In our second Dig Deep conversation this week we talk transportation. Conservative commentator Chuck Marohn posed this: Are we trying to connect places or are we trying to build places? He and liberal commentator Aaron Brown dig deep into roads and highways and what the costs are to our communities. Sign up for the Dig Deep podcast!

Every Tuesday we hear from people around the listening region and discover what they've noticed out in nature. Today marks the last of the student reports for the schoolyear and we are already looking forward to hearing from the kids next fall. If you have a classroom or know of a teacher who would like to incorporate our phenology program into the school schedule, send an email and we'll get you hooked up! What have you noticed? Send an email or leave a message on our talkback line at 218.999

Phenology is the biological nature of events as they relate to climate. Today's report includes all kinds of action. Turtles are on the move and we hope people are watching out for them along the highways. Trees and shrubs are flowering like crazy and the wildflowers are creating quite a gorgeous spectacle! To many people's chagrin, the horseflies, deerflies and mosquitos are back in full force. It really is a phenomenal time to live in northern Minnesota! Click on the link for the full report

Infrastructure can mean a lot of things - roads, sewers, power, broadband. This week we begin our Dig Deep series with liberal Aaron Brown and conservative Chuck Marohn . We begin the conversation by talking about the history of infrastructure in our region. When did the roads get paved? When did sewers come in? How was it paid for? Don't forget you can sign up for a podcast of Dig Deep... click here! Do you have a topic you'd like Aaron and Chuck to Dig Deep into? Send us a note!

Program 21: Early Years of Grand Rapids High School Sports and Music; Game Warden Stories A radio series produced by historian Don Boese. Don is the author of eight books dealing with local history in Itasca County, including "John C. Greenway and the Opening of the Western Mesabi", and the main source for this series, "Papermakers: the Blandin Paper Company and Grand Rapids, Minnesota". The series begins with the arrival of the first Euro-Americans to the forested wilderness of Itasca County in

Each week editor/publisher Marshall Helmberger fills us in on the top stories from his newspaper The Timberjay . This week mineral leases in the Superior National Forest, Dayton's line item veto and new mining of iron titanium oxide on the Iron Range.

Craig Menozzi grew up in the Nashwauk schools and went on to become a superintendent in both Minnesota and Iowa. In today's conversation we talked about success in schools when it comes to students living in poverty and long range planning of rural schools.

Today we tried to figure out what exactly happened during the MN Session. We talked with Briana Bierschbach's about her latest Minn Post article: To be continued: Dayton's budget moves set up another showdown with legislative Republicans

When Tim O'Brien looks around the vegetable house at Prairie River Greenhouse , he sees "a sea of tomatoes." This makes sense; he and his wife Lynn are offering 70 varieties of heirloom tomatoes this year at their 2-person operation located on a city lot in the town of LaPrairie MN. Prairie River Greenhouse is a post-retirement "second career" for the O'Briens. Tim is a retired forestry researcher for the University of MN at its North Central Research and Outreach Center in Grand Rapids. Lynn

Phenology is the rhythmic biological nature of events as they relate to climate. Talkback is one of the ways we connect with our radio listeners-we encourage people call, email, or send letters with comments questions or observations about our programming or whatever! Every Tuesday around 6: 40am we connect phenology with talkback in our Phenology Talkback segment of the morning show. We hear from all kinds of people across the listening region and we hear from school classrooms as well. People