinking is that it makes you think you have complex problems. If you spend too much time thinking you’re sure to find plenty wrong with yourself and the people and circumstances around you. Sometimes our expectations in life – from relationships, career and family – seem to lead to nothing but disappointment.

One new website called “5 Things” (appreciate5.wordpress.com) by Sarah MacRostie, a northern Minnesota artisan mom, seeks to cut through the haze of negativity. The “5 Things” Facebook site (facebook.com/appreciate5) allows people to post five things that make them feel grateful at any time. Seeing all the gratitude piled up on “5 Things” is heartwarming enough, but sometimes the simple act of asking yourself what you’re grateful about can reshape your whole way of thinking.

I can point to a lot of big things that I am thankful for. First, there is my wife and three boys (not sure if that counts as one, or four). The boys are legally required to live with me, but Christina isn’t. That means something. A day or week or year of dreary routine and little setbacks is made bright with the love of another person. I’ve got someone, and we’ve crafted a family both unique and exciting.

My son George is telling me a train story as I write this. The tracks spiral around the family room, trains running full steam and on time. Doug just called out “Dad, I have a secret.” I asked what it was. “I love you. I say it nice and loud.” Then he threw a stuffed angry bird at a cardboard facsimile of a pig fortress. Henry and I discussed a ramp for his racetrack earlier.

This is a normal day, but also special.

Above my head stands a sturdy roof. Out my window tall trees obscure the view of a lake that is too small for anyone else to fuss over, but big enough for eagles, fish and fowl. Today the lake is an arena floor, a playground and pathway to the unknown, virgin forest on the distant horizon. This summer the ice will melt, lapping up against ancient rocks that the boys have named.

We’ve got some football on the television today. While a public radio supporter like myself is supposed to find the NFL meaningless and cliché, Sunday afternoon football provides great comfort, dull bleating mixed with high drama – good whether you’re sitting on the edge of your seat or napping. Perhaps it doesn’t matter which.

I’ve got enough food to eat, evidenced by my belt as it strains like the moorings of a mighty ship in harbor. The coffee is on, hot and strong. Santa brought me a container of creamer this year that has yet to run out.

My iPod is stocked with bluegrass music. The dinner is ready. My life, for this fleeting moment, seems to be focused and controlled. Perhaps this always was the case, or could have been, but gratitude is the light by which it becomes apparent today.

I don’t know if that was five things, or a hundred. I think the lesson in “5 things” is that by the time you get to five, you no longer need to bother counting.

Aaron J. Brown is a northern Minnesota writer and communication instructor at Hibbing Community College. He is author of the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and host of the KAXE’s Great Northern Radio Show.

Ready the horses; MN-8 charge to begin

2012-01-19T10:32:00.000-06:00

Minnesota Public Radio has a nice summary of the MN-8 Congressional race. It's a good primer before I release the audio and video from my interviews with DFL candidates Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark and Rick Nolan, recorded Wednesday at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm.

The candidates weighed in on hot-button issues like the federal budget, nonferrous mining, health care reform and public criticisms they've received. I think they revealed their stylistic differences and varied approaches to the job of a member of Congress, even if many of their positions lined up.

We are in production now. I'll be releasing the video here at the blog early next week, probably Monday. We are also making the video available to other media outlets in a sort of Creative Commons fashion, so I'll let you know where else you can see it. The audio from the interviews will be edited into packages that will air on 91.7 KAXE. You'll be able to hear those online as well.

I am in the process of scheduling the final interview in the series with Rep. Chip Cravaack. I thank all the candidates for agreeing to this interview series. My goal is to give everyone a sense of who these candidates are and how they approach things. So far, I think that's happened. Stay tuned!

Keep the internet free

2012-01-18T08:47:00.001-06:00

You might notice some changes over at Google or Wikipedia today. Many popular websites are joining in a protest over the SOPA law being debated in Washington, D.C. I am not "going dark" with my website today, mostly because I'm not convinced I know how to bring it back up. But I would like to join with others in recommending to my representatives, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Rep. Chip Cravaack, to drop this legislation or consider a dramatically different approach.

As it stands, most of the news and content sites you know and love would be put at incredible legal risk under some versions of the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Essentially, we could be shut down if we link to a website that is suspected of online piracy, a nebulous term that is hard to define. While I am no fan of pirates, the lack of legal due process in the bill would essentially allow authorities tremendous powers to censor the internet in what is supposedly the greatest free republic on earth.

We are still in the infancy of what the internet will come to mean in our society. While there are many things wrong with the new media -- link baiting, plagiarism, and shallow content -- there are also many things we wouldn't want to lose to the powerful interests that already run so much of the rest of our economy (and media, for that matter).

As I've said before, internet freedom and access is THE central issue in the development of our democratic republic. Censorship won't happen overtly. People will lose the means by which to speak before they are told what they can't say.

The MinnesotaBrown MN-8 interviews begin Wednesday

2012-01-17T08:56:00.004-06:00

On Wednesday, Jan. 18, I'll interview each of the DFL candidates for Minnesota's 8th Congressional District at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. At 1 p.m. I meet with Rick Nolan. At 2, Jeff Anderson. At 3, Tarryl Clark.

You might recall the series of interviews I did with DFL gubernatorial candidates in 2010. This will be dramatically different. Those interviews were packaged as traditional print stories with some analysis tagged on the end. I considered doing the same this year but had this thought:

The Minnesota blogsophere is among the nation's best. Plenty of political analysts turn over every move by our state's leaders, from the left, right and in between. The problem, especially here in the north, is that few media organizations are producing the sort of original content that gives the pundits things to talk about.

Am I still a pundit? Yes, I suppose so. Will I "analyze" this race at some point? Sure. But MN-8 DFLers are going to precinct caucuses on Feb. 7 and many of them have only vague notions of the candidates running. Local media seems to be a step behind and lack resources to devote political reporters to the race. So I'm hoping these interviews give such caucus attendees and future primary voters some objective information to work with to make up their own minds.

These interviews will be presented by KAXE-Northern Community Radio. Excerpts from the interviews will be packaged into audio segments that air on that station's morning show next week. The complete interviews will be produced into video segments that air on local cable access and here on the blog, also next week. I'm working with local videographer Richie Johnson, who will put a professional sheen on my normal antics.

And yes, I will also be interviewing the man these candidates seek to unseat, incumbent U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) sometime after the precinct caucuses. He'll have a chance to respond to the comments of the DFLers and address the issues. This interview will be produced and distributed in a similar manner, again most likely from the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm.

Please consider submitting questions for the DFLers or Cravaack. You can leave a comment below, e-mail me, or comment on Twitter or Facebook. I'm looking for open questions that do not lead into your particular opinion. I'll accept questions for specific candidates, but I'm most interested in the issues you think would most influence your vote in the upcoming election. I'll use the best or most relevant questions in the interview, ones relating to federal policies or northern Minnesota issues. It is my goal to conduct friendly, focused, fair interviews for all of the candidates.

Dog Have Mercy: Beargrease cancelled

2012-01-16T12:57:00.000-06:00

The lack of snow in northern Minnesota this winter has led to the cancellation of the John Beargrease sled dog race (WDIO) for only the second time in its history. Low snow totals make racing more dangerous for people and dogs. The Duluth News Tribune also has a story.

COLUMN: A toilet story

2012-01-15T12:59:00.000-06:00

Here is my Sunday column for the Jan. 15, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

A toilet story
By Aaron J. Brown

Let us begin with this reflection: people are disgusting. All people. Everywhere. You need look no further for evidence than the toilet found in your very home.

I’m sure you’re a very neat person. I’m sure you clean that thing every week, scrubbing and polishing away every speck of grime. But in some tiny corner of the commode lies a grimy remnant, a greasy reminder of all things foul.

We learned this first hand recently when my wife and I attempted our first joint “do-it-yourself” job since the ill-fated roof rake assembly of 2002, a project that firmly established the boundaries of our tolerance for one another. And so, a revelation:

Life on the hardscrabble, blue collar Iron Range of northern Minnesota carries certain expectations. Among these are the expectation that you smile at pictures of dead deer, limit any complaints about cold weather to one sentence, and the big one, that you do it yourself. Do what? Everything that doesn’t involve paper or public speaking.

Naturally, being a person who works almost exclusively with paper and public speaking, this is a problem for me. People of the Range, especially men, are expected to attempt to do home improvement projects themselves, regardless of their level of skill or experience, whether it takes 36 hours of reading directions in a crawlspace, whether the thing they are doing catches fire and burns uncontrollably for four days requiring helicopters to extinguish the unrelenting oily flames.

It doesn’t help that I am a mechanic’s son from a five-generation Iron Range family. The fact that I call plumbers and bring my car to the shop for routine maintenance is even more damning.

We live in the country now, a half hour from most service professionals. A leak from the base of our toilet prompted a call to our longtime plumber who put the matter in stark terms. It’s a long drive, a small job and he’d rather see me pay $1.50 to put on a wax seal myself than drive out there and charge me a bunch of money.

So now even service professionals wonder why I am not more proficient with tools, despite my vast profitability to them. One could regard this as a new low in my “do it yourself” record. But I think I hit the real bottom a few moments later when our plumber spent several minutes trying to explain to my wife that yes, this really was a DIY job even for me. At least everyone involved seems to know me pretty well.

And now, back to the toilet and the specter of human taint that casts its shadow over all toilets, everywhere. When you think about it, we humans are the only creatures who concentrate our waste into one distinct engineered receptacle. There is simply nothing else for a toilet to become except for dirty and contagious.

Nevertheless, we successfully drained the tank, removed the nuts and bolts, yanked up the commode and replaced the wax seal. One of the bolts was bent and that provided the only drama as we had to rustle up another. Christina and I ended the project without yelling at each other, storming away, doubting our original decision to spend our lives together, or breaking the toilet in a fit of rage. The kids call this a “Win.”

I can’t say that I’m a DIY pro now. I’ll still need the help of professionals on most of the specialized machinery in my home; and that’s fine by me, so long as I am employed. Still, it was a confidence booster to see the underside of a toilet and live to tell. Hey, maybe someday I could have my own cable TV show, “Brown on Toilets!”

On second thought, maybe not.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer from the Iron Range who teaches at Hibbing Community College. He is the author of the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and host of the Great Northern Radio Show on 91.7 KAXE.

