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
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Greetings from the Pine Knot News family in Carlton County. It’s been quite a year for the family, so we’re excited to share this with our friends and extended family during this holiday season. We had some great news in January. We won the coveted Mills trophy for being the best weekly newspaper in Minnesota from the Minnesota Newspaper Association. And we we competed against some pretty big weeklies with much higher circulation. That’s a career-defining honor, Jana said, and is quite an achie...
The loud, disruptive protest at a recent Cloquet School Board meeting by a local resident of the school district was a shameful display of chutzpah, ignorance and entitlement. People seem to think that government officials work for them. They don’t. Cops work for the police department; highway maintenance crews work for the county, and teachers work for the school district. The school district is led by members of the school board, who are elected to the job. They don’t work for you. It’s a com...
I’m disappointed that our representative in Congress voted against the infrastructure bill last month. It seems to me it was a great bill for our region, but U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber didn’t agree and voted against it. It was a mistake. It’s not hard for people to guess my political persuasion, but I try to limit my criticism (and my effusive praise) for specific actions by our leaders, because hypocrisy is destroying politics in our country. So, I’ve been pretty silent on Pete Stauber, a very ni...
We live like royalty in America. We have stores full of food and trinkets. We work only 40 hours a week. Some people work even less and some of us choose to work more. Nearly everyone has indoor bathrooms and heated houses, and, when we turn on the faucet, day or night, water comes out. Clean, drinkable water. No one has to hike to the nearest well and bring a bucket of water home. Our lights turn on when we flick a switch and our sewage flows away from our homes in enclosed pipes to a...
Hello, fellow Carlton County residents. I’m Pete Radosevich, the publisher of the Pine Knot News and an avid fan of our community. We are sending a copy of this newspaper to nearly every address in the county, so you can see what subscribers to the Pine Knot News already know — real journalism is alive and well in Carlton County, and it’s in the Pine Knot News. When five of us chipped in money to start the Pine Knot News three years ago, many people thought we were a little crazy. After all, who would start an old-fashioned newspaper in this...
Some people blame the two-party political system for many of our nation’s problems. I can understand why — it seems each party spends more time accusing the other party for everything wrong while taking credit for everything right. It can’t be that way, of course, but that’s what happens when politicians are constantly campaigning rather than serving their constituents. It’s a real problem. I interviewed longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar once on “Harry’s Gang.” It was quite an honor, and I pr...
One of the questions I get most from clients is, “How do I avoid probate?” I can understand why they are so concerned — probate is an expensive process, but with careful planning, it can usually be avoided altogether. The other big concern is, “I don’t want the government to take my house if I have to go into the nursing home.” The facts are, most people don’t end up in a nursing home, and when they do, it’s most often for a short period of time (three to five weeks, to recover from an ailment...
One of the rallying cries in the war of misinformation we have seen in the last few years is the phrase “Do your own research.” There’s nothing more frightening than some misinformed person, swayed by propaganda pushed on them by people with a hidden agenda, getting bolder in their misconceptions because they have justified their erroneous views by “doing their own research.” I studied the sciences in college before going to law school and I’ve worked in the news reporting fields over the ye...
I treat Veterans Day, which is next Thursday, even more seriously than Memorial Day. That's because Memorial Day is a day for families to remember lost loved ones, but Veterans Day honors veterans directly, living or passed. To me, that makes next Thursday a pretty solemn day. We owe a lot to veterans, many of whom served our country's armed forces in both peacetime and during conflicts. And while quite a few veterans have seen combat, many veterans haven't seen any "action," as they call it,...
Sixth District Court judge Jill Eichenwald set a trial date of May 16 during a settlement conference Wednesday for a Cloquet man accused in the murder of a pregnant woman and her child. Sheldon James Thompson is accused of killing Jackie Defoe, her unborn child, and her 20-month-old son in March 2020. Thompson faces two charges of murder in the first degree each for the deaths of Jackie Ann Defoe and her son Kevin Lee Shabaiash Jr., and one charge of murder in the first degree of an unborn...
I feel sorry for Mick Jagger. All that fame and fortune, but the poor guy never went to Esko to eat an Eskomo Pizza Pie. What kind of life can be considered fulfilling if he's never had a slice of pizza from my old business? Jagger does seem to get out and about when he's in the state, as he mentioned at his concert last weekend in Minneapolis that he ate a Juicy Lucy at both Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club, both in south Minneapolis; and quaffed a few beers at Grumpy's, a tavern in Nordeast owned b...
Nothing sounds more like winter in the modern age than the roar of snowmobiles racing across town, engines revving, maybe a long line of enthusiasts following close behind. You just don’t hear that sound during any other season, really. But I can understand how some people are worried about snowmobiles roaring through their property at all hours of the day, if the proposed snowmobile trail in Esko and Thomson Township goes through. The proposal has caused some controversy, mostly by people w...
