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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Cloquet apartment building owner Roger Bruhn calls his current conundrum a "series of unfortunate events." When the pandemic hit in 2020, he faced, for the first time, tenants who were not paying rent on units in the Victory Apartments at 17 Eighth Street. That's because federal rules allowed tenants to forgo paying rent during the pandemic without fear of eviction. For 17 years, Bruhn said, he has dealt with only one eviction. Now he had four, soon to be five, units with no rental income in...
There’s been a truly serviceable public service announcement on area radio stations since the pandemic started. I say that because Kevin Love, the former Minnesota Timberwolves player, is speaking about anxieties in troubled times and turning to mindfulness. Then he guides a small exercise, asking that we take a “big, deep breath,” “in, and out,” “just breathing.” The PSA is on the radio a lot, and each time I hear it, I take those breaths. It’s a great prompt to “be kind to ourselves.” The pandemic has hit everyone in different ways, but... Full story
The Carlton County Historical Society has this iconic photo of a Greyhound bus with formal lettering on the border saying, simply, “Barnum, Minnesota.” It’s as if it were a promotional piece or souvenir photo. Who knows? Close inspection shows that it was a charter bus, so perhaps this was a special occasion back in the 1950s. Was there a bus stop in Barnum? Can you divine where this photo was taken, given the background? Let us know at the History Mystery desk, news@PineKnot... Full story
Contract negotiations between the Wrenshall school district and its teachers went to the rare step of mediation last month in order to resolve sticking points. The Wrenshall school board on Monday agreed to table approval of the eventual agreement until members can check the 36-page document that some received only just before the meeting. The contract, expected to be formally approved by the board at a special meeting next week, will date back to July 1, 2021. One board goal, to increase the starting wage for new teachers in the district,...
Sometimes I feel like I’m 12 years old. Other times I feel all of the many decades of my nose to the journalism grindstone. It’s a constant battle of finding the youthful energy to be indignant versus what the spent energy will yield in the end for one who’s seen this all before. This too, shall pass. Ignore all the noise. Save your energy. The current state of public discourse on a national and local level has reached an unnerving point, especially in a state known for its civic sense of duty and interest in getting a fair shake for everyone.... Full story
Judge Amy Lukasavitz's chambers is a work in progress. There are just a few personal touches in the office that was once the realm of fellow Carlton County Sixth Judicial District Court judge Rebekka Stumme, who moved into the chambers of retired judge Robert Macaulay. Lukasavitz was appointed to replace Macaulay last fall. While Stumme gets the larger chambers and a personal bathroom, the newest judge smiles while sitting in the light pouring in through the large courthouse windows in Carlton....
One of the two Cloquet women who had children taken from their custody in January appears ready to take her case to trial. Nicole Ammesmaki had what is called an admit/deny hearing Tuesday and her attorney stated that her client denies the court’s reasoning for taking her five children out of her home. The hearing also served to clear up questions Carlton County Sixth District judge Rebekka Stumme had regarding the complicated case. Ammesmaki, who by all accounts has cooperated fully with steps required to regain custody, also faces criminal c...
I remain struck by the tagline for WDIO-TV in Duluth: “With You For Life.” Seems ominous, doesn’t it? It’s a double entendre, maybe. First meaning, perhaps, “with you through this journey of life.” But if it is a double entendre, I’m not sure if they really want you to think that you are tied to them for your entire being. As a typical Minnesotan, that aggressive connotation is just that, a bit aggressive. I think of “With You From the Cradle to the Grave” or a life sentence in prison. So does that tagline hit its mark? I reviewed these thought... Full story
Judge Eric Hylden told Roxanne Peterson that her words spoke to him. He said the pain and agony she described in a Duluth courtroom Tuesday is painfully familiar. He lost a teenage son in 2009. Peterson had just given a victim impact statement regarding the 2020 death of her 16-year-old grandson, Cloquet resident Joe Peterson. A table away was the teenager who shot “Little Joe,” his cousin, Joseph Fohrenkam. Judge Hylden made it official at Fohrenkam’s sentencing in St. Louis County District Court: He will serve 7 years in prison for shoot...
One of the mothers involved in a very public Cloquet child custody case was charged with three counts of malicious punishment of a child last week. Carlton County attorney Lauri Ketola announced Thursday that Nicole Ammesmaki would be charged. Her sister, Dawn Ammesmaki, won’t be charged because the accusation of child abuse against her involve reported instances from three years ago, beyond the statute of limitations. Ketola also announced that she is also charging a teacher at the Fond du Lac Head Start, Kayla Hansen, for failing to report p...
Don't blame the flag designer from 1893. It was a rush job, with one significant requirement that is vexing vexillologists today. That's the word used for flag experts, people who study and comment on flag design. This month, the state legislature is mulling the idea of a new state flag. For years, vexillologists have urged a new flag based on some pretty solid design principles. Our flag is unremarkable, a state seal on a blue background like so many other state flags. It is printed on one...
The Carlton school board continued to explore its budget options Monday at its monthly regular meeting. It heard details from the online resource it currently uses to offer students a wider range of electives options. One of the goals of the board, in order to shave from its expected half-million-dollar deficit next year, is to increase online electives and eliminate teachers. The board formally approved allowing district office staff to seek cuts and offer recommendations to the board for consi...
