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Howie: Breaking Sports News

"It's really exciting to be hosting this event in our community ... and I'm looking forward to the fans in Duluth creating an incredible atmosphere for these athletes and everyone visiting our city." -- Scott Sandelin, head coach of the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team

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Howie: Duluth's civic theatre at 6 and 10 p.m.

Howie: Duluth's civic theatre at 6 and 10 p.m.

Unfortunately, the new currency of leadership is visibility. You’re judged not by budgets balanced or streets repaired, but by how many times your face appears on a feed. The ribbon-cutting is no longer the celebration of work done; it is the work.

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Howie: The 10 people who helped reinvent Duluth

Howie: The 10 people who helped reinvent Duluth

The modern Duluth enjoyed by residents and visitors did not emerge by accident. It was built by people willing to invest their talent, resources and leadership in a city they believed could become more than its industrial past.

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Howie: How history may ultimately judge Donald Trump

Howie: How history may ultimately judge Donald Trump

Trump challenged the structure itself. To Trump supporters, he represented long-overdue rebellion against elite management of the country. To his critics, he represented a direct threat to democratic norms, constitutional stability and civic decency.

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Howie: Duluth needs summer more than ever
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Howie: Duluth needs summer more than ever

Duluth residents simply need this summer emotionally. They need concerts at Bayfront and families along the Lakewalk. They need baseball games, festivals and tourists asking directions. They need reminders that life cannot become an endless cycle of bills, politics, inflation, anxiety and survival.

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Howie: The real reason Duluth loves Hairball

Howie: The real reason Duluth loves Hairball

Hairball works at Bayfront Festival Park because the band understands something many modern entertainers, marketers and civic leaders often miss entirely: people are starving for shared experiences that feel emotionally uncomplicated.

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Howie: Forsman won't run for mayor in '27

Howie's daily column is powered by Lyric Kitchen Bar in Downtown Duluth. Arik Forsman on running for mayor of Duluth in 2027: "I am humbled ... that there are Duluthians who think I could make a half-decent mayor. But I have no plans to run for the seat

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Howie: Bayfront still may be Duluth’s best idea
The Whipper Snapper races are held during Grandma's Marathon weekend every year. Howie / HowieHanson.com

Howie: Bayfront still may be Duluth’s best idea

Bayfront remains one of the few places where the city still functions the way a healthy city is supposed to function: as a shared public space where people continue gathering together because they genuinely want to be there. Every summer, Duluth remembers that again.

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Howie: While others talked revival, Gary Doty did the work

Survival, for many old industrial American cities during the late twentieth century, became the central challenge itself. Doty helped Duluth survive long enough to rediscover confidence in itself again. That is not a minor civic legacy.

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Howie: Minnesota’s political civil war weekend

Howie: Minnesota’s political civil war weekend

The emotional political truth in Minnesota: The DFL fears permanently losing working-class and regional voters. Republicans fear nominating candidates who thrill activists but collapse in the suburbs. Both fears are real.

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