By: Mike O'Rourke on July 17, 2012 - 9:03am - Add new comment
I understand the need to restrict the use of firewood in state parks but sometimes the rules and regulations make you scratch your head.
Last weekend we camped at Itasca State Park and had considered bringing some firewood from around Crow Wing County. After inquiring we learned that wood had to be purchased within 50 miles of the park. OK, it's worth it to keep invasive pests such as the emerald ash borer out of Itasca. When I buy the park ranger's wood, however, I looked at the label. It came from Crow Wing County.
By: Mike O'Rourke on February 23, 2012 - 2:39pm - Add new comment
BAXTER — Two Brainerd Dispatch newsroom employees scurried into the back of Lord of Life Lutheran Church Thursday — late for a funeral.
It was, perhaps, an unintentional tribute to Joe Melby, the longtime Dispatch printer, who had spent much of his newspaper career waiting for a layout dummy or a late photo or story in order to put Page1A to bed.
Melby, who died Saturday at the age of 82, at his Baxter home, worked in the Dispatch composing room longer than anyone here can really remember, retiring in 1993.
By: Mike O'Rourke on June 8, 2011 - 9:53am - Add new comment
Rick Nolan’s possible campaign for the 8th Congressional District seat was featured this week in a column written by Stuart Rothenberg that appeared in the Rothenberg Political Report and in Roll Call.
The most interesting tidbit was Rothenberg’s observation on how the cost of political campaigns has skyrocketed since Nolan, of rural Crosslake, last ran for Congress in 1978.
By: Mike O'Rourke on December 19, 2011 - 2:53pm - Add new comment
By MIKE O'ROURKE
Associate Editor
Last week was a busy week in Republican circles and as developments prompted the rewriting of last weekend's Eggs and Issues stories, I neglected to include one interesting bit of information from that Brainerd Lakes Chamber session.
Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-Brainerd, said Friday morning he had decided to run for at least one more term in the Minnesota Senate. That's probably no surprise, but it's the first time I had heard him state his intentions.
By: Mike O'Rourke on October 26, 2012 - 9:34am - Add new comment
BY MIKE O’ROURKE
Republican House District 10B candidate Dale Lueck of rural Aitkin wasn’t able to return a reporter’s phone call until 6:45 p.m. Thursday. His livestock had to be fed.
When the cattle rancher and former Aitkin County commissioner got up to speed on news of the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) staffer who had misrepresented himself as a Hill City DFLer in a letter published in both the Aitkin Independent Age and the Brainerd Dispatch he seemed disappointed and a little irritated.
By: Mike O'Rourke on November 30, 2010 - 4:13pm - Add new comment
It's a long way from the days when the Dispatch newsroom of the late 1970s was equipped with manual typewriters and glue pots on the desks to the current push for online blogs.
In those days, the Brainerd Dispatch published social news from local correspondents such as Alberta Irwin of Motley and Mrs. Milt Pearson of Wadena. Those were really the original blogs letting readers know who the pastor entertained last Tuesday and what was served.
Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.
By: Mike O'Rourke on January 7, 2011 - 3:07pm - Add new comment
News of the death of Brainerd's Patt Krantz, brought to mind a lesson she taught me — one every reporter should keep in mind.
Patt was an energetic woman, an active member of Trinity Lutheran Church and a tireless promoter of the Brainerd Lakes Chapter of Sweet Adelines. As city editor I often worked with her, arranging news photos that would help promote Sweet Adelines' concerts and fundraisers.
By: Mike O'Rourke on January 27, 2011 - 8:35am - Add new comment
You know you're in northern Minnesota when a fish house on a trailer is parked in your employee lot for two days ... and no one thinks it's unusual.
Another sure sign is when you read that the third place prize for Back to Hack raffle in Hackensack is 10 yards of classified gravel from Schrupp Excavating.
By: Mike O'Rourke on February 1, 2011 - 9:01am - Add new comment
Sen. Paul Gazelka of rural Brainerd started off February with some favorable ink from the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.
The insurance agency owner, who successfully challenged the incumbent Republican District 12 senator and then defeated an aggressive Democratic newcomer, was included in a list of "Five freshman to watch" in Feb. 1 story written by Eric Roper.
By: Mike O'Rourke on March 22, 2011 - 8:55am - Add new comment
Obituaries are great at providing glimpses into lives that are way more colorful than our own.
A case in point is The Associated Press obituary for blues piano player Pinetop Perkins who died Monday of cardiac arrest in Austin, Texas.
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