A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 305
Both legislative bodies approved a capital investment package to fund infrastructure projects around the state Monday, just hours before the session adjourned. It included funding for three District 11A projects: $17.5 million for the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (Cloquet, Thomson Township, city of Carlton), $10 million for the Carlton County female offender program and the jail and courts facility, and $5 million for Cloquet water infrastructure improvements on lines serving the...
The Cloquet/Carlton Housing & Redevelopment Authority’s board of commissioners fired the agency’s executive director on Friday, May 12. Residents in facilities run by the HRA received word that Debra Shaff was “no longer employed” after a closed meeting commissioners held with Shaff in attendance. Cynthia Slater, chairwoman of the Cloquet board, said Shaff was “released” from her duties based on some fact-finding done within the HRA organization. Slater was not specific on why Shaff was let go, but said findings showed that “we couldn’t fix...
They were going to be out at Chub Lake south of Carlton Saturday no matter the weather. That's where the LeDoux family of Proctor starts the new fishing season each year, Aaron said as he sat in his boat at the public landing just before noon, waiting for wife Tracy, daughter Kaylee and dog Nova to climb aboard. As they were putting in, others were coming out. The common phrase Saturday during Minnesota's fishing opener was "that wind is brutal." And it wasn't creating the good old west wind...
Daniel Wilson, a committed client at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program facility in Moose Lake, said Wednesday that a "vast majority of clients are horrified" by the two assaults that took place there recently. He said that despite the past records of the people who live at the facility, most are "nonviolent." But he also said "we all sort of expected it" when it came to the attacks. On May 1, according to a complaint filed in Carlton County District Court May 3, client Nicolas Ladell Aron-Jones...
If you'd like to join a movement, helping the region become a pollinator-friendly one would be a good choice. That's because right here in Carlton County, you can find some of the best resources in turning home yards into an oasis for bees and other pollinators that affect the food chain, and the whole health of the outdoors exponentially. "It's growing," said Alyssa Bloss, a conservation specialist for the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District. She's been in the field for 14 years and...
Carlton County's Dotseth supports secession study The seriousness of a Republican bill introduced last week can likely be summed up in its author's preferred name for it, the "Rocks and Cows Act." The bill would produce a study by an appointed commission on finding a pathway for Minnesota counties bordering North Dakota and South Dakota to be annexed into those states. The bill was introduced by Rep. Matt Grossell, with 19 other Republicans signing on, including Carlton County's Rep. Jeff Dotseth, who supports a study on why neighboring states...
One could easily mistake a northeastern Minnesota meteorologist for a sadist these days. Just two days after the messy April 4-5 snowstorm, followed by some slight signs of an actual spring, the National Weather Service in Duluth issued a report on the likely flooding that will occur in the region. It seems the winter of 2022-23 just won't relinquish its hold on the public conversation during a non-existent spring that had any children on an outdoor Easter egg hunt tromping over snow deeper...
Midway through the second quarter of the NCAA Division II women's basketball championship game, the announcers on the CBS Sports Network national broadcast mentioned Cromwell. That's because they were referring to Taya Hakamaki, a junior guard for the University of Minnesota Duluth team and high school player at Cromwell-Wright. The announcement likely caused cheers at many establishments in Carlton County that aired the title game Saturday afternoon. "I didn't realize they mentioned Cromwell,"...
Mike Shannon was such a curmudgeon - with a capital C - a picture of him could be expected next to the word in any illustrated dictionary. I had many maddening conversations with him in low light at the Gaslight tavern in Sandstone. This small town in Pine County had an inordinate number of talented musicians at the time, now nearly 20 years ago. Just when Mike would tear at the last remnant of likability I may have had, he would shuffle over to the piano and start playing. He was transformed....
Angela Sjodin was sitting next to her unconscious daughter and thinking about the moments before everything changed. "Let's go for a walk, Mom," Angela wrote of the day before her daughters Janae and Jaela were injured in a car crash on Friday, March 24, coming home from softball practice. Angela recalled telling Janae the day before that she had work to do, charting for her social work job. "Charting will always be there, I will not be," Angela wrote of the conversation. Janae was referring to...
Go forward, but turn your wheels a bit. ... The other way. - How far? - Right there. If you get any traction, hit the brake. - Nothing. - Yeah. I smell rubber. Try going back, but not too far, the pole. - Just spinning. - Yeah. Let me dig a bit. - Which way now? - Forward, but try rocking back and forth. Don't just gun it. - Which way are my tires? - Turn 'em. No, the other way. - Maybe you should get in. - You're doing fine. It's just this snow, and the slush underneath. And I'm thinking you're...
One of the oldest traditions in the history of Minnesota carries on Tuesday, March 14 in the annual township meetings. The township system of government was established as part of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which included the northeast portion of today's Minnesota as a territory. Areas of land were divided into 36-square-mile units called congressional townships. Today, the term "township" refers to organized but unincorporated areas of the state usually governed by a three-person board of...
Robotics, where teamwork extends beyond the team. They call it a robotics competition, but it's really a collaboration. It starts by entering events like last week's FIRST Robotics Regional Competition in Duluth. Team members had to work together to design a robot according to specifications outlined just a few short months ago, and it had to pass inspection before head-to-head scrambles in the arena began Thursday. For Cloquet's Ripsaw team, it also meant sharing a practice space in February...
