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If a tree falls and there was no story about it in the paper, did it happen? | Opinion
There’s a crisis at the border. No, not that border. And not that crisis. This one directly affects Minnesotans’ lives and the viability of our local democracy. On June 24, the International Falls Journal will cease publication, ending a 118-year run of journalistic service to this isolated small town in far northern Minnesota. The news […]
‘When the red iron pits ran a-plenty’: Northland celebrates Bob Dylan’s 80th | Essay
If you want to find something new, look for destruction. Over a few billion years on Earth, planetary disasters created new forms of life. A meteor here. Volcanic eruptions there. Each time new plants and critters emerged until, one day, we put on pants. Look at what happens after a northern Minnesota forest fire. New […]
Like it or not: We’re all in this together | Opinion
We often grow up believing that a hastily drawn line might solve a conflict. Kids draw lines at the dinner table or in the back seat of the car. “Dad, he’s touching my side!” Drawing lines never works. Eventually the kids have to figure out how to stand each other. I can’t promise how it […]
Iron Range publisher-legislator often had it right — a century ago | Opinion
A century ago, Rufus W. Hitchcock published the first daily newspaper on Minnesota’s Iron Range, the Hibbing Daily Tribune. As publisher and editor of the Tribune, Hitchcock resembled many such figures then and now. His carefully worded editorials warned of moral rot but also that times change. He thought both sides had a good point […]
The clash of two big steel companies will help shape the future of the Iron Range | Analysis
One day, making tracks In the prairie of Prax, Came a North-Going Zax And a South-Going Zax. And it happened that both of them came to a place Where they bumped. There they stood. Foot to foot. Face to face. — From “The Zax” by Dr. Seuss The Mesabi range city of Hibbing owes its […]
Law and order starts with peace | Opinion
Something terrible happened on Dec. 5, 2020, in the Mesabi Iron Range town of Mountain Iron. St. Louis County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a shoplifter at a store along State Highway 169. It didn’t take long for them to get there. The Sheriff’s Department headquarters is practically across the road. An hour […]
Just like a century ago, there’s a class war in rural America, and the wrong side is winning
Across Minnesota we hear the cannon fire of a culture war. Burgeoning resentments spill into our politics, creating entrenched factions that dig in even deeper when the fighting escalates. At least here in northern Minnesota, the rally call is “Our Way of Life.” “Our Way of Life” is much more than U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber’s […]
Bakk-assoni say they’re going “independent.” More like kept company men.
Two longtime Iron Range state senators will leave the DFL caucus and form an independent caucus for the 2021 legislative session. State Sen. David Tomassoni of Chisholm and former DFL majority leader Sen. Tom Bakk of Cook made the announcement Wednesday. The Republicans held a 34-33 majority in the State Senate. Now they’ll hold a […]
Cleaving Minnesota: Good news and bad for northern Democrats
This year myriad media outlets ran some version of the headline “Will the Iron Range flip Minnesota to the GOP in 2020?” We could have assumed the answer was “no” based on population data, polling or even basic analysis of recent elections. That’s what I said at the time. But that didn’t stop anyone from […]
Talkin’ Iron Range turnin’ red blues
I’m a trailer house kid from the Iron Range who donned a v-neck sweater and started writing about local politics and history. To me, northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range has never been just one thing. Beautiful and harsh. Inspiring and depressing. Like many of my friends and family, I stayed. Like many others I could […]
If it’s to make a comeback, labor needs to look outside the halls of power and influence
Rocks rain down onto a police car from an overpass. Masked men scatter as shots ring out, though the cops get a good look at one of them. Across town a worker is distraught. Does he go to work to feed his family or join the mob downtown? Both choices carry dangerous consequences. Meantime an […]
What the rest of Minnesota can learn from the Iron Range’s desperate, decades-long search for jobs
I live along northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, a place where the slogan, “jobs, jobs, jobs,” comprises a potent, if reductive political ethos. All problems would be solved if we had more jobs. Ergo: jobs, jobs, jobs. Ironically, a writer could probably lay off two of the “jobs,” leaving just one “jobs” to do the […]