News and Current Affairs
Closed without a peep
Somehow, I missed this.
Lark o’ the Lake Ice Cream Coffee Café open in Greysolon Plaza
The Duluth News Tribune reports the new Lark o’ the Lake Café opened in the Greysolon Plaza on Nov. 27. Owners are Sandra Ettestad, Mark Marino and Don Monaco.
“The menu includes coffee and espresso drinks, smoothies, pastries, deli sandwiches, soups, salads and old-fashioned ice cream desserts,” the DNT article notes. “Prices are affordable, with most lunches less than $10. The cafe has Wi-Fi and is close to getting a wine and beer license.”
Duluth News Tribune: Lark Café opens at Greysolon Plaza in Duluth with a focus on aviation
Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad will run in 2016
Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad, which recently made VacationIdea magazine’s list of the “25 Best Things to See & Do in Duluth, Minnesota,” has been notified that the U.S. Steel clean up on the St. Louis River won’t start until the fall of 2016. So rail tours along the shoreline will return next summer.
Come on out and volunteer. You will meet some great people while having fun along the St. Louis River!
Superior exploring possible “exposition district”
Business North reports an economic development group called Better City Superior intends to seek state permission to create an “exposition district” to attract new developments, such as a 150-room hotel, 20,000-square-foot convention center, 50,000-square-foot water park, a sports field house, a movie theater and a corporate campus.
Business North: “Better City Superior announces growth vision“
Nathan Gustavsson of Hermantown
Since the shooting in the Twin Cities at the Black Lives Matter protest, it was revealed that one of the suspects is from Hermantown.
Nearly 1,000 people marched to City Hall on Tuesday, less than a day after five protesters were shot near a Black Lives Matter demonstration, an apparently racially motivated attack that pushed Minneapolis into the national spotlight.
Minneapolis police said Tuesday that they have arrested three men in connection with the shooting. Allen Lawrence “Lance” Scarsella III, 23, was arrested in Bloomington. Sources said Nathan Gustavsson, 21, of Hermantown, and Daniel Macey, 26, of Pine City, were taken into custody after they turned themselves in. All three suspects are white. Earlier Tuesday, police arrested a 32-year-old Hispanic man in south Minneapolis, but he was later released because, police said, he was not at the scene of the shooting.
—Minneapolis Star Tribune: 3 men in custody, 1 released in Minneapolis 4th Precinct protest shooting
A friend of mine in the Cities wanted to know how that revelation played out up here. To be honest, his question was the first I’d heard.
Thoughts?
Bald eagle stuck in trap rescued by hunters
Two brothers grouse hunting in Canada rescued a bald eagle with its talon stuck in a trap and then took a selfie with it. They posted video of the rescue on Facebook, the freeing of the talon took about four minutes. (more…)
Duluth City Council votes to oppose Trans Pacific Partnership
Thanks to the Duluth City Council for voting 8 to 1 to oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership. The DNT article is here.
The TPP has been negotiated in secret for years, and has been called “NAFTA on steroids” and a “corporate coup d’ etat.” If you’ve never heard of it that’s no coincidence. It will offshore jobs, raise the price of medicines, threaten net neutrality, threaten environmental protections, undermine human rights, roll back Wall Street reforms, and perhaps most frighteningly of all it will establish unelected tribunals whose courts will take precedence over U.S. and other national court systems with regard to trade disputes. Laws passed by democracies will no longer be the law of the land. This is an assault on our republican form of government. Please read more about it here and here.
Please email Senator Al Franken and Senator Amy Kobuchar.
Mayor Ness profiled on MinnPost
“Don Ness doesn’t want to be America’s most popular mayor anymore,” reads the headline of a feature on the Minneapolis-based nonprofit news website MinnPost. “Ness, at 41, is doing what is inconceivable to some: stepping away from politics indefinitely at the height of his career — a move that has left many in Duluth and around the state wondering: Why?”
On Twitter, Ness offers an alternate title for the story:
Twin Ports Joyride: Reduced-cost taxicab rides on the west side
A program designed to provide $7 taxicab vouchers to tipsy bar patrons in western Duluth and Proctor has been ramping up exposure leading into the holidays. Twin Ports Joyride is funded by participating bars, beer wholesalers and other donations. (more…)
St. Louis River Corridor Parks Survey
Community input is being sought by Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Department to develop mini-master plans for eleven neighborhood parks in the St. Louis River Corridor: Historical, Fond du Lac, Blackmer, Smithville, Riverside, Norton, Keene Creek, Grassy Point, Merritt, Harrison and Piedmont. Preliminary concept plans have been developed for the parks following public meetings held in September and October.
An online survey is available at the City of Duluth website. (more…)
Images of Spirit Mountain piping project on St. Louis River
More videos and images below and in the Google gallery linked here.
Spirit Mountain’s piping project will draw water from the St. Louis River and pipe it to the lower chalet area where another pumping station will send it into the snow gun system. There are two pumping stations: one at the lower chalet area, the other right next to Tallas Island Bay on the Western Waterfront Trail in the Riverside neighborhood. That is the area these photos were taken. (more…)
Jade Fountain closed; Gannucci’s expansion planned
Within six months of acquiring the Jade Fountain, Bill Kalligher locked the big red doors to the iconic Chinese restaurant. He reached the decision in September, fed up with a dirty kitchen he says he’s still trying to clean, alleged poor product quality from food suppliers and a box filled with bounced checks from customers. (more…)
Missing Person: Jonathan Beckman
Update: Jonathan Beckman and two other young males who ran from the Northwood Children’s Services West Campus last night were located and brought back to Northwoods by Duluth Police today.