Brown on the Air: ENOUGH!

2012-01-13T12:44:00.001-06:00

This week on "Between You and Me," the unique Saturday morning conversation program on 91.7 KAXE, the topic is "enough." The idea comes from an exhibit and program going on now in Itasca County called "Enough for All." It's a look at poverty.

Poverty, eh? Well, I get a little tired of the same-old, same-old on anti-poverty crusades. Like a lot of people on the Range, I grew up around a lot of what I guess you'd call poverty. My contribution to the show explores the origins of the word poverty, and the way poverty follows us down through the ages.

Have I ever told any of you about growing up on the junkyard? Yes, well ... more of that. But not too much.

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

Beating the bumps in an Iron Range mining boom

2012-01-12T11:04:00.002-06:00

I've recently advocated a sort of temperance in talk that boom times in mining are enough to propel the economy of Minnesota's Iron Range forward. That's not very fun, or very popular, or very important, I suppose, as the economy will react independently of what some blogger writes or what you see on your computer screen or smart phone. But a recent international stories might explain my caution.

I'd previously written about Australia's steel industry woes as a warning to our own. Now global iron ore prices are expected to drop this year, according to Dow Jones as reported in the Australian press.

There are many reasons why the American steel industry is better positioned than Australia's, and why demand for steel will continue and thus ensure that Range taconite operations will continue long past the price fluctuations. But local euphoria remains over many proposed mines and projects, most of it rooted in the fantasy of the 1990s: that a return to 1970s-level mining employment is possible.

The process of taconite industry consolidation, efficiency and mechanization that began 30 years ago has rendered such a thing impossible. What remains is a more sturdy iron mining industry, better prepared to last much longer, but that will forever employ a more or less limited number of people.

In other words, while the House of Iron Range Taconite might be well-built, like any house it has a ceiling.

To be considered separately from this are the proposed nonferrous mining projects. These projects use different technology, would be owned and operated differently and involve commodities even more economically volatile than iron. The potential for jobs is there, but that potential requires even more context and consideration before being realized. Nevertheless, I mention these projects because people who actually live on the Iron Range generally group them with the taconite jobs they know and love.

It's bad practice to simply wait for new mining jobs to be created, or, more accurately, wait for political pressure to build to expedite a permit process snarled on important questions, which might allow financing to possibly create jobs (depending on mineral prices). There are too many moving parts to that equation and, while the issue must be resolved, I am always disappointed to see local governments pass resolutions of support for mining and then sit back and wait, sniping at criticism as though it were some existential threat. A more functional region would be working on other ideas while all this was going on. The fact that this isn't happening is, in itself, the real existential threat.

Back to iron mining, still the region's best and most tested employer. One of the big "oh boy!" projects on the Range these last two decades has been the proposed iron mine and steel mill by Nashwauk, a project that had lingered in spirit form through the '90s before being purchased and recently developed by the Indian steelmaker Essar.

Essar Minnesota has prepared the site, poured footings and is now getting important permits to begin construction. It has encumbered and spent a great deal of state and local money on rail and road infrastructure, all of which is visible to travelers in my neighborhood north of Nashwauk, Minnesota.

But buried in a routine report on the project's permitting success, Essar officials revealed to several local boards this week that the project would nevertheless be delayed. Taconite production will be held up until the summer of 2013 and the steel mill is on the distant horizon, so far out that I'd argue it's not responsible to assume it is a sure thing. The main problem: global financing. The secondary problem: steel prices are good, but not great, and steel mills are expensive.

Perhaps my caution is unmerited. I suppose I could end up eating a lot of crow on this, watching Canadian National trains loaded with steel bars and copper rolling down to Duluth. But caution is where I'd bet my paycheck right now; indeed, we who live on the Iron Range are betting our paychecks with every public decision made on these matters.

A more useful approach for us to take, whether we support or oppose new mining and the inherent environmental consequences, would be to work on what we see around us. Our towns must be more inviting. Our people could be better cared for. Our students could be introduced to deeper and more responsive curriculum.

It is often said that "Jobs" are the Number One Issue. True, jobs are necessary for any of this to work. But we don't just need the "x" number of mining jobs; we need three other permanent jobs for every mining job created. Those jobs are no sure thing. They must be grown. We must start with our communities and schools, using the resources -- however limited -- we have available to us now. Doing this gives us better options in the event of sour mining news and greater prosperity if mining flourishes.

KSTP "On the Road" features Sunrise Deli

2012-01-11T12:28:00.001-06:00

KSTP's On the Road segment with Jason Davis featured the owners of the legendary Sunrise Deli in Hibbing as they made the decision not to close down, but to continue as a wholesaler of the popular ethnic foods that characterize the Iron Range.

It's been a turbulent year for Hibbing food landmarks. The similarly named, similarly beloved, but independently owned Sunrise Bakery recently moved from its iconic location on the north side of Third Avenue East, the elbow of the road that pivots up to the old vacated North Hibbing location. It is now located in a smaller refurbished building along the old Great Northern tracks, now used only to bring coal to the municipal plant.

As Jen at "I [heart] Hibbing" points out, sometimes you can't fight the changes. Indeed, sometimes you shouldn't.

Minnesota Moments features state "place" blogs, including this one

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

The magazine Minnesota Moments features in its winter edition ten Minnesota bloggers who write about life in this Midwestern state. I was honored to be included.

It's a nice collection of writers. My section gets into some nitty-gritty about choices you have to make when you write about controversy and politics, and some of you might find that interesting.

Special thanks to Audrey Kletscher Helbling at Minnesota Prairie Roots, another of the featured blogs, who collected responses for the magazine and shoe-horned me past the editors. MN Prairie Roots, rich with photographs, history and modern perspective about southern Minnesota, is probably the best "place" blog in the state.

Writing about place is the great potential of the internet, allowing everyone from anywhere tell the story of their people. Together, we learn who we are.

Photo: Graphic from Minnesota Moments blogger story

Dust in the wind ... public meeting on dust in the wind

2012-01-10T13:00:00.000-06:00

Tonight at 6 a public meeting will be held in the small western Iron Range city of Keewatin regarding the red dust blowing off the Magnetation scram mining site south of town. Representatives of Magnetation have been invited, as have local officials.

Magnetation is a newer company producing iron concentrate from mine dumps once considered too difficult to extract. It's been one of the biggest new employers and positive economic stories on the western Iron Range these last few years. However, anyone who's driven by Keewatin on Highway 169 has seen the red stained highways and red-tinted houses of the city.

Some days it looks like a tomato soup explosion. My grandpa says that's how the whole place used to look, but not in a long time.

The story is atop the Hibbing Daily Tribune front page today.

Zenith City's Hipster King Speaks Fire from Podium of Ice!

2012-01-10T11:30:00.000-06:00

Duluth, Minn., mayor Don Ness delivers remarks Monday from a unique lectern after being sworn in for his second term in office. Ness ran unopposed in the November 2011 election. Ness enjoys historic popularity as some credit him with leading a more youthful, economically diverse Duluth, once known mostly for decline and political discord. Several new and returning city councilors were also sworn in and gave speeches from the frozen podium.

PHOTO: via the mayor's Facebook page

This January heat is a killer

2012-01-09T15:00:00.000-06:00

I just went for a walk outside. I had to unzip my coat. I sweat through my shirt. This is Hibbing, Minnesota.

The temperatures in northern Minnesota are running 50 degrees warmer than you often see this time of year, a couple dozen degrees above average. There's almost no snow in open areas, just an unending sea of mud and grass. Maybe this is winter in some places. It is deeply disturbing for those of us along the Laurentian Divide.

COLUMN: Occupy Language - Top words from 2011

2012-01-08T12:30:00.000-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Jan. 7, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The "top words" column is another annual tradition of mine. A version of this piece aired recently on 91.7 KAXE.

Occupy Language: Top words from 2011
By Aaron J. Brown

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.”

How we talk, what we describe and why is the sum of our human existence. That’s why every year I look at the list of top words put out by an organization called the Global Language Monitor, which tracks language use in our culture. From this list we learn who we are and how we are different from those who came before.

The top word for 2011 is “occupy.” This word is associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement, which was big news this year, but also with the end of the occupation in Iraq and in the terms incorporated by successful protest movements around the world.

Time Magazine named “The Protester” as its Person of the Year for a reason: this was a year of meaningful protest, even if some results have been uncertain. The word “occupy” represents more than the literal meaning, but rather the occupation of our minds by disturbing conditions in our world.

Next on the list is “deficit,” a term you often hear in American political disputes but is actually causing even more ruckus in other parts of the world. Are you familiar with the European Debt Crisis? If not you’ll soon get to know it’s sequel, “Global Debt Crisis,” starring the USA and China and featuring some place you know being burned in protest.

Or maybe not! Ha Ha! Let’s stay positive.

It doesn’t bode well that the third word on the list is “fracking.” This controversial term refers to a hydraulic process that removes fossil fuels from previously unattainable reserves. Fracking involves pumping toxic liquids into the earth and the possible side effect of “earthquakes,” so at minimum we are closing the gap between reality and science fiction.

Some important people would like you to know that there’s nothing wrong with fracking. Why wouldn’t we believe them? They are scientists, no? Legend of local monsters coming to life mean nothing in today’s modern go-go world.

Another ominous word takes fourth position: “drone.” The United States has been secretly flying unmanned Predator drones into the airspace of some of the world’s most dangerous hotspots. And the fact that a midlevel writer in the upper Midwest knows this shows you about how well the secret has been kept.

After this the list gets funny. Sort of. The fifth word is Non-Veg, an Indian meal featuring meat that has become something of a worldwide culinary trend. The sixth was new to me, Kummerspeck, a German word referring to weight gain due to emotional overeating. That’s not very funny, but the Americanized version “grief bacon” is pretty funny. The seventh word is haboob, an Arabic word now being applied to massive sandstorms in the American southwest. Sandstorms aren’t funny either, but I’m glad to welcome haboobs to the vernacular.

The list makes mention of how words and numbers are constantly merging. The term “3Q” is the eighth word and represents a sort of universal term for “thank you.” It earned some notoriety by being banned by the Chinese government. The last two words are also protest terms, “Trustafarians” are the wealthy British protestors who participated in the low-income riots last year. “(The Other) 99 percent,” of course, are the population group that has suffered during the global economic crisis while the Top 1 percent have benefited, according to the backers of the aforementioned Occupy movement.

