I’m not a winner, but I can pretend

Thu. Jan. 31st, 2013

Duluth News-Tribune columnist Sam Cook and I have a bet. Whichever of us gets the fewest Best of the Northland votes has to remove his pants outside City Hall and try to g

Crossing the line

Thu. Jan. 31st, 2013  |  Harry Drabik

Living where I do, crossing the border to Canada has been a common event. Sorry, Duluth-Superior, but it’s over two hours each way to you and an hour to Thunder Bay. More often than not, th

True ‘Super’ Bowl, And Umd Women Test Gophers

Thu. Jan. 31st, 2013  |  John Gilbert

All the NFL teams considered to be the best have fired and fallen back, and the two left standing -- the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers -- will meet in New Orleans Sunday in the Super Bowl. Pardon me if I don’t list the designated Roman Numeral, but it bores me. The Roman Numeral, not the game.

The NHL Is Off To A Roaring Start, The Minnesota Wild Are Not, And The Mfan Superbowl Prediction!

Thu. Jan. 31st, 2013  |  Marc Elliott

ST. LOUIS… The Minnesota Wild have just dropped a 5-4 OT game to the St. Louis Blues here tonight at the Scott Trade Center, but more on that and the club in a bit. The NHL after a three-and-a-half-month delay to the start of the season has come out of the gates flying. Most observers advised

best of the northland 2012

Mon. Feb. 4th, 2013

Clean Cut Kid (and They Made a Killer Out of Him is What They Did)

Fri. Feb. 8th, 2013  |  Gary G. Kohls, MD

It wasn’t a very good month for U.S. soldiers and veterans and the Pentagon, what with the ongoing revelations out of the Veterans Administration that 18 military veterans commit suicide every day and that there are more active-duty soldiers killing themselves than are being killed in combat. This war isn’t very glorious.

A New Political Bird: The White And Blue Evokwahd

Mon. Feb. 11th, 2013  |  Ed Raymond

The arguments about the use of military and civilian drones are getting sillier and sillier. Some of those arguments prove conclusively there is such a thing as reverse evolution. Drones will fill the world’s skies because they may represent a tipping point in warfare, and drones by the thousands will fly peaceti

Bring back the free-range kids

Mon. Feb. 11th, 2013  |  Forrest Johnson

I recently attended a workshop for a program I work with called Safe Routes To Schools. During the workshop, a very animated and dedicated fellow by the name of Mark Fenton asked us to reflect back on our days of growing up and whether we spent time in trees and roaming the landscape, free of parental and adult interference.

Fukushima Means Radiation

Mon. Feb. 11th, 2013

In spite of the nuclear industry’s lobbyists’ best efforts to ignore or downplay the extent and severity of contamination in Japan — caused by three reactor meltdowns and a waste fuel pool fire at Fukushima in Japan — th

Things that were

Mon. Feb. 11th, 2013  |  Harry Drabik

I’ve said before: I live in what remains of what I’d call “the real North Shore.” Out on our limb near the border, we are sometimes smiled or laughed at for being so behind the times and out of synch. Indeed we are, but there is a certain compensation (shall I say