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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After the fall musical was canceled because of the pandemic and the One Act play was entirely online - including rehearsals - director Darrell Davey was determined to make sure every student who wanted to be in the spring play could do so. Of course, he also had to take Covid-19 into consideration. After pondering, Davey and assistant director Iris Keller decided the best way would be to have two completely different casts for a one-act play. The casts did everything separately: rehearsals,...
In the spring of 1975, Esko senior discus thrower Bill Hudspith was participating in the state track meet in St. Cloud. On his final throw of his senior year, Hudspith unleashed the best throw of his career at 162 feet, 4 inches from the circle and set a school record. Little did Hudspith know his record would stand for 46 years. "I had no idea it would last that long," Hudspith said. "We've always had a strong throwing program here in Esko and I would never have thought it would last that...
On the morning of April 23rd, heaven came to reclaim an angel, our friend and mother Jan Evans. She passed away from complications from a recent struggle with cancer. Janet Helen Smail was born Aug. 17, 1947 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Edward and Wanda Smail. She graduated from Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1965. She then attended college at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where she studied special education. In 1969, Jan married Jim Evans and taught special educ...
Cloquet versus Hibbing. Boys basketball 1976 Region 7 finals. Showcased players in this game are future Gopher and NBA player Kevin McHale at 6-foot-10 for Hibbing and 6-foot-3 (and ½ inch) Cloquet center Jay Shogren. The Bluejackets won the game and finished second in the Minnesota boys basketball state tournament. McHale went on to be all Big Ten at the U of M, the third overall pick in the NBA draft, played on three world championship teams with the Boston Celtics and had his number...
Three-year-old Ellie Hatfield isn't quite sure what to make of the rooster she got to hold during Saturday's Chicken Swap in Carlton. Hatfield's dad, Caleb, said they have ducks at home and now Ellie wants to add pigs and maybe even chickens to the mix. Dad isn't so sure. The rooster's owner, Bonnie Warner of Silver Bay, said she comes to the Chicken Swap in Carlton every year. She sold about half her eggs and half her ISA Brown birds Saturday, and shared a lot of advice with interested...
Vandals spraypainted a Nazi swastika and a Star of David - a widely recognized symbol of Judaism - on the back of the toilet shelter at Cloquet's Veterans Park last week. The symbols and the letters "olf" and maybe "jaz" or "taz" were quickly removed by city parks staff, who power-washed the building. Cloquet parks maintenance worker Karin Stedman said they found more graffiti underneath the Highway 33 overpass, letters and numbers that may have been gang signs. There were also more...
Music can have some surprising ways of bringing people together. And now - after several years apart - the Carlton choir is back by popular demand. They're set to livestream their spring choir concert on Sunday. Carlton's previous youth choir had to disband in the spring of 2013 after nearly five years of making choral music. Last year, high school students who had sung in that choir as elementary schoolers remembered how much they had enjoyed singing together. They got together and asked that...
Due to the pandemic, there will be no flapjacks this year for Harold's Flippin' Fiasco. Volunteers are, however, taking donations for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital on Saturday, May 1, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Four Corners, Carlton....
The Carlton Area, Cloquet and Moose Lake public libraries will be offering juggling kits May 1-31, while supplies last. The “Juggling: A Not-So-Brief Introduction” take-and-move art kit, designed by COMPAS Teaching Artist Benjamin Domask-Ruh, provides a primer on the ancient artform, introducing the history, science, theory and beginning technique. Three antibacterial handmade Russian-style juggling balls, filled with 100 grams of salt and sealed, are included to encourage immediate jug...
For several years the Rotary Club of Cloquet has sponsored two local projects revolving around literacy, an important mission of Rotary International. This month a total of 299 third-graders from Churchill, Washington, Winterquist, South Terrace, and Wrenshall elementary schools each received a handy dictionary/reference book to keep. In addition, 286 kindergarten students at the same schools each received a personal story book with the characters and the settings preselected by each student and woven into a story. The kindergarteners are...
The U.S. Census Bureau released the first population data from Census 2020 Monday, showing that Minnesota’s population grew by 7.6 percent to 5,706,494, outpacing most Midwestern states and keeping pace with the national average.The state grew just enough to hold on to all eight of its congressional seats. “I want to thank Minnesotans for their nation-leading civic engagement, which made us the No. 1 state in responding to the Census,” said Gov. Tim Walz. “Because of that participation, we will be fully represented in Washington and will ha...
Despite cold (for April) temperatures and a layer of snow that covered the ground, close to 50 people turned out Saturday for an Earth Day cleanup organized by the Boldt Company along with the city of Cloquet. "It's still easy to find the big stuff," said Camille Wilton, who was picking up trash with her daughter, Lynnea, age 8, along the south side of the St. Louis River on Dunlap Island. "We've found towels, plastic, lots of liquor bottles." Volunteers were divided into five groups of roughly...