A year with so many protest words also brought the term “Arab Spring” as the top phrase of 2011. Dictatorships across the Middle East fell at the hands of democratic protestors and small armies. The top phrase from 2010 was “Anger and Rage,” which also makes the list in 2011 but with the caveat that the proper term ought to be “Frustration and Disappointment.” This seems to me to be the Minnesota version of Anger and Rage.

Global Language Monitor also lists the top names of the year, first being the late Apple founder and tech innovator Steve Jobs and the other being the late Osama bin Laden. Though these two men lived very different lives and produced very different outcomes, both unequivocally changed our world forever.

It’s usually hard to predict what the top words will be one year to the next. You can expect that the 2012 election and continuing financial problems around the world will influence the selection. I suppose all we can do is let hope “occupy” our hearts and try to lay off that grief bacon.

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

Brown on the Air: FITNESS!

2012-01-06T11:30:00.000-06:00

The topic for this week's "Between You and Me," the Saturday morning call-in and talk special on 91.7 KAXE, is fitness. As with many, the new year has me thinking about my shape -- round -- and making plans to get things back under control. My essay this week, a reprisal of a previous humorous view of my upper body condition at a water park, should be a fun listen for those of you with an active (but not too active) imagination.

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

Kicking our habit: The trouble with politics in our time

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-06:00

In the last couple years I've come to regard modern politics as a drug. You take the "politics opiate" for a reason you regard as good -- the future of your country or community, issues close to your heart, a cause of some importance.

But it doesn't take long before you can find yourself in politics for the thrill of victory, the fear of defeat, the drumbeat of endless speculation and process. At some point you look to the media and local political organization not for information or action, but for a constant, syrupy reassurance of your political worldview and ego.

And you hope you're one of the ones who doesn't get caught up in the nonsense. You're different. You're right. You will prevail.

You're kidding yourself. Or at least I was.

There are some serious problems in American democracy today, most of them related to the way Americans interact with their democracy. The country has a long history of partisanship, but I think you could argue that our partisanship hasn't been so ideological since just before the Civil War. The parties are no longer just organizational hubs, they are religious identities.

Further, now that we live in the Information Age our remarkable, malleable, enduring capitalistic republic has reverted to a form of "political-entertainment-as-government," if only because in this moment that system is both the most profitable and easiest for traditional power brokers to manipulate. A constant campaign between groups that hate each other keeps people watching, political groups spending and leaders putting off big decisions until the next big election, when conditions might be better for their side.

Perhaps it has always been this way? I read a lot of history, though. I talk to a lot of old timers. This feels new.

This past Tuesday I watched the results of the Iowa Republican caucuses pour in. Much like a football game, I watched with great interest even though I don't live in Iowa and am not a Republican. I still expect to vote for President Obama, although for very different reasons than four years ago. Nevertheless, I hooked myself up to the 24/7 political drug IV of TV news for a night and, boy, it felt like a relapse -- a careening fall back into the abyss of anxious worriment.

I was pulling for Ron Paul. I disagree with his central premise, that a robust federal government should be all but abolished, but I appreciate how evenly and thoughtfully he applies his views to his policy proposals. I like that he is running on an idea, not just because his election would be good for him personally. And I agree with him profoundly on the need to decommission the military industrial complex. Naturally, Paul lost.

But in a free moment Tuesday I decided to go back to some of the things I wrote in January 2008 when I was wrapped up in the excitement of that election. I even "endorsed" candidates in the GOP and Democratic caucuses -- which is kind of ridiculous in retrospect. I did get the race I wanted, eventually -- Obama vs. McCain -- but that race didn't play out as the civil, high-minded affair that I hoped for.

At the time I supported Obama because I thought he was a candidate for "our times." Like many I think I thought he'd elevate discourse, soften the partisan divide, change the dynamic in a broken Washington and media complex. None of that really happened. A lot of blame can be laid at the feet of Republican obstructionism and the flame-fanning media, but I thought Obama could overcome that. He didn't.

Obama did score some policy victories, however. Because of our reactionary times, those victories cost Democrats the House, and might cost them the Senate and even the White House in '12 (though I bet not), but he did accomplish core gains on health care, righted the economic collapse of President Bush's last year in office, and has been a remarkably adept foreign policy leader.

You'd wish health care reform was better -- less costly, less cumbersome, and creating the necessary detachment between health care coverage and your employer. You'd wish the economy was better -- it still isn't very good and far too many people are stuck in a rut, fighting for survival. You'd wish we were out of Afghanistan just as we're now out of Iraq, that American interests were buoyed in China, Europe, Russia and beyond. We wish for these things and will get them, eventually. And when they come the leaders who achieve them will stand on the shoulders of Obama's policies, even if they curse Obama's name.

Obama is a leader for our times, as I said in 2008, but not because he's magic, as I and others thought at the time. He is a leader for our times because he is pragmatic and skilled in surfing on the waves of nonsense our times produce. It is possible that Mitt Romney could beat him. But Romney is certainly pragmatic, too, although I find him to be a bit more of the calculating and disingenuous type. And this is the sort of people our times produce. Radical fireballers who can't govern and pragmatic politicians who struggle to deliver tiny doses of pragmatism to an angry and frustrated republic.

If conservatives wanted real change, meaningful reforms to the federal government, the only candidate who would actually do that seems to be Paul. Romney will parrot the talking points of right-wing talk radio, but would probably be a very similar president to Obama, throwing occasional bones to his base instead of the left. Further, I believe Obama to be more capable of delivering long term entitlement reform and an enduring budget solution -- one that includes taxes and cuts.

For that reason I think Obama will win, but who knows? Our times are strange indeed. To break the cycle, a lot of us would have to decide to utterly change the way we think about politics, something I hope for in coming years.

Humans vs. ore: a modern retelling

2012-01-05T11:03:00.001-06:00

It's been interesting to watch the patterns of mining and economics on northern Minnesota's Iron Range lately. In addition to bullish numbers from the big taconite producers, small scram operations like Magnetation are expanding wildly. This most recent story from WDIO shows how a joint venture between two companies, Magnetation and Steel Dynamics, parent company of Mesabi Nugget, seeks to extract concentrate from several big tailings basins near Chisholm.

Officials describe using warmer than average weather to chase the available ore, feeding hungry mills and contracts. Something about the temporary, hunter-like attitudes of these smaller operations reminds me of the descriptions of the old red ore mining days at the dawn of the Mesabi Range. Lots of small mines, younger adults working out on location. They don't need to live in little location villages anymore. Most of them have F-150s or at least a beat-up Dodge.

Range mining of the late 20th century was a story of big producers hiring lots of people. These new operations now seem more like a contest of humankind against the ore itself, never mind the parent companies, to be concluded when the ore is gone. After that, Range miners will again hope to be employed by the big taconite plants.

There's no way this can last forever, but the economy on the Range has to be a lot better than it is elsewhere.

Fanning withdraws from MN-8 race

2012-01-04T18:22:00.000-06:00

Daniel Fanning, the Iraq war vet and Duluth political organizer, announced Wednesday in a letter to supporters he would withdraw from the race for Congress in Minnesota's Eighth District. Citing a lack of funds and insufficient support from likely delegates in the DFL endorsement process, Fanning said he will focus on helping the DFL win the contest against freshman incumbent Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) in other ways.

Fanning represented an outside candidacy, a true dark horse who had limited support within the party but whose personal story and frank style had an upside. Unfortunately, he just never caught the wave he needed to build support in advance of next month's crucial precinct caucuses.

Three candidates remain in the DFL race: Former Duluth city councilor Jeff Anderson, former Congressman Rick Nolan from Crosby and former St. Cloud-area state Sen. Tarryl Clark who moved to Duluth for this race.

Fanning's departure puts support from Duluth and progressive corners of the party back on the table. This benefits Nolan and Anderson most, who probably would have split support with Fanning in these constitencies. Fanning's exit hurts Clark by increasing the amount of support she'd need to win the DFL primary, where she and Anderson have said they'll run with or without the party endorsement. Clark has faced scathing criticism over her residency situation and now faces a strengthened Anderson and Nolan, both of whom are busy citing their deep, personal roots in northern Minnesota.

A close, three-way primary field is possible here, but so too is a quick winnowing to two candidates, or even one, if the endorsement process produces a clear leader.

DM&IR is no more

2012-01-03T08:29:00.000-06:00

Though it's been in the works for some time, today it's official. The Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway is no more. Parent company Canadian National has merged it with two other regional railroads to streamline its operations, which carry a robust array of commodities including Iron Range taconite bound for eastern steel mills. I discussed trains just before the holidays.

Cool new nicknames for Iron Range cities

2012-01-02T10:39:00.001-06:00

Suggested nicknames for the major cities of northern Minnesota's Mesabi and Vermillion iron ranges, listed without commentary (west to east):

Grand Rapids: G-Rap
Coleraine: Raine Maker
Bovey: V-Bo
Taconite: Tac Attack
Marble: Marbs
Calumet: The Met
Nashwauk: Wauker Texas Ranger
Keewatin: Kee West
Hibbing: Histocity
Chisholm: Chisel Town
Buhl: Water City
Mountain Iron: Myron
Virginia: 53169
Eveleth: Eva-last
Gilbert: Broadway
Biwabik: Pen City
Aurora: Sky Light
Hoyt Lakes: Hoy Hoy
Babbitt: Babs
Embarrass: Frozone
Tower: Too Tall
Soudan: The Underground
Ely: Electric Ely

COLUMN: Time to delve into '12

2012-01-01T14:32:00.000-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Jan. 1, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. My annual predictions column is one of my favorite traditions. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Time to delve into ‘12
By Aaron J. Brown

The pathway was clogged with skunks. I hate skunks. Warm winters bring out the skunks. So I guess I hate warm winters, too.

I was deep in the tamarack marsh known as the Sax/Zim peat bog. All you find when you search for this place on Google Maps is a bunch of squiggly lines and some checked lines that denote railroads. Come to think of it, Google Maps just refers you to a PDF of a St. Louis County map from 1970.

