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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The Carlton County Attorney’s office recently dismissed seven more criminal cases involving former Cloquet police officer Scott Beckman. The court actions bring the total number of cases dismissed because of Beckman to 26, including 18 that were dismissed pre-conviction last year, one Feb. 8 dismissal that resulted in a man imprisoned for second-degree assault being set free and now seven more post-conviction dismissals (along with four criminal cases in which no charges were ever filed). All o...
David P. Christen, 65, of Virginia, MN died Thursday, March 7, 2019 at Essentia Health in Virginia. He was born March 12, 1953 in Duluth to John W. and Theresa (Lovich) Christen. David was preceded in death by his parents; and one brother, Daniel. He is survived by two brothers, John and Steven Christen; one sister, Patricia Sieler; two aunts, Delores Dutmer and Janice (Pete) Nelson; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. A Celebration of Life for David will be held Sunday, March 17, 2019... Full story
One of the oldest traditions in the history of Minnesota carries on Tuesday 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...
With the Carlton school district’s declining enrollments, falling test scores and budget deficit, the clock is winding down on the opportunity to save the Carlton schools. There is nothing like opportunity lost to cast a light on the Carlton school board’s approach to the recently proposed and abandoned consolidation discussions with Wrenshall. It was painful to watch. Last September, by a 5-1 vote, the Carlton school board sent a letter to the Wrenshall board inviting a discussion on con...
Six different teams from Carlton County and as far afield as Grand Rapids and Superior took to the softball diamond Saturday for a tournament in the snow. They call it "snoftball" and it was a ball, said Lee Harris, player, tournament organizer and board member of the nonprofit Kingdom Builders Ministries and its Common Ground coffee shop. "The snow was a challenge, but also it was an absolute blast," said Harris, noting that between tournament play and a special combo team made up of people...
Firefighters from the Cloquet Area Fire District responded to two house fires Monday and found a frozen hydrant at each location. That's a problem, said CAFD captain Chad Vermeersch. "We had two frozen hydrants [Monday], one on each of the fires," Vermeersch said. "They hadn't been dug out and they were both frozen." Vermeersch said the first call was a chimney fire on the 2000 block of Prospect Avenue in Cloquet. The fire extended into attic a little bit but the firefighters were able to knock...
Monday's visit from Minnesota Department of Higher Education Commissioner Dennis Olson Jr. and lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan felt more like a reunion than a tour stop to promote proposals for the higher education budget Gov. Tim Walz and Flanagan released two weeks ago. Both Olson and Flanagan greeted the audience of educators and students at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College by speaking in Ojibwe. When Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe, told the crowd she...
The city of Cloquet has solved its mystery of the missing water. Public Works director Caleb Peterson said city officials suspected there was a big leak, as they were missing about 200,000 gallons of water a day based on historical data. But they couldn’t figure out where the water was, because no one had reported a leak, and there weren’t any new skating rinks forming in random places. It took about a week, but they found the leak by checking sewers. They found one about a quarter-full with flowing water, definitely not normal for the rec...
A sex offender at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program in Moose Lake pleaded guilty to felony premeditated first-degree attempted murder last week. George Mack Jr., 42, was charged with premeditated first-degree attempted murder as well as fourth-degree assault in Carlton County Sixth District Court Thursday, Jan. 31. He pleaded guilty to both charges Feb. 25 and will be sentenced Friday, March 8. According to the criminal complaint, here's how the incident unfolded: MSOP clinician Zachary...
With training conducted Friday at Cloquet Middle School, staff at all of the Cloquet schools have now completed a new-to-them “active shooter” training, which focuses on giving staff and students tools to react to situations in which a person is shooting inside the school. Rather than teach them to lock the door, hide under desks and do nothing, ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform 911, Counter and Evacuate) trains teachers, staff and students to respond actively. They learn to evacuate if they can, barricade if they can’t, and they practice techn...
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will host a “We Are Water MN” exhibit in partnership with the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, starting with a kickoff event 1-4 p.m. Sunday, which will include an opening ceremony, a puppet show and a play by the Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble. We Are Water MN is a traveling exhibition and community engagement initiative. It is also a partnership among state agencies and host sites, formed to tell Minnesota’s water stories collaboratively, bringing together personal narratives, historical mater...
Sarma, an ethnic cabbage roll typically served during holidays in Slavic households, will be available Sundays during Lent at Eskomo Pizza Pies in Esko. All of the proceeds (100 percent) will benefit Queen of Peace school in Cloquet. Starting March 10, “Sarma Sundays” will be serving sarma for dinner 3-8 p.m. every Sunday during Lent. There will be three sizes: Grandpa size for $11.95, Grandma size for $9.95, and Grandkids size for $6.95. All sarma will be served with polenta and green beans. Other menu items such as pizza and burgers and spa...
More than 100 FIRST robotics teams — including several from Carlton County schools — will descend upon the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center Friday and Saturday to pit their robots, and their minds, against one another and the challenges set before them. The event is free and open to the public....