There’s nothing like a random four-day weekend for kids from school. Education Minnesota weekend is coming up next weekend and it’s a treat for students and for many parents, who take the opportunity to travel, visit friends and family, and do other holiday-type things without the burden of an actual holiday. It’s great. I know a handful of teachers. Not one of them, when asked, is planning to use the four-day weekend for anything other than “personal development.” None plan to attend Education...
There’s a pretty standard formula for fairy tales, it seems, where a beautiful princess finds a handsome prince who sweeps her off her feet, and they live happily ever after. The formula is so consistent, I had trouble following the movie “Frozen” the first 20 times I saw it. To be fair, I didn’t actually watch the movie 20 times, but it’s been on in the background as my daughter, Eleanor, watched it. I’d guess 20 times, but it could easily have been 100; Ellie loved the movie and watched it...
The private audit in Arizona of the already audited vote tally was a predictable farce. It should surprise no one that nothing was uncovered. Even the report’s dubious insinuations were immediately debunked by the Maricopa County election officials (who are of the same party that paid for the audit, by the way). When I balance my checkbook monthly, I use a calculator and years of learning from my mistakes to make sure my records reconcile with the bank records. Once a year my accountant r...
When a new lawyer gets into town, they’re often inundated with requests from local organizations, asking us to get involved and volunteer with their group. It’s a great way to quickly become a part of the community and to show some dedication to the people who will, eventually, become your clients. At least, that’s how it happened to me. When I started working at the Newby law firm in 1999, it wasn’t weeks before I had been “volunteered” for all sorts of local groups, from the Relay for Life to...
I learned Tom Skare passed away over Labor Day weekend. He was apparently in his law office on Cloquet Avenue across from the Holiday gas station, where he spent a lot of his time, and wasn’t heard from for two days. I had driven by his office that Saturday morning and thought maybe I should stop in. I hadn’t chatted with Tom for a few weeks and I was due a visit. I wish I had stopped in. Tom was an interesting character. I first met him when I was interviewing at the Newby law office back in...
The recent political events in Texas got me thinking a bit. As a Catholic, I've never been a fan of abortion. As a Democrat, I value the personal freedoms and rights all people should have, whether rich, poor, connected or unaffected. As an American, I value the right of its citizens to choose their leaders and to pass laws that reflect their wishes to be self- regulated. But I am disturbed by the manufactured crises that politicians use, frequently, to divide the people, making it easier for...
Yard parties are a pretty good way to get to know your neighbors - sort of a National Night Out, but on our own terms and conditions. So, we held a big yard party last week. It was all Kathy Lund's idea. She realized that several new families had moved into our Cloquet neighborhood the past couple of years and we had never all come together to get acquainted. Picking a date that worked for everyone was the hardest part. We finally decided on last Wednesday and, if someone couldn't make it, we'd...
I find it hard to understand how wearing a mask in public has become a political issue. But it has. To me, it's an example of how easily politicians and talking heads can manipulate people's viewpoints on subjects they know little about, and how easily propaganda can convince people of illogical and unrealistic facts. Spreading misinformation seems to bind some people together, getting a large block of people to mistrust the authorities seems to be a favorite tool of those with an unclear...
Cloquet’s Timothy Scott Young Jr., 38, was found not guilty after a weeklong jury trial in Carlton County Sixth District Court Friday, Aug. 13. Young had been accused of two felony counts of sexual assault after an alleged incident in April 2020 involving a girl under the age of 16. He could have served up to 30 years if convicted. After two days of jury selection last week, Carlton County Attorney Laurie Ketola presented her case. The victim, now 16, testified, carrying a blanket and a teddy bear for security. Other witnesses included her d...
Jana Peterson, editor of the Pine Knot News, asked me to cover the opening and closing of a salacious criminal trial in Carlton last week; you can see that story in today's paper. I assume Jana assigned me this task because the story is newsworthy; I have some criminal law experience; and she is very, very busy. It was a fascinating look at our criminal justice system in action. Several things jumped out at me. It struck me that our system truly protects the rights of both the accused and the...
The prosecution and defense each made opening arguments Wednesday, Aug. 11, in the trial of Timothy Scott Young Jr., after two days of jury selection. Scott has been accused of both first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct stemming from an incident in April 2020 involving a person under 16 years old. He could serve up to 30 years if convicted. Carlton County attorney Lauri Ketola addressed the jury first, after Sixth District Court Judge Robert Macauley read preliminary instructions to...
Those loud train whistles that blare all night long are not really necessary and should be stopped. There's simply no reason why the trains have to wake up half the town in the middle of the night to tell us they are coming through. I'm sleeping. I don't need to know. Hardly anyone is on the road. They have better ways to know they should stop when a train is coming. Train whistles are a relic of the old days when cars routinely crashed into moving trains. It's no secret that trains, once...
I’m disappointed the county has decided to put the new jail out in Olsonville, where the transportation building is now. Sure, it’s just three miles away from its current location, but I think it’s going to leave a big hole in downtown Carlton, and that’s a shame. By law, the courts will need to be included in the jail site plan. Add the likely end of Carlton High School and Carlton suddenly has some gaping holes to fill. Other county offices will remain, and the businesses aren’t going any...
