Research on the shelf




It is time to do the column I set out to do several months ago before I was distracted by coffee cups. I can hear my friend Dan in Florida laughing, “You and your coffee mugs!” but honestly, I did not set out to do a series of essays on cups. I meant to write an Unorganized Territory about a […]

Pincushion Winter Festival challenged by cold weather



Bitter cold caused some last minute rescheduling for the North Superior Ski & Run Club, which hosted the inaugural Pincushion Mountain Winter Festival Friday – Sunday, Feb. 13-15 on the Pincushion Trails, just north of Grand Marais. Despite a few cancelled events all of the skiers and skijor racers had a great time on Sunday. There were a number of […]

Weekly Weather



Sweet gifts of grace



While I was straightening up in the sanctuary on Monday I found two pieces of saltwater taffy next to my water glass in the pulpit. What a sweet surprise. It put a smile in my heart for the rest of the day. I know how they got there. We had held a festival on Sunday in which the children got […]

Lutsen Lutheran hosts Cook for your Country



On Wednesday, February 11 at the Lutsen Evangelical Lutheran Church, 85 people, most of them international students, enjoyed the 5th Annual “Cook For Your Country” dinner. Students in Cook County on work visas prepared dishes that are popular in their own countries. Countries represented were: Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Philippines, Poland, Mexico, Sweden, and Kazakhstan. A few weeks before, […]

Historical Reflections



Down Memory Lane



10 Years AgoFeb. 18, 2005 Although the Cook County school board and the Birch Grove Foundation are interested in coming to a mutual agreement about leasing the Birch Grove Community Center for use by the new West End charter school, it will take some negotiating before a deal is finalized. “We want to get going. We want to work with […]

Fun ways to beat cabin fever



The Elders have spent the month of February staying warm and trying not to have cabin fever. We enjoyed a fun Valentine‘s Day bingo with sweets and great gifts. We got a bit crazy having multiple winners sharing in the prizes. There were certainly “good neighbor” winners with the coverall winners all seated at the same table. The winners were […]

Sentence to Serve work program works for county



Vic Moen, Sentence To Serve (STS) District Supervisor, and Gary Jorgenson, STS Crew Chief in Cook County, will once again administer the sentence to service program for the county. The new contract will run from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2017 at a cost of $120,531. Jorgenson has been with the program for 23 of the 25 years the […]

Buck’s Radio Shack will stay open



With the recent national news that the Radio Shack corporation has filed bankruptcy, rumors have flown that Buck’s Radio Shack in Grand Marais would be shuttering its doors. However, those rumors are untrue. Radio Shack has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and not Chapter 7, which calls for complete liquidation and shutdown. The downtown electronics store will continue to […]