PDD News Sieve
Duluth 2026 Primary Election Primer
The filing period for Minnesota state and county offices closed on June 2. Below is a tally of candidates who filed for races pertinent to Duluth-area ballots. Names that appear in red are hyperlinked to the candidates’ websites. (more…)
Canal Park Brewing takes silver medal at 2026 World Beer Cup
Duluth’s Canal Park Brewing Company won a silver medal in the wood- and barrel-aged beer category at the World Beer Cup, held April 22 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Night Trekker Baltic Porter, aged in a Vikre Distillery Aquavit barrel, with its hints of coffee, dark fruits and caramel, earned the award. The beer also won a gold medal in 2025 at the Minnesota Brewers Cup. (more…)
Gaelynn Lea in People magazine
Duluth musician, author and disability activist Gaelynn Lea is featured in the April 27 edition of People magazine. The article was published online April 16.
Lea’s book, It Was Never Meant to Be Perfect, was released April 14 and an excerpt from it was featured on People’s website in October.
A & Dubs set to reopen this summer
Computer-generated illustration of A & Dubs in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood courtesy of the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Duluth’s iconic A & Dubs seasonal drive-in restaurant will reopen after sitting idle for two summers. The new owners, Mike Koralia and Ryan Spears, wrote in a post on the A & Dubs Facebook page they plan to announce an opening date soon. (more…)
Duluth, America and Public Disorder
Chris Arnade, a writer who is walking around the world and recently posted about “Walking Duluth,” references the Zenith City in his latest piece, “America and Public Disorder.”
Three weeks ago, in Duluth, half the riders on every bus I took were mentally tortured and/or intoxicated. The downtown Starbucks, pedestrian malls, and shuttered doorways of vacated buildings all housed broken people. Same in Indianapolis, El Paso, New York City, Jacksonville, LA, Phoenix, and almost every community I’ve been to in the U.S., save for those gated by wealth.
Walking Duluth With Chris Arnade
Chris Arnade is walking around the world, publishing dispatches from different cities. The most recent stop on his “Chris Arnade Walks the World” website is Duluth, a place he calls “a fantastic underappreciated town.”
St. Louis County Historical Society Strategic Planning Survey
The St. Louis County Historical Society is in the discovery phase of a major strategic planning initiative. The goal is to transform how the organization preserves more than 13,000 artifacts, stabilizes operations and ensures its storytelling is inclusive. A new community survey is designed to offer feedback to shape the society’s new mission and strategic goals for the next three to five years. (more…)
DuluthiLeaks: MacArthur Elementary PTA Budget for 1979-80
For the seventh edition of DuluthiLeaks — Perfect Duluth Day’s series in which public documents are presented as if they contain secret information leaked from an anonymous whistle blower — we present the Laura MacArthur Elementary School Parent Teacher Association’s proposed budget for the 1979 to 1980 school year.
Chuck Haavik – “Nothing to Say”
Duluth’s Chuck Haavik has a new EP, Friend For the End of the World. The single “Nothing to Say,” embedded above, features Dave Mehling on electric guitar, Emily Haavik on backing vocals and Luke Mirau on drums. Mehling produced and mixed the album.
Haavik’s EP release show is Dec. 27 at Wussow’s Concert Cafe.
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award Winners for 2025
Eight books in four categories have been recognized for this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards, which celebrate books that substantially represent the history, culture, heritage or lifestyle of northeastern Minnesota. (more…)
Unpaid air traffic controller sending all planes to Duluth
An article on The Babylon Bee satirical news website reports that an air traffic controller who works out of Los Angeles International Airport “reportedly coped with his missing paycheck as a result of the government shutdown by deliberately sending planes to Duluth, Minnesota, for laughs.” (more…)
Duluth 2025 General Election Results
With all precincts reporting, here are the unofficial results for Duluth municipal and school district races. (more…)
R.I.P Todd Eckart
News broke today that Duluth musician Todd Eckart was one of two people killed in a head-on automobile collision in the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 53 at Berg Park Road in Amnicon Township on Oct. 22.
Eckart was one of the city’s busiest performers, playing gigs at virtually every possible venue. Below is just a small sampling of his vast array of gig posters. (more…)
Duluth 2025 General Election Sample Ballot
General Election Day for the city of Duluth and Independent School District #709 is Tuesday, Nov. 4. The sample ballot above does not reflect what an actual ballot will look like in any part of the city. Some voters will not see any district races; others will see either District 1, 2 or 4 races on their ballot.
R.I.P. Lakeside Professional Building
Demolition of the Lakeside Professional Building began in August. (Photo by Gina Temple-Rhodes)
The Lakeside Professional Building, formerly St. Michael’s School, is no more. St. Michael’s Catholic Church announced in December that the building at 4915 E. Superior St. had been deemed structurally deficient and would be demolished. The tenants, which included Gabriel’s Used Bookstore and the Sami Cultural Center, cleared out in the spring. Gabriel’s had operated out of the building’s basement since 1994.