In the black and white world of auditing, the letter the Minnesota State Auditor sent to the city of Kettle River last month is clear. "We found several instances where the city violated Minnesota state law," state auditor Julie Blaha told the Pine Knot News this week. For city officials of the small town, population 172, things are apparently a bit more gray. Mayor David Lucas described the 10-page letter outlining administrative violations in three areas as "nothing." Those items include...
Wrenshall boys get historic win in dramatic fashion It was one of those basketball games that saw every few seconds produce a hero - at the line, the three-point arc, in the congested paint, on the open floor. The last jug game between the Wrenshall and Carlton boys basketball teams was a classic Tuesday night. A bow to tie atop 73 years of a one-of-a-kind rivalry. After more than two hours of full-throated cheering, intense but clean play among the teams, dozens of lead changes and yes, all...
There is a lot of snow out there this winter. How much? It depends on where you are. While Duluth is breaking - or on the cusp of - all kinds of snowfall records for December and the season, areas in Carlton County are not quite setting records. But the snowfall we've had is far above normal. In Cloquet, the average snowfall in December is about 16 inches. Last month, there was nearly 30 inches of snow recorded in the city. That is the highest of area measurements. A recording 3 miles northeast...
Cloquet native's 2020 book with wolves is chosen There was an ease about Thomas Peacock as he made a presentation and later sat down to talk about his work as an author of revered books about the Native experience. He was at the Jan. 6 Dream Catcher Winter Gathering for educators from the region, talking about the use of "story" in teaching and learning about Native ways. It was the first such live gathering at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet since the pandemic hit. Peacock...
Had you arrived early enough, you may have mistaken the junior varsity game for the main event jug game on Tuesday in Wrenshall. It was raucous, but not nearly as loud as it would get. The Carlton JV won going away. Wrenshall’s varsity players chose Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” for warmup music, oldies of more than 20 years ago, but a far cry from “Come on-a My House” by Rosemary Clooney, which could have been on the radio of a DeSoto as fans drove to the first jug...
A chapter in the history of two small-town basketball programs will draw to a close next week. But when it comes to the annual "Jug" games between the boys and girls teams at Carlton and Wrenshall, the question that arises is to what extent the history of the games has even been written. There are few definitives when it comes to the origin of a jug being the centerpiece of rivalries that go back generations. Those facts come from the jugs themselves, which have written on them the past scores a...
Dave Perry curled his hand in front of his face, forming a small circle. "What I like to see is a kid with that hood, and all you see is about this much of him or her," he said. "And all of a sudden that hood comes off. It might take a week, it might take five months. But all of a sudden we see who that person is above the neckline. ... If I had a hand in that, that's awesome." Perry was describing his work as a teacher for the Cloquet Area Alternative Education Program in a nomination video...
Corey was standing a few feet from the sled run when she spoke — one hand on her hip, her other mittened hand trying to wisp away the strands of hair run renegade from under her cap. “Are you the announcer, or something?” She was 8. She often cut to the heart of matters with me, her nattering uncle — curt queries snapping her into adult demeanor, leaving me bemused and suddenly self-conscious. “I’m just trying to make this more exciting, like we did when I was a kid.” Corey only half-listened and then bellyflopped onto her plastic glide...
I’m not sure if even Fran Tarkenton could have consoled me as I hid in the closet. Of course, he was at that time on a plane returning from a Vikings loss in Washington. It was in the early evening on Nov. 30, 1975 — a gloomy, wet gloaming outside — and I still had chores to do. But I needed some time. I was incapable of doing anything just then, least of all my rotten watering and feeding job down in the barn. Offensive coordinator Jerry Burns said Tarkenton had the best performance he’d ever seen from a quarterback that day at RFK Stadium...
In dribs and drabs, and sometimes huge rushes, throughout the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the results in the District 11A state house race came in. In the end, Republican Jeff Dotseth's third try at the seat proved successful as he won the district by 454 votes over Pete Radosevich, the DFL-backed candidate. Both were trying to replace Esko's Mike Sundin, who did not seek a sixth term representing Carlton County and adjoining townships in Pine and St. Louis counties. Dotseth, from Kettle...
Tucked into a corner of eastern Carlton, north of the Oldenburg House on Minnesota Highway 210 and south of the Thomson Reservoir, is a nondescript building that will soon fade into history. The Carlton pump station, which handles wastewater from the southeastern portion of the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District, will be replaced in the next year. Site preparation has already begun. The project mirrors one done to the northeast in Esko beginning in 2014, in another corner of a community,...
There was little back-and-forth between the two candidates for the state House of Representatives District 11A seat at the Cloquet Area Chamber of Commerce candidate forum Oct. 25. Incumbent Democrat Mike Sundin of Esko chose not to seek another term, so now perennial Republican challenger Jeff Dotseth of Kettle River will face DFL-backed Pete Radosevich of Cloquet. The two spent about 30 minutes answering questions from moderator Tony Sertich. It was the final portion of an evening that...