It was time for my annual visit to the Oracle of the Sax/Zim Peat Bog, the moss-covered recluse who knows the future. But first I had to contend with these skunks. There were at least a dozen of them, but the biggest three were costumed and highly metaphorical.

The first skunk approached wearing a camouflage jacket and night vision goggles. “I am the Skunk of Fear,” he said. “I represent the trepidation people have about the new year.”

He was quickly joined by another skunk wearing a Magic Eye t-shirt. “I am the Skunk of Confusion. I do not know where I am. I do, however, have very strong opinions about politics.”

Finally, a third skunk, the biggest among them, stood at the front of the skunk mob. “I am the Skunk of Moving This Along. Join me, and I will take you to the Oracle.”

I followed him through the scrub brush, not too close, to the ancient terrestrial mound which serves as the Oracle’s home. While the skunks took to rough talk around a burn barrel I entered to speak with the woman who had all the answers about the upcoming year.

“Oracle!” I called.

She was at her breakfast nook reading something on her electronic Nook. She gave me a look and quickly stowed it in her tuque.

“I have come for the future,” I said.

“It’s already here,” she replied. “I will tell you several items for your newspaper column, but I demand something in return.”

“Anything,” I said. “Within reason,” I added.

“Find jobs for the skunks,” she said. “They have been out of work for months and have become shiftless and troublesome. They’ve been waiting for the new mines to open and hire them despite their lack of education or experience. I try to tell them, but … they are skunks.”

“I will do what I can.”

I’d have those skunks blogging before the day’s end. With this she began her predictions.

“Supporters and opponents of nonferrous mineral mining will find an uneasy peace battling a common enemy,” she opined. “Skunk bloggers.”

This Oracle was good. Real good.

“Controversy will arise when the City of Hibbing decides to tear down an old building,” she continued. “The unoccupied economic development spec building out by the airport will find itself on the chopping block when city officials forget why it was there in the first place.”

“But why?” I asked incredulously. “It’s a city treasure!”

“Safety,” she replied. “At any moment it could topple upon on a passing child.”

“Surely the local historical society will have something to say about this,” I said.

“They have already offered a bulldozer and a store of oily rags for the job,” she said.

“We will build another,” I said. “Maybe two. That’ll show them.”

“Hmmm,” she sighed. “In other news, the success of last year’s air show will inspire another big event, an exhibition of those funny flying machines that don’t fly from right before people figured out how to make machines fly back in 1905.”

“Like, that stock footage from old timey movies?”

“Yes.”

“Why is the future picking on the airport?” I said.

“It isn’t. That would be Congress you’re thinking of.”

“Topical,” I said. “What else you got?”

“In the 2012 election it will be revealed that a presidential election involving people named Barack, Mitt and Newt is an elaborate joke being played upon the American people by the committee of industrialist that have actually run the country since Nixon resigned.”

“How will this joke be revealed?”

“In Ron Paul’s speech after the Iowa caucuses.”

“My, that will be something.” I said.

“I need to get back to my Scandinavian murder mystery,” the Oracle said. “And, as you can see through the window, the skunks have taken to chanting something they saw on the internet.”

They will become the finest bloggers in the world, I thought. And with that the skunks and I made the long walk back to civilization.

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

Privacy Policy for MinnesotaBrown.com

2012-01-01T09:16:00.000-06:00

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Great Northern Radio Show to play four great northern cities in 2012

2011-12-28T12:30:00.000-06:00

While many readers come here for political news, I hope you consider checking out my preferred 2012 endeavor: the first full season of my Great Northern Radio Show originating on 91.7 KAXE. We'll be broadcasting live stage shows from Bemidji, Brainerd, Eveleth and Bigfork.

The Great Northern Radio Show is a live music, comedy and storytelling variety program, a modern interpretation of a format steeped in nostalgia.

Our successful debut in Hibbing this past October emboldened us to build regional support with a 2012 tour. I'm happy to accept any suggestions for musicians, performers or interviews for these shows as we seek to represent and honor the communities we visit. When we're all done, we hope to have a larger new audience and the mandate to expand our show even further in years to come. The Great Northern Radio Show is very much a living thing right now, developing themes and a unique style right before your ears. Join us!

You can still hear our Hibbing show in two parts, Hour 1 and Hour 2, on KAXE.org. We'll be unveiling a new podcast channel at some point this spring and will be re-releasing that show before the four new ones.

2012 brings new energy to MN-8 donnybrook

2011-12-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

Later this week I'll be sharing my top posts for 2011, including my favorites and the ones that were most popular. Traffic would indicate that many of you still come here for political analysis of the Iron Range and Minnesota's 8th Congressional District.

Last summer I wrote a series on the topic, which largely holds up to this day. I've stepped back a bit from this race in recent months, letting the mild churn of press releases and speculation turn over unimpeded. In truth, not much has changed. Four DFLers are vying to challenge Republican incumbent Chip Cravaack in a district whose makeup might well slightly favor the Democrats this year. Cravaack will not go easily, however, and if he wins he could stay a while. This race will be a major target for both parties. I've characterized it as a toss-up with a slight lean to the DFL.

There are other factors, of course. A weak GOP presidential nominee would probably doom Cravaack while a stronger one would make this more competitive. Redistricting could completely alter the political terrain, possibly putting Cravaack in a new, solidly GOP central Minnesota district and his challengers in an DFL-leaning northern district with incumbent Rep. Collin Peterson (DFL-MN7). Who knows?

I mean that quite literally. Who among us knows? Please speak up if you do.

~The incumbent~

Chip Cravaack is the GOP freshman incumbent, the former airline pilot who shocked the Minnesota political establishment with his surprise win over Jim Oberstar in 2010. Cravaack has closely identified with many of the larger GOP House caucus positions on taxes and hard line budget negotiations with the president. In local issues, he's taken flak for advocating cuts that would threaten rural air service to many airports in his district. He's focused his Iron Range economic agenda on loosening government environmental regulations for the proposed nonferrous mineral mines. Politically, Cravaack has enlisted the aid of experienced GOP advisor Ben Golnik and will be getting other party help for what will be a spirited campaign.

~The challengers~

Jeff Anderson, a Duluth city councilor and radio advertising executive, seems to be making a stronger push in recent months. Folksy but stylish campaign videos have sought to emphasize Anderson's top strength in this race, a deep, personal history with both the Iron Range and Duluth. Raised in Ely and spending his professional life in the district's largest city, all DFL strongholds, gives him an edge where parochial ties still matter. He continues to struggle to keep up with Tarryl Clark's fundraising numbers, but the local ties could help him build deeper, longer-lasting support.

Anderson earned some attention last week when he was the only Congressional candidate to speak at the St. Louis County Board meeting in which commissioners ultimately opted to pass a resolution loosely supporting nonferrous mineral mining in the region. He encouraged commissioners to back the resolution and offered his support to nonferrous mining. This won't help him much with progressives in the DFL endorsement and primary battles, but will help him greatly on the Iron Range. All the candidates offer tentative wording around their positions, usually supporting mining generally with varying degrees of conditions in case of environmental impact. But Anderson's presence at this meeting seemed to be taking a more specific position in the debate that could help him in the battle for Range votes.

Tarryl Clark, the former St. Cloud-area state senator who moved to Duluth last year, is running strong with some big endorsements, including Emily's List and the Steelworkers. On one had it's amazing to see those two groups endorse the same candidate in a primary. On the other, Clark has been cultivating those two endorsements for a long time. She's a previous Emily's List endorsee in her MN-6 2010 campaign and she's been working for the Blue-Green Alliance, a close ally of the Steelworkers.

Clark's situation is really a tale of two narratives. Last quarter she raised more money than any other candidate, including Cravaack. Clark is competent and has a good political resume. On the other hand her greatest weakness, which her opponents will exploit at every opportunity, is her residency situation. Until 2010 she represented an area that is not currently in MN-8 and purchased a condo in Duluth only last year. Her campaign materials include DFL boilerplate issues and topical references to national controversies. But little in her materials suggests a personal connection to this unique area represented for more than 60 years by the children of first generation Iron Range immigrants.

Attacks on Clark have ranged from mild to wild, and while she seems to bristle at the notion that she's not from the district she hasn't done much to counter the criticism. Like other candidates she's earned some notable local endorsements, which help some. Should she win the DFL nomination, which could happen particularly in a four-way primary, she'll face a difficult line of attacks on this front. This would certainly distract from or diffuse a similar line of "residency" attacks Democrats have been preparing for Cravaack after his family moved to New Hampshire. Every indication seems to be that Clark's strategy will be to flood the field with a traditional "nationalized" campaign and heavy outside spending. Cravaack may well end up using a similar strategy.

Daniel Fanning, the Iraq war vet, DFL organizer and former staffer for Sen. Al Franken, was the latest entrant into the DFL field and remains the hardest to figure. He's working hard and his role with Franken's 8th CD office gave him a lot of direct experience with specific MN-8 issues. He seems to have a small but dedicated group of supporters in DFL circles, especially among progressives. If Anderson has come out the most in favor mining projects, Fanning has voiced the most concern.

Fanning, from Duluth, seems to be on the outside of the fray looking for an opportunity to break in. He and Nolan are probably splitting the progressive, activist-centered coalition the two would like to have to themselves. Fanning still needs a break to overcome Nolan and compete with the better funded Clark and Anderson. It's possible that Fanning's compelling personal story would win some votes in a primary, if he has the chance to get his message out.

Rick Nolan is the former U.S. Congressman from Crosby who left politics in disguist back in 1980 and spent the years since running businesses. He's a progressive who remains the only candidate planning to abide by the party endorsement, and as a result probably a strong contender to win that endorsement. Nolan was elected to Congress in 1974, the same year as former U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, the DFL scion who held this seat by commanding margins until his 2010 loss to Cravaack. So criticisms of Nolan tend to focus on his age and the amount of time since his last elected office. To his credit, Nolan has been skillful in deflecting these concerns.

Nolan represented a different district back in the 1970s, but hasn't moved. Rather the 8th District grew in geographical size and eventually absorbed Nolan's home near the Cuyuna Iron Range in the Brainerd Lakes area. Nolan competes with Fanning for the progressive votes and Anderson for the Range votes. It'd seem his toughest area would be in Duluth.

