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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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...
At times, I have been very critical of local government, but I actually applaud their day-to-day work of taking care of maintaining roads and bridges and snow plowing: For the most part, the road crews do an excellent job under some trying circumstances. My Thomson Township board also does a very good job of administering our fire department with its fiscal and moral support. What I am critical of is the “beyond day-to-day” routine issues the board deals with twice a month. More generally, many local governing boards are usually reactive to...
What are we missing? We think (1) climate change is an existential issue requiring major, immediate, bipartisan government action; (2) government and policy that reflect the majority would promote a more perfect union, and (3) more unites us than divides us. But others disagree. We invited you to tell us. What are we missing? We’ll be ready with notebook and pencil to write down what you tell us, at these locations 4-5 p.m. Thursdays: • TJ’s in Mahtowa July 14 • The porch at the Chickadee in Barnum July 21 • Tables in front of Joe Jitters i...
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...
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...
I went to Wrenshall schools and have lived in the district longer than most of the people who seem to have the need to bash the board. My history with the district does not, however, give my opinion more truth. Just because you went to Wrenshall School or worked for the school does not make your words more truthful. I believe the educational system is under attack by groups that want to project their thinking on developing minds. One purpose of a school board, in my opinion, is to prevent possible outside groups from inserting themselves into...
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...
For the last few months we have been attending our Silver Township meetings to find out why we do not have fire coverage in our area. The saga continues and we still do not have coverage due to confusion and rewriting of the contract, as I understand. A lifetime resident shared after our latest meeting, “It’s like pulling hens’ teeth to get anything done here the last couple of years.” Each meeting we’ve been to has been rather tense, but it has also been a clarion call to residents to band together against an apparently purposeful disruption i...
I've never responded to an editorial before, but I can't let this pass. We have been fighting so hard to keep our school going and great things have happened up until this school board decided to run with rumors, become racist, fight against the core teachers who make our school what it is and feel threatened by our superintendent. One who is so valuable because she understands the system and put together — along with her colleagues — the updating of our building. No only on that level does she shine, she knows our students personally. She tak...
Typically, when cops show up at your door, it’s not the best news of the day. When they show up after midnight, it almost always isn’t fun. Back in the day — 10/15/25 years ago, in this town, when the cops showed up it was 100-percent likely to be a chubby-esque white dude in his 50s (or looking like it) with either coffee or liquor or both on his (always “his”) breath and either impatience or disdain in his attitude. Things have changed around here. One of the few benefits of qualifyin...
The celebration of Pride Month each June has become more and more familiar over the years since gaining popularity in the early 1970s. The purpose of this celebration is to appreciate the LGBTQIA+ community and to allow people who identify with this group to feel safe and supported. This year, a group of high school students in Wrenshall school, including myself, gathered in celebration of the first day of Pride Month and the last full day of the school year. That day, we decided to print out a...
What is wrong in Wrenshall? That’s a question that has been vexing anyone following the actions of the district school board in recent years. As it was stated at Monday’s regular board meeting during the public comment period, Wrenshall once had a reputation as a small and efficient place to get an education, a “hidden gem.” Today, that status is damaged. While often there can be myriad reasons for discord in a small community, in this case there is just one: a mostly dysfunctional school board. It’s a board with members who have insulted commu...
It began raining at midday on June 19, 2012. Five inches and about 10 hours later, I found myself driving in the heart of what has simply become known as the 2012 flood. I had been working two jobs. One was for the weekly newspaper in Two Harbors and another was for the daily News Tribune in Duluth. When I pulled off the expressway coming back from Two Harbors and into Duluth, I called the News Tribune office and reported what I had seen. Water was covering blocks and blocks of Superior Street and it was rushing down the avenues. Debris was...
By now, most of you may be aware that there’s a new Fourth of July coordinator in town, and it’s the Pine Knot News. That doesn’t mean we are sponsoring the event: that’s done by residents, businesses and organizations through financial donations. What it does mean is we have been hired by the city to work with the Fourth committee and others to make certain Cloquet continues its tradition of offering a day filled with family friendly activities, most of them the same type of activities we paren...
