New design ongoing: be patient

Apologies if what you're seeing here appears funkier than usual. I am in the middle of a redesign. We should have this finished by the end of the weekend.

All Star Tuesday!

Check your calendars. It's Drink Beer and Watch the All-Star Game Day.

What? That's not on your calendar? Get a new one.

Expect scant reaction here to political news occurring this evening.

Thanks, readers!

Thanks, readers, for making last week the best read week ever in the life of this relatively young blog. We are finally approaching the readership numbers of some of the oft-cited state blogs, but I like to think I've kept the Iron Range flavor that makes this place unique.

Why such a good week? Well, I told a major metro TV station to "go to hell" and I tried to find an unconventional approach to the longstanding Wal-Mart vs. Labor debate. We had some good conversations in the comments (in that it took several replies before people hit the "nu'uh, poopyhead" stage). Even more important, readers are now regularly contacting me with information to share and perspective I've missed. This is was the goal I set out to accomplish when I started. This is about northern Minnesota, not me.

The previously-mentioned redesign is in the works and I hope to pull the lever on that before July is out.

Post-outage links!

We just got out of another of our famous wind-induced power outages today in rural Itasca County. Itasca is a land of lakes and trees, two things that cause a lot of problems when the wind blows hard. So I'm back up and running ... and by running I mean surfing the Internet. You know, power company lobbyists will tell you the problem is not enough big power plants; but the truth is that this is all about wind. Where does the wind come from? Lobbyists. This may never end. (I intend to prove this theory by hiring a lobbyist to have it declared true).

The Duluth News-Tribune today features a point/counterpoint argument between two of its editorial page writers about whether the "Northland" is losing its famous work ethic. Robin Washington says we are. Chuck Frederick says we aren't. What do I think? To survive in northern Minnesota you need to work hard. Leaving for a wedding yesterday afternoon, I had to remove a large tree that had blown down along the township road where I live. Lazy people would have just turned around and watched the tube. I had a shrimp cocktail and an open bar waiting for me in Chisholm and, dammit, I moved the tree. That's the way of our people.

Meantime, also in today's Duluth News-Tribune and relevant to my Itasca County theme for the day, the Kayak lady is closing in on her goal of kayaking on all 1,006 lakes in Itasca County.

That's right. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes (actually more than that), 1,000 of which are in the mid-sized county where I live. Tell me again why it's "better" for me to move to an expensive suburb and drive on your so-called "free"ways. I defy your twisted logic.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Change we can blog in

You might notice some subtle changes to the blog over the next week or two. I am contemplating a moderate redesign that will make the place more attractive and useful. Here are some of the plans:

• Add a blog roll for conservative blogs on the side bar. I self-identify as a DFL/progressive blog and have been running the "Leftyblog" roll at the side for months, but I am interested in other points of view and hope you are, too.
• Add a media list for the Iron Range, Duluth and other northern Minnesota locations with links. I'd like this site to be considered a comprehensive source for information about Northern Minnesota news and politics in addition to being a home for my "not-quite-column-worthy" musings. In time, this may included feeds from local newspapers, radio and TV stations ... if and when they become available.
• Redesign. I am thinking of colors. Any suggestions? Should I stick with the iron ore red and tree green I have now, or embrace the full color potential of my last name?
• Tweaking to the ads. Let's face it, I'm not in this for the ad revenue and you don't come here to see ads. I will be reviewing options to get some revenue going here, but that will likely not included the less effective web ads you've seen of late.
• Conflicts of Interest! Maybe it didn't bother you, but I am active in my community and local political scene and feel I should be very open about my potential conflicts of interest in my writing. Plus, disclosing conflicts of interest is so hot right now. It's like the new unsubstantiated rumor printed as fact.
  