I could not, nor could anyone else, offer anything close to an accurate guess on who's going to win at this point. The precinct caucuses in February will give us more quantifiable estimates of candidate support, so I'll wait until then. It would not surprise me to see the field winnowed at that point, or after the new district lines are released Feb. 21.

In coming weeks I'll be scheduling interviews with Cravaack and the DFL candidates, proper sit-downs with objective questioning. I'll be mixing this in with my radio show, day job and family life, so wish me well. Thanks for reading.

COLUMN: The Night Before Christmas, 2.0

2011-12-24T16:24:00.000-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Christmas edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I'm posting early to catch the spirit of the source material. I performed a version of this piece on KAXE's "Between You and Me" this morning. Merry Christmas, readers! I'll be off for a few days.

The Night Before Christmas, 2.0
By Aaron J. Brown

Merry Christmas to all those celebrating! So many American Christmas traditions date back to the 1800s, an era quite different from our live-streaming times. I hope you’ll enjoy this classic holiday story retold in a fictional prose poem.

Twas an electronic ding on my smart phone one eve,
Like, the night before Christmas I do believe,
This dong was in earnest and bonging its stuff
It woke me to say someone was on my roof.

A security feature I installed with my apps,
Just like Facebook, Foursquare and Google Maps.
And, hold it.
Stop.

We could do this, but it would cut into what happened that night. So I’m in the house and I get the buzz that there’s someone up on the roof. Now, that’s happened before. The neighbor, G-Bo, is on pills and this happens from time to time, usually don’t even have to call the cops unless his girlfriend is in the yard yelling at him. That never works. I don’t know why she does that. I don’t know why she stays.

But this was freaking Christmas Eve, nothing going on. I even turned off my white noise machine. Kids got their stockings hanging off the TV stand. Santa was supposed to come any minute but, man, we had a bad year and I had my doubts.

The kids were zonked in their room. My lady was there, sleeping in her headgear. She was out, man. I was pretty beat, too, but I had my phone volume set to high so my alarm would work. And, WHOOP WHOOP, there’s a dude on my roof. I ran over and opened up the window, which is lame because you’ve gotta open up this wood thing like from a Colin Firth movie or something – my lady loves that friggin’ guy. Anyway, old house, man.

Well, I’m looking up there for G-Bo on the pills but it’s a friggin’ sleigh and, yeah, you guessed it, eight reindeer. I seen deer before but these are way different. They got hair on their antlers and they’re big, like Jet-Skis with feet.

Now I’m used to mall Santas or the guys they bring in to the hardware stores, the Santas who just figure they’ve got to sit and smile for the pictures. The picture’s all the mom wants and the kids are scared because, come on, even the two-year-olds know this guy works at this store in the summer. They’ve seen him. White beard ain’t gonna cover it.

But this Santa up there with the reindeer is fast. The only way I can put this is that it’s like watching old zombie movies where the zombies are slow versus watching the new zombie movies where the zombies are running at you and climbing up walls and stuff. This guy is new-zombie fast and he’s wearing this red vest. I swear it looked like velvet. The pants were definitely velvet. Puffy white shirt underneath and this big furry Russian hat. He walks every step like he just scored a touchdown.

Dude’s like four and half feet tall, big hands, big belly, but just cut in the shoulders like the guys at the loading dock. He’s yelling some stuff at the reindeer, pretty sure it’s in Chinese but he mixed in some other languages too. He says, like, “Chong fow, Donder.” And Donder was like talking back in Russian or something. “Bleisnevidev.” I wasn't expecting any of this but there’s no way this dude wasn’t Santa Claus.

Then like in oh-point-eight he’s all BOOM down the chimney like mad, which is amazing because we have natural gas. I’m watching from behind the flat screen. He’s got this sack and then all of a sudden these two other business casual kind of people, a dude and some lady, are like right there, like an entourage. They’re feeding Santa this info off of these iPads and he’s popping stuff out of the sack, just laughing. Happy dude, this one.

I was gonna play it cool but I just had to laugh when he put a box of Legos in my boy’s stocking with this fade-away shot. He looked over, pointed at me, did two fist-pounds on his chest and winked. Awesome.

And so I realize that this guy knows he’s Santa. He’s seen all the movies, heard all the songs. He knows that everyone’s arguing about the meaning of Christmas, whether he’s real or not. People are spending money and arguing but Santa’s just out there doggin’ it anyway. Giving, laughing, moving on. Non-stop. He doesn’t have to. He just does.

BOOM, he’s up the chimney and peeling hoof. And know what he said on his way out? Not Happy Holidays and not Merry Christmas, either. He says “Happy Christmas,” but in a warm, friendly way that doesn’t presume that people gotta agree to be decent.

There’s a message there. Think I’ll get one of those red velvet vests with the gift card Santa gave me.

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

Christmas on the Air!

2011-12-23T13:27:00.002-06:00

Saturday morning brings a special Christmas Eve morning episode of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE. The call-in and music show will take calls, requests and stories about your favorite (or least favorite) Christmas music. Guest host Grant Frashier helms the program, which features the people of northern Minnesota, including a few regular essayists like myself.

My contribution is a retelling of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" in modern vernacular. Lots of fun; I'll be sharing it here this weekend as my Sunday column if you prefer full text to radio theatrics. "Between You and Me" airs 10 a.m. to noon Saturday on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live and archived at www.kaxe.org.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the special music of Christmas than what happened on the KAXE Morning Show today. Every Friday hosts Heidi Holtan and John Bauer do a casual interview of a random member of KAXE. This particular morning they interviewed Iris Jensen, among the more adorable and well-spoken 5-year-olds in the history of the universe. The 14-minute interview accomplishes many things: It gives a glimpse into some unique aspects of northern Minnesota culture, introduces you to the lovely Iris, and causes the hosts to weep like children upon Iris's closing rendition of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing."

Filling the holes, finding lost dreams on the Range

2011-12-22T09:24:00.000-06:00

A friend of this blog Elanne Palcich recently wrote a commentary for the Iron Range Hometown Focus newspaper about the mining heritage of the Range and what it has meant. While Elanne can be counted as a strong opponent to many of the mining projects we hear about around the Iron Range, I do believe her holiday-themed message adds value to the discussion about northern Minnesota's undetermined future.

It’s impossible to create a new future by repeating history over and over again. During this season of both tradition and hope, we need to truly discover ourselves apart from a story that holds us in bondage. We need to discover how we can make a land that is full of holes and lost dreams whole again. This season, we need to rediscover Minnesota, to find our true roots and a new vision to carry forth, in the name of our ancestors.

Read her complete work for an interesting perspective on the history and people of this often misunderstood little corner of the world.

Hoping for a carp-mass miracle

2011-12-21T13:00:00.000-06:00

Officials detailed Minnesota's plans to prevent the northward spread of Asian carp in the state's rivers and lakes at a meeting this week. Meantime, the Asian carp held a meeting somewhere near Davenport. They weren't wearing any clothes and by the end of it all the females were pregnant with 10,000 babies. Or was that the other meeting? I forget.

Tepid St. Louis County mining resolution reflects need for new perspective

2011-12-21T09:28:00.000-06:00

Another St. Louis County board meeting has led to a new blip in the debate over nonferrous mineral mining in northeastern Minnesota. The county board voted 4-3 Tuesday to back a rather tame nonferrous mineral mining resolution, according to a story in today's Duluth News Tribune.

Five hours of testimony and deliberation produced the following resolution:

“Be it resolved that the St. Louis County Board declares its support for the existing open, transparent and comprehensive environmental review and permitting process in place for various non-ferrous mining initiatives currently planned for development in St. Louis County, Minnesota, and supports the success of these projects, contingent upon the approval of all federal and state environmental permits necessary for these projects to move forward.”

So, in addition to the St. Louis County board having no jurisdiction over this portion of the debate, they pass a resolution that endorses the processes already underway, mandated by existing law.

This time several area chambers of commerce and the mining companies bussed in more people to counter mining opponents who ~~stacked~~ dominated the last meeting in Duluth. The whole group, about 100 people with 40 more waiting outside, packed into the tiny Morse Town Hall. It was the biggest thing to hit Morse since its now defunct Code.

I had to roll my eyes a bit at the resolution's passive wording, but I will say that this resolution seems to me a fair reflection of what most people who live on the Iron Range believe about the issue. In essence, "That sounds great, as long as you don't screw up the Boundary Waters."

Now, the question is can we ever really know about the environmental impact before the fact? Secondly, is there any concession that could be made by mining companies that project opponents would accept?

I think this leads us to a more worthwhile endeavor. Let's address the following:

Mining opponents: Demonstrate real economic opportunity outside mining, including the prospect of actual jobs within five years. Reconcile your opposition with the current demand for minerals used in modern construction and electronics. Establish measurable parameters within which your grievances could be addressed.

Mining supporters: Demonstrate your commitment to environmental safeguards by negotiating a permanent, binding fund to mitigate unforeseen environmental problems. If all goes as promised you'll never need to spend it. Be clear with local communities about how much hiring you'll do and where the hires will come from. Commit to financial support of local communities and schools. Demonstrate your financing and your ability to keep these mines open beyond the inevitable temporary downturns in the commodities markets.

Some of these "tasks" are underway; some are discussed, but not delivered; some are damn near (but not!) impossible. Both sides are reluctant to complete these lists because both involve very difficult and/or unprofitable and/or innovative solutions. But if you want to mine new minerals responsibly in northern Minnesota (or not) we've got to have an economy that supports the thousands of people who don't have time for meetings like the one yesterday, and especially their kids.

I would resolve that both sides fail to win the argument as it now stands.

UPDATE: After an online discussion I've revised one word in the original post. Instead of saying that mining opponents "stacked" the county board meeting in Duluth a couple weeks ago I now say they "dominanted" it. At that meeting more mining opponents spoke than supporters. At this meeting in Morse mining supporters did provide bussing to supporters throughout the region to attend and testify in favor of the mining resolution. "Stacked" is a loaded word and I've thuse decided to remove it from the post and let people make their own assessment of the situation.

Wind, pumps and pits: a fantasy to become real?

2011-12-21T06:30:00.000-06:00

WDIO reports the latest idea proposed in a study from a group at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. It goes like this: Wind turbines, pumps, mine pits, kinetic energy and market speculation based on the premise that electricity is worth different amounts of money at different times of day.

