We talked with Sam Brodey (Washington correspondent for Minn Post) on the Thursday Morning Show today about the turbulent DFL political climate right now. Five candidates are still in the race for District 8 and Senator Tina Smith faces Richard Painter - once a Republican in President George W. Bush's administration turned Democrat and staunchly anti-Trump. Now more than ever, your vote counts at the polls. Primaries are on Tuesday August 14th - or you can vote early at your county courthouse.

This week I bring a poem about Maple seeds - whirlygigs, we used to call them - and two different kinds of destiny. Check it out and then throw caution to the summer wind and submit your own writing to wordish!

Deer River High School English teacher Phil Hermel joined us today to tell us about his epic quest to raise local funds for local folks struggling with cancer. You can get behind Phil's 100 mile-24 hour rollerblade for Cancer Aid on his Go Fund Me page .

This week Marshall Helmberger fills us in on the Ely company Wintergreen getting invited to the White House, the derailment of the Polymet Land Swap and visitors headed to Ely who have been blindly following their smartphone directions and have ended up stuck on a rough road that ends up in a mudhole. We also want to send our congratulations to Marshall and Jodi and the staff at the Timberjay newspaper. They were recently sited in the Columbia Journalism Reviews " The Timberjay takes on the

We continue our MN Candidate series with DFLer Mike Rothman who is running for MN Attorney General. This year the race is heated, especially on the DFL side and the August 14th MN Primaries are all the more important.

As the campaign season heats up many candidates are traveling through northern MN. KAXE/KBXE will work hard to introduce you to many of this years candidates. Republican Doug Wardlow grew up in Eagan and is an accomplished trial and appellate attorney and served in the MN House from 2011-2013. He’s now running for MN’s Attorney General. We hope you'll listen to them all, do your homework and get out and vote! The MN primaries are Tuesday August 14th but you can go to your local courthouse until

As the campaign season heats up many candidates are traveling through northern MN. KAXE/KBXE will work hard to introduce you to many of this years candidates. Republican Karin Housley was elected to the MN senate in 2012 from the Stillwater/St. Croix River Valley area and has been chairwoman of the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee and vice chair of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, and serves on the Veterans and Military Affairs and the Jobs and Economic Growth committees. We

Each week, our resident Phenologist John Latimer puts together a report of the subtle and not so subtle phenological changes he's noticed in the past week and he shares those observations with our listeners. As always, we love to hear what our listeners are noticing out in nature. Give us a call at 218.999.9876 and let us know what is happening around your place. You can also send an email directly to John . Either way, we want to hear from you! If you love this stuff, please consider becoming a

In our phenology talkback segment we share comments related to the outdoors that have come our way over the course of the week. It's a fantastic time of the year to be outside relishing in all the glory nature has to offer.

In this unedited, podcast only edition of Dig Deep Chuck and Aaron go deeper yet into the politics of immigration - don't forget next month Dig Deep will be hosting the candidates for governor on August 21st at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids. The forum will be broadcast on KAXE/KBXE and other Ampers stations as well as Lakeland Public TV and ICTV and public tv around the state. Free tickets to the 2018 Greater MN Governors Forum are available through the Reif Center .