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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For the record, in the 1960s the West End of Cloquet produced and developed most of the city’s elite young golfers and future Olympic cross country skiers and ski jumpers. With Cloquet Country Club and the new Pine Valley Ski jump located there, neighborhood kids could walk or ride their bikes to these tremendous facilities. Central and eastern Cloquet kids had the Civic Center indoor gym on Cloquet Avenue and outside basketball hoops at Garfield, Sacred Heart, Pinehurst, Washington and Leech s...
Although hopefully we’ll be mowing grass rather than moving snow soon, I thought a group of people — the “snow people” — deserve a standing ovation from all of us. All those people operating snowplows, loaders, blowers, roof rakes and shovels that kept our roads, parking lots, streets, sidewalks and roofs cleared so that life could go on, so everyone could get to where they needed to go. It is a tough job, always out in the worst of conditions: watching for trash cans, mailboxes, pedestrians, dogs, kids, cars and what other dangers might be...
The state legislature is busy finalizing the omnibus bills that fund all the state agencies and local governments. Within the omnibus bills there are new policy provisions; the public safety and judiciary omnibus bill has new policy provisions associated with reducing gun violence. The local state legislators have voted against the public safety and judiciary omnibus bills that would also appropriate funds that would support emergency services. Which raises the question if some major crimes in the senate district could be prevented. The Bureau...
Tucker Carlson, one of the most popular television personalities on Fox News, lost his job this week, to the cheers of liberals and to the tears of conservatives. But then Don Lemon, a liberal talk show host on CNN, was fired, too. That news softened the blow for conservatives who like to scream about the “liberal media” (a phrase about as false as the election fraud claims) and irritated liberals who like hearing Don attack conservatives on his weeknight show. I’ve never seen either progr...
We found a soggy letter washed up on the shore of the St. Louis River in Scanlon this week and thought we'd share it with readers who likely can relate: Dear Old Man Winter, Let's just start off with this old saw: It's not you, precisely. It's me. We need to break up. Well, maybe it is a bit more you. Yes, you've been rather warm the past six months, and you are just being you when it comes to, well, wintry stuff. But lately you've been messy, and I've asked you time and again to clean up your a...
You don’t really own your land, right? The government just lets you use it as long as you pay your taxes, and, of course, you have to comply with zoning laws and all sorts of rules and regulations. Maybe you have a mortgage, so the bank owns some of your property, too. When I ask clients if they own a home, there’s a common answer: Well, I’m making payments to the bank. I hope to own it someday. I can tell you that “ownership” of real estate means that you have the right to occupy and control t...
Ahh, springtime. The time of year when the snow melts, the mud puddles get deep and the winter snowbanks recede to allow the piles of doggy doo to rear their ugly faces. But not all is bad, because we know the rains of April will wash away the dinginess of late winter. Springtime in the sports world means stretching muscles that have atrophied over the winter months and using the warmth of the sun to help get you limber enough, depending on your age, to go for a walk, a run, or to dodge the...
Early this year, the Gallup organization came out with a survey of Americans on how they view the ethics of various professions. Nurses ranked at the top. Doctors, pharmacists, and high school teachers did well, too. Real estate agents and bankers were considered about average. Down at the bottom? Telemarketers. And members of Congress. So you can imagine how our representatives in Washington feel, knowing that a proven liar in their midst, George Santos, continues to garner headlines and...
Sometimes lawyers have to argue in favor of issues they are opposed to. For example, a lawyer dedicated to First Amendment rights may defend a pornographer on constitutional grounds, although he’s opposed to the proliferation of smut. Or a criminal defense lawyer may feel icky defending a child molester but will still vigorously defend his client because he believes in our system of “innocent until proven guilty.” And sometimes a lawyer has to defend a county board’s right to declare their c...
Our children are sitting ducks, dying in regular school shootings. Thoughts and prayers won’t stop the shootings. Gun violence is now the No. 1 cause of death for children under 17. Suicides account for the majority of gun deaths in Minnesota and happen mostly in rural areas affecting mostly white men. And yet, some of our legislators oppose doing anything about our national public health epidemic of gun violence. Two bills working through the Minnesota House and Senate would work together to save lives without affecting gun rights. R...
As a young married man, now 75, we purchased our first home with a coal-fired (by hand) furnace. Our second was also heated with coal; however, we had a stoker we would fill every two or three days, pulling out clunkers daily. Those days are gone as coal’s days are numbered, even as a generating power for all power companies. Many homes are also heated with fuel oil. Two of my uncles owned fuel oil companies in Duluth, now closed. At $4.18 per gallon with a 265-gallon tank, the cost to fill would be over $1,100. With all heat forms being c...
Each year, thousands of volunteers in Minnesota donate their time and energy to make their communities a better place to live. These volunteers will be among the millions across the country who will be spotlighted during National Volunteer Week, April 16-22. One group that relies heavily on volunteers is the University of Minnesota Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Program. During National Volunteer Week and every week throughout 2022, Minnesota 4-H celebrates and appreciates its more than 6,700 volunteers — each one critical to the suc...
