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 1174 - 1198 of 3909
A house about 10 miles northeast of Cloquet was deemed a total loss Wednesday morning, Jan. 11. The St. Louis Sheriff’s Office reported that a call came in just after 8 a.m. and multiple area fire departments were dispatched to 4425 Solway Road in Solway Township. The office said a homeowner, the only resident at the home, called 911 after returning home and observing smoke coming from the residence and a fire in a bathroom. Fire departments from Solway Township, Grand Lake Township, Industrial Township, Canosia Township, Proctor, H...
The number of home radon tests completed during real estate sales in 2022 was down 39 percent from 2020, even though home sales did not decline, a new analysis from the Minnesota Department of Health showed last week. Reduced testing means fewer home buyers are identifying and reducing this cancer-causing hazard. The health department analyzed professional radon testing data for 2020 to 2022 and found that in 2022 there were 19,976 real estate tests reported by professionals, which was lower than the 32,537 tests reported in 2020. The...
An 83-year-old Palisade, Minnesota man was killed Tuesday after his pickup lost control on Minnesota Highway 210 and was struck by a box truck. Gary Lynn Rognrud was traveling east in a Chevy Silverado when the crash with the westbound truck occurred in Aitkin County’s Jevne Township, near 257th Avenue, a Minnesota State Patrol news release said. The crash was reported at around 9 a.m. Rognrud was taken to Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, where he died. The driver of the work truck, 53-year-old Robert Carl Hannahs, of Nis...
The Thomson Township Board of Supervisors appointed David Sunnarborg to fill the vacancy on the board at its meeting Jan. 5, following more than four months of an empty seat and controversy surrounding the original appointment process. Sunnarborg’s appointment by the board followed his resignation in mid-December in order to allow the board to reset its appointment process. The Minnesota Department of Administration ruled in December that the board violated open meeting law in September during the process which led to Sunnarborg being a...
After receiving a single proposal to redevelop the 103-year-old Hotel Solem in downtown Cloquet, the city’s economic development authority is pumping the brakes on the future of the condemned property. “We’re putting it on hold for now,” said Holly Hansen, community development director. Requests to redevelop the three-story building that was formerly Mexico Lindo were due late last year. One developer offered a proposal and another toured the site while offering to wait and see, Hansen said. Hansen declined to get into specifics about the sea...
The newly constituted Wrenshall school board went straight to the heavy lifting this week, bracing for the end of its superintendent’s career, while posing the idea of sharing a top administrator with neighboring Carlton. In a letter sent to the Carlton school board this week, the Wrenshall board asked if there was interest in sharing administration, a school nurse, and grounds and maintenance staff. Last year, the districts agreed to consolidate all sports and afterschool programs beginning this spring. The letter comes as the Wrenshall b...
The man responsible for one of Carlton County’s most heinous crimes died in prison this week. Donald Blom, 73, passed away on Tuesday at a state correctional facility in Oak Park Heights, where he was serving a life sentence for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of Katie Poirier, 19, of Barnum. “It was one of those cases that will be with me forever,” Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake said Wednesday. “What that family has gone through is just unimaginable.” Poirier had been working alone when she encountered Blom, a serial offender, who forced Poi...
Gov. Tim Walz kicked off his second term last week saying he wants to make Minnesota “the best state in the country for kids to live” and promising “the largest investment in public education in our state’s history.” Walz made specific mention of prioritizing universal school meals and making mental health help more accessible for young people. Last year’s attempts to pass education legislation floundered amid political disagreements between the DFL-controlled House and the Republican-led Senate. So did other proposals on health care, taxes... 
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Unlike the U.S. House of Representatives, it took only three votes and less than an hour Monday for the Cloquet school board to elect its new leader. Nate Sandman and Gary Huard were both nominated for the spot previously occupied by Ted Lammi, who was not reelected to the school board in November. The first two votes were a tie, with Melissa Juntunen, Huard and Sarah Plante Buhs voting for Huard, while Dave Battaglia, Sandman and Ken Scarbrough voted for Sandman. With Sandman already filling the role of acting board chair, the board then moved...
Bright blue skies, fresh snow and crisp sunshine of the weekend gave way to choking fog and haze across much of Minnesota on Monday and Tuesday and into Wednesday before another snow squall hit as a cold front passed through the state. The fog was evident along Interstate 35 in Carlton County, and Duluth was shrouded for three days. What’s behind this sudden turn to poor air quality that has prompted an alert from state officials through Wednesday — and left many Minnesotans with coughs, irritated eyes and burning throats? It’s the calm, quiet... Website
The Carlton County Sheriff’s Office was investigating a break-in at the Esko post office on Tuesday. A sign on the window noted the post office was closed for the day, citing an “ongoing investigation.” Lt. Dan Danielson and members of four squad vehicles from the Sheriff’s Office were on the scene late Tuesday morning. They were shuttling boxes in and out of the office, and speaking with residents arriving to find the office closed. The sheriff’s office received a call early in the morning T...
A lost or abandoned Siberian husky spotted by numerous people in Scanlon throughout December finally has a new home. The stray dog was trapped and rescued Dec. 26 by volunteers, and now resides in a temporary foster home for huskies in the Twin Cities area. The dog, first dubbed "Pete" for the way it was spotted around Trapper Pete's Steakhouse and Saloon, then "Petey" once her gender was discovered, has now been given the name Violet. "I felt bad for her," said Cindy Peterson, owner of Trapper...