Here’s what’s beautiful: Your daughter’s firstborn, rolling on the floor like she did at that age, chin-drooling like she did, round, wet eyes like underwater jewels and an insatiable appetite for pretend-rough, morning bed-wrestling, the inexplicable joy of him giggling and growling and the unfathomable poignancy of watching her watch the two of you, seeing her remembering herself as him, a lifetime ago and a moment, something in her catching every time you get close to Too Much, the way your w...
It's encouraging to finally hear national politicians being willing to talk about passing better gun control laws. I hope it doesn't take too long of a wait. I also hope the willingness is serious and not just because this is an election year and we are on the verge of beginning the campaign season. My concern is that the talks may drag on until after the election without action and then fizzle. Several years ago on a TV talk show shortly after another mass shooting, the host played several brief clips of different politicians commenting on...
Fuel prices: I don’t want to pay any more for fuel (heating, transportation, etc.) than anyone else, but our U.S. society is truly spoiled, and has been since the late 1960s. When I was a small child in the early 1950s, my dad was making a decent blue collar wage of 75 cents per hour and gasoline was 25.9 cents per gallon, over a third of his hourly wage! This would translate to $7.33 per gallon for a wage of $20 per hour. A “living wage” is now about $30 per hour, which makes $10 per gallon the equivalent. And heating fuel was compa...
After Uvalde, there are, again, millions of takes on social media and in conversations across the country. Millions of emotions. Millions of reasons, searching for blame. A cry about just what is in us as a people that lets this happen time after time. This reaction to another shooting in America is exhausting, frightening and just so maddening. How we respond is just as fractious as the divisions among us socially and politically. Can we add to the mix? Maybe. In the whole, there can seem little to say that will change gun culture in America....
Recently, a couple of reporters at The New York Times published an intriguing story about conversations between House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of his leadership team. It was shortly after the events of Jan. 6 at the Capitol, and they were talking about what to do about then-President Trump. His conduct, McCarthy said, had been “atrocious and totally wrong.” Moreover, wrote Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin in their article, McCarthy “faulted the president for ‘incitin...
In the "clichés are clichés because they are true" department, I offer one here: Newspapers record the first draft of history. For me, there is nothing like going back into newspaper archives and reading first accounts of events, historic and not so historic. It's a passion of mine in downtime, rabbit holes to get lost in. And so it was recently when I went about following up on a reader query about where in the world was the trophy for the 1963 Cloquet basketball team that finished second in th...
Transparency in government is important. That’s why we’d like to applaud the Cloquet school board and superintendent Michael Cary for deciding this week to continue livestreaming school board meetings. Yes, the pandemic is over and many — but not all — school districts and other governmental bodies have stopped making their meetings available online. That’s too bad. Because livestreaming a public meeting tells your constituents that you want to be both accessible and transparent. That you have no secret agendas. That you don’t fear people bein...
We can easily imagine the remark coming from those picking up the Pine Knot News this week. “That’s a hefty paper.” Indeed. We are proud to once again show you all the beaming faces of this year’s graduates from schools across the county. We know these sections mean a lot to the high school seniors and their families and friends. We urge you to look closely at those faces, for this year’s crop of graduates have been through a lot. Imagine the last three years of your hometown education bombarded by the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever...
About 30 county residents, including farmers, conservationists and entrepreneurs, met at the Carlton County Transportation Department Thursday, May 12, for two hours discussing politics and stewardship of our land. With the November election in view, participants shared ideas about government roles in encouraging return on investment, regulation, subsidies and community involvement. Jeff Dotseth, a real estate agent, meat producer, and Republican candidate for Minnesota House District 11A, participated in writing with support for the meeting an...
There’s a lot to be questioned when it comes to the human capacity for kindness. There is much to consider in world events and politics, especially if you follow too closely on social media. It makes one wonder what kindness in your own sphere can possibly matter. We resort to the butterfly effect, and, really, to the purpose of the Pine Knot. We are extremely focused on what happens right here, right now. That shrinks things a bit, and opens the possibility that one kind gesture could have an impact. It could spread, and make our own b...
