October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. To call attention to the heartbreaking statistics surrounding domestic violence, the Violence Prevention Center invited community members to a candlelight vigil in Grand Marais Harbor Park on Tuesday, October 8, 2013. About 30 people gathered to remember the people who perished in domestic violence incidents this year. Violence Prevention Center Director Jodi Yuhasey thanked […]
Wolf attack kills pony in Lake County
Although a Duluth TV station report that a pony had been killed by a wolf in Cook County is incorrect regarding the location of the attack, the facts—that a wolf entered a barn and killed livestock and was then shot and killed—are correct. The attack occurred in the Silver Bay area. The news of the attack alarmed local horse owners, […]
Cook County administrator position offered to Jay Kieft
Jay Kieft, currently executive director of Wright County Human Services in Buffalo, Minnesota, has been offered the county administrator position newly created by the Cook County Board of Commissioners. “We are currently negotiating an agreement with him on the terms of employment,” David Unmacht of Springsted, a consulting group, told the Cook County News-Herald on October 9, 2013. “I would […]
X-ray machine and metal detector coming to courthouse
Security at the courthouse is ramping up. By a vote of 4-1 on October 8, 2013, the county board approved the purchase of a portable X-ray machine and walkthrough metal detector to be used at the courthouse. Commissioner Garry Gamble cast the sole no vote. The cost of the X-ray machine, including delivery, set-up, and training, will be $21,950. The […]
Crowd discusses rumble strips with MnDOT and county board
About 40 citizens crowded into the county commissioners’ room at the courthouse at the beginning of the county board meeting on October 8, 2013 to talk to Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) District Engineer Duane Hill about rumble strips. During the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, Debra Vannet, one of many at the meeting who live […]
Adding to the grumbling
I know that many people will be surprised to hear that I am among the folks grumbling about the Minnesota Department of Transportation plan to install rumble strips down the center of highways across the state. I think there is a perception that because I am sometimes a “motorhead”— enjoying snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and motorboats as often as I hike, […]
Appreciates radio and newspaper focus on history
It was wonderful to listen to Grand Portage Elder Billy Blackwell on WTIP talk about the origin of wild rice and all of the things they had to do to get it all ready. It was things I did not know, and was obviously a lot of haul work. On the radio I listen to him and the other speakers […]
Better science needed for moose study
It was with sadness, and a sense of tragic intervention, that I read the single line in Brian Larsen’s Oct. 5 article on higher-than-expected mortality in moose calves: “Early in the project, 11 calf deaths could be attributed to the trauma of being collared.” Many paragraphs followed that single sentence. I am left questioning how can a mortality rate of […]
Alaska’s moose management is successful
Preliminary results of moose mortality research currently being performed by the Minnesota DNR are showing catastrophically high mortality rates among calves and adults, and by far the primary cause of mortality among both age classes has been shown to be predation by timber wolves. DNR biologists seem surprised by this but they shouldn’t be. Research into similar declines in moose […]