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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Sometimes I feel like I’m 12 years old. Other times I feel all of the many decades of my nose to the journalism grindstone. It’s a constant battle of finding the youthful energy to be indignant versus what the spent energy will yield in the end for one who’s seen this all before. This too, shall pass. Ignore all the noise. Save your energy. The current state of public discourse on a national and local level has reached an unnerving point, especially in a state known for its civic sense of duty and interest in getting a fair shake for everyone....
A group of local students and staff got caught up in a wave of flight cancellations last weekend, when bad weather, a glut of travelers, and staffing and technology issues caused more than 10,000 U.S. flights to be canceled or postponed. That meant 30 Cloquet High School students and five staff members and chaperones found themselves unexpectedly stranded in Miami from Sunday through Wednesday, when the second leg of their return trip from Costa Rica was canceled with no explanation. CHS...
Lane Johnson, a researcher at the Cloquet Forestry Center, knows a needle in the haystack when he sees one. "I have a photo mystery I wonder if your readers might be able to solve." He's looking for an original print of a photograph scan he found in the Carlton County Historical Society records for the forestry center. The image title reads: "Presbyterian Church Picnic, Forestry Station, Cloquet." "It seems the print was part of a photograph collection scanned by the (museum) some time ago but...
Local historian, playwright, journalist and storyteller Dan Reed will be selling (and signing) copies of his new book, “We spoke of many things,” during the Knot Gallery art reception Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Pine Knot News office at 122 Avenue C in Cloquet. Although the book is a historical narrative of Reed’s extended family, he said readers have told them they recognize echoes of their own family experience. Check out next week’s Pine Knot News for a story about the book, Reed and a l...
Judge Amy Lukasavitz's chambers is a work in progress. There are just a few personal touches in the office that was once the realm of fellow Carlton County Sixth Judicial District Court judge Rebekka Stumme, who moved into the chambers of retired judge Robert Macaulay. Lukasavitz was appointed to replace Macaulay last fall. While Stumme gets the larger chambers and a personal bathroom, the newest judge smiles while sitting in the light pouring in through the large courthouse windows in Carlton....
Cloquet police chief Derek Randall said Tuesday that police are still waiting for autopsy results for Amanda Cadotte, a 33-year-old Cloquet resident who died on March 3. According to a news release, Cloquet and Fond du Lac police departments, along with the Cloquet Area Fire District, responded to 956 Trettel Lane in Cloquet on a medical call at approximately 7:24 a.m. March 3. Cadotte was unresponsive and pronounced deceased at the scene. Cadotte is survived by four sons. Randall said the investigation hinges on the medical examiner’s r...
This overreaching deer was recently found in Frankie and Norma De Dominces' yard in Cloquet. "We live on the outskirts of the city and frequently see many deer," Norma said. "This deer was raiding our bird feeder and I was surprised she could reach that high." Norma said it may be time to "raise the bird feeders higher."...
I remain struck by the tagline for WDIO-TV in Duluth: “With You For Life.” Seems ominous, doesn’t it? It’s a double entendre, maybe. First meaning, perhaps, “with you through this journey of life.” But if it is a double entendre, I’m not sure if they really want you to think that you are tied to them for your entire being. As a typical Minnesotan, that aggressive connotation is just that, a bit aggressive. I think of “With You From the Cradle to the Grave” or a life sentence in prison. So does that tagline hit its mark? I reviewed these thought...
With Ann Carlander's help and Annie Dugan's encouragement, Knot Gallery curator Ann Markusen put out a call for portrait art for the April/May exhibit, and a variety of area artists responded. One, Ivy Vainio, uses photography as her art form, as Markusen reviews below. While this is the first time Vainio's photographs will grace the 100-year-old brick wall that is the Knot Gallery at the Pine Knot News office, the four other artists are returning exhibitors, and show a different side of their...
Ivy Vainio's large-scale photo prints of Anishinaabe elders grace our multicolored brick wall at the Pine Knot News office, a striking introduction to a portrait exhibit which opens today, April 8, with an artists reception 5-7 p.m. at the Pine Knot Gallery at 122 Ave. C in Cloquet's West End. One set of Vainio's photos depicts elders participating in cultural events. Virgil Sohm shares an Anishinaabe hand drum song, photographed at the Kiwenz Ojibwe language camp. Another captures the late Ron...
The County Seat Theater Company will present what general manager Joel Soukkala calls a "diva-licious farce" beginning Thursday, April 14, after a Covid-19 case pushed the debut back from the planned opening today. "Suite Surrender" is set in 1942 with two of Hollywood's biggest actresses (portrayed by Mimi Effinger and Etta Souter) descending upon the luxurious Palm Beach Royale Hotel with assistants, luggage, and a legendary feud with one another in tow. Everything seems to be in order for...
It's been rousing fun tracking some of the feedback I've been receiving from my column March 4 on local high school basketball scoring records. Carlton County sports fanatics have much to be proud of with its basketball heritage. Records continue to fall and the dialogue of which specific generation of teams and individuals is the "best" is a top local coffee shop conversation igniter. Thanks to Dwight Cadwell, WKLK radio personality and local sports expert, I was corrected on who holds the...
