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 1 - 25 of 38
First, the bad news. The delayed arrival of a 700-pound, almost $60,000 electrical switch will delay the opening of Carlton County's new Justice Center by a few months. Instead of a July opening, the new 117,000-square-foot facility along County Road 61 in Carlton is now expected to open in October. "It was involved in a fire on its transport," Carlton County Jail administrator Paul Coughlin said of the switch. "It's heavily damaged. They had to reject it and build a new one that takes 26 weeks...
A renovated hotel and casino, a new tribal justice center and a cannabis facility near the intersection of Minnesota Highway 210 and Interstate 35 are among the projects in development by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The cannabis facility follows the direction of three other tribes - the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and Red Lake and White Earth nations - since marijuana was legalized in the state in August 2023. Caleb Dunlap, spokesman for the Fond du Lac Band, declined to...
Carlton teen Abrianna Schmidt just won the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's "Journey of a Song" contest. Schmidt's song, "Small Town Girl," won her an all-expenses-paid trip to Nashville, where she will be able to participate in the Hall of Fame's weeklong songwriting camp working with music producers and other artists. "I saw an ad for this specific competition," Schmidt said. "And they had a pamphlet and I came up with the idea of writing about Carlton and growing up in a small town." W...
Adolph E. Romanek, age 98, of Floodwood, Minnesota passed away on April 30, 2024, at his home under hospice care. Visitation will be held on Thursday, May 2 at 6 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at St. Louis Catholic Church in Floodwood. Visitation will continue Friday, May 3, at 10 a.m. until the 11 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial. Military honors will follow. Arrangements entrusted to Nelson Funeral Care....
Gertrude (Kerttu) Miriam Erickson passed away with her family by her side on Tuesday, April 23 at Inter-Faith Care Center in Carlton. Gert was born on January 29, 1932, to Charles and Anna (Korpela) Maki. Gert was married to Wesley Erickson on August 2, 1958, and together for over 60 years, they built their home in Esko and were blessed with four children. Gert was a proud graduate of Cloquet High School, class of 1950. Following graduation, she worked in labeling at the Cloquet papermill until...
Mona Jean Anderson, 82, of Cloquet passed away peacefully, with her husband and daughter by her side, on Sunday, April 14, 2024, at St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth, after a long illness. She was born Feb. 13, 1942, on a Friday the 13th, in Estherville, Iowa, to Gunder and Irene (Hogfoss) Fjalstad. She graduated from high school in Clark, South Dakota, and from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a degree in English. Mona worked in human resources for the Conwed corporation in Cloquet, where...
Cloquet native Jessica Lange earned a Tony Award nomination Tuesday for her work in Broadway’s “Mother Play,” which opened April 25 in New York City. Lange, 75, is a 1967 graduate of Cloquet High School. She is among the most accomplished actresses in the world, having won two Oscars (“Tootsie” and “Blue Sky”), five Golden Globes, three Emmys, and one previous Tony for her role in 2016’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” In “Mother Play,” Lange plays “a hardheaded matriarch, attempting to guide the direction of her children’s lives as they mo...
The future of Highway 33 intersections at Carlton and Cloquet avenues will be the subject of a second public meeting at 6 p.m. May 9 at the Cloquet Middle School cafeteria (2001 Washington Ave.). “After gathering feedback on alternatives and analyzing traffic and safety data,” the Minnesota Department of Transportation said it will share the results of information gathered at its second public meeting. The first meeting, at the Cloquet Public Library in February, drew strong criticism about roundabouts proposed for those intersections, and pla...
Get your dancing shoes on because New Wine is putting on a party, with Jesus and Judas as the two main characters in an updated version of "Godspell." "Godspell" is a (mostly) joyful musical that tells the story of the Book of Matthew and many of the parables through song. "All the songs are just full of energy, except for a couple tearjerkers," said musical director Jennifer Osborne. Many people will recognize the songs, including "Day by Day" and "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord," plus at...
Although University of Minnesota administrators say the transfer of the Cloquet Forestry Center is essentially a done deal, Carlton County legislators say they won't vote for bills proposed in the Minnesota House and Senate that would support the land transfer to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. In response to questions posed by the Pine Knot News, Rep. Jeff Dotseth (R-Kettle River) and Sen. Jason Rarick (R-Pine City) both said they would "not support" any measures to move this...
When the Northern Lights Academy was created seven years ago by the 12 school districts served by the Northern Lights Special Education Cooperative, it gave those schools a place to send students they couldn't serve on their own. It also gave the students - who might have autism or significant emotional and behavioral disabilities and/or mental health needs - a place where they could be surrounded by classmates with similar needs and teachers specially trained to help them. Northern Lights...
A Cloquet man was sentenced April 12 for physically abusing a 2-year-old child in his care, pleading guilty to felony third-degree assault. In a plea deal with the Carlton County Attorney’s Office, Travis Dean Thrun, 22, was sentenced to four years, with a stay of adjudication, resulting in supervised probation. Thrun was arrested in November by Cloquet police. According to the criminal complaint, witnesses, including other caregivers, reported the child suffered through a series of three strangulation events, as well as a weeks-old anal cut t...
The Cloquet Police Department is investigating a mail theft April 8, when the drop box outside the Cloquet Post Office was broken into, and the contents were stolen. In an April 26 news release, police said they believe people involved in the mail theft may have attempted financial crimes in other areas. The Moose Lake PD received a report of an attempted withdrawal from a local financial institution by someone using another’s identity. Police urge anyone using the mail dropbox in Cloquet on or around April 8 to take additional security m...
