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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Family and friends of Peter Martin continue their efforts to find their missing loved one. But as months have gone by, the number of those who gather on Sundays to search areas on the Fond du Lac reservation has dwindled. This week, looking for more tips and keeping the public aware that Martin remains a missing person case, those friends and family organized a walk along Big Lake Road west of Cloquet, where banners can be found with his picture, stating "Bring Peter Home." Kayla Jackson was... Full story
For a spring and summer season marked by rain, maybe a bit too much at times, it seems it didn't affect the area weekend celebrations much. Monday was no exception as the annual 11 a.m. Labor Day parade began on a sun-drenched Cloquet Avenue in Cloquet. There were throngs of people along the main drag and throngs of people in the parade as politicians, unions and businesses made their final pitches for the season in 70-degree weather. For kids, with school looming this week, it was a chance for... Full story
I magine teenagers in Esko classrooms staring blithely, wantonly, perhaps a bit of drool forming at the corner of the mouth. But it’s not a window daydream accompanied by mesmerizing clouds forming into creatures or a squirrel running up a tree limb. They are fixed on those pouches. Filled with those tiny devices we all are so tethered to. This summer, the Esko school district decided to do something about phones in school, part of a movement across the country to reduce distractions during the school day. Now, when an Esko teen enters a c... Full story
Cecelia Anderson and Ron Johnson were humbled and surprised to be honored as the latest recipients of the Calton County Outstanding Senior award. They celebrated the honor at the county fair in Barnum last Friday. "It's amazing," Anderson said. "It's a great honor," Johnson said. That the two received notice for their work volunteering was no surprise to those on the receiving end of their work. Anderson calls bingo games at Inter-Faith Care Center in Carlton. She said she takes pride in... Full story
It was a perfect breezy, not-too-hot Saturday for a parade, and kid and adult fun in Northridge Park during the fifth day of Esko Fun Days last week. County Highway 61 and Canosia Road was lined with people, especially kids eager for some candy. A walk down those streets after the parade showed that there was more than enough candy tossed, the streets remained littered with untouched packages of sweet stuff. It was food and inflatables, and the popular dunk tank in the park after the parade....
Kent Syverson’s mind was blown when Mount St. Helens blew its top in 1980. The famous eruption of the long-dormant volcano in Washington scratched a geology itch in the Barnum student’s brain. “I was always interested in rocks and the outdoors,” he said this month. The historic event led to a 4-H project on volcanoes, which eventually won ribbons at the local Carlton County Fair and then the Minnesota State Fair. Today, Syverson is a well-traveled geology professor at the University of Wisconsin...
I’m jazzed about an event coming to a Cloquet church this month. It’s just what we need in these fractured political times. Our Savior’s Lutheran Church will be the venue for a “Respectful Conversation” about this political season, sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Churches, at 6 p.m. on Aug. 28. It’s designed to allow space for people to explore their feelings about candidates and issues minus the “my way or the highway” responses. A church is a good place to hold such a conversation. People tend to drop their defenses, and perhaps most ve... Full story
“We know that Mr. Hansen abused every child in his orbit.” Those were the words from Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Shnider Tuesday as she spoke to a judge in federal court in Duluth about the proper sentence for Stephan Hansen, the 30-year-old former foster parent and Carlton resident who was found, and who admitted, to be in possession of more than 1,600 exploitative and pornographic pictures or videos of children. After a plea deal made last fall, Hansen was facing a 15- to 30-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell hea...
The challenge has vexed Jason Amundsen for a few years. He’s brought in engineering students from the University of Minnesota Duluth and St. Thomas University in St. Paul. He’s hired one of them full-time to tackle the problem. At Farm LoLa in Wrenshall, the mission is capturing water from the air — in a sense, making the concept of the indoor humidifier work outside. Amundsen said the world is starving, and he wants to find a way to better water crops. He cites endangered citrus crops in Texas...