Why the hell not? Charlie Chaplin movies promised us a future with machines of uncertain purpose. Let us collect on our destiny. The study was funded indirectly by Great River Energy and Minnesota Power, so we presume capital might be found for such endeavors.

The only downside is that this system requires everyone to agree in perpetuity about the existence and value of "money."

In closing, jobs.

This blasted husk of a building is our coliseum

2011-12-20T07:11:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday, my old neighbor and Hibbing Daily Tribune staff "curmudgeon" (that is his actual byline) penned a wonderful but disturbing column. He reported that the ruins of the old Dupont power house by Carey Lake in Hibbing might have to be demolished, presumably for safety reasons. Lynch also shared a wonderful collection of archived stories about the Dupont Company in Hibbing, its two major explosions and the story of how this site of a deadly industrial accident ended up the abandoned ruin so many who grew up in the area came to know and love.

Some highlights:

James H. Healy, of this city, and Charles Winter, of Columbus,Kansas, were blown to pieces Thursday morning at 10-17 o'clock,when the glazing mill of the DuPont Powder company's new plant atWilpin, six miles east of here, exploded. The cause is not now, andwill never be known. (Mesabi Ore, Jan. 13, 1912, emphasis mine)

I enjoy this wordplay. Indeed, the cause could have been known. But it was not then known and, indeed, never was. Truly a golden age for industrial apologists.

On Feb. 7, 1918 the Hibbing Tribune reported another explosion at the Dupont facility. Oscar Leti and Palle Jarvinen lost their lives in a blast felt as far away as Chisholm, blowing the windows out of a hotel on Pine Street in old north Hibbing. Another example of the writing style of the times:

The two men were at work in the press-mill when the black powderstored there, "let go." The two victims were blown into atoms. Aflash of flame in the sky followed by an explosion was a signal tothe other employes that an accident had occurred. Adjoining powderbuildings, all heavily protected, were not damaged.

Blown to Atoms. And again the company's sure-footed safety practices prevented a worse occurrence.

Despite the two big explosions, the real reason Dupont pulled out of the Wilpen/Carey Lake location was the phasing out of black powder in mining practices. Left behind were the footings for many of the company buildings and, of course, the hulking remains of the old power house. When the entirety of Carey Lake was turned into a city park the ruins became a part of the landscape.

These Dupont ruins outlasted the Monkeys and Vanilla Ice and I don't see any reason they shouldn't outlast Justin Bieber. I don't know the true depth of the threat the building might pose or the seriousness of the call to demolish it, but I would fight to keep the ruin there in at least some form and here's why.

Years since the explosions, many myths built up around the ruins. Kids hung out there, smoked, drank and necked. I took a date out there in high school once (no necking, only historical discussion). Lots of graffiti. I was out there most recently with some friends geocaching, the game where you track down "caches" of loot on your GPS. Nevertheless, the unspoken truth of the ages endured: this place was the site of a mighty, deadly and forever world-changing industrial upheaval.

The Range has a reputation as an old place, a place with an almost pathological fixation on its history. But the modern history of the place only goes back 120 years or so. Before that you're talking about thousands of years of Native American history and before that pure geology.

I have often argued that we need economic diversification and a new fixation on the future around here. But a place like this will never escape its past, either. This Dupont ruins tell a story of our past, offer a warning about the risks our ancestors took, and - framed by overburden piles in the distance - remind us of the mighty progress and fierce impermanence of our human existence in this unique place.

At minimum, the facade of the building should be preserved for future generations to wonder about the past while dreaming for the future, two activities that are deeply related.

As always, fine work by Jack Lynch in bringing this to our attention.

Photo: Wunderground

Railroads are so hot right now

2011-12-19T07:21:00.001-06:00

The tiny northern Minnesota border town of Ranier is now the nation's busiest rail port, according to the mayor of the adjacent "big" city of International Falls.

Situated along the Rainy River across from a part of Ontario that even Canadians don't talk about much, Rainer has long been a busy rail location. While it appears to be in the middle of nowhere it is in actuality in the middle of the North American continent, and in a globalized economy that makes it a convenient handler of railed goods.

A friend of the blog sent me this item after I lamented the changes and reductions in air service to northern Minnesota. If the planes are struggling the trains are running strong, even if those beautiful Great Northern mountain goats have been painted BNSF green and the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range iron-red and unrelated-yellow has fallen to the block-lettered CN of Canadian National.

Trains are more than just a big employer in this region. For 120 years, the railroads have been central to the economic health of the quarter-million people who have lived in the Arrowhead region at any given point. The start of the Range is marked not in the discovery of ore, but in the ability to get vast amounts of ore to Duluth. That's why the robber barons like Hill, Rockefeller and Carnegie are regarded with wary appreciation here even today. They built the rails.

Perhaps I've planned wisely in naming my hot new radio show after a railroad.

PHOTOS: Top, a Canadian National train bearing international freight passes south of Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2010, probably on its way from Ranier. Middle, a DM&IR train travels next to St. Louis Co. Highway 7 in 1998.

COLUMN: Making ice, walking on water

2011-12-18T12:30:00.000-06:00

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired previously on an episode of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE.

Making ice, walking on water
By Aaron J. Brown

Water turns dark, swirls thick, moves slow before hardening into ice.

In the novel "Eagle in the Snow" by Wallace Breem we meet a hardened Roman general trying to stave off a sprawling winter army along the Rhine River. Maximus has but one legion, about 6,000 troops against half a million hungry tribesmen from what is now Germany, all clamoring for needed farmland and to lash back at their oppressors.

If the Germans cross the Rhine they have a clear path to a crumbling, disorganized Rome. It is only because the invaders can't cross the river, can't counter the Roman boats, that they don't pour over the tiny legion which disguises its size to discourage attack.

But Maximus knows that when the river freezes, and it will, he is doomed. So he waits out the ice, hoping for reinforcements that never come. In the end the Rhine freezes solid; the barbarians obliterate the legion and storm their way to Rome, signaling the fall of an empire.

All this really puts in perspective the sight of brave December ice fishermen here in northern Minnesota. They too waited for cold nights, congealing water, thickening ice. They too braved the early ice, stepping cautiously at first but becoming emboldened by the frigid overnight temperatures. And, at once, they stormed the ice.

I saw such an angler on my way to work a week ago, an ice house and ATV out in the middle of the O'Brien Reservoir near Nashwauk. I said to myself, "Well, if this guy makes it we should have good ice all the way through April."

On my way home I looked to see if the gear was still out there. All that remained was a roughed up patch of ice and a series of holes. So, maybe he fell through or else the fishing was no good. Either way, that ice ought to be OK by now.

I grew up near water. Well, OK, it was a swamp, specifically the Sax-Zim peat bog. You only saw a small percentage of the water that actually bubbled under the grass there. The most obvious sign that the winter had come was the hardening of the swamp, mouse prints where mice used to get snatched by snakes. In winter they got snatched by owls.

The winters I remember in the swamp were marked by silence. The water froze like a vice tightening.

But I live near a lake now: a childhood dream, navigable water. These last two winters we've waited until late in the season to imbibe in our tradition of walking across the frozen surface of the lake over to the uninhabited forest on the other side, a product of boredom. Not so this year.

Without snow the ice froze smooth, a sort of natural skating rink you hear comes every decade, give or take.

So the boys and I been on the water most weekends, sledding down (inadvisably) through a half-mud, half-slush combination onto a marble lake. This is not silent, swamp ice. This glacial lake sloshes, cracks, whoomps and squeals. The water hisses in the night. The sun turns the ice to fire, a sunrise like a nuclear blast and sunset like the mushroom cloud retreating back into the earth.

This ice, as in ancient times, reminds us that we of the north can walk on water without the aid of a miracle. Then again, maybe it is a miracle.

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.

Brown on the Air: ICE!

2011-12-16T14:24:00.000-06:00

I talked about ice earlier this week. Should be an interesting holiday week with 45 degree temps forecast for Sunday. You can enjoy what might be the denouement of the historically good ice conditions in northern Minnesota this Saturday with 91.7 KAXE's "Between You and Me."

The call-in and music program will be detailing the topic of ice with stories, songs and more. I'll skate on for my usual commentary, which invokes ice fishing and the Fall of the Roman Empire. Oh boy, are you in for a icy treat!

I can neither confirm nor deny that "Ice, Ice, Baby" will be a part of this show. I have argued for its inclusion at the highest levels.

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

Growing local economies like snap peas and green pepppers

2011-12-15T12:31:00.000-06:00

I was recently sent a narrative explaining a unique approach to economic development called "economic gardening." Sure, this is one of many different buzzwords going around now but I thought the description was worthwhile, and relevant to some of the ideas about economic innovation here on the Iron Range and throughout post-industrial or rural communities in the U.S. Here are some highlights I've selected:

Even though we knew the tools and techniques that helped make entrepreneurs successful, there was another intangible (but very real) factor keeping local economies from improving. For the lack of a better word, I initially called it the "culture" of a community. By this, I meant the way that entrepreneurial activity and risk and innovation and even diversity and newness are viewed by local people.

...

In communities that lived with these twin pressures of commodity pricing and natural disasters, evolutionary selection favored people who did not take risks. Those who took risks failed or moved or died in poverty because of the unrelenting and unforgiving nature of commodity businesses. Thus the very characteristic that ensured their survival in a harsh economic environment was the same characteristic that prevented them from fostering entrepreneurial activity.

...

We by no means have solved the economic development riddle. We cannot patent it, put it in a jar and take it to any community and guarantee results. But we do think we are closing in on the answer. We think it involves slow, painstaking community development with an eye on the innovators.

...

After over a decade of very intensive experimentation, investigation and observation, we have come to a sobering conclusion: economies are massive biological organisms and not very amenable to control by anyone. Neither economic gardeners, nor economic recruiters nor politicians nor anyone else is running them. At best, we are adapting to everyone else's adaptations.

That's why saying "Jobs, jobs, jobs!" is a little like going on a hunting expedition chanting "Food, food, food!" You can say it if it makes you feel better, but it won't get you the food. Read the whole thing for some of the ideas inherent to the "economic gardener" model.