The Legislature is gearing up to spend our money this week, so I thought I’d review some of the ways they plan to spend it. First, they are planning to increase wages and funding for the courts. As a lawyer, I can see the need. I’m not going to argue about why the court system is so busy and overworked, because there is another approach to solving that problem. Let’s just admit there is a problem, and increased funding will certainly help. The Legislature will increase salaries for court staff,...
Mike Shannon was such a curmudgeon - with a capital C - a picture of him could be expected next to the word in any illustrated dictionary. I had many maddening conversations with him in low light at the Gaslight tavern in Sandstone. This small town in Pine County had an inordinate number of talented musicians at the time, now nearly 20 years ago. Just when Mike would tear at the last remnant of likability I may have had, he would shuffle over to the piano and start playing. He was transformed....
Lately, I’ve been pondering how marvelous and challenging live and in-person human performance can be. Of course, machines perform as well, by design. But machines don’t have feelings and/or unique intelligence that can be mobilized to enhance expression. We also may enjoy products that convey or reflect on expression, such as films, recordings, books and magazines. But nothing can be as marvelous as live human expression offered up to others. A week ago, while in New York City, I attended a n...
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Every Christian learns it from the time they are little - Jesus died for my sins. But what does that mean? How does that even work? And why did it happen? This is Holy Week, the most solemn days for Christians in the Church year. This...
The Cloquet City Council and Mayor Roger Maki did the right thing last week when they voted to eliminate the project labor agreement mandate for private businesses. We elect the mayor and the councilors to look after the city of Cloquet, and that should be their top priority. If the private PLA mandate is discouraging investment in businesses or housing here, that’s not good for Cloquet. The fact that zero developers have signed a private PLA since it was mandated in 2017 is proof that the requirement was, indeed, limiting development here. Z...
It’s difficult to explain why, exactly, there’s a disagreement over the revised project labor agreement (PLA) requirement for city-funded economic development projects. Just asking the question is confusing enough. But like most political issues of the day, the solutions are both nuanced and obvious. It all stems from Cloquet’s requirement that private construction projects that receive city aid valued at over $175,000 (usually in the form of loans and tax-increment financing; the city rarel...
Thank you for your heartfelt story by Brady Slater in the March 17 issue. It was nice to see you honor a friend and one of the best mechanics that I know. I have been a loyal customer of Tom Getchell’s for decades, and so were my sons. It was nice to have a multigenerational garage and mechanic to take care of my family’s automotive needs. When my boys moved away to St. Paul I told them to find a local garage like T&N Auto, somebody you can trust. Unfortunately, they are still looking. It was good to see the chief mechanic get recognized for al...
March Madness is a great time of year if you are a basketball junkie. With multiple media outlets allowing for the televising of games, you can hardly miss any of the scores or stories that surround the tournaments. Even high school scores are readily accessible, such as this year when the Cloquet girls played Grand Rapids in the regional championship. Tough loss, though it is my belief that I would rather be in the game and have a chance to win than to never have been in the game and always...
Throughout life I’ve toggled between professional worlds, working in journalism or being employed in human services as a caregiver. For the first time, I’m juggling those. I work part-time at the Pine Knot News, of course, and also for a Cloquet outfit which houses and cares for people with disabilities. As part of my latter work, I go with people on 1:1 outings. I chauffeur. We connect. We do fun things. One week, we played miniature golf and shot hoops at the carnival baskets at Adventure Zone in Duluth. Another week, a gentleman and I wen...
On Sunday, March 26, I had a fall on ice at a local store. A kind man who was driving a truck at this store helped me without being asked to by moving my car where I lay on the ground and helping me to get back into it. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for his help. Thank you for taking the time to keep me safe. I hope you receive many blessings in return for your kindness. Peggy DeCaigny, Cloquet...
I love (Kermit Nielsen’s) ideas for security dogs in schools. (Column in the March 24 Pine Knot.) As a teacher for 45 years, I could see it working. I wonder if you could get your friends at Proctor High School to pilot a program. You most certainly would meet with some resistance, but I’ll bet you would find enough support to give it a go. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Lane Bendzick, Barnum...
There is a fine line between public duty done right and dereliction, and currently the city of Kettle River is skating on it. After a lengthy letter from the state auditor’s office in February outlining a long list of questionable procedures by elected city officials and city employees, the city found itself in trouble with procedure once again. This time it was in the process of declaring a vacancy on the city council. That’s all well and good, since member Monique Doward has missed meetings for more than 90 days. State statute allows a cou...
It was August 8, 1991, before I ever called my buddy Rolf’s dad “Bud” like everyone else did. Until that date, he had been “Mr. Kragseth” to me for over 20 years. This memory came back last week. I frequently drive the neighborhood kids to school along with my own; the five of them are pretty good buddies and it’s fun to hear them discuss the important issues of the day as we make our way to the middle school and high school. I used to participate in the conversation but as the kids have gotten...