• Tie ins to my upcoming book. Hate to break it to you, but I've been writing stuff for you to read for the last year and a half in hopes that you'd buy the book when it came out this October. Buy the book, freeloaders. It'll be cheap and you can hollow out the inside to create an ideal location for your flask or small pistol. Like reading? I tried to make it good to read, also.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

We must never speak of this again

I'm finding very little to write about this weekend, other than "mmm, food!" and "mmm, beer!" which is a tad overwrought this long holiday weekend. So I'll spread some link love.

MinnPost has created a three part series entitled "150 Minnesota Moments We'd Like to Forget" highlighting some of the state's low times. It's amusing and educational. And the graphic is hilarious. (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)

Happy Fourth from MinnesotaBrown and the Muppets!

I found this on Wonkette, but it's probably being used on countless blogs today. Take a look at a patriotic offering from the Muppets as they demonstrate their cross-generational appeal. Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Birthday, Doug and George!

Our twin sons Doug and George turn 1 today. Their arrival last summer changed our lives in many amazing ways. Life with three young boys (their older brother Henry is 3) can be stressful but it's also a lot of fun.

I'm taking the day off of politics and news. Check back Thursday.

Holiday week means take it easy, blogosphere

Who are we kidding? It's a holiday week. I'll be posting some items this week, but I'm under no illusion that people will read them reliably. There will be some new information on my favorite topic of universal broadband on the Iron Range. Also, candidate filing for state offices begins today. I will be checking for surprises and news on this front as we see how local races shape up for the fall.

A decade later...

Today is my 10-year high school reunion. Yeah, baby! Cherry High School Class of 1998! As class president, I got stuck with organizing the reunion. My main job was to pick the meats for the three-meat buffet. Here's what I went with:

• baron of beef
• roasted turkey
• lasagna

I hope people like it.

I'm really looking forward to the reunion. After all, this is how I looked in 1998.


And look at me now!

Yup. Just swimmin' with my money. Just like I always do.

But seriously, I look almost exactly the same now as I did then. That's the secret. Start out looking middle aged.

A busy week ...

Quietly, it's been a very busy week on the Iron Range.

There were developments in Mesabi Nugget, Minnesota Steel, Polymet, Taconite Ridge, iron magnetization, flood mitigation for the Canisteo mine pit, my favorite boondoggle (Mesaba Energy Project) and more. I can't keep up with it all. I hope to have several posts up later today that explore all of this.

All that, and we've got a class reunion tomorrow! Cherry Class of 1998! Three meat buffet! Holy crap, what a week!

Long, hot summer

Just as in the rest of my life, I deal with multiple audiences on this blog. Some folks come here for politics. Some come here to see what's up on the Iron Range. Some come here because they read my columns or listen to my radio essays. And some come here because they googled "moonshine" or "aaron brown moonshine."

I realize that writing for multiple audiences like this means that not everyone gets what they want all the time. So, I'll warn the non-political readers of the blog that the summer will be pretty full of political posts. And, in case you haven't noticed, I am active in the Democratic party. Independent minded, I think, but affiliated with the DFL. That doesn't mean I hold a personal grudge against Republicans or that I can't listen to alternative views, it's just where I am. Feel free to offer your opinions in the comments.

On that topic, coming up this week is a piece from an exclusive Range-focused interview with potential gubernatorial candidate Tom Bakk that I conducted yesterday afternoon. I say exclusive because, while Bakk has done a couple interviews with other big Minnesota blogs, this is his first discussion focused on his home turf with an interviewer whose been through the Doug Johnson '98 and Jerry Janezich '00 campaigns. It will take me a day to get that together. In short, Bakk is very serious about his exploration of this run.

I'm also working on setting up an interview with Al Franken for later this month and will continue to talk to any candidates interested in sharing their views with my small but oddly loyal readership.

I will keep my eyes peeled for other, less political, stories as well. I hope to look into this magnetization business exploring the recycling of our Iron Range mine dumps for low-grade iron particles. Don't worry, it's much more exciting than it sounds.