A second period of wild swings in action culminated in two Minnesota Wilderness power play goals that propelled them to a 4-2 victory over the Springfield Jr. Blues April 1 to complete a sweep of the two-game series. Niko Rexine scored twice and Will Persson added the winning goal and an assist in leading the Wilderness to a 5-2 victory Thursday night. The wins kept the Wilderness in third place through the weekend in a chaotic NAHL Midwest Division. The Wilderness have a 8-1-1 record in their last 10 games. They’re now nipping at s...
With bears emerging from hibernation in the coming weeks, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reminds homeowners to check their property for food sources that could attract bears. "Please take the time now to remove or secure anything that could attract a bear," said Eric Nelson, DNR wildlife damage program supervisor. "Prevention is key. Once a bear finds a food source, it will likely return again." As bears emerge, their metabolism gradually ramps up and they will begin looking for...
Contributing photographer John Dahlman of Floodwood is seeing a host of activity in his backyard as spring gradually comes to the region. He spotted this bobcat on two days in mid-March. And the birds are coming and going as well. A blast of ice and snow in the middle of this week put a damper on the human notion that spring has sprung. If you have wildlife or nature shots you'd like to share, please send them to us at: [email protected]...
Jane (Bimberg) Oswold was good enough to spend some time with this picture we presented in February of the sixth-grade class at the old Scanlon school in 1962. After all, she's in the picture. Here is what Jane came up with, using the names of the children at that time. Front row: Tom Branham, Rick Wilkinson, Larry Hawkinson, Jane Bimberg, Joyce Juntunen, and Mary Hawkinson. Middle row: Bev Bruno, Milt Zezulka, John Everson, Sue Bruno, and Sue Mell. Back row: Bill Kelly, Carol Morken, Adele...
The State Climatology Office is looking for volunteer rainfall monitors for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. The network includes more than 20,000 volunteers nationwide who measure precipitation in their backyards using standard 4-inch diameter rain gauges and submit reports online. Climatologist Pete Boulay said the data from backyard rain gauges are helpful and important in many ways. “These volunteers help to verify high rain totals after big events, monitor drought and flooding, make our precipitation maps more a...
The Pine Knot News will hold an opening reception for our new portrait exhibit, featuring five artists, each working in distinctive genres: Ken Hanson, Cynthia Johnson, Ivy Vainio, Sue Brown Chapin and Kris Nelson. The reception is free and open to all, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, April 8, at the Pine Knot News at 122 Avenue C. Look for a story on the exhibit in next week’s Pine Knot....
Carlton County officials didn't waste any time with the latest round of financing for the new justice center. The call for a sale of $27.5 million in bonds took only 12 days from presentation to final approval at Monday's county board meeting. PFM, the company the county uses to organize bond sales, had earlier advised that borrowing money would cost more soon due to pressure from the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to dampen higher inflation rates and uncertainty about how the U.S....
Don't blame the flag designer from 1893. It was a rush job, with one significant requirement that is vexing vexillologists today. That's the word used for flag experts, people who study and comment on flag design. This month, the state legislature is mulling the idea of a new state flag. For years, vexillologists have urged a new flag based on some pretty solid design principles. Our flag is unremarkable, a state seal on a blue background like so many other state flags. It is printed on one...
Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine, a peaceful independent nation, can only be explained by revisiting late 20th-century history. I am rusty on much of this, so I’ve spent some time reviewing the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The totalitarian Soviet Union began to change course in the mid-1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev, as general secretary of the Communist Party, initiated glasnost, supporting more open discussion of political and social issues and ushering in democratization of the...
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are seeking public comments on their recommendation to remove an impairment designation from the St. Louis River Area of Concern for Degraded Fish and Wildlife Populations Beneficial Use. There will also be aan open house discussion on April 14. The U.S. and Canada identified the St. Louis River as one of 42 Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOC) in 1987 as the result of...
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College will celebrate its 2022 Fine Arts week with two book events later this month. Navajo author Brian Lee Young will read and sign copies of his book, "Healer of the Water Monster," at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, in the Ruth A. Myers Library or via Zoom. Young is a winner of the American Indian Youth Literature Award for best middle grade novel. The book explores Navajo cosmology and climate change as the book's hero, 11-year-old Nathan, discovers the...
A social media message between four teenage boys from Cloquet and Esko that was filled with derogatory statements about Native Americans left many students, parents and district staff reeling in shock last week. It also put Cloquet and Esko on the list of schools around the state that are dealing with what feels like a wave of overt racism, including students making monkey noises at Black basketball players and other students flashing a known white supremacy sign. In the case of the local students, it was a Snapchat thread Thursday afternoon,...
The local softball world lost an icon last week when Roger Plachta passed away. I first got to know Roger when I coached against him in the 1990s in the Lake Superior Fastpitch League in Duluth. I eventually joined him and one of my dearest friends, Mike Sylvester, on the coaching staff at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. Roger was a character in the truest sense of the word. One minute he was chewing out a player for not giving her best, the next minute he was telling her she was the best...
