News and Current Affairs Posts

Local photojournalists film animal abuse in the South

Mar 11, 2012 3 Comments

Two local photojournalists are filming a documentary on animal cruelty in the South and the people working to change the culture there. David Cowardin and Joe Olivieri spent two weeks in the gritty areas of rural Alabama and are hoping to return for more footage and interviews. They launched a Kickstarter to raise funds for another tour South. You can donate here.

If their trip is funded, they would like to rescue a dog and find it a better home in Duluth. Anyone interested in adopting a pet can contact David at 320-290-0877 or cowar006 @ d.umn.edu. The adopter would only be responsible for the adoption fee.


News and Current Affairs, Videos

2012 Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament Schedule Brackets

Mar 07, 2012 2 Comments

The Minnesota State High School Hockey tournament is starting today. The Duluth area has three teams competing this year — Duluth East Greyhounds in class AA, Hermantown Hawks and Marshall Hilltoppers in class A. Below is the schedules for both brackets. Good luck boys!

Does anyone have any good Minnesota State High School Hockey Tourney stories? From what I “remember” it was pretty crazy when I went.

MN State Hockey Class AA Live Bracket Click Here
MN State Hockey Class A Live Bracket Click Here


News and Current Affairs, Sports

Gotta getcha shovel if ya wanta go ta work

Mar 01, 2012 1 Comment

After finally getting a decent snowstorm, I wanted to have a little fun with the timelapse app. I put my iPhone 4 on my shovel handle with a gorilla pod. It flopped around too much, so I was only able to do a short time lapse.


News and Current Affairs, Videos ,

Leap Day 2012 Snowmageddon Photos

Feb 29, 2012 9 Comments

At left is Rich Narum’s shot of Superior Street; at right the view from Anna Montgomery’s side door. Has anyone had the guts to wreck a camera and try shooting outside instead of through glass? Not me!

Anyway, add your best attempts in the comments.


News and Current Affairs, Photos , ,

Duluth: Say Ix-nay to the March 3 Rally

Feb 25, 2012 16 Comments

I’m reposting here an open letter written to the Duluth community by Joel Kilgour, a local peace activist, and Sara Thomsen, a local musician. Basically, Duluthians are urged to stay away from the March 3 rally planned by a white supremacist group right here in the Zenith City.

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News and Current Affairs

Lot of hoo-haw fer nuthin

Feb 21, 2012 5 Comments

No change in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, except that it now includes more of Betrami County.


News and Current Affairs, Politics

State of the School Speech at Harbor City International School

Feb 17, 2012 1 Comment

Given by John Haire, Ph.D. on Feb. 14, 2012

Harbor City International School is 10 years old, young enough to enjoy the wonderment of imagination, and old enough to develop true measures of independence. Our clarity of purpose, our labors toward effectiveness, and our willingness to reflect on our methods give us our identity. As with all great journeys, we have faced, and continue to face, many challenges. Yet, our confidence that we are a valuable resource to the families of Duluth remains undaunted.

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News and Current Affairs , ,

Don Ness talks about Un-Fair Campaign on National Public Radio

Feb 14, 2012 1 Comment

Mayor Ness was on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation earlier this afternoon talking about the Un-Fair Campaign and the controversy it stirred.  In case you missed it you can hear the archived version on their website.

You also get to hear host Neal Conan call our mayor “John Ness” at the top of the show. Don was classy enough not to correct him.

‘Un-Fair’ Anti-Racism Ads Draw Mixed Reactions


News and Current Affairs

People Get Ready

Feb 14, 2012 27 Comments

Racist organizations plan on visiting Duluth on March 3. Let’s not give them a Minnesota Nice welcome. See you there!

Link to racist Stromfront site


News and Current Affairs

Synthetic Marijauna

Feb 09, 2012 14 Comments

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

This is a video I did as a fact-finding mission for a long-form documentary I’m working on. It may be interesting for anyone curious about the “legal alternatives” being sold in Duluth.


News and Current Affairs, Videos

Minnesota Republicans love Santorum

Feb 07, 2012 26 Comments

Considering the definition of “santorum,” there are a lot of opportunities for headline writers tonight. Your suggestions are welcome in the comments.


News and Current Affairs, Politics

A few hundred debate marriage for homosexual partners at UMD

Feb 06, 2012 12 Comments

On Feb. 6, at UMD, the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, directed by Shane Courtland, sponsored another in its series of events that bring the university and the community into dialogue about key issues of the day.

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News and Current Affairs

From I&I to Feelin’ Irie in Just 12 Easy Steps

Feb 05, 2012 No Comments

OK, maybe there are more than twelve steps, and maybe they are not-so-easy. But the City of Duluth and the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District promised a “12-year schedule to stop sewage overflows.” That was back in 2004 (I think), so if my math is right we are 8 years into the plan. I don’t know about you, fellow Duluthians, but I am feeling irie!

Here it is early February, and spring is in the air. That means snow-melt, which admittedly won’t be a huge issue this year. But we know from past experience that spring melt and heavy rains can lead to sewer overflows. This is a problem worth understanding, and rather than trying to offer details here, I highly recommend WLSSD’s article on the topic (I and I Solutions – Inflow and Infiltration: When Clean Water Causes Problems!).

Read more about why I love the new storage tank in Canal Park, and overlook some of its less redeeming qualities (and see a photo) by visiting today’s Nature of Modern Life post.


News and Current Affairs, Outdoors

“Hey White People …” Un-Fair Campaign

Jan 29, 2012 76 Comments

I’m no longer in Duluth, but I found out about a campaign going on there right now and I couldn’t be more encouraged by the people and message behind it, including Mayor Ness.

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News and Current Affairs

PDD transferring to new server

Jan 28, 2012 8 Comments
Server Migration

Server Migration

Here is what monitors look like when one spends his Saturday night migrating Perfect Duluth Day to a new VPS server. The amount of data currently used by PDD is 3.4GB, needless to say that takes a little while to transfer and reconfigure.

Oh, side-note, the old server was in Canada the new one is in the USA. I feel so patriotic right now!


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