The berries provided the red and blue, while clouds were the white on the Fourth of July at the berry fields at Farm LoLa in rural Wrenshall. Farm manager Brett Amundson works the busy stand in the middle of the honeyberry fields. Lucie Amundsen helped a curious young customer. The farm is among many in Carlton County bursting with berries this month, with blueberries next. By the afternoon on July 4, the strawberries had been picked out. Call ahead if you want to go out to area farms, because... Full story
Unrelenting rainfall this past spring has culminated in historic flooding across the state, especially during the first weekend of official summer last week. Carlton County was not spared, but while water levels were high and rapidly moving water posed a risk, the area was spared any major damage. The St. Louis River in Scanlon crested at just more than 11 feet Monday, and slowly receded as the week went on. Carlton County Emergency Management director Marlyn Halvorson said close monitoring... Full story
Call me shocked the other day when the 6-year-old started unpacking groceries and putting them away after her long day at camp. Unprodded. She also brushed her teeth that night without any coaxing. Every day has its moments, and those were nice ones. Of course, parenting is often laden with a tug and pull to get your kid to listen to anything you say or to move one muscle to help with anything. A lyric often comes to mind when in the throes of child negotiations: "My love and I, we are boxing... Full story
David Clanaugh, director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees Local 1701 union, talked with a group gathered Sunday at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. It was a rally to raise awareness about work conditions at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program facility in Moose Lake. Clanaugh said there is "serious workplace staffing, retention, and safety issues" at the facility, where he coordinates volunteer service. The rally included delegates and some officeholders from the M... Full story
"Time has a way of healing our heartaches but memories last forever." Tucked into a folder on Cloquet native William Dupont at the Carlton County Historical Society is a letter from Fred Asbell. He had been asked by a historian what he could recall about Dupont from World War II, when they were airplane navigators on the same base. It was 1990, nearly 50 years since the two had plied their skills guiding B-17s, the planes tasked with bombing deep into Germany and all around the European Theater... Full story
On May 13, the school board voted to accept the employment of Dr. Marcia Nelson as CAAEP principal Connie Hyde’s replacement at a salary of $111,576. “Dr. Nelson is being recommended due to her strong background and experience as a school principal and with alternative learning centers,” superintendent Michael Cary wrote in his recommendation. Nelson most recently worked in the educational specialist program at St. Mary’s University in Rochester, Minnesota. She has 30 years of experience as a teacher and administrator in K-12 schools, with a... Full story
OK, kids — go get your placards and bullhorns and be prepared to shove “OK, Boomer” at me. We live in a world with way too much information. It overwhelms. It freezes us. It rules us. It just makes things so dumbly different. The last time I wrote about an amazing Northern Lights experience seems like a lifetime ago. The last time I saw the aurora act like it did last week was in the 1990s. I’m not exactly sure when, because I’m old. (Shakes fist.) I was in my 20s, and, as those of that age are wont to do, I was walking home with some visi... Full story
The kids kept coming, but you didn't need to see it to notice it. What started as a few scattered horn blasts from big equipment at South Terrace Elementary school in Carlton last Thursday evening, May 9, soon crescendoed into one constant blast from a bus, semi, dump truck and various other vehicles at the annual Transportation Night. Kids were taking turns on a makeshift swing on the back of a Cars Towing truck, with a toy tow truck and a flag as added bonuses. They climbed into the empty... Full story
A study released last month on Minnesota's "civil commitment" policies regarding people convicted of sex offenses says the state has failed in proving the worth of programs run in Moose Lake and St. Peter, under the umbrella of Minnesota Sex Offender Program, or MSOP. "Minnesota's uniquely aggressive civil commitment program threatens basic constitutional rights while exacerbating the very problem it is intended to solve," said Eric Janus, director of Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource...
It wasn't just your run-of-the-mill cloud cover that kept Carlton County residents inside looking at the eclipse online on Monday. It was what writers call a leaden sky, oozing rain all day. A real soaker, with a deck of bruise-colored clouds blotting out any semblance of a sun, let alone one that was diminished by just over 70 percent as the moon moved over its path. It was dark all day, but perceptibly darker around 2 p.m., when the partial eclipse reached its peak. Or maybe it was just anothe...
The minivan smashed into a wooden utility pole, sheering it completely at its base. The back of the van then rose up and the entire vehicle flipped, coming to rest upside down on the sidewalk. That's the scene Dan Hertle described as he and his wife were strolling into Gordy's Hi-Hat in Cloquet Monday afternoon just before 3 p.m. "We had just parked, and there was this loud bang," Hertle said. "Really loud." He said he looked to where the sound came from, just a block north on Minnesota Highway... Full story
Brent James Keranen had been drinking late into the night with friends Wednesday, March 20, after working a “lot of hours” in the Twin Cities area that week. The 21-year-old was tired the next morning, and allegedly still buzzed when he made his way north to his hometown, Pengilly, near Hibbing. He was so out of it that he fell asleep and grazed a Minnesota state trooper’s vehicle while driving north that morning. He was pulled over and received a citation. The trooper checked his blood alcohol level and it was at 0.066, under the legal limit... Full story
It was comical, for sure, last Easter, when my then 5-year-old and her friends went egg hunting in a backyard that had 4 feet of snow in it. She donned some snowshoes and did her level best. The parents who hid the eggs did worse. We fell crotch deep through the snow, and were soaked and cold watching the tiny ones gather their treasures. Easter just isn't the same up north from my upbringing down south. Minnesota south. Where Easter was usually fairly springlike, flowers and such. Light... Full story
The annual rite of spring in Cloquet is the opening of Gordy's Hi-Hat on the hill in Cloquet. Customers will notice little change in the decor there, and, according to the Lundquist family, perhaps never will. Meanwhile, next door at Gordy's Warming House, the all-year coffee shop and eatery, there has been a total reimagining of the interior. "It needed a facelift," said Sever Lundquist, third-generation Gordy's owner. The Warming House opened in 2005 and was outfitted like many coffee shops... Full story
He gave it the old college try. But, they say, when you take on the bull, you get the horns. Or, in social media circles, and toned down for a family newspaper: Mess around and find out. There may be a new old saw: Take on the Iron Range and its taconite money, and you get the tailings. Alas, Sen. Jason Rarick, Carlton County’s representative in the Minnesota Senate, was awash in all of these sentiments last month when he dared to change the way of life on the Iron Range. If you recall, Rarick penned a bill this session that would expand the ...
At least two men were jailed this past week after a house in Cloquet was struck with five to seven bullets from a handgun on Feb 24. The house on Bagaan Street, near the Fond du Lac Supportive Housing complex, was occupied at the time. There were no injuries in what police determined was suspected retaliation after an earlier physical altercation. Four males were involved in the shooting, police later discovered, including a juvenile, who suspects have said was the shooter. Raymond Peterson,...
