News and Current Affairs Posts

Project manager wanted for 10-month media collaboration

Oct 19, 2015 2 Comments

The journalism program at the University of Minnesota Duluth is looking for a part-time project manager to assist in coordinating the “One River, Many Stories” media collaboration project.

Funded through a Knight Foundation Fund grant from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the project will test ways media collaboration can inspire innovation and nurture engagement among professional journalists, educators and citizen storytellers in the Duluth-Superior community. In April 2016, the media in northern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin will give special attention to one topic: The St. Louis River. Newspapers, television and radio stations, local bloggers, photographers, videographers, university, college and high school journalism programs, and citizen storytellers will produce news articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media about the historic St. Louis River corridor.

Link to full job description


News and Current Affairs ,

Duluth 2015 General Election Sample Ballot

Oct 19, 2015 5 Comments

Duluth MN General Election Ballot 2015


News and Current Affairs, Politics

Duluth’s Mark Sertich on CBS Evening News

Oct 16, 2015 No Comments

Tonight Mark Sertich became the second Duluthian to be featured on the CBS Evening News in the past month. Just 18 days after St. Scholastica Saints kicking coach Sister Lisa Maurer was profiled on the program, Sertich was featured in a segment with “On the Road” correspondent Steve Hartman.

Sertich is a 1939 Denfeld graduate and World War II veteran who, at age 94, still plays hockey with a group of Duluth firefighters.


News and Current Affairs, Sports , , ,

Duluthians cause trouble in North Dakota

Oct 08, 2015 2 Comments

News and Current Affairs

Visit Uptown Superior … or Downtown Superior or the North End

Oct 04, 2015 2 Comments

Visit Uptown SuperiorThis past summer a new marketing effort was launched in Superior to attract people back to the downtown area, which struggled through a long Tower Avenue reconstruction project in 2013. The strip has seen a number of new businesses spring up on the fancy new avenue, but also still has numerous vacant buildings. It’s a work in progress. The joint effort of “collected businesses promoting each other” to “highlight the diamonds in the proverbial rough” is called Visit Uptown Superior.

Why is the downtown now the uptown? Isn’t “uptown” a word to describe a residential area? Well, this part of Superior is the North End, and people tend to think of north as up … and maybe these businesses intend to “Uptown funk you up.” Let’s not overthink it. Below is the back of a promotional postcard highlighting the collective businesses in said Uptown.

Visit Uptown Superior postcard


News and Current Affairs

Know Your Duluth Liquor Laws!

Oct 02, 2015 5 Comments

DuluthPint

Over the next week or so, Zenith City Online is publishing five separate stories on the history of Duluth’s liquor laws so that voters and elected officials can better understand the historic context of the issue they face in this November’s citywide referendum. I have included links to all five stories below so you can read them now. This issue is embedded in misinformation and myth. In fact, former Mayor Herb Bergson recently told Zenith City Online he vetoed a 2007 City Council resolution to request the repeal of the 1891 law because he believes that all of Lakeside and Lester Park was a gift to Duluth from the philanthropic Marshall sisters (Julia and Caroline) and that Myrtle Marshall, who fought to keep the law in place in 1973, was one of those sisters—none of which is true. So here’s a chance to catch up on Duluth liquor history so you can make a well-informed decision on this issue.


History, News and Current Affairs, Politics , ,

#notsaintpaul

Sep 30, 2015 3 Comments

So I’m finishing work tonight and my friend says, “meet me at the Brewhouse.” I tasted a flight of three and ordered the dopplebock. The drink coaster just made it too easy for me.

St. Paul Beer Fail

Great American Beer Festival Awards Winners 2015

Don’t get me wrong, I love St Paul, but it appears as though the judges have spoken.

From the Great American Beer Festival, Duluth takes two awards!

To me, it’s gotta be extra special bitter. (How often can a drink coaster be mightier than the billboard)?

  • Silver – Double Porter | Bemidji Brewing Co., Bemidji (Baltic-style porter)
  • Bronze – Lonely Blonde | Fulton Beer, Minneapolis (English-style summer ale)
  • Silver – 14° ESB | Bent Paddle Brewing Co., Duluth (extra special bitter)
  • Silver – Procrastinator Doppelbock | Fitger’s Brewhouse, Duluth (German-style doppelbock or eisbock)
  • Silver – Pumpkin Grinder | Mankato Brewery, Mankato (pumpkin)
  • Silver – Size 4 | Steel Toe Brewing, St. Louis Park (session India pale ale)
  • Bronze – Firebrick | August Schell Brewing Co., New Ulm (Vienna-style lager)

News and Current Affairs, Recommendations , , ,

Minnesota North Shore Fall Colors Report 2015

Sep 23, 2015 No Comments

Minnesota North Shore Fall Colors 2015

 

With today the first day of fall there is no better time to post the MN Fall Colors map for 2015. We are really starting to see pockets of great colors in Duluth and along the North Shore. You can also use the MN DNR interactive map by clicking here to help track the colors as they change. What are you seeing in your area? Post you favorite tree picture as it changes in the comments.

