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The mines will come back; many of the jobs won’t
As three of the six remaining taconite mines in northern Minnesota announced temporary shutdowns in the past 10 days, I’ve been pulled back to the summer of 2000. LTV Steel opened a new millennium on the Mesabi Iron Range by announcing that it would close its Hoyt Lakes taconite mine. I was an intern at […]
We call them “essential” workers now, but they’ve always been
My mom is a childcare provider in northern Minnesota. She’s started doing that job after she raised my sisters and me. She specializes in infants because she loves babies. She loves babies a lot more than she likes money. I know this because she could earn more at Wal-Mart or a fast food restaurant than […]
Here’s what Politico got wrong about the Iron Range
The national political publication Politico profiled the shifting political winds on northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. Reporter Adam Behsudi and photographer M. Scott Mahaskey toured the region a few weeks ago. Disclosure: I was among the sources interviewed. It hardly seems relevant now, given current events, but the piece is worth reading. At first blush, […]
Super Tuesday in the Land of 10,000 Pundits
This would be a good time for me to tell you who I thought was going to win Minnesota’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday. I’d be making it up, though. Nobody knows. I can’t even tell you who’ll win my precinct, much less Itasca County or the 8th Congressional District. Polls show hometown favorite Sen. […]
The dueling realities of the Iron Range
I’ve lived on the Iron Range my whole life, always within sight of the steam cloud from an iron ore mine. When I was young I wanted to leave the Range. As I got older I wanted to change the Range. But after 20-some years of writing about the place I find that my shirts […]
Analysis: What does Tom Bakk’s ouster tell us about labor and the Iron Range?
ITASCA COUNTY — State Sen. Susan Kent (DFL-Woodbury) ousted Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk of Cook Saturday at a Senate Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus meeting. Ironically, the rebellion took place in a carpenters’ union hall, the kind of place where Bakk built his Iron Range labor credentials. Kent will lead Senate Democrats as the legislature reconvenes Feb. […]