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 2739 - 2763 of 3909
As of Tuesday, July 21, the Carlton County auditor’s office had mailed a total of 5,293 ballots for the Aug. 11 primary election, with 1,606 absentee and 3,687 mail ballots going out. It’s a huge jump compared to past elections, in both categories. For the 2016 primary, there were a total of 139 absentee ballots requested, and 1,758 mail ballots. For the 2018 primary, there were 418 absentee ballots requested, and 2,186 mail ballots. As the coronavirus continues to threaten the health of people locally and across the country, county acting aud...
The Minnesota Department of Corrections will close its two smallest prisons - Willow River and Togo - because of a budgetary crisis, the DOC announced Monday. The move comes after the legislature adjourned from the recent special session without action on the agency's supplemental budget request. The Department of Corrections faces a budget deficiency of approximately $14 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. The combined annual budget for Togo and Willow River is approximately $11...
As a pandemic summer heats up meteorologically, so has the national rhetoric around how school districts will start classes in August and September. Normally sleepy and short meetings of school boards across Carlton County have become hours-long discussions on what school days will look like in the fall. Committees of staff have formed and ramped up planning in the past few weeks as an announcement is expected Monday from state leaders on how things will proceed. While Covid-19 cases in...
The Carlton school board decided on Monday to go it alone on a $3,000 study that would determine what district residents would pay in taxes if a consolidation with Wrenshall should ever come to fruition. The financial impact study would pinpoint how taxes would be affected for residents in both districts as they put fund balances and debts together. It’s something Carlton and Wrenshall board members have said should have been done in the process of providing information to residents about the consolidation. On Monday, Carlton members said g...
Saying that a man she once had a relationship with told her “paybacks are a bitch,” a woman told a Cloquet police officer this past weekend that she was held against her will for 34 hours and repeatedly raped and assaulted by a Scanlon man. Dennis Michael St. John Jr. was arrested Sunday and charged Tuesday with six felony charges after the alleged victim reported a horrific series of events that began at Black Bear Resort Casino late Friday night. According to the complaint filed in Minnesota Sixth District Court in Carlton, the alleged vic...
The City of Carlton has added playground equipment to the Northern Pacific Junction bike shelter area, much to the delight of monkey bar users Winston and Berkeley Leno, ages 6 and 7. Last year the Barnum school district was getting new playground equipment and put out a request to other communities to see if there was interest in the old equipment. Carlton wrote a letter in response stating how it would use the playground and where it would be located. The request was granted and the company...
Due to staff vacation time, the Pine Knot office at 122 Avenue C in Cloquet will not be open the next two Fridays, July 31 and Aug. 7. We will be checking voicemail at 218-878-9332 and emails. Contact [email protected] or [email protected] with any questions....
FDLTCC releases spring dean’s list Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet announced that 149 students attending the college during spring semester achieved high academic standing and earned dean’s list honors. Requirements for the list include maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or higher while completing 12 or more course credits during the semester. A total of 1,358 full-time and part-time students were enrolled at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College this past spring. The following students from the region earned dean’s list honor...
Crew members from "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" spent part of two days this week at Gordy's Hi-Hat in Cloquet. They filmed customers, staff and four generations of the Lundquist family over that time period, doing close-up interviews and even flying a drone over the landmark Cloquet restaurant, which celebrates 60 years this season. The last time the well-known Food Network show visited the Hi-Hat was 10 years ago, when show host Guy Fieri came to town to sample the Northland's favorite burger j...
The 55th annual Wrong Days in Wright took place last weekend with a somewhat scaled back list of events. The events were not as well attended as in the past, but at least folks got a chance to get together in a safe and socially distanced way. Friday night’s fireworks concluded just as the storm’s fireworks began. There was a lot of thunder and lightning, then the rain came down in torrents for a few minutes, along with some pretty strong winds. I had an emergency bag packed just in case I had...
In the six years since a housing study showed a need for lots of new housing in Cloquet and Scanlon, there's been what amounts to an apartment building boom. That was the goal, said Cloquet Community Development director Holly Hansen. Seeing how many housing units the two cities needed - 260 rentals, 240 owned units - caught people's attention. And things started happening. "It stimulated major conversation with lots of boards like the EDAs (economic development agencies, city councils, Carlton...
Former Carlton County attorney Thom Pertler is facing possible disciplinary action regarding unprofessional conduct during his tenure with the county. Susan Humiston, the director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, filed a petition for disciplinary action with the Minnesota Supreme Court on July 6. The complaint centers around Pertler's failure to follow through with duties to disclose all exculpatory evidence (favorable to defendants), specifically by not disclosing miscon-...
Effective Wednesday, Black Bear Casino Resort is 100-percent smoke-free inside the building. Guests may still smoke outside. General manager Dan LaPrairie said the Reservation Business Council made the decision to go smoke-free on Tuesday and he implemented the policy within hours. It was something LaPrairie had been thinking about for a long time before he took the recommendation to the RBC. "When I first took over I recognized that times were changing when it came to smokers and nonsmokers,"...