Read More


News and Current Affairs, Outdoors

Mayor Ness banned from Labor Temple’s Wellstone Hall for life

Sep 20, 2015 10 Comments

Mayor Ness at Radisson

From the Sept. 16 issue of Labor World:

Without opposition a motion was made, seconded, and carried to ban Don Ness from the Duluth Labor Temple’s Wellstone Hall for life.

Read More


News and Current Affairs, Politics

Puppy Love: East End Dog Park folks need fence help

Sep 16, 2015 No Comments

Dog Park at Riley RoadMy dog Nero pleads with you! The Duluth City Council approved the East End Dog Park for Riley Road, and the buyers of Morgan Park Middle School have offered up the chain-link fencing. We just need muscles and some tools to help get that fencing down.

Info can be found at duluthdogparks.com. If you have a few hours and a love of puppies, show up Friday, Sept. 18, and/or Saturday, Sept. 19, both days starting at 9 a.m. Come when you can and stay as long as you are able.

Items needed: People, ladders, socket sets/ratchets, work gloves, people, bolt cutters, crescent wrenches and people!


News and Current Affairs, Outdoors

Duluth 2015 Primary Election Results

Sep 15, 2015 2 Comments

Duluth Election 2015 Emily Larson Chuck Horton

With 41 out of 41 precincts reporting, Emily Larson and Chuck Horton are the winning candidates in the mayoral race, advancing to the General Election in November. Jay Fosle and Janet Kennedy advance in the Fifth District City Council race.

Duluth Mayor
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Emily Larson – 5,456 | 67.32%
Chuck Horton – 1,505 | 18.57%
Howie Hanson – 732 | 9.03%
James Mattson – 177 | 2.18%
John Socha – 111 | 1.37%
John Howard Evans – 51 | 0.63%
Thomas Cooper – 45 | 0.56%
Robert D. Schieve – 27 | 0.33%

Fifth District Duluth City Councilor
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Jay Fosle – 945 | 56.08%
Janet Kennedy – 671 | 39.82%
Allan Beaulier – 44 | 2.61%
Derrick Ellis – 25 | 1.48%

At-large Duluth School Board Member
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Renee K. VanNett – 3,351 | 44.70%
Alanna Oswald – 2,437 | 32.51%
Jim H. Unden – 1,708 | 22.79%

District Two Duluth School Board Member
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
David Kirby – 1,044 | 58.65%
Charles Obije – 461 | 25.9%
Jane Hammerstrom Hoffman – 275 | 15.45%


News and Current Affairs, Politics

R.I.P. Norm’s Beer & Brats, Cedar Lounge as it once was and the Loading Zone in all it’s glory

Sep 14, 2015 4 Comments

Norm's Beer & Brats

A few notes on Superior bars:

Norm’s Beer & Brats held a “Final Bash” over the weekend. According to its Facebook page, the bar will be moving early next week. “The old building will still be open for business tomorrow for tacos (since last week got all kinds of messed up with the power outage), and all week including Friday and Saturday,” reads a post published today. “Our new home is currently known as the Cedar Lounge. Be sure to check it out!”

Update: It seems the Norm’s / Cedar Lounge deal fell through.

Read More


News and Current Affairs, R.I.P. ,

You can’t put a campaign sign there

Sep 12, 2015 6 Comments

you can't put a campaign sign thereOne of the more clever Facebook pages of recent times has to be “You can’t put a campaign sign there,” which launched on Sept. 9. The candidates probably didn’t place the signs themselves, of course, but it’s still amusing.

After three days, Chuck Horton leads the race with seven allegedly illegal sign placements, followed by Howie Hanson and Karl Spring, who each have just one. (That’s just counting the gallery images; it looks like there are also a few “visitor posts” that aren’t in the gallery.)

That’s quite a lead for Horton, but at this stage Perfect Duluth Day’s prognosticators still think it’s too close to call.


News and Current Affairs, Politics

Missing Person: Sheila Lou St. Clair

Sep 12, 2015 No Comments

Sheila Lou St. ClairThe Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing person — Sheila Lou St. Clair. She is a 48-year-old Native American female, 5’5″ tall, 125 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes. St. Clair has not been seen since sometime before Sept. 1 in the area of the 100 block of West Third Street. If you know St. Clair’s whereabouts call 911.


News and Current Affairs

Google Fiber Update

Sep 11, 2015 3 Comments

USA Today reports Google Fiber is considering three new cities for its high-speed Internet service: San Diego, Irvine and Louisville.

Don’t worry, Duluth is in line for a new project: Google Chopped Liver.


News and Current Affairs ,