While arguments continue to be made in the custody cases involving 10 Cloquet children, Sixth District Carlton County judge Rebekah Stumme made her feelings clearly known Tuesday when it comes to how representatives for the adoptive mothers and those who want the children kept out of their homes are interacting in front of her court. “Put away the knives,” Stumme said at the end of a hearing concerning petitioner Danielle Martineau — a relative who wants children removed from Dawn Ammesmaki’s care. The judge said she was dismayed by the ten...
If you use the Cloquet clock, it was supposed to be spring this week. Gordy’s is open. Alas, that rite of spring and harbinger of summer rarely means we get matching weather, even as the conventional calendar says we’ve reached “meteorological” spring. But here we are, in that waiting room between real warm and lingering winter. It has been an especially difficult end of winter here at the Pine Knot. Jana has been stuck at home with a bum leg for two months, meaning we can’t count on her ramblings about the community for pictures and all the t... Full story
Preliminary site details for the new Carlton County justice center were revealed this week in an update from the working committee at a discussion-only meeting of the board of commissioners. The justice center, which includes jail and district court facilities, will sit just northeast of the county transportation building on what formerly was Twin Lakes Township property. That section was annexed into the City of Carlton in order to place the justice center there. Jail administrator Paul Coughli...
It’s the petition that wouldn’t go away, or perhaps it’s just the angry district resident who won’t go away. An obviously distraught Tony Sheda repeated his demands to the Wrenshall school board Monday night that the creators of the petition that denied an appointment to the school board last August be responsible for the costs incurred by the school district to verify the petition. Despite repeated explanations and investigation of the issue that reached state offices in St. Paul, Sheda is yet to be satisfied, and apparently a majorit...
Brad Matlack likes the idea of finding a better way for landowners to burn brush and other biomass from cleanups on properties. In late 2020, the manager of the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District heard about some money available to let residents experiment with what is known as creating "biochar." In a nutshell, it's method of high-heat burning that creates lower emissions into the atmosphere while leaving a charcoal-like pile that research has shown could have beneficial resources... Full story
The three-day throng of tech-inclined high school students called the Duluth Regionals in robotics didn't disappoint last weekend as 111 teams from Minnesota and neighboring states took over the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. There were four Carlton County teams in the competition, from Cloquet, Esko, Barnum and Moose Lake. Esko came away with the biggest honors: a run in the playoffs, a top award for innovation in controlling its robot, and a sure place in the state tournament....
After a jury found Dennis Michael St.John Jr. of Scanlon guilty of kidnapping, rape and domestic abuse in January, his expected sentence was handed down this week: Life in prison without the possibility of release. Two of St. John’s convictions were used in guiding the sentence Monday in Carlton County Sixth District Court. He received just more than eight years on a felony kidnapping charge. His felony criminal sexual conduct conviction sparked state statute that guides sentencing depending on the existence of “heinous” elements to the crime...
More testimony was offered Tuesday in the child custody case that led to protests in January outside the homes of two women accused of abuse. Sixth District Carlton County judge Rebekka Stumme split the custody cases involving 10 children, five in each home, on Tuesday to avoid confusion in what has become a complicated case involving families in Cloquet and on the Fond du Lac reservation. There have been sharp disagreements among child welfare professionals about the safety of the children after videos and photos showing alleged abuse...
It was bitterly cold and blustery on the first Tuesday in February in a big statewide election year as the political party faithful held caucuses here and across the state. Precinct tables for all of the county were set up at the Four Seasons Sports Complex and Event Center in Carlton, where Republican organizers were gleefully surprised by a turnout of about 125 people. They were busy early on setting up new tables for the people who just kept coming into the upstairs room with windows...
On paper, the 40-mile version of the John Beargrease sled dog race on Sunday looks like a real thriller. Racing times showed minutes and even seconds of differential in the top six places. But the quick race from the outskirts of Duluth to Lake County Highway 2 north of Two Harbors has a staggered start, so participants basically hung out as fellow racers came in and later found out the official times and places. Among them was Cloquet's Billie Thompson, who finished fourth among 13 racers with... Full story
Esko senior Nate Rengo has been vocal about mask wearing at the high school, saying he advocates taking any “proactive” measures to avoid a school shutdown and missing school events in his final year. After a board meeting earlier in January when mask use was debated, Rengo wrote a letter and sent it to administration and teachers. “We are in the middle of a huge surge of cases, and wearing masks could be the difference between online and in-person school,” Rengo wrote. “Distance learning is awful, just ask any student or teacher.” And that is...
The two women accused by protestors of abusing children in their care fought back in Sixth District Carlton County court Tuesday. More than 100 people observed the online hearing, which ultimately continued the removal of 10 children from their Cloquet homes as allegations of abuse on the part of their caretakers are being investigated. The investigation and legal actions came about after photos and video of the alleged abuse were circulated widely on Facebook earlier this month, and protesters...
The heavy lifting on cutting away the Carlton school district’s million-dollar budget hole will begin in meetings in February, but the school board on Tuesday showed signs that those cuts will sting — especially for those seeking activities outside the classroom. The board balked on accepting contracts for advisors to the school play and pep band. None of the four members present brought forth a motion on music teacher Sharrie Janovick and potential theater director Alyssa Olsen. It means there will be no school play and no pep band, which als...
