That Didn’t Take Long
Referring back to an earlier PDD post on Supreme Court decision related to “Corporate Free Speech.”
So, they say they’re doing it ironically, but a liberal PR corporation is now running for Congress. Here’s a NY Times brief news, and funny-scary first campaign video. How long before a corporation actually does run for Congress? Any Duluth bookies making odds on that?
Thanks, mevdev, for sending me this one.
Adams School in Duluth’s West End
School faculty must have thought this was a major pain, but I think in the long run it proves worthwhile to drag an entire student body out to pose for a photo in front of the building.
Adams School was built in 1885 at 1721 W. Superior St., serving children in Duluth’s West End neighborhood. Architects of the building were McMillen and Stebbins.
The school closed in 1951, and was demolished in 1960.
V-day UMD 2010 Events!
The V-day Calendar for this year has been finalized! V-day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls. Money raised by these events will be donated to PAVSA (Program of Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault) who provides survivor-centered services to people of Southern St. Louis County.
V-day 2010 Calendar of Events
Events Co-sponsored by The UMD Women’s Resource & Action Center and The Kirby Program Board
Any One of Us: Women’s Words from Prison
Presented by V-day UMD 2010
Monday, February 15th 6PM
$2 with one non-perishable food item, or $3 without
UMD Kirby Student Center Rafters
“Any One of Us: Words From Prison” evolved from a decade long writing group with Eve Ensler and 15 women at Bedford Hill’s Correctional Facility. This piece is a collection of stories from the raw voices of fierceness and honesty written by the original 15 women combined with writing from women in prisons across the nation moving forward toward healing, understanding, and change with the ultimate goal of using their writing and voices to impact policy, laws and treatment of incarcerated women. Together these writings reveal the deep connection between women in prison and the violence that often brings them there. Performed by UMD students.
Rudy Carlson art opening tonight

Rudy Carlson’s show opens tonight at the Carnegie Center for Visual Arts (ye olde library, Second Street and First Avenue West), 5-8 p.m. Rudy’s sense of humor is the connecting thread across the wide range of his work, from intimate portraits to absurd political sculpture. The Duluth-based artist is also a teacher in a Duluth Heights one-room schoolhouse and father to three smokin’ hot ladies.
(Photo swiped from mnartists.org.)
Remembering the Ripsaw’s Transition
It’s been 10 years since the Ripsaw published the last of its monthly scandal sheets and converted to an “alternative newsweekly” format. Here’s a look back at the old monthly editions of Duluth’s most infamous rag.
(more…)
Minnesota Olympians
I am not a huge sports watcher. I like the Vikings, I appreciate the Twins and once in awhile I will watch a bit of the NCAA Men’s BB Tournament in March. But I do enjoy the Olympics. Especially the Winter Olympics. And I think part of the reason that I appreciate the winter games so much is that there are so many local athletes. I’ll admit, my favorite aspect of the “Miracle on Ice” game from (ouch) 30 years ago now is that so many Minnesotans played a role in that underdog-david-vs-goliath-come-from-behind-victory.
Here are a few lists of Minnesotans that are in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver from Bob Collins MPR NewsCut blog, and the Star Tribune, plus a cursory search of the NBC Winter Olympics web page. (more…)
Join us for Latino Voices: Immigration in our Community
Monday, Feb. 8, 2010
Noon – 1:15 p.m.
Duluth Technology Village, Center for Economic Development
Brown Bag Lunch
Or
4 – 5:30 p.m.
University of Minnesota Duluth
The Rafters, Kirby Center
The Program will include:
– introduction of immigration issues
– moderated panel with Latino immigrants from our community
– dialog to promote mutual understanding
– action steps to move forward in immigration reforms
That’s Trouble of Some Kind, George
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMfXAVM4Bl8
Previously unseen amateur video of Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
Help Duluth YMCA Camp Miller get 50k grant from Pepsi Refresh Project.
The local Duluth Area Family YMCA is in the running for a grant offered by Pepsi in their “Pepsi Refresh Project” (Learn more here) to build a high ropes course at Camp Miller. They are current ranked #2 and need your help by voting for them. It is easy, click, signup and vote. Vote now here — >: https://www.refresheverything.com/YMCACampMiller
Echo & Lightning: Poetry/cello performance
Sheila Packa and Kathy McTavish
Feb. 20, 8 p.m.
Red Mug Coffeehouse, Superior, WI
“These poems are the story of following one’s own instincts to, in one way or another, migrate. They bring us to the exact moment when we surrender to our truest selves, when we allow ourselves to be transported, transformed, and resurrected. In these poems this occurs with the ease and necessity of taking one breath, letting it go and then receiving another. These are ecstatic poems. They are at once ethereal and profoundly grounded in the body. This has always been one of Packa’s greatest strengths and every piece in this collection is an awe-inspiring testament to that gift. These poems can help us find our way to the places we most need to go, to where ‘…music you haven’t heard/didn’t know you needed/opens deep.'” –review by Ellie Schoenfeld.