It is now apparent that the construction of a new jail/justice center will be the most significant Carlton County project since the Carlton County courthouse was built in 1922. County coordinator Dennis Genereau related that one of the candidates for a new Carlton County auditor/treasurer position shared that observation during the job interviews earlier in the day before the Carlton County Board Adjourned Session Monday, April 26. With that as a backdrop, Genereau requested permission from the...
"If I yell for my dog, I know they will come to me." We hear people say this all the time, but unfortunately 90 percent of the time it does not work, and it actually makes the dog run farther away. This behavior exhibited by lost dogs has absolutely nothing to do with their training, background, or love for their owners. Survival mode is a primal instinct for lost dogs. All they are thinking about is food, water, and shelter. Survival mode is what keeps lost dogs alive in a plethora of...
As the school year winds down to a close, Cloquet school administrators and board members began signaling changes for the next school year Monday. In actions taken every spring, board members approved terminating 10 long-term substitute teacher assignments at the end of the current school year, along with those of 11 first-year probationary teachers. Sometimes those probationary teachers — who have not achieved tenure — are rehired for the next school year, superintendent Michael Cary said, and other times it gives administrators the opportunit...
A psychologist at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) in Moose Lake was arrested last week for allegedly engaging in sexual relationshp with two clients over the past four years at the treatment facility. Michelle Dawn Brownfield, 38, was charged in Carlton County Sixth District Court on Monday, April 26, with two counts of felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct. MSOP is a secure treatment facility serving clients committed as sexually dangerous persons and sexually psychopathic personalities. Brownfield is a Minnesota licensed...
It’s springtime; we’re emerging (hopefully) from a year of pandemic isolation; and many of us are returning to work, all of which is making our roads busier than we’ve seen in quite a while. And while we’re not sure things are even close to getting back to normal, we know that encouraging safe driving is good for our community. Statistics from the Minnesota Safety Council traffic safety programs show an increase in speed-related traffic fatalities last year — the highest since 2008. Distracted driving, often linked to cell phone use while dri...
As a longtime resident of Cloquet, I would like to encourage the city council to retain the project labor agreements. I wonder if the men who think union dues are such a burden know how many of the things they take for granted — overtime pay, the 40-hour week, paid vacations and so on — were the result of union action in the past and that, at one time, men died for the opportunity to unionize. Ronald Reagan tapped into the same pool of ill-informed Americans that Trump did. Celebrity, to this group, is the only qualification that counts. Rea...
My name is David Hallback, and I previously held the position of Mayor of Cloquet. It was an honor to represent the citizens of Cloquet. I was proud of many things that moved Cloquet forward during my tenure. However, I am troubled by the recent discussion to remove the project labor agreement (PLA) ordinance. The PLA does not restrict any contractors, union or nonunion; they are all allowed to bid and work on these projects. These are public and private projects in the city of Cloquet where taxpayers’ money is used to either pay for a city p...
There’s a lot of talk about raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, which is one of the campaign promises of the Biden administration. I’m uncomfortable with such a high minimum wage, but I understand the issue is not as simple as either side wants us to believe. For example, business people tell us that many small businesses won’t be able to afford such a high minimum wage, and will have to close down. But I think most businesses will adapt. There will be a completely new way of provi...
T. S. Eliot begins his "The Burial of the Dead," the first section of his poem, "The Waste Land," with this: April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. I'll always remember these lines which I first read in college. And especially so this April, with its occasional warm teases followed by below-freezing...
Last week’s paper contained quite an example of our elected officials — the attorney general, Minneapolis mayor and our governor — demonizing our lawmen and -women. I would hate to be one of those who put on the uniform, kiss their family goodbye and go out to face the unknown. Think about it. Systemic racism — what does it mean? Does it apply to me? My wife? Or is it something that does not exist (or only in the race baiters)? We hear officials talk about defunding the police, no minor traffic stops (I’ll save hundreds of dollars not buyin...
Last week I submitted an opinion piece to the Pine Knot about a bill in the MN Legislature:, Senate File 421/House File 239. I have since discovered that I made a mistake about one of my assertions. After reading the bill again I realized that our tax dollars are not paying for infrastructure to turn toxic confinement animal manure into un-natural biogas. Instead, the cost of infrastructure for turning that huge volume of toxic confinement animal manure into un-natural gas would be funded through utility rate hikes, which is even worse. If tax...
In just over two weeks, 600 finalists from around the world will gather for the Regeneron International Science and Engineer Fair to dazzle scientific experts with their projects and compete for nearly $5 million in awards, prizes and scholarships. Four Northland students will be attending, three of them from Cloquet: junior Harmony Tracy and sophomores Emily Sapyta and Rowan Rock. Joining them is East High School sophomore Emelyn Beaster. Only this year, it will be virtual. Sports competitions...
The kids aren't the only ones who were recognized at the 84th annual Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair this spring. Cloquet science fair mentor and computer programming whiz William Bauer won the prestigious Seagate Excellence in Science Mentoring Award, which recognizes an outstanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teacher who finds creative ways to nurture students' interest in scientific research and discovery. Cloquet science teacher and science fair...
