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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A question was raised at the Wrenshall school board’s public forum Monday about where a bulk mailing came from. Was it through a board discussion or the opinion of merely the three people who were represented at the end of the letter? One signee, board vice-chairwoman Cindy Bourn, interrupted the speaker and said the mailing was a “campaign letter.” When asked how a reader would know, Bourn said it was “implied.” In response to an inquiry from the Pine Knot News, chairwoman Bergman said the letter was political and had nothing to do with the...
Minnesota Power seeks to increase electric rates by more than 18 percent, adding approximately $180 per year in electricity bills for the average household. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission holds ultimate authority in determining rates, and now requests input from the public on Minnesota Power’s proposal. The nonprofit Citizens Utility Board, the MN Department of Commerce, the Office of the Attorney General and others are pushing back on Minnesota Power’s proposal in a proceeding currently before an Administrative Law Judge. “Th...
Cloquet School Board members learned Monday that Washington Elementary School is one of a few schools across the state recognized as a sustaining exemplary school for its ongoing efforts with positive behavioral interventions and supports, or PBIS. Washington was first recognized for its program in 2020. Students and parents at Washington don’t call it PBIS, though — for them it’s “Purple PRIDE.” PRIDE stands for having a Positive attitude, being Respectful, Including others and Doing your best Everyday. It is essentially a code of conduct,...
It’s not often I contribute editorial content. My primary responsibility is to make sure we can pay the bills. In short, sell advertising. But I was reminded again of the importance of a local newspaper while listening to Weekend Edition Sunday on Minnesota Public Radio this past weekend. Ayesha Rascoe interviewed Amy Duncan of Indianola, Iowa. She and her husband recently bought the local newspaper from Gannett, a media juggernaut that owns hundreds of news outlets across the country. Gannett has been selling off local newspapers recently. I...
It seems to rush upon us every year ... berry season. After a rather chilly spring and wet past few weeks, there are berries galore in the area. Honeyberries came first at Farm LoLa in Wrenshall and now the strawberries are going at places like Spectrum Farm in Carlton. Raspberries and blueberries are coming in what is expected to be a bumper crop compared to those during last year's drought. We received some recipes to try from Spectrum and LoLa. If you have one you'd like to share, send it...
Hey, as I get ready to send this week’s news, the date is 7-11-22, so let’s hope it’s a lucky day and week. Our sincere sympathies to the family of Bethlehem and Bethany Lutheran’s former pastor Edward Nieman, who passed away July 4, 2022. His funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12 at Faith Lutheran Church in Coon Rapids. Send cards to the Nieman family at 13859 Quinn St. NW, Andover MN 55304-3944. So many friends and relatives were able to attend Arnie Kahara’s burial service a...
Cloquet rebounded from a fairly disastrous July Fourth by making the most of July Fifth: holding a last-minute stand-still parade Tuesday evening before the movie and fireworks to make up for the canceled parade on Monday. Cloquet Fourth festival co-coordinator Ivan Hohnstadt said the idea for the stand-still parade came to him late, after a cold and wet July Fourth that saw the parade canceled and the movie and fireworks postponed to Tuesday. He emailed committee members at 1 a.m. and called...
The County Seat Theater is full of life this summer as nearly 150 young actors put on their best act. The summer youth theater camp program is nearing the end of its four-week session on musical theater. Each week of theater camp ends with a show, "Off Their Rockers," which takes place in a senior center where all is quiet and calm until the center director decides to use music and dance to bring fun and excitement into the lives of the seniors. Each week, 30 new students dance and sing to the...
Fifteen future peace officers finished skills training on Friday morning, then celebrated graduation that afternoon at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. The class of 2022 was the 22nd group of students to participate in the Law Enforcement Skills Training program at FDLTCC. During the ceremony, graduates Alexis Houle of Duluth, Katie LaTourelle of Saginaw, and Duluth's Key Powless provided commentary on their experience in the program. Former graduate Ian Johnson, of the Duluth Police...
The talk is preliminary at best, but there is a movement afoot to explore replacing the grass at Bromberg Field in Cloquet with artificial turf. At the Cloquet school board meeting last month, superintendent Michael Cary provided an update on possible future plans for the facility that hosts an aging track and football field. There wasn't much to report, except that the community group that formed several months ago and the board subcommittee were going to meet, after Cary met with the group in...
With July Fourth in the rearview mirror, summer festivals are now coming fast and furious. Moose Lake and Wright will celebrate their signature events next weekend, with Agate Days running July 16-17 and Wrong Days in Wright starting one day earlier, with events planned for July 15-17. Perhaps the most exciting news out of Moose Lake is the return of the Clark-Olsen Agate Stampede at 3 p.m. Saturday following a pandemic pause the last two years. For the uninitiated: people line up on both sides...
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College was set to kick off its Hot Summer Nights concerts Thursday with a show by the acoustic duo PK Mayo and John Wright. The concert series is free, and shows are 7-9 p.m. the first three Thursdays in July in the FDLTCC amphitheater. Next up, enjoy groove trio New Salty Dog on July 14, followed by Rock-a-Billy Revue, a band with a history of bringing fun to every show, on July 21. Each exciting evening will feature music great for the entire family. All...