Sheila Packa is the author of The Mother Tongue (Calyx Press Duluth, 2007) and she has had her work read by Garrison Keillor on Writers Almanac (NPR). She has had her work featured in Finnish-North American Literature in English: A Concise Anthology (Mellen Press 2009), Beloved of the Earth: Poems of Grief and Gratitude (Holy Cow Press, 2008), and To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-territorial Times to the Present (New Rivers Press, 2006)
Kathy McTavish is a recipient of an American Composers Forum / Jerome Foundation Commission for new solo work premiering Oct. 2010. She also received an Arrowhead Regional Arts Council grant.
Vote for a nationwide grant for Duluth YMCA, Camp Miller
YMCA Camp Miller is up for a grant opportunity through Pepsi Refresh Project.
Go to www.refresheverything.com/YMCACampMiller and vote once a day (once per e-mail address) for the month of February and Camp Miller could win this grant!
Any and all who help the camp by voting daily will get a chance to come try out a high ropes course if the camp receives the grant!
Ski Jumping at Chester Bowl
You know you’ve always wanted to see somebody go off those jumps at Chester Bowl, now you can.
Just in time for the Olympics, learn about Duluth’s world-class ski jumping history, and support both Chester Bowl and WDSE public television at the same time. Come take in a movie and hear some stories from Chester’s ski jumping legends. Kid-friendly early and late showings, conveniently overlapping the Paul Lundgren Happy Hour right upstairs.
The Ski Flyers: a Jumping Tradition, including additional archival footage of ski jumpers
Wed Feb 10, 5:30 and 7:00 pm Zinema2
Tickets: $3 for 5:30 show, $5 for 7:00 show. Seating is limited; advance tickets and more info are available at this link. Remaining tickets will be available at the door.
Comment on Sulfide Mining
Please remember to comment on the toxic PolyMet metal-sulfide mine Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) if you haven’t done so already.
The deadline is this is 4:30 p.m. this Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
We can’t allow Minnesota’s rivers to be damaged by acid mine drainage like rivers have been throughout Montana, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. Making comments creates an important public record for future lawsuits.
Comment:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2051
More Info:
https://waterlegacy.org/sulfide_mining
Please pass this allow to any friends who might be interested.
Duluth KCWV-TV Channel 27
Have any of you noticed Duluth has a new broadcast TV station? Is anyone able to get decent reception of it?
The station runs programming from the My Family TV network, which features “programming to entertain, educate and edify,” including “uplifting spiritual” shows. In other words, a bunch of preaching and paid programming with some Andy Griffith and Bonanza mixed in.
Duluth Precinct Caucus Information
Precinct Caucus Information
February 2, 2010
Precinct caucuses are meetings organized by Minnesota’s political parties to begin the process of selecting candidates for the 2010 election and policy positions to shape the party platform. Caucuses are held in locations across Minnesota, are open to the public, and participation is encouraged.
To find your precinct caucus, go to www.sos.state.mn.us (MN Secretary of State).
Bowling for Autism
Feb. 20, 2-4 p.m.
Incline Station
$8 per child, $10 per adult
Tickets include: 2 hours of bowling, shoes and automatic scoring. Food and beverages available for purchase. All proceeds benefit the Autism Association of Northern MN.
Jitterbug’s Newscast
I thought that the “1000 foot shitters” was great but she may have topped it with “I am still stuck on the beaver!”
Good luck in Haiti. Miss you on the news!!
Wax Your Runners! Laskiainen!
Laskiainen Finnish Sliding Festival
Feb. 6 & 7 at Loon Lake Community Center in Palo, Minn. (more…)
Annual Food Queries: Throwback; Paczki
I’m looking for two seasonal foods:
1. Any stores with Mountain Dew Throwback still in stock … a gas station, a grocer — anything. This is number 1 priority.
2. Pepsi Throwback. Same deal. The no-HFCs is attractive to me. (more…)
Excited for Beargrease 2010?

Don’t forget to watch one of the Northland’s most amazing tributes to our cultural heritage (in my opinion, at least): The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon! (more…)
Wind Power Jobs
The news this morning of a major wind company considering Duluth, Superior, and the Iron Range is something we should really go after. There are four states in the running. If you like this type of development, contact your congressman. I’m sure they know about this but I think it would be really important to go do this. This could be huge for Duluth. This opportunity will not come every day. Thanks to those folks who were out front on this and got it to this stage. Anything I can do to help, ask.











