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 ripple effects of Flint, Michigan — where a change of water supply caused water pipes to corrode and leach lead into the drinking water — are still expanding almost 10 years later, thanks in large part to a federal campaign to ensure clean drinking water everywhere. Cloquet is not Flint, but changing laws and standards around drinking water led to a mailing from the city of Cloquet to 2,100 residents last week about water lines and the potential for lead. Noting that the letters caused some alarm and lots of questions, public works dir...
The candidate forum organized by the Cloquet Area Chamber of Commerce got a makeover for 2024. Instead of candidates sitting side by side in the Cloquet City Council chambers in front of a live audience, individual interviews were recorded without an audience. Those interviews can be found on the city’s website at https://cloquetmn.new.swagit.com/videos/317878, or on the city’s CAT-7 channel (for Mediacom customers). The Cloquet forum features candidates for MN House District 11A and Carlton County Commissioner District 1 onl...
We’d love to hear from you. The Pine Knot News wants to hear from subscribers and others about what they like or don’t like in the local newspaper, suggestions for improvement, why you read newspapers and where else you get your news. To take the survey online, just go to www.research.net/r/PineKnotNews. The online survey will be available through Nov. 8 only....
A bicyclist was struck on Highway 45 early Tuesday morning. According to a Minnesota State Patrol report, the driver of a Ford Focus was traveling southbound on Highway 45 and struck the cyclist in the roadway about one mile south of Interstate 35 at approximately 4:44 a.m. Tuesday. The cyclist, 34-year-old Michael Lawrence Benson of Wrenshall, was transported with non-life threatening injuries to Essentia Health in Duluth, according to the MSP incident report. He was not wearing a helmet. The driver of the Focus, Wrenshall’s 60-year-old D...
A Duluth woman died after a one-vehicle crash around 3:12 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26 on Interstate 35 in Thomson Township. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, Rebecca Ann Peterson, 41, was driving a Honda Pilot northbound on I-35 near County Road 61 when the vehicle went off the road, striking a series of trees. The vehicle came to rest in a wooded area south of I-35, near milepost No. 245. Peterson died of her injuries enroute to Essentia Health in Duluth. According to the MSP incident report, she was wearing a seat belt....
Cloquet police confirmed Tuesday, Oct. 29, that a deceased person was found in the wooded area behind the 218 Taphouse and a temporary pumpkin patch at approximately 9 p.m. Oct. 18. A preliminary investigation did not uncover any firearms, bullet holes, or other apparent indicators of foul play, according to a news release issued Tuesday. "No evidence suggests suspicious circumstances," said Cloquet Chief of Police Derek Randall. The man was later identified by the Midwest Medical Examiner's...
Whether the Carlton school district consolidates with Barnum or Wrenshall, taxpayers in Carlton face higher taxes, say a pair of financial reports acquired by the newspaper. Last week’s revelation that Carlton and Barnum officials were considering consolidation between school districts included reference to a pair of financial impact reports conducted for Carlton by a Roseville, Minnesota financial advisor of public institutions. The Pine Knot received what were similar 13-page reports generated this year from Ehlers Public Finance Advisors, d...
The thought of objection to a marijuana smoking prohibition in public places evaporated like a puff of smoke at the Carlton County board this week. Unlike when restaurants and businesses went smoke-free in 2007, and bars followed in 2015, there was no great debate or consternation when the topic of public vaping and marijuana smoking cessation surfaced during a public hearing of the county board on Monday. The public hearing to change Carlton County’s smoke-free ordinance to reflect legalized adult marijuana use came and went without public c...
The City of Wright will join with the Wright Community Club at 6 p.m. Nov. 13 to discuss changing the ball field direction. This is an open meeting for the community for ideas or questions of what will be happening in the park....
A detached garage in Skelton Township caught fire and was a total loss Saturday, Oct. 26. According to the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, a 911 call came in at 1:27 p.m. reporting the fire at 3234 County Road 157 in Skelton Township. The caller indicated that no people or animals were in the garage and it was not close to the home. Fire departments from Mahtowa, Barnum and Moose Lake responded, along with Essentia Health Moose Lake ambulance and Carlton County Sheriff’s Office deputies. The first deputy on scene reported the detached gar...
Esko High School students are putting on a production of the mystery murder play “Clue” at the school theater through Sunday, Nov. 3. Show times are 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. The play is based on the 1985 film of the same name, which is based on the classic board game Clue. Guests show up at a mansion under mysterious circumstances and soon the host turns up dead and everyone is a suspect....
Western Lake Superior Sanitary District will host a pumpkin collection event and fall celebration at its yard waste compost site 12-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2 to encourage the community to compost pumpkins rather than throw them away. WLSSD recycles the nutrients and organic matter of food and yard waste as compost. The community is invited to enjoy fall activities at the event, including pumpkin games, fall crafts, cocoa and snacks, and balloon twisting by Lauralloons. WLSSD will also provide 20-minute compost site tours at 1, 2, and 3 p.m....
This year’s Santa’s Home for the Holidays activities in Cloquet are being planned for Dec. 5-7, with many different organizations collaborating to make things happen, with most past events returning. The grand finale, as usual, will be the evening parade and fireworks....