(h/t Jennifer Armstrong)

Getting frugal with my frau

2011-12-14T11:00:00.000-06:00

Some of you might know that my wife Christina is a much, much more successful blogger than I am, writing the national frugal living blog Northern Cheapskate. Well, for the first time ever I have written a guest post for her blog. I'm writing about my experience being "up sold" during a recent cell phone purchase. It is lively and fun and will be read by more people than everything I write here. Hundreds of stay-at-home moms from the suburbs will click through my bio link to read about John Spanish. Win.

Ice skating to school in northern Minnesota

2011-12-14T08:45:00.000-06:00

I've already mentioned how unusual the weather conditions have been in northern Minnesota this winter, cold but no snow. The result has been some of the most amazing ice conditions on our lakes most have seen in many years. Thick, smooth, clear ice. Take a few minutes and enjoy this fine amateur film by a family in Bemidji depicting their recent ice skate commute to school. Very festive and soothing.

The "Between You and Me" topic on 91.7 KAXE this Saturday 10-noon is "Ice." I'll be on with a few thoughts about this unusual ice. It might seem like a small thing to some of you but this is becoming a big deal among the people who live here -- if only because the same conditions that create this ice also freeze septic systems.

The sound and the fury of Range mining politics

2011-12-14T08:37:00.002-06:00

The St. Louis County board heard hours of comments on a proposed resolution to back nonferrous mining on northern Minnesota's Iron Range. After scorching through vast amounts of time, emotional energy and professional costs, nothing was done about a resolution that was never going to change anything. Everyone involved looks forward to doing the same thing again in a few weeks.

This is what I was talking about in my column last Sunday.

Remembering John Spanish

2011-12-13T11:18:00.001-06:00

Former Iron Range state Rep. John Spanish (DFL-Hibbing) died Monday at a care facility in Eveleth at the age of 90. He had been in declining health. Last winter he was a candidate in the House 5B special election won by Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing).

Spanish is one of the most interesting people I've met covering and practicing politics on the Iron Range, and that's saying something. A WWII vet, Spanish ran for office in at least six different decades, served four non-consecutive terms in the House, and was the most recent Range lawmaker elected straight out of the mines.

His final and longest stretch in the legislature ended with a loss to Rep. Lona Minne (DFL-Hibbing), the first Iron Range woman elected to the legislature, in the 1978 DFL primary. Spanish continued to run for office intermittently for the rest of his life, losing at one time or another to all successive House 5B representatives.

He garnered additional headlines in the spring when he pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges related to numerous cats on his property in Hibbing. A lifelong bachelor, his home was in disarray. It was around this time he entered the nursing home. I don't mention this to make light or diminish his service, but rather as a sort of tragic detail in the profile of a very complicated Iron Range figure.

Spanish was a sort of socially awkward savant who could memorize facts and figures on sight and, indeed, cited them for the rest of his life. Forever known for his ill-fated bill to extend hunting rights to the blind, which cost him his seat, he never entirely understood why he couldn't get back in the legislature.

Nevertheless, there was a sort of dogged earnestness to him that was remarkable. There is no modern parallel to him currently serving in the legislature and I doubt there ever will be again. He was a kind-hearted man who never stopped trying.

UPDATE: John Lundy at the Duluth News Tribune has an obituary in the Dec. 14 edition that shares more about Spanish.

Lamenting the jet age

2011-12-12T07:19:00.001-06:00

About a week ago Delta altered its flight schedule in and out of the Range Regional Airport in Hibbing. Instead of three flights a day, they offer two. Instead of smaller turbo-prop planes, they offer slightly larger jets. So the same number of seats are available, just not as many departure or arrival options.

The morning flights roughly coincide with my son's very early morning and late afternoon bus ride. The plane passes over our house some 25 miles from the airport as it enters its descent from Thief River Falls.

The prop planes always reminded me of Casablanca. You'd look up and see the silver belly. You'd imagine the single row of seats on the left side of the plane, the chopping of air. You could imagine the pilot or passengers looking down to see the yellow bus pick up my son on our dirt road in the country.

Now these jets seem to fly higher. If you see them they are moving faster. The sound is just a big, loud hum.

Again, it is progress. Delta's commitment to Iron Range air service is encouraging. But in these modern times we must work harder and harder to find things to inspire imagination. It is no easy task, and certainly an important one.

COLUMN: Reasons to be mindful about mining's future

2011-12-11T12:38:00.000-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 11, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Reasons be mindful about mining’s future
By Aaron J. Brown

All fate is geology. The rocks tell us who we are and what we will become. Here in northern Minnesota we are the sons and daughters of iron mining. We came here for the rocks and when our hands clawed the rock we changed ourselves. Sure, today we might wait tables, sell smart phones or blog, but our people are here for the rocks. If we flee, we flee from the rocks. Geology knows how this turns out, even if we don't.

That hasn't prevented a bloated decade of political, economic and environmental debate over mining in this region, a bleating that will not end until the rocks render their opinion, perhaps centuries from now. The issue, of course, has expanded beyond iron mining into other minerals: copper, nickel, the kinds of minerals that most people forgot shortly after a high school science quiz but that appear in most everyday electronic devices.

And rightly centered in this debate is the question over whether environmentally-riskier methods to extract nonferrous minerals are worth the economic benefit actually received from mining. It's a good debate. I have friends on both sides. Civilization demands minerals like this. We have the ability to acquire them. Pursuing them changes our landscape, our workforce and diminishes our desire and ability to pursue other worthy goals. Don’t ask me, ask the rocks. Look at history.

You can look at some of the challenges facing Iron Range communities and conclude that the booms and busts of our iron mining history have taken their toll. You could also argue that the “mineral curse” wouldn’t be a factor if there was no mining, because there would be no towns. Nevertheless, towns that are doing well don’t cut funding for children’s programs at the library or curriculum in the schools – and that’s an ever-loving fact.

Up in Ely, the school board recently passed a resolution supporting nonferrous mining in the area, 4-2. The board debate wasn’t over mining; it was over whether the school board had any place making such resolutions. Jobs save schools, came the call. The vote was done.

Look to Iron County, Wisconsin, for hazy memories of a time when fathers and grandfathers worked in the mines many decades ago. Now citizens write letters to the paper, both Republicans and Democrats, calling for support of mining. One hopes that a small new taconite plant on the Gogebic Range provides them the comfort they seek. Will it be their children who work there? What of their currently unemployed?

A CBS news report recently gained attention for its full-throated declaration that mining jobs were on the rise in the Midwest. And they are, at rates that fail to make up for the manufacturing jobs lost in the same period.

I do not mean to sound too bearish, perhaps it is the cold. On the bright side taconite production on the Mesabi is up again this year. Shipments out of Duluth are at their highest since 2000, according to the Duluth News Tribune. Industry experts are confident that the production levels will remain steady for several years on account of demand for steel.

This is good news, as our geological condition … excuse me – our cultural condition (they are so similar!) requires northern Minnesota mining to lead the economic way. We must endure this way until the very end, unless we diversify the economy.

On the horizon we see taconite demand has been steady, but taconite prices have fluctuated greatly, according to the Duluth story.

A simple online stroll will show you that steel industries around the world are not universally merry. Demand in China continues to pace world steel consumption, but in Australia the steel industry struggles today. Australia is much closer to China than the U.S. and features a workforce very much like ours. Why aren’t they prospering?

Indeed, some reports show that Australian steel woes might be attached to the strong Australian dollar, causing the trade imbalance to favor imports over exports. In the U.S. our dollar is at an historic weak point. What happens when our dollar recovers? After all, that’s what needs to happen for the rest of our economy to return to glory.

Perhaps the facade of Iron Range economic stability will go on as we all hope, led by iron mining and followed by nonferrous. I say these are great jobs, specialized jobs, important jobs that exist in small numbers relative to what we need for recovery. Efforts to support mining must include sincere financial and political exertion to diversify the economy and educate our future workforce for innovation.

Anything less is but a blink in geological time, a flash in the pan. The rocks know how this turns out. They have all the time in the world. We don’t.

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

Shifting from wars to, well, just about anything else

2011-12-10T20:37:00.001-06:00

Some friends of mine passed this along.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, professor of Peace and Justice Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, is coming to Grand Rapids for a talk regarding MN ASAP: Minnesota Arms Spending Alternative Project. A resolution process to build political support to shift federal spending priorities of war to meeting essential needs for Minnesotans.

6:30 MONDAY at Davies Hall at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids.

JNP, as he is known colloquially, continues to hold a great deal of attention among liberals in my neighborhood. I've not seen him speak but I'll share the news for those who are interested.

Update: Ugh, I forgot to mention the date. It's today, Dec. 12.

Modern minds for the modern mines

2011-12-09T14:20:00.001-06:00

The Iron Range Engineering program, a collaborative effort among Mankato State and community colleges on the Iron Range, will present diplomas to its first graduates Saturday. This WDIO story introduces us to Christine Nelson, a graduate who is already working as a project engineer at United Taconite in Eveleth.

The mission of the program is to connect students on and off the Iron Range with the sort of specialized engineering jobs that will soon be opening as industrial technology becomes more sophisticated and efficient, and when many current engineers retire. The hope is to get more creative minds working on the Range, not only to fill jobs in the mines and other heavy industrial fields, but to bring ideas as well.

Brown on the Air: TEACHERS!

2011-12-09T13:30:00.001-06:00

91.7 KAXE's Saturday morning call-in and music show "Between You and Me" this week inquires into the topic of inspiring teachers. Specifically, guest host Linda Johnson will be inviting you to share stories about your most inspirational teachers on the radio.

My regular contribution explores notions about educational inspiration I had before I became a teacher myself, and how my perspective has evolved since. I do break the teacher's code and discuss the airtight, hygienic pod where all teachers sleep at night, just after finishing the previous day's grading. (Shhh!)

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

Skating back to the 1970s Iron Range

2011-12-08T08:53:00.001-06:00

I was born on Minnesota's Iron Range in 1979, essentially moments before the big steel industry collapse and local economic crash of the early 1980s. The region's culture in the time since the crash seems forever oriented around comparisons to that boom time of the 1970s, when the taconite plants were new and running hot, when today's middle aged workers and early retirees were in their prime, when today's older retirees remember reaping the harvest of the region's long labor struggle and emergence from WWII.