The Secret Life of Data Centers
Agate reports that cities around Minnesota — including Farmington and Hermantown — have signed non-disclosure agreements with developers for projects that might be data centers. The article notes the Hermantown facility is “multiple buildings totaling nearly two million square feet” and the description of the project is “so vague that the Minnesota DNR objects that citizens would have trouble offering any comments because it’s unclear what the proposal is.”
Agate is an online magazine covering nature, science and conservation.
Duluth 2025 Primary Election Results
With 34 of 34 precincts reporting, here are the vote totals.
Duluth At-large City Councilor
Top four candidates advance to General Election; two will be elected
Terese Tomanek – 3,192
Jordan Johnson – 2,468
Derek Medved – 2,129
Asher Estrin Haire – 811
Zachary Davis Moder – 721
Duluth Second District City Councilor
Diane Desotelle – 1,055
Christopher Adatte – 224
Pierre Tournier – 41
Duluth At-large School Board Member
Top four candidates advance to General Election; two will be elected
Amber Sadowski – 3,036
Kelly Durick Eder – 2,680
Harry Welty – 1,477
Loren Martell – 1.027
Jane Hoffman – 970
Duluth 2025 Primary Election Sample Ballot
Duluth’s primary election ballot on Aug. 12 includes citywide races for at-large seats on the city council and school board, and a school district referendum question. Citizens in the Endion, Congdon, Chester Park and Kenwood neighborhoods will also vote on the Second District City Council race.
The general election on Nov. 4 will include three more races — Fourth District City Council, District One School Board and District Four School Board.
Alfred Merritt on the beauty of the Head of the Lakes
We passed through the old Superior entry into Superior bay about 2 p.m. on Oct. 28, 1856. I wish that you could have seen how beautiful the Head of the Lakes looked at that time. It was practically in a state of nature. The Indians were there, with their wigwams scattered up and down Minnesota and Wisconsin points, with the smoke curling from the top of the wigwams, and their canoes skimming along the waters of the bay or hauled upon the shore. Fish and game were in abundance. Tall pines and hardwood trees were growing on the hillsides and down to the water’s edge, and with the leaves of the hardwood trees turned as they were in the fall, what a beautiful sight it was. I have many times wished that I had a picture as it looked then, or a gift of language to describe the beauty of the Head of the Lakes as I saw it as a boy of 9 years old.
— Alfred Merritt
On July 24, 1925 — one hundred years ago today — the Duluth Herald published the reminiscences of Duluth pioneer Alfred Merritt. The text was excerpted from Merritt’s autobiography, which had been penned 10 years prior. (more…)
R.I.P. Loiselle Liquor / Lake Superior Liquor Cabinet
The former Loiselle Liquor store in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood was demolished last week. It was the oldest liquor store in Duluth, established in 1934. The store was sold in 2022 and took a new name — Lake Superior Liquor Cabinet — but eventually closed. The building was sold to Essentia Health in April. (more…)
The Way it Was in West Duluth
Alan Terway (left), bartender at Mr. D’s Spirit Valley Bar and Lounge, 5622 Grand Ave., talks with retired bartender Johnny Matheson of Superior. Matheson tended bar there in the 1940s and ’50s, when it was called Teve’s West Duluth Bar and Grill. (Duluth News Tribune & Herald photo by Charles Curtis, 1985)
And now, a look back at a look back. Forty years ago today — July 18, 1985 — the Duluth News-Tribune & Herald published a special Community Herald section with several stories about West Duluth. The cover story delved into neighborhood bar nostalgia. (more…)
Duluth to Liverpool in One Bottom
On June 19, 1920 — 105 years ago today — Scientific American published an article by Robert G. Skerrett editorializing in favor of the “Great Lakes being opened to the sea so that ocean-going craft can steam from Duluth to the Atlantic and thence along our neighboring seaboard or afar to the markets of Europe.” (more…)
Disturbing lack of ‘ope’ etiquette roils Duluth community
Duluth has once again popped up as a dateline in The Babylon Bee, a satirical news website. The story reports that “Dave Netters was arrested for squeezing past someone at a grocery store without saying the obligatory ‘Ope!'” The story concludes by noting “Netters had pleaded not guilty on account of being from Missouri.”
Duluth 2025 Primary Election Primer
The filing period for candidates vying for Duluth City Council and Independent School District #709 School Board runs from May 20 June 3. The primary election is Aug. 12; the general election is Nov. 4. (more…)
We’ll always have Duluth
Today’s Daily Cartoon in The New Yorker references Duluth. The comic is by Jason Adam Katzenstein.