District 3 commissioner Tom Proulx of the Carlton County board announced his reelection bid last week. A campaign statement April 26 said: “Proulx looks forward to serving his constituents for another term, offering a commonsense approach to addressing the everyday issues facing the county in these unprecedented and difficult times.” Proulx represents most of Cloquet, including downtown and north along Minnesota Highway 33 to the county border. Proulx has been in office since 2009, winning the first election with 63 percent of the vote against...
Registration is open for plots in the Cloquet community garden, located at Zion Lutheran Church. Rent a plot for $20. Water, tools and fertilizer are included in the price. Contact Vicki Anderson at 218-451-0278 or [email protected] for more information....
The Arrowhead Library System is providing mosaic art take-and-create kits for member public libraries to distribute May 7-31. This art experience, created by Chisholm artist Rebekkah Anderson through Diletto, combines the art of storytelling through both mosaics and barn quilts. “Mosaics are an art form we don’t typically access in our area as a community, but they are so much a part of our regional history of storytelling,” Anderson said. Take-and-create art kits will include supplies to create a unique mosaic tile coaster, including tiles...
The Cloquet High School Ojibwe Quiz Bowl team recently took first place at the Minnesota Indian Education Association's 2024 Ojibwe Quiz Bowl. Next up is the 2024 Lester "Jack" Briggs Regional Quiz Bowl Championship on May 10 at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. Although it's not technically a "state" quiz bowl competition, "it might as well be," said Ojibwe teacher and quiz bowl coach Julian Kitto. "All the teams will be there." This school year marked the third year for Cloquet's most...
Fair warning out there, with spring comes a spirit of optimism, and the Pine Knot News is not immune. Thus, we give only positive feedback this week. Enjoy. Thumbs up to news that the legislature adopted compromise language for school district public notices that will keep them in local newspapers and allow only certain school districts — which unexpectedly find themselves without a local newspaper — to publish notices on their own websites until Aug. 1. Like Swift County Monitor-News publisher Reed Anfinson said in last week’s guest editorial:...
I moved to Cloquet upon retiring in 2017. I had previously lived in Chanhassen/Chaska, which were served by capable “local” newspapers. These papers and others were owned and operated by Southwest News Media. While having one company operating several regional papers made good economic sense (fewer staff, lower overhead, ability to sell ads in multiple papers, shared columns, etc.), it did so at the expense of each paper losing a bit of its truly local flavor. Shortly after I moved here, I was shocked to hear that Cloquet was getting its own...
Is Rep. Jeff Dotseth about to stumble again as he did last year with the bonding process that nearly cost Carlton County taxpayers $10 million in lost funding for the law enforcement complex in Carlton? In my opinion, Dotseth proved at that moment he cannot be trusted with issues directly affecting property taxes in Carlton County, and advancing our community’s needs should never again be left in the hands of his incompetent representation. Here we are again. In the current legislative session, Dotseth appears to have ambitious intentions f...
Thursday, April 25 Baseball Cloquet 2 Hermantown 1 Esko 6 Warroad 1 South Ridge 5 Hibbing 1 Barnum 4 Two Harbors 3 Boys Lacrosse CEC 13 Duluth Marshall 6 Softball Esko 11 Duluth East 1 Superior 13 Cloquet 3 Carlton/Wrenshall 8 ML/WR 6 Silver Bay 16 South Ridge 6 Friday, April 26 Softball ML/WR 6 South Ridge 5 Randolph 2 Barnum 0 Cloquet 4 Carlton/Wrenshall 1 Tuesday, April 30 Baseball Carlton/Wrenshall 3 Northwoods 1 Cook County 9 Carlton/Wrenshall 2 Esko 13 Two Harbors3 ML/WR 12 Barnum 7 Cloquet 4 North Branch 3 Silver Bay 8 Cromwell-Wright 4...
The Minnesota Wilderness rallied Friday only to end the season the next night with a 6-2 loss to the Anchorage Wolverines at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. The Wilderness, which trailed the five-game playoff series 2-0 coming into the weekend, extended the season Friday by beating the Wolverines 4-1, but Anchorage bounced back Saturday to win and take the series 3-1. "After winning on Friday night I think we were maybe emotionally drained," said Wilderness coach Colten St. Clair....
The Cloquet girls softball team got a little help from Mother Nature Tuesday when rainy weekend skies cleared enough to allow the Lumberjacks a chance to get on their home field for Senior Night. The Lumberjacks didn't disappoint the fans at Braun Park as they rolled to an easy 11-0 win over Duluth Denfeld. "It was a pretty special night for the seniors," said Cloquet coach Tyler Korby. "It was emotional for the seniors, but they all came out to play tonight for us." Cloquet's four seniors...
Esko hosted one of the largest local track meets of the year last Thursday at the Esko track and field complex. Eleven schools competed at the varsity and junior varsity boys and girls divisions at the Esko Showcase meet. "Every year our Esko Sports Alliance puts this meet on as one of our three big fundraisers to go along with the Bob Thompson golf tournament and the Coaches Classic over the holidays," said Esko girls coach Matt Peterson. "Bill Hudspith is the meet manager and Dennis Rengo...
Deb Hunter, a Cloquet High School and Minnesota Gophers women's basketball legend, was back in town sharing her hoops knowledge Tuesday. She was invited by Cloquet girls basketball coach Heather Young to address current Cloquet players and coaches. Hunter starred at Cloquet in the late 1970s and has had her Gophers jersey retired and her likeness forever displayed on a banner in Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. Coach Young introduced Hunter and asked Cloquet players and...