Oh, and, did I mention? The book is done. It's all over but the line editing. Not that you care, necessarily, but it means I might actually read this stuff before I put it on the blog.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 5

Here is the final installment (this week) of "life as an Iron Range blogger," the diversionary exercise that allows me to keep content on the blog while I work on my book.

Here is the Hull Rust Mine on Hibbing's north side. This isn't natural. Every crook and cranny of this pit was dug by people over a hundred years of mining. The "mountains" are really piles of overburden, red iron mining waste cast aside as part of the process. I named my upcoming book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" after them. This is the central image of any visit to the Iron Range.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 4

Book revisions continue through the week. Here I continue the visual tour of life as an Iron Range blogger.
It's not all good. Sometimes bugs like these land on your shoulder or leg. They're huge and they bite. This one is now a lobbyist working for a confederation of energy and transmission line companies. It will buy you drinks, but do NOT take its money.

For serious this time

Of course the Excelsior audit/review story has to break during my book-finishing week. For real, I'm going into my basement office and turning off the Internet now ... except maybe for occasional peeking. I've got some material scheduled for the next few days. See you on the flip side.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 3

Work on my book continues, so I continue with the tour of images that make up life as an Iron Range blogger.

One of the interesting things about living on the Range is that you need to find entertainment in unusual places. We don't have night clubs and Tom Petty never comes here. The names of the bands that play our bars are not whimsical and there is no chance that their music will appear on Grey's Anatomy.
This is a picture of a liberal friend of mine being pulled on an easy chair behind a snowmobile driven by a former Republican candidate for the legislature going about 60 miles an hour. I could explain the details, but that's much less important that the fact that this image -- and ones like it -- will remain in my memory forever.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 2

I'm working on other projects this week, so instead of my normal posts I'm sharing a glimpse into some of the images that make up my life as an Iron Range blogger.

When people think of the Range they might think of mines, rough-looking blue collar towns, piles of red dirt, pine trees and lakes. And the Range does have all these things. But all sides of the Iron Range are surrounded by tamarack marsh like this.

I took this on the side of Highway 7 near Kelsey in St. Louis County at sunrise. I grew up just a few miles from here in the same Sax/Zim peat bog. Stark, wet, wide and foreboding, it's this vast marsh around the Range that really gives the area its sense of independence and isolation. And it's a special kind of people who live in the marsh itself.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 1

It's officially summer in my world, which -- unlike other teachers -- means more work than ever. I have a book due June 16, a summer course starting next week and a legislative campaign committee to fire up. Therefore, this week and perhaps the next few weeks will be light on blogging. Instead I'll be giving you a visual tour of life as an Iron Range blogger. Here's the first installment.


This is out my back door at sunrise. This is also why I laugh when people suggest I move to St. Paul to work for the DFL caucus or take some fancy radio job or get my Ph.D at the U.

HA! You know what's on the other side of these woods? Additional woods! You know what's out the front door? My driveway, then more woods. Keep your freeways, suckers. I can watch "traffic cam" on my Internet if I want to, and I don't.

It's go time!

We've got a life or death school levy referendum on the west Range, flood waters perched over an Iron Range town, the potential unraveling of a economic development boondoggle, Dylan Days in Hibbing, the end of the legislative session, the potential end of the Democratic nomination fight,
and it's finals week and I have two reams of papers sitting on my office couch behind me. And my book is due June 16.

Mondays!

Seriously, this should be a great week at MinnesotaBrown. It might kill me, but there's a hell of a lot of cool/interesting/appalling things going on here on Minnesota's Iron Range this week. Stay tuned.

I've got the Power! (for now)

There's a lot going on around Minnesota and the Iron Range. I had about six posts I was going to work on this weekend in between paper grading (finals week!) until the wind started. High winds knocked out power around 4 p.m. Saturday out here in the deep woods Brown Compound. You know what you can't do when there's no power? Blog. Now I'm behind on blogging AND grading. I'll be posting more as the day goes on.