Articles

That yarmulke says Duluth all over it

Robin Washington column: For four days each May, I wear a yarmulke pretty much continuously. Not because it’s any Jewish holiday (they tend to run one, two or eight days) but because I’m celebrating my identity among others doing the same.

• Robin Washington discusses the yarmulke
• Robin Washington

Their tragedy is our tragedy

ROBIN WASHINGTON: One year, I got the easy assignment. As long as nobody seriously got hurt — and you sincerely hoped not, for their sake and yours — the medical tent was one-stop shopping for compelling stories. Their bodies would be shivering, wrapped in space blankets, testifying to human endurance. Their faces beamed personal achievement.

• Robin Washington
• At least 3 killed, more than 130 injured in two explosions near Boston Marathon finish line
• Many in Boston with Northland connections describe shock after Monday’s explosions
• How much more of this can we endure?

A snow news day — and a little bit of Sylvia Plath

Robin Washington column: I had been looking forward to cavorting with the English majors, if for no other reason than to hear what they thought about being the butt of a Garrison Keillor routine.

• Robin Washington

As a matter of record, Carlson is front-page news

Robin Washington column: Remember this item in the News Tribune? “Duluth police raided two downtown shops Tuesday, filling a truck, a van and a car with suspected drug paraphernalia. … Police also seized an illegal military assault rifle from the Last Place on Earth,” a police spokesman said.

The Rose Man remembered

ROBIN WASHINGTON: I don’t think he knew it, but Kevin Ferris was my fashion guru.

• Kevin Ferris

Have a roadkill recipe to share? Montana might just bite …

Robin Washington column: I’m hardly the most religious person in the world, but I do keep kosher — especially during Passover this week. So you’re not likely to find me eating roadkill. Apparently, I don’t know what I’m missing.

• Watch "The Perennial Plate's" Minnesota roadkill episode
• Robin Washington

Editor's view: Blondie’s back — with Pearls

ROBIN WASHINGTON: Two weeks ago, I announced the News Tribune was canceling the comic strip that’s run in the paper since 1937; not because of its quality, but because of how much we were being charged for it.

• To keep from missing the bus, ‘Blondie’ changes with the times
• ‘Pearls Before Swine’ creator says best strips show originality
• Photo

Sojourner traveled a perilous road for freedom

ROBIN WASHINGTON: If you’ve gotten to know Sue Sojourner since her move to Duluth in the late 1990s, you’re probably aware of her civil rights work in Mississippi.

• Sue Sojourner

Remembering, and thanking, Rosa Parks

ROBIN WASHINGTON: Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Parks. News Tribune editor Robin Washington wrote a tribute at the time of her passing on Oct. 24, 2005, that still resonates today.

• Rosa Parks

Why the Duluth News Tribune is canceling ‘Blondie’

ROBIN WASHINGTON: Starting Wednesday, “Blondie” will no longer appear in the News Tribune. A new strip, “Pearls Before Swine,” will take its place.

• "Blondie"
• Photo

Columns

Before ‘42,’ interracial teams barnstormed the Northland

Robin Washington column: ‘42’ is a classic based-on-a-true story biopic. Making the rounds concurrent with the movie is “Color Blind: The Forgotten Team that Broke Baseball’s Color Line” by Tom Dunkel, the story of a semipro team formed in Bismarck, N.D., in 1933, well before Robinson’s signing with Brooklyn in 1947.

• Robin Washington

After suspect’s capture, city on a hill shines again

ROBIN WASHINGTON: The streets and landmarks were exactly as I knew them: I had walked along Norfolk Street in Cambridge, just down from where the Tsarnaevs now lived, visiting a

• Robin Washington

Can we attract the barbed wire collectors to Duluth?

Robin Washington: It was dreadfully quiet in the skywalk last week after 3,000 high school robotics team members and their families had gone home. It kind of looked like … Duluth — just when we were getting used to a famished lunchtime crowd eating and spending its way from Famous Dave’s to Zen House.

• Robin Washington

What was your worst-paid job?

Parade Magazine’s annual “What people earn” edition today might give us a sense of accomplishment for making more than the 54-year-old part-time clown from Topeka, Kan., even if few will ever see in a lifetime what a single-named British singer takes home in three months.

• Robin Washington
• Today's Parade Magazine

Do high school students read newspapers? These will write for one

Robin Washington column: Young people don’t read the newspaper, right? They get whatever information they need from the net, correct? Not if you’re talking about the Duluth East Daredevils robotics team or their Blue Twilight counterparts from metro-area Eagan High School.

• Robin Washington
• If you go: 2013 Northern Lights Regional and Lake Superior Regional robotics competitions

Roundabouts or rotaries? It depends how you spin it

One of the quality-of-life improvements of moving back to Duluth after 17 years in Boston is that I no longer have to drive offensively. It also means not worrying about navigating rotaries — nightmarish traffic circles where the secret for getting across is may the most aggressive driver win.

• Photo
• Round-about the Rotary!
• How they're supposed to work

Resolutions reveal best intentions

ROBIN WASHINGTON COLUMN: What do our community leaders and elected officials have planned for the New Year? And how are the rest of us looking toward 2013?

• Kristi Schmidt
• Two Harbors Mayor Randy Bolen
• Kris Cook
• Beverly Patronas
• Gene Johnson McKeever
• Photo
• U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar
• Chris Dahlberg
• Sen. Al Franken
• Dudley Edmondson

Whatever happened to? Duluth couple hopes tsunami was once-in-a-lifetime

ROBIN WASHINGTON COLUMN: The last time we saw Richard and Perry Vitullo, the couple was sitting casually in their lawn chairs, waving at the St. Louis River airboat from their back dock.

• Vitullos on deck

Connecticut town’s loss is shared by all

Robin Washington column: On National Public Radio on Saturday morning, anchor Scott Simon described Newtown, Conn., as a village where “people tend to be one or two degrees of separation from each other.” With Friday’s horror, that closeness extends to the entire country, if not the world.

• Photo
• Memorial
• Connecticut gunman broke into school, shot victims multiple times
• Police, teachers describe Connecticut shooter's path through school
• Vignettes of the victims of the Connecticut school shooting
• School adviser: Connecticut gunman a loner who felt no pain
• Obama will travel Sunday to memorial service in Connecticut
• Counselors gather to help survivors of school shootings, and their families

For every menorah, there’s a story to tell

Robin Washington column: Hanukkah, it’s often explained, is not a major Jewish holiday. Its popularity in the U.S. is due largely to its proximity to Christmas. Still, virtually every Jewish home contains at least one menorah.

• Judy Gordon's menorah
• Moose menorah
• 'Tree of Life' menorah