There’s been a lot of snow this year. That’s not news. There sure has been a lot of bellyaching about all the snow. That’s not news, either. With all that work, it’s expected to hear complaints. We shovel the driveway; the snow plow fills it up again. Our neighbor’s car is parked on the street; they plow around it, creating a ridge that freezes over. Side streets have layers of compacted snow and ice, with deep ruts that are hard on cars. A mailbox gets nicked … or smashed completely. Now notice the snowbanks, piled high along your street or r...
Legal ethics is not an oxymoron. Generally, I enjoy a good lawyer joke. Unfortunately, there are not very many good lawyer jokes. But there are a lot of good lawyers. Michael Cohen — President Trump’s personal attorney who is now headed to prison for lying to Congress — is not one of those “good lawyers.” Sure, he is educated, and probably quite skilled. But so are most lawyers, believe it or not. In order to practice law in Minnesota, lawyers are required to attend law school, pass a rigorous t...
‘It’s over, Johnny. It’s over.’ To the editor: Carlton School District will not even discuss consolidating with Wrenshall under the recommended two-site option. It’s Carlton who killed consolidation. If there are residents of the Wrenshall School District who have been apprehensive about supporting a referendum to fix school facilities because they were waiting to see if Wrenshall would consolidate with Carlton, they can rest assured that the Wrenshall School Board made a concerted, good faith effort to consolidate with Carlton School Di...
Claims that Central American refugees are coming northward seeking jobs, not sanctuary, are misleading. Those refugees face political, economic, religious, and criminal terror that drives them, mostly women and children, to walk thousands of miles to apply for asylum in the United States. They, too, are making, an arduous journey, looking for a life to rebuild in a safe, free environment. They, too, never wanted to leave their homes but were given little choice. Like Eastern European Jews, many...
The Esko school cafetorium erupted with cheers and laughter Wednesday morning as Principal Brian Harker smooched a pig. It was the perfect ending to the "Pig Out On Books" challenge at Winterquist Elementary in honor of the February "I love to read month." Before he went nose-to-snout with Diesel, the pet potbellied pig, Harker told the 690 students in grades K-6 how proud he was of them. "You worked so hard to beat your AR (Accelerated Reader) challenge," he said. "And some needed extra...
They have fought in wars, plowed endless fields, delivered mail, and helped build civilizations for centuries. Their strength is still a measure of how powerful our machines are, and yet, their understanding and gentleness is being tapped to help heal bodies, minds, and spirits ravaged by illness and circumstances. Horses, those beautiful four-legged animals, are working their magic in therapeutic establishments not only across the country, but in our community as well. As early as the 1960s,...
This has been one of our old-style winters with lots of snow and at times high winds. Locals complain of the inconvenience of it all: slippery roads, poor snowplow service, and high heating bills from the subzero temperatures. Yet we can go back to other winters such as the winter of 1940-41 and the famous Armistice Day storm. In this photo from Lila Kaski Schwoch of Barnum, the Carlton County snow removal truck of the period, a powerful but slow Oshkosh truck with cables running the front plow...
The Inter-Faith Care Center has been part of the City of Carlton for several decades, and recently received a two-year grant for $300,000 from the Minnesota Department of Health. The grant, “Improving Residents Lives through Meaningful Activities,” will help Inter-Faith provide direct care for the mental health, psychosocial, physical and spiritual well-being of the residents. The grant will help to increase staff time to 98 1/2 hours per week in the activities department, and Cedar and Oak Uni...
Last week, I touched on the growing problem of chloride (salt) pollution in our waterways, and steps that we can all take to help slow the increase of this substance. This time, we are going to dive a little deeper into the trauma that salt pollution has on a natural landscape and why this is important. Before anything else, I want to mention again that chloride is a permanent pollutant in water. Yes, we can purify and remove contaminants. But by no means can we do so to treat all the water in...
Walter S. Trader Walter S. Trader, 91, of Cloquet, Minn. passed away Monday, March 4, 2019 at New Perspective Senior Living. He was born Aug. 3, 1927 in Duluth to Peter and Katherine (Kujawa) Trader. Walter worked as a nursing assistant for Nopeming Nursing Home for many years. Walter was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Jessie Trader; 18 brothers and sisters; one granddaughter, Nichole Feyder; and one great-grandson, Benjamin Anderson. He is survived by his children, Cindy (Dick) Feyder, Norman (Rose) Trader, Bonnie (Tom) Graham,...
The deadline to remove fish house from inland lakes is inching closer. For structures on lakes in the northern third of the state, the deadline is the end of the day Monday, March 18. The deadline was March 4 for the southern two-thirds of the state. If shelters are not removed by the deadline, owners may be prosecuted and structures may be confiscated and removed, or destroyed by a conservation officer. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources urges anglers who haven’t yet removed their shelters to make plans now to ensure they meet t...
Why is that we spend most of our lives wishing we could stay in bed longer during our working life, and now that we are retired and can sleep late, we can’t? I hear so many retired folks saying they wish they could sleep longer in the mornings, but with the habit of rising early for so many years, the body clock just wants to get up and get going at the same time when we are retired. Oh, and speaking of early risers, this coming Sunday we turn our clocks ahead so will lose another hour of s...