Lengthy discussion, followed by two attempts to vote for a Carlton County mask policy, ended with no clear choice for a majority of the Carlton County Board of Commissioners at their regular meeting Tuesday, July 14. “I believe the board should set an example supporting the wearing of masks in public,” explained commissioner Dick Brenner. “The safety of our employees is our responsibility and all visitors to a county facility should wear a mask if social distancing is not possible.” To this point, each department head has set mask and social...
Two people were seriously injured Tuesday, July 14 when a furnace apparently blew up and mostly destroyed a home in Silver Township. Carlton County Dispatch took a report of an explosion and structure fire at 4080 Korhonen Road at 8:53 p.m. Tuesday. The initial report indicated that a 75-year-old female victim had been injured and a second victim was trapped inside the basement. The 52-year-old female was able to get out of the basement before the Kettle River Fire Department arrived. She...
Bad news for paper manufacturing workers in Maine will likely bring a bit of stability for Sappi’s operation in Cloquet. The company announced on July 9 that it is closing by the end of the year Paper Machine No. 9 and major components of the biomass energy complex at its Westbrook, Maine mill. It will shift the base paper production there to the Sappi mills in Cloquet and Skowhegan, Maine. There are 75 workers in Westbrook who are expected to lose their jobs, about 30 percent of the w...
Superintendent John Engstrom pressed hard and Carlton school board members pushed back. In the end, they seemed to have come to some clearer idea of what the district's future might look like, consolidation with Wrenshall or not. It was an interesting yin and yang Monday night as the new superintendent gave his take on the state of the consolidation process and information he'd like to acquire before moving forward. He also urged the board to plot its course should no bonding money come from...
A one-vehicle crash just after midnight Friday left one person dead and another with non-life-threatening injuries. Patricia Mylonas, 36, of Duluth, was driving a GMC Envoy west on Highway 201 near Markusen Road in Cromwell when the crash occurred. According to the Minnesota State Patrol report, she corrected left, then right, then skidded left before the car crossed into the east traffic lane, leaving the roadway on the left shoulder and rolling before coming to rest. According to the Minnesota State Patrol report, Mylonas was not wearing a...
With 16 regular election judges bowing out of the primary election due to concerns about coronavirus, the city of Cloquet is hoping younger residents will step up for the primary on Aug. 11 and the general election on Nov. 3. Depending on their assigned duties, Cloquet election judges are paid $12-$14 an hour. By law, election judges are granted time off from their regular work. Cloquet typically has about 50 judges throughout its six polling locations. Duties include working a full or half shift between 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. or later on the...
A lawsuit accusing the Minnesota Department of Corrections of not fulfilling its obligations to protect prisoners in Moose Lake from the Covid-19 pandemic was dismissed Monday. Sixth District judge Leslie Beiers dismissed the case, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota against the Department of Corrections on April 15. Initially filed on behalf of three inmates - later only two - the petition asked for the release of the three prisoners and others in a similar situation to a...
Were you one of the many people that decided to try your hand at gardening this summer? Whether you are a novice or an experienced gardener, or just interested in enjoying the freshness of summer all year long, we invite you to learn more about preserving your harvest. Please join Suzanne Driessen, University of MN Extension Food Safety Educator as she presents free webinars on food preservation. Dates, times and registration links to the free webinars are as follows: How to Freeze Food for Safe and Tasty Results, July 16, 2020, 10-11 am; R...
Cloquet City Councilors passed a resolution Tuesday, July 21, that will require face coverings in public indoor spaces. The law will go into effect Saturday, Aug. 1, to give businesses time to put up signage or a copy of the resolution. The vote was 5-2, with councilors Kolodge and Langley dissenting. Read more in this week's Pine Knot News, the only locally owned and independent newspaper in Carlton County....
While the Duluth City Council will vote on a proposal Monday to require people to wear masks in public spaces and gatherings, the Cloquet City Council isn’t quite ready to take that step. Mayor Roger Maki broached the idea during a council discussion of ongoing pandemic measures by the city to limit the spread of COVID-19. Maki pointed out that it’s a popular discussion point right now, with cities like Rochester, Mankato and Edina implementing requirements for face coverings recently. Additiona...
ATV accidents on July Fourth killed a woman in Barnum Township and a man in Holyoke township. Tricia Jean Lanthier, 47, of Proctor, died of injuries received in the Barnum Township crash, which was likely caused by limited visibility from excessive dust. Emergency personnel responded to a 911 call at 11:40 a.m. Saturday, reporting an ATV crash at the intersection of County Road 139 and County Road 6 in Barnum Township. Carlton County Sheriff’s deputies and the Minnesota State Patrol responded along with Emergency Medical Services from the B...
The Minnesota Insulin Safety Net Program launched July 1, and will allow Minnesotans in urgent need of insulin (less than a seven-day supply on hand) to access the life-saving drug through their pharmacy. The Insulin Safety Net Program is made up of two parts: 1) The urgent need program for eligible Minnesotans to receive a once-per-year 30-day supply of insulin immediately at their pharmacy for no more than a $35 copay; and 2) The continuing need program for eligible Minnesotans to receive up to a one-year supply of insulin for no more than...
