News and Current Affairs
Cirrus to be acquired by Chinese Company
Cirrus Industries, parent company of Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, announced today it will be acquired by China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co. of Zhuhai, China. The transaction is expected to close by midyear.
Cirrus will apparently continue to assemble airplanes in Duluth. Mayor Don Ness issued this statement:
“We anticipate that this merger will give Cirrus the additional financial resources and stability to ensure their recovery and grow operations and employment as the economy rebounds. I appreciate the assurances that Cirrus management has given us that operations will remain in Duluth; obviously that is our primary concern. We look forward to continuing the partnership with Cirrus not only to retain local operations, but also to grow jobs and support the company’s future success.”
Gypsy moth abatement
Nothing will drive viewers to a new blog like gypsy moth abatement! Did anyone else get the gypsy moth abatement report in the mail yesterday and can anyone explain to me why pheromone treatment is fine for 99 percent of the treatment areas, yet in a small area of East Hillside they’ll be spraying insecticide?!?
Results of Duluth focus group meetings
Here it is, in its 30-page glory:
Citizen’s Perspective, Priorities & Performance
City of Duluth Focus Group Research
Compiled by Zenith Research Group
Last Day to Celebrate I Love to Read Month!
Kids and parents come and join United Way Success By 6 at the Duluth Public Library for our final Cozy Pajama Story Time!
The last three weeks have been a huge success and we want to make sure more people can enjoy our final story time on Thursday, Feb. 24, at 6:30pm in the Green Room at the library.
Three teen readers from the Boys and Girls Club of Duluth will be reading as a part of a service project. The stories are expected to go from 6:30-6:50 with a craft activity planned for 6:50-7:15.
It will be another great night of fun during that restless time between dinner and bedtime for your little ones.
Duluth mansion demolition makes way for big box store
Well, they have begun to tear down the mansion to make way for the mega Walgreens. Some other houses will be torn down, too. See my post The Last Mansion Between Kitchi Gammi Club and 14th Ave. East.
Superior 2011 Primary Election Results
Superior Mayor
Bruce Hagen — 2,099 | 69%
Kevin Peterson — 710 | 23%
Don Raihala — 120 | 4%
Gilbert Davidson — 113 | 4%
Bruce Hagen and Kevin Peterson advance to the General Election on April 5.
Mmmmmm. Monorail.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_yLodI1CQ[/youtube]
Personally, one of my favorite episodes.
Derailed train cars fall from bridge by Duluth’s ore docks
A Canadian National train carrying 17 empty cars derailed while approaching a limestone storage area on a trestle bridge near the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Ore Docks this morning.
Two cars fell; one landed upside down, the other landed against a support for the ore docks and sat standing on its end. No one was hurt.
Blue Laws are Stupid, Post #3
The Duluth News Tribune is reporting that State Senator Roger Reinert has introduced legislation that would allow Minnesota liquor stores to open on Sundays.
Story link: “Liquor on Sunday?”
And we haven’t even bitched about blue laws on PDD since September. Too busy drinking to fight for our rights, I guess.
New Food Regionalism Lecture Series at University of Minnesota Duluth this Spring
Unless otherwise noted, speaker sessions begin promptly at 3:45 p.m., UMD Library Rotunda (4th Floor).
Thursday, Feb. 3: “The American Good Food Movement: Communities, Health & Social Change,” Maggie Adamek, Terra Soma Consulting
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Soon, we will never leave the house
Google plans to do for art galleries what it did for maps and street view.
I can’t wait till I can Google my groceries.
Pilot has a PDD thanks to Cirrus!
A small plane pilot walked away unhurt from a crash near Kiowa, Colo. early Sunday after he deployed the aircraft’s parachute system, authorities said.
(“Pilot unhurt after plane’s parachute cushions crash near Kiowa” story from Denver7 no longer archived.)
Amy Klobuchar’s Hot Dish Recipe
Amy Klobuchar’s Taconite Tater Tot Hot Dish recipe is now available for all who remember when tater tots were not the enemy of school lunches that Michelle Obama has made them out to be in her campaign to bring health lunches to schools. Anyone else notice the irony of this “situation?”
G. Love & Special Sauce at Clyde Iron Works on April 27
First Ave. is announcing G. Love and Special Sauce with special guests The Belle Brigade will be performing at Clyde Iron in Duluth on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. Tickets on sale this Saturday, January 29 at 10:00am. I am assuming via Ticket Master but I do not see that show listed as of yet on ticketmaster.com.
“G. Love’s new album, Fixin’ To Die, is set for release on February 22nd on Brushfire Records. Recorded at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, NC, and produced by Scott and Seth Avett (The Avett Brothers), this new body of work is arguably G. Love’s most sincere and candid work to date.”
Ventura vs. DHS & TSA
Jesse Ventura is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration for violating his rights.
The former governor was patted down by a TSA agent in November and he says his “basic rights to privacy and dignity, and his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures” were violated.
Let’s Discuss Social Security
Someone recently wondered why there had not been a PDD post regarding Social Security being “bankrupt.” Here goes:
Social Security currently has a 2.5 trillion dollar surplus. This is partly due to Ronald Reagan raising SS taxes on working people. Then he started to raid the fund to make it look like he could cut taxes on the rich and corporations, bloat the military, and still “balance” the budget. Well, he still wound up turning a surplus into a massive deficit, but I digress.
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Kessler leaving Northland’s NewsCenter — third notable Duluth TV departure of 2011
The Duluth News Tribune is reporting that Northland’s NewsCenter meteorologist George Kessler is leaving Duluth for the state of Virginia.
This follows the previously announced career change of Eyewitness News‘ Sandy Drag and retirement of Dennis Anderson.
The icons fly from us.
Minnesota woman’s pregnancy survives
falling cow, tornado
And the dish ran away with the spoon!
From the Star Tribune.
A Minnesota woman who was pregnant when a tornado dropped a cow on her last summer has given birth to the baby.
Do words, language and images matter?
I grew up with a father and friends who were hunters. Hunting is a way of staying connected to the land and procuring food, at least that’s what it was when I was growing up. My father rented a meat locker, we ate venison, and Mom and I each got a leather coat, gloves and matching purses. Mine was a buckskin fringe jacket, the envy of my Minneapolis cousins. I wore it for five years, then my brother wore it for another five years. One thing we did not do: Joke about guns or shooting someone.
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Karen Diver and Barack Obama
Fond Du Lac Chairwoman Karen Diver seated next to President Barack Obama at the 2nd White House Tribal Nations Conference in December. You can read about it in this months’s Fond Du Lac Band Tribal newspaper.
This story also made the DNT but somehow it only rated a “Faces and Names” mention in the DNT, below Shania Twain, Jermaine Jackson and Stephen Baldwin in the online version that I called up today. Who knows? Maybe they did another story somewhere but I missed it.
Scott Tridgell has been found!
Duluthian Scott Tridgell has been found in Oklahoma City. He’d been missing since Dec. 14. (more…)
New Year’s Eve Road Report
Anyone been out there today? What’s the story on the road conditions? We may venture out for a bit tonight if we can make the ice-filled walk to the car and then navigate the inch of ice on the driveway.