Often, we learn a lot about our own country, state, city and workplaces by sharing experiences with counterparts around the world. In late June, I flew to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to participate in a weeklong exchange with cultural economists from Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. We last met in Valdivia, Chile, two years ago. The participants in the exchange included professors, researchers and students from many countries, including Portugal, Spain, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and...
The Minnesota Wilderness junior hockey team held its main training camp last week. Roughly 135 players were expected to attend the three-day event, which concluded Thursday with an all-star game at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. According to a Wilderness news release, coaches said they would use the all-star game to determine who will be invited to the season-opening training camp later this summer. All NAHL teams must have rosters reduced to 25 players by Sept. 1. The team is...
Wrenshall school board members voted unanimously Thursday, June 30, to authorize an outside investigation into allegations of misconduct. The special board meeting was brief and very formal, but public, with motions made after advice from John Edison, the district’s attorney from the Minneapolis firm Rupp, Anderson, Squires & Waldspurger. Last week’s special meeting was held specifically to authorize the investigation, after a motion to hire investigator Justin Terch was tabled at the June 13 board meeting so board members could further inv...
A Holyoke man was found guilty last month of sexually assaulting his 9-year-old daughter in a case that began 11 months ago. Following a trial June 21-23, a jury found Calvin Bartz, 35, guilty of multiple acts of second-degree criminal conduct in Sixth District Carlton County Court on June 23. The charges stemmed from a report made in August 2021 to the Two Harbors police department. According to the criminal complaint, Lake View Memorial Hospital called the police to report the sexual assault of a juvenile girl. The girl’s mother told police t...
It was by no means your typical Fourth of July in Cloquet this year. And, really, why should it have been, after all we’ve gone through in the past three years? We went from no events in 2020 due to the threat of the pandemic to a limited event in 2021. This year, the weather was the menace, but it created a rarity: two days of events. This was the first year of Fourth organizing by us here at the Pine Knot News, under contract with the city. Call us biased, and certainly exhausted, but we are proud of how things went despite a wet chilly Monda...
The Carlton County forecast for Monday includes a military flyover and parades in the morning, followed by family-friendly fun all afternoon and a movie and fireworks at night. As of Wednesday morning, it also included a 40-percent chance of rain, but Cloquet July Fourth organizers are optimistic ... and determined. "We haven't had to cancel in the past 10 years, maybe ever, so we are hopeful Mother Nature will work around our activities," said co-coordinator Jana Peterson. Both the communities...
In a world where veteran organizations are shrinking, this group is growing faster than similar organizations across the country. In a time when volunteers are often hard to find, this group has stepped up for the community too, taking over the Christmas and Thanksgiving community meals. This year's July Fourth grand marshal is not one, but many: the nearly 650 members of the Carlton County Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Chapter 18. "It was an easy choice to make," said Ivan Hohnstadt, Cloque...
The Wrenshall school board was scheduled to have another meeting to discuss an investigation of “allegations of misconduct” on Thursday, June 30. It wasn’t determined before this issue of the Pine Knot News went to press whether the meeting was open or not. It also wasn’t clear if the board intended to discuss the charges or merely its plans to hire an outside investigator. Earlier in June, the board had two closed meetings to discuss complaints about two employees. Board chairwoman Misty Bergman later said the district employees involve...
A Cloquet man facing manslaughter charges after an alleged fight gone wrong is working toward a plea deal with the Carlton County Attorney’s Office. Joel Jay Ammesmaki, age 59, was charged with first-degree manslaughter in September for “causing the death of another while committing assault in the fifth degree with such force and violence” that death or great harm was “reasonably foreseeable.” Ammesmaki was scheduled for a contested omnibus hearing to argue probable cause for the charges on Monday. The hearing was delayed by nearly an hour a...
A public meeting Monday regarding captive deer, elk and moose farms yielded two surprises: news of a new elk farm in the county and a state agency’s refusal to give county officials any information regarding the new business. The Minnesota Board of Animal Health denied a request by Carlton County for any information on a new elk farm in Moose Lake Township. The reason for the denial was that the site location is considered proprietary information and protected. Neither the county or township was consulted on the new venture. County land c...
Many years ago, I was in the audience when the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the legendary civil rights activist and election mobilizer, gave a speech. He often used the catchphrase, “Keep hope alive!” when he spoke, and he did so that time. The audience picked it up as a chant. “Keep hope alive!” they called. “Keep hope alive!” It was a memorable bit of political showmanship. A few years later, I gave a speech at a small college in Iowa. I used it to analyze all the challenges our country faced, domestic and foreign, and finished thinking I’d done a pre...
I owe my career to Patty Murto, and now that she's no longer around to thank, Jana is letting me do it through this column. Not that I haven't thanked her before. Over the years, I told Patty plenty of times that she's responsible for getting me started in my own law practice, and she always pretty much responded in the same way - "nonchalantly" is the best way to put it. Patty was one of the rare do-gooders in this world who were not in it for the glory. Nor was she in it for the power. I don't...
One of the top scorers in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League was the top pick for the Minnesota Wilderness in the June 15 NAHL draft. The Wilderness selected Elliot Dutil from the Notre Dame Hounds as the 30th overall pick in the draft. Dutil, a native of Montreal, had an impressive rookie season, piling up 37 goals, 30 assists and 67 points in 58 games for the Hounds. His totals were good enough for second in the SJHL in goals and fourth in the league in points. The Wilderness selections also included former Grand Rapids High School...