A chapter in the history of two small-town basketball programs will draw to a close next week. But when it comes to the annual "Jug" games between the boys and girls teams at Carlton and Wrenshall, the question that arises is to what extent the history of the games has even been written. There are few definitives when it comes to the origin of a jug being the centerpiece of rivalries that go back generations. Those facts come from the jugs themselves, which have written on them the past scores a...
Commissioner Susan Zmyslony was sworn in as the new commissioner from District 4 of Carlton County this week, representing the southeast portion of the county, including Carlton, Barnum, Wrenshall, Mahtowa and Holyoke. Judge Rebekka Stumme officiated over the ceremonies Tuesday, which also included the swearing in of re-elected District 2 Commissioner Marv Bodie, County Attorney Lauri Ketola and Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake. The annual county board organizational meeting saw District 1...
Applications are now being accepted for a new grant program to support Minnesotans purchasing their first farms. The Down Payment Assistance Grant program is managed by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and offers dollar-for-dollar matching up to $15,000 for qualified small-farmers to purchase farmland. The MDA’s Rural Finance Authority (RFA) is awarding this funding in a first come, first served application process that opened Jan. 4. The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $500,000 in Fiscal Year 2023 for these grants. Farmers m...
The state’s federal legislators are weighing in on recurrent mail delays being experienced by residents throughout northeastern Minnesota. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Pete Stauber both addressed the topic last week. “During the past weeks, I have heard from many of you from all around the Northland about major disruptions in mail delivery,” said Stauber, R-Hermantown, in a Facebook post. “In some areas, people haven’t received mail in three weeks.” Klobuchar, a Democrat, wrote U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Dec. 31, urging him to do e...
Fresh from his oath of office, Rep. Jeff Dotseth promised on Tuesday to represent all of his constituents during the newly opened session of the Minnesota State Legislature "It's an honor to represent the people of our district at the Capitol," said Dotseth, R-Kettle River, in a news release. "I thank my constituents for entrusting me with this incredible responsibility and will do my level best to represent all the people of our district. It was a heartfelt swearing-in ceremony - humbling...
Cloquet students returned to school Wednesday — well, most of them did. With several inches of snow having fallen the night before and continuing that morning, some were delayed while others stayed home because of challenging roads. Superintendent Michael Cary said the “secondary” rural roads — often the last to be plowed — are the most challenging after snow events and Wednesday was no exception. In this case, a bus driver lost traction on a hill, but couldn’t back up because there was a turn at the bottom and they didn’t want to risk endin...
Jumpers from as far away as Chicago and Ishpeming, Michigan traveled to northern Minnesota last week for Central Division meets in Cloquet and Coleraine. The Cloquet Ski Club hosted its invitational on Friday, Dec. 30, at Pine Valley. The Cloquet ski jumps - built in the 1960s from steel donated by the railroads - join Coleraine as the only jumps left in Greater Minnesota. More than 50 jumpers competed in this year's meet. "We handed out 70 bibs, but some kids did more than one jump," explained...
When Wrenshall voters made wholesale changes to the makeup of the district’s school board during the November election, their mandate was clear: end the infighting and put the struggling district back on track. The three first-time electees, Eric Ankrum, Mary Carlson and Ben Johnson, were scheduled to be sworn in during the first meeting of the year late Wednesday. But before then, the Pine Knot asked the newcomers about a series of issues, including the district’s struggling enrollment and finances, the search for a new superintendent, and...
The dining hall and kitchen at Cloquet's Zion Lutheran Church were filled with the Christmas spirit Sunday, as volunteers and community members came together to celebrate. Joanne Lehrke was dressed for the occasion, wearing an elf hat to top off her red and green Christmas sweater as she enjoyed some antipasti with Mae Line and Lillian Abrahamson, in advance of the ham dinner. Abrahamson couldn't believe how much food was on offer. "This is the Italian way," said Rosa Johnson, whose husband,...
As 2022 came to a close, Rep. Mike Sundin left the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul one last time on Wednesday. But not before the Esko Democrat cleared out his office after 10 years as a representative for District 11A. "I'm going back to help Mary Murphy pack up, and that's going to be tough," Sundin said of his fellow DFL lawmaker and longtime friend. "I'll be helping her vacate an office she's held for 46 years. But it's a changing of the guard." It's been that kind of year throughout...
The wet snowstorm that fell on the region two weeks ago - causing many headaches with power outages - was followed by subzero temperatures and howling winds just before Christmas, making for slick roads. There were a handful of crashes around the region leading into the holiday weekend. Because of the conditions, most drivers were going slowly enough to avoid any serious injuries. Expected power outages caused by blizzard-strength winds did not materialize as winds kicked up on Dec. 22 and into...
What a difference a year makes. Last December, nearly two dozen upset Thomson Township residents attended the Cloquet Area Fire District truth-in-taxation hearing, many of them to address the board about a more than 300-percent increase in their proposed ambulance taxes. This month’s fire district truth-in-taxation hearing saw only four audience members, with only one — former CAFD board member Eric Rish — from Thomson Township. While Rish used the Dec. 8 meeting to ask several questions about how other communities supplement coverage of ambul...
This month’s snowstorm that dropped heavy, wet snow across much of the state has significantly affected ice conditions, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Slush adds weight to the ice and its effects can be unpredictable. In some areas, slushy conditions are impacting travel on the ice, while in others — especially where ice was in the early stages of forming — the conditions are not adequate to support ice shelters and vehicles, resulting in breakthroughs. When on the ice, people should check the thickness for thems...