The big, fat EIS
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Forest Service have released the final environmental analysis of Minnesota’s first proposed copper-nickel mine. It’s 3,576 pages long. Click here for an overview on the DNR website and to find links to download the full 263 MB of wholesome review process. A 30-day public review period begins Nov. 13 and ends Dec. 14. Update: Deadline for submitting comments has been extended to Dec. 21.
PolyMet proposes to develop an open-pit mine and processing facilities for the extraction of copper, nickel and platinum elements, with an estimated 20-year lifespan for mine operations. The proposed mine would be located in the St. Louis River watershed on the eastern edge of the Mesabi Iron Range, about 6 miles south of Babbitt and about 1 mile south of the existing iron-ore Northshore Mine. Processing of the ore would take place at a former industrial site, the LTV steel plant in Hoyt Lakes. (more…)
Cirrus parachute deployed in Arkansas
Note: CBS News has removed its video of this report, therefore PDD has removed the embed. There is a different, non-embeddable video at cbsnews.com.
Former Walmart CEO Bill Simon was piloting a Duluth-manufactured Cirrus SR22T heading from Bentonville, Ark., to Waco, Texas, when he ran into engine trouble shortly after takeoff. As CBS News reports in the clip above, the airplane began to lose altitude and Simon made a split-second decision to deploy the safety parachute. He glided to the ground and landed on a stretch of road, the entire aircraft still visibly intact.
Duluth 2015 General Election Results
Emily Larson cruises to victory in the mayoral race. Elissa Hansen, Noah Hobbs, Gary Anderson and Em Westerlund are new city councilors. Alanna Oswald, David Kirby and Nora Sandstad join the school board.
With all 34 precincts reporting …
Duluth Mayor
Emily Larson – 15,352 | 72%
Chuck Horton – 5,862 | 27%
Write in – 125 | 1% (more…)
Arts & Economic Prosperity in Duluth
A study released on Monday suggests the nonprofit arts and culture sector in Duluth generates over $36 million annually in total economic activity. Arts & Economic Prosperity in the City of Duluth, MN is a follow up to the statewide study Creative Minnesota: The Impact and Health of the Nonprofit Arts and Culture Sector. Highlights are above, fine print is below, and the full text of both studies are linked in the sentence previous to this one. (more…)
“Fighting for Duluth”
A very unofficial Chuck Horton campaign song made by an anonymous local musician.
Scrap Tire Mulch on Duluth Public Schools’ Playgrounds
Last week Duluth Parents for Healthy Playgrounds presented the results of a test conducted by St. Paul-based Legend Technical Services on a sample of rubber mulch from the playground at Lester Park Elementary School. The test found 12 chemicals listed by the Minnesota Department of Health as “chemicals of high concern,” but the chemicals were at levels not considered hazardous.
From the report’s executive summary:
Our test does not account for possible interactions or “synergistic” effects of the 12 “chemicals of high concern,” nor for carbon nanotubes. Given the variety of chemicals different tire manufacturers use, and the variability of the tire brands in Rubberific mulch, the eight grams from Lester Park Elementary that were tested may account for only a few of the estimated 12,000 tires in the whole playground.
Link to the full report: Scrap Tire Mulch on Duluth Public Schools’ Playgrounds (PDF)
Question 3: Method for setting fee paid to Duluth city councilors
After publishing the Duluth 2015 General Election Sample Ballot, a question arose. We’ve been hearing a lot about ranked-choice voting and Lakeside liquor sales, but what’s the deal with question #3? (more…)
Project manager wanted for 10-month media collaboration
The journalism program at the University of Minnesota Duluth is looking for a part-time project manager to assist in coordinating the “One River, Many Stories” media collaboration project.
Funded through a Knight Foundation Fund grant from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the project will test ways media collaboration can inspire innovation and nurture engagement among professional journalists, educators and citizen storytellers in the Duluth-Superior community. In April 2016, the media in northern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin will give special attention to one topic: The St. Louis River. Newspapers, television and radio stations, local bloggers, photographers, videographers, university, college and high school journalism programs, and citizen storytellers will produce news articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media about the historic St. Louis River corridor.
Duluth’s Mark Sertich on CBS Evening News
Tonight Mark Sertich became the second Duluthian to be featured on the CBS Evening News in the past month. Just 18 days after St. Scholastica Saints kicking coach Sister Lisa Maurer was profiled on the program, Sertich was featured in a segment with “On the Road” correspondent Steve Hartman.
Sertich is a 1939 Denfeld graduate and World War II veteran who, at age 94, still plays hockey with a group of Duluth firefighters.
Visit Uptown Superior … or Downtown Superior or the North End
This past summer a new marketing effort was launched in Superior to attract people back to the downtown area, which struggled through a long Tower Avenue reconstruction project in 2013. The strip has seen a number of new businesses spring up on the fancy new avenue, but also still has numerous vacant buildings. It’s a work in progress. The joint effort of “collected businesses promoting each other” to “highlight the diamonds in the proverbial rough” is called Visit Uptown Superior.
Why is the downtown now the uptown? Isn’t “uptown” a word to describe a residential area? Well, this part of Superior is the North End, and people tend to think of north as up … and maybe these businesses intend to “Uptown funk you up.” Let’s not overthink it. Below is the back of a promotional postcard highlighting the collective businesses in said Uptown.