I would theorize that my generation's lack of connection to this time is why so many of us become frustrated with the area and fail to enter the local leadership structure. Efforts to move past the reconstruction of the 1970s are met with resistance by a majority of Iron Range residents.

There probably isn't a better metaphor for the period's significance than the 1970s dominance of Iron Range high school hockey over the whole state. For a time, the metro schools lived in fear of the boys from the Range and college hockey scouts swarmed the region. To date, schools use hockey as a rally call, a program by which we can finally complete that time machine. And, every year, Range schools get throttled by the big metro programs. There are still many great local athletes -- just not enough of them.

Another wonderful post from Jayson Hron at Historically Inclined details the scene in the 1970s when the NCAA opened up freshman eligibility, putting a premium on the scads of Range hockey talents then graduating. The story even sprawls up into the labyrinth of back roads north of Nashwauk near where I now live. More great writing from Hron, who also recently shared a fine piece about a Soviet hockey team's visit to Hibbing in the 1950s.

New site shows more to the Range than just iron

2011-12-07T13:48:00.001-06:00

Today the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation agency unveiled a new website called "Made on the Range." The site lists goods and services produced here in northern Minnesota's Iron Range region. It's an interesting service available for those who like to patronize local businesses and those from afar who wish to find out more about unique products from this unusual place.

As more businesses populate the directory this could be a cool service. As it stands now it puts you just a few clicks away from potica on your doorstep.

A 'mitten state' slap fight

2011-12-07T10:43:00.001-06:00

Michigan and Wisconsin are fighting over who gets to call themselves the "Mitten State." If you've ever met someone from Wisconsin or (lower) Michigan they explain where they are from by holding up their hand like a mitten and pointing at the part of the mitten where they are from. This is fine, even if the Michiganders always ignore the U.P., which they perceive to be a resource colony populated by felons.

Anyway, you'll note that Minnesota is a Pac-Man eating Wisconsin. I am from the part of Pac-Man that is pointing at Michigan as if to say, "You're next!"

Map, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

ALERT: Time traveling fugitive on the loose

2011-12-06T07:55:00.001-06:00

A man claiming he's from the future was arrested for trying to sabotage the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The advanced physics laboratory explores the behavior of atomic particles and the origins of the universe. Some fear it will cause the end of the world, but that's just silly.

OR IS IT?

The man from the future was attempting to disrupt deliveries of Mountain Dew to the facility, in hopes that a chain reaction of events would cause the collider to cease function. The story is pretty interesting and leads one to the conclusion that this is just a troubled young man.

OR IS IT?

The man was arrested, admitted to a mental hospital and then POOF, he DISAPPEARS one night. No one knows where he is. A friend sent this item to me and asked if the guy has showed up at the advanced physics laboratory located deep in the Soudan Underground Mine here on the Iron Range. I happen to think we should keep our eyes open.

The Pellet Shipping News

2011-12-05T14:47:00.001-06:00

Evidence of increased production of Iron Range taconite products was shared today in the Duluth News Tribune. There are 3,900 people now working in northern Minnesota's taconite industry. Signs of volatility in ore prices should not worry us.

The Mr. Spock/Wrath of Khan rule of politics

2011-12-05T08:31:00.001-06:00

From my read of local, state and national politics, Mitt Romney has this exactly right:

"Don't ever get involved in politics if you require winning an election to pay your mortgage or if your kids are young -- you don't want money to shape your views, and you don't want your kids' heads turned by the attention politicians sometimes receive."

Romney shared this advice from his father, one-time Michigan Gov. and GOP presidential hopeful George Romney, in Parade magazine. I found the quote on Political Wire.

The flash criticism might be "easy for the rich guy to say." But I think there is a more important point. Politics, even if you do it for a long time, is not a "job." It is a means by which things get done in a society.

My assessment of any politician is always partially influenced by the question "What would they be doing if they weren't seeking or holding office?"If the answer is running a business, teaching school, writing screenplays, fine. Even "subsistence living in the woods" is OK by me. The most dangerous answer is "I have no idea," which is only slightly worse than "consultant or lobbyist," not because those vocations are inherently evil, but because mixed with elected office usually become so.

Running for office these days is like Spock going into the irradiated engine room in "Wrath of Khan." He knows that the radiation will probably kill him. He also knows he has a short time to do something very important. And it does kill him, but he saves others in the process.

Politics changes people, even good people. It certainly changes and sometimes destroys families. When people are motivated, even in a small way, by self-preservation and maintaining the status quo in the face of change, we have bad politics. You can apply this however you like to whomever you like. No party or level of government is beyond reproach.

COLUMN: 'Peddler from the Range' leaves great mark, complicated legacy

2011-12-04T10:35:00.001-06:00

This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 4, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. On the same page of the newspaper my old neighbor from town days wrote a more detailed account of Paulucci's history.

'Peddler from the Range' leaves great mark, complicated legacy
By Aaron J. Brown

Early Thanksgiving 2011 Jeno Paulucci passed away just four days after the loss of his wife Lois.

At 93 the Iron Range and Duluth business icon’s impact on the modern food business generally and northern Minnesota specifically were already secure in the history books. Paulucci founded several successful businesses and a few failed ones. He lost some money, but made a whole lot more. He was a forceful personality in the region, his passionate advocacy and caustic stubbornness earning friends and foes in more or less equal amounts.

Paulucci would later describe himself as just "a peddler from the Iron Range." Growing up on the Range in the ‘80s and ‘90s, my earliest memories of him were simply that he was always on the news – his name like a city or body of water.

Our first apartment was on Third Avenue in Hibbing, the town that moved for mining in the '20s and so well personifies the people and history of the Iron Range region. Across the street from our place was a tiny house by today's standards. This little house would not have stuck out in my memory if someone hadn't later told me it was the site of one of Paulucci's first businesses, his family's grocery store.

At age 12, with a father unable to work after a mining accident, Paulucci hustled produce and product for the largely immigrant population of a booming company town that was becoming more independent. From those years forward Paulucci would make selling food and taking risks his life’s work, becoming a multi-millionaire by the 1960s. Paulucci built, sold and rebuilt companies like tinker toys, pausing along the way to help people out or render his political opinion, sometimes in the form of a blistering full page newspaper advertisement.

And by now it still seems odd to me that a man with so much influence, with such strong allies and enemies, could pass with so little notice.

There tend to be two kinds of native attitudes about the Iron Range in this modern era. Some hold deep pride in their Range upbringing, nostalgic for the endurance of economic ups and downs. Others burn with resentment over the lack of change and adaptability of the place, an idea that often manifests politically.

In both cases, growing up on the Range follows you around, in some ways defines the rest of your life even if you endeavor to forget it. Paulucci somehow found himself in both groups, ever proud but never satisfied with the Range, Duluth or, it sometimes seemed, anything.

Unlike another famous, influential former Hibbing resident, Paulucci always lived at least part-time in Minnesota. Bob Dylan left Hibbing, famously set out for the coast and achieved world fame, only to admit in recent years that the tumult he felt here on the Range would later define him. I mention Dylan only because when you mention his fame and accomplishments to some locals, one of the most common retorts is, well yeah, what about Jeno Paulucci?

Paulucci held tight to a characteristic we could use more of these days: drive. While Jeno could play humble, he was very sharp and opportunistic. He took flak for times he took a stab at economic development in Duluth or the Range, but unlike the Range or Duluth (at times) he moved on and tried new things, always and again.

I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Paulucci. My only contact was a mildly consternated letter from him over an editorial I wrote years ago – not even the full treatment. But with his passing I do believe we can add meaning to his legacy, indeed to the legacy of generations of immigrants who climbed the social ladder made possible in places like this. We can reestablish our drive toward something better for our kids.

The work wasn’t finished in Paulucci’s lifetime, nor will we be able to finish it ourselves. But that’s no reason to stop trying. Trying is the whole point.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer from northern Minnesota's Iron Range who teaches at Hibbing Community College. He is author of the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and host of the Great Northern Radio Show on 91.7 KAXE.

A cold one; dry though

2011-12-02T10:37:00.001-06:00

"Oh, ya, it's cold, but it ain't snowy."

"No, dry November, that's for sure."

"Not good for the septics."

"No, sir."

"Making ice, though."

"Oh, ya, real good. Five inches already. Heard the lake a whumpin' yesterday."

"Good for skatin.' Ever skate on a lake?"

"Oh, ya, but it's been years."

"Fishing soon."

"Ya."

"Bad for the septics, though. Gotta keep the dog off my drain field."

"Oh, ya."

Brown on the Air: IMPORTANT THINGS

2011-12-02T08:24:00.001-06:00

I'm back on Between You and Me this Saturday morning 10 to noon on 91.7 KAXE. The call-in and music program will be exploring the topic of "Important Things," or "Things You Wouldn't Downsize," or something like that.

The title is hard for me to remember. I started writing a thing about "Things" and then veered sharply when I realized I was writing on the wrong topic. So the result is fun, even though it includes a Vietnam War reference and a mortality discussion. (That's what passes for "fun" in my brain). But seriously, it's a knee-slapper. About death. And Vietnam. Ha-ha!

You can hear "Between You and Me" 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live and archived at www.kaxe.org. I've been writing for this show a long time and it made my latest project, the Great Northern Radio Show, possible. More news on that program is also forthcoming.

Iron Range history, depicted by mustachioed gentleman, giant talking dog

2011-11-30T07:03:00.000-06:00

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.

Cuyler and Una near the Slovenian Miners Memorial at Minnesota Discovery Center. (Submitted)

Range blogger aims to give back, a little each day

2011-11-29T08:07:00.000-06:00

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).

Mugging for the camera

2011-11-28T09:19:00.000-06:00

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 wreck of the Mataafa

2011-11-27T14:05:00.000-06:00

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.

Photo of Duluth Lift Bridge at night, Justin Sorenson, Creative Commons license

COLUMN: Holiday season inspires potpourri

2011-11-27T12:51:00.000-06:00

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.

Range, Duluth business legend Paulucci dies

2011-11-24T22:09:00.001-06:00

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 Turkey Day from MinnesotaBrown.com

2011-11-23T13:43:00.000-06:00

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.

The perils of media consolidation and a new hope

2011-11-22T09:12:00.001-06:00

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.

Source: Frugal dad