Students at Cloquet High School voted early this week when they participated in a mock election held in the school library Wednesday. The election was set up like a local polling station, with seniors acting as poll workers to register voters, explain ballots and supervise the process. CHS government teacher Chris Swanson brought his classes to the all-day election each period. He said students had the opportunity to vote during a social studies class period on Wednesday. "This mock election is...
A Kettle River city council member pleaded guilty earlier this month to violating government data practices rules but is already appealing her guilty plea, according to court documents. It’s a case that has unfolded in court hearings and various petitions over roughly a year, with a long background of personality conflicts and previous actions by people named in the case. Many are currently involved in the governance of Kettle River: with witnesses including a city staff member and the mayor, t...
The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common virus that can cause serious respiratory illness, especially in older adults. In recent years, advancements in medical research have led to the development of a new one-time RSV vaccine, which offers much-needed protection for adults age 75 and older, as well as for those age 60 to 74 who are at a higher risk of severe RSV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, this vaccine is a key step in preventing severe RSV-related complications,...
My first year in Congress, 1965, was a watershed year. Among many noteworthy pieces of legislation, that was the year we passed the law creating Medicare and Medicaid. And I remember something crucial about it: When the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Wilbur Mills, brought the legislation to the floor of the U.S. House, he said we needed to build bipartisan support. This wasn’t an obvious thing to ask. Many of us had been swept into office in the 1964 Democratic wave that a...
Have you read media headlines lately? There apparently has been a renaissance across Minnesota and the nation on the joy of sauna. It’s now “cool” to cleanse your body and spirit in a hot, Finnish-inspired sauna. Of course, many locals know that, for it has been tradition in Carlton County and northeastern Minnesota for more than 100 years. The Finns, when they immigrated to this region of the state, often started homesteads by building a sauna. I grew up in a house with no bathtub, just a sau...
Like any other extracurricular activity, science fair offers kids the chance to take their talents as far as they can go. A handful of Cloquet kids have done exactly that over the past six months, advancing to statewide, national and international competitions to share their research and compete for even bigger awards. The following is a roundup of competitions and the students who got there. International Science and Engineering Fair Cloquet High School senior Grace Lavan and junior Johanna Ber...
The School Nurse Organization of Minnesota has named Sarah Ellena, Cloquet school district nurse, as its 2024 "School Nurse of the Year." The award annually recognizes one licensed school nurse in the state for "excellence in nursing practice and leadership." Ellena's career after graduating from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth includes experience in long-term care, pediatric and pediatric intensive care, public health and volunteer services, as well as nursing services in Carlton and...
The Esko girls made their mark in the Minnesota State Class A Soccer Tournament this past week. After winning on penalty kicks Oct. 24 over St. Cloud Cathedral in the opening round, Esko fell to top seed Southwest Christian, 2-1, in a tense semifinal game Tuesday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The first half of play was tightly played with the Esko defensive corps doing a stellar job of not allowing one of the state's best forwards, Maya Johnson, to get free as the teams went to halftime...
Wednesday, Oct. 23 Volleyball 7AAA Princeton 3 Cloquet 1 7AA Barnum 3 Moose Lake/Willow River 1 Esko 3 Pine City 0 7A Floodwood 3 Fond du Lac Ojibwe 0 Cherry 3 Carlton/Wrenshall 0 South Ridge 3 Silver Bay 0 Thursday, Oct. 24 Girls soccer Class AA State quarterfinal Esko 1 St. Cloud Cathedral 0 Friday, Oct. 25 Volleyball 7A South Ridge 3 Cromwell-Wright 1 7AA Rush City 3 Barnum 0 Esko 3 Mora 0 Saturday, Oct. 26 Football Section 5 9-player Cromwell-Wright 25 Ogilvie 0 Section 7AA Mesabi East 22 Barnum 14 Moose Lake/WR 47 International Falls 6...
It can be difficult to know just what might inspire a teenager these days, but Brenda Knudsen may have found something in October. The trails on Pincushion Mountain offer spectacular views of the harbor at Grand Marais and the expanse of Lake Superior. As Knudsen prepared her Carlton/Wrenshall girls cross country teams for the Oct. 10 Polar League Conference meet on those trails, she told them she'd jump into the lake if they won. "It was freezing," the coach said this week, looking back on a...
University of Minnesota first-year player Koi Perich was honored as the “Big Ten Freshman of the Week” after Minnesota’s 48-23 football win against Maryland Oct. 26. Esko’s Perich posted his Big-Ten-leading fifth interception of the season in the game, taking it 45 yards and setting up a field goal. Perich also made three tackles in the win. Perich’s five interceptions are tied for fourth most in a season in the Gopher record book, and it was his third-straight game with an interception. Perich also returned three punts for 31 yards, including...
More than 400,000 deer hunters are preparing for the firearms deer season that opens Saturday, Nov. 9, offering opportunities to spend time outdoors with friends and family, find adventure and put venison in the freezer. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife staff are reporting that there should be good opportunities to harvest deer in most areas, although numbers are still down in the northeastern part of the state. Despite a mild 2023-24 winter, deer populations in the northeast region are still low and will take multiple years...
