i'm dennis anderson along with julie zenner and here's what's coming up on almanac north we'll meet the new leader of mining minnesota and say farewell to the retiring executive director and talk more about the future of copper nickel mining a display of rare items from the vatican is being called the largest papal artifacts collection outside of rome we'll meet a concert accordionist whose repertoire may surprise you and will visit the tall ship festival in two harbors these stories and voices of the region coming up on almanac north [Music] well hello and welcome to almanac north thank you very much for watching and julie this very well might be the busiest weekend of the entire summer there are many many events all across the region and looking ahead this might be the busiest show of the entire season so we better get going i think you're right on that let's begin with the headlines all right thanks denny governor tony ebers and the lakuta ray band of lake superior chippewa announced a historic agreement today to allow wagering on sports and other events tribal chair lewis taylor lauded the agreement saying it will offer a first-rate experience at its casino and increase employment the amendment was sent to the u.s department of the interior where it will undergo a 45-day review voters in minnesota go to the polls next tuesday for the state's primary election this year's primary has added importance with several open seats in the minnesota house and senate from our region st louis county will also see the field narrowed in the sheriff's race with three candidates running to replace retiring sheriff ross whitman the arrowhead regional arts council has a new executive director rebecca graves who took the reins august 1st graves is an enrolled member of the leech lake band of ojibwe and had been director of the leech lake area boys and girls club graves will continue the council's work to facilitate local arts growth in the seven county arrowhead region well the national park service spent the week searching for zebra mussels in the waters around voyageur's national park the effort included a scuba team searching for the invasive species in black bay on rainey lake the park service will use the information gained to optimize efforts to prevent further spread of zebra mussels there's a new leader at mining minnesota a trade organization that advocates for non-ferrous mining in the state copper nickel mining remains a nascent industry in minnesota with several planned projects waiting for final approvals here to tell us more about their organization is julie lucas the new executive director of mining minnesota and frank angaro who is retiring after 15 years leading the organization and thanks to both of you for being here and i think congratulations are in order for both of you thank you but julie let's start with you for people who are not familiar with um mining minnesota talk about the organization and why it was a good fit for you so for me we'll start with the organization so this organization is focused on the copper nickel development projects that are happening on the iron range and actually down in aitkin county as well because there is the tamarack project that people may be familiar with also called talon and for me this is the right fit i've been in the mining industry for almost 20 years now and i worked my way through taconite working at an operation for 13 years in environmental management and then i most recently was at one of the copper nickel projects as a director of water resources and when i found out that frank was retiring i thought you know i have this huge love of mining and this huge desire to see these projects go and i'm i love talking to people about copper nickel and all the potential so i thought i would just go for it frank explain to us if you will what this joint venture is all about between parliament and tech resources and what the timeline might be to start mining sure i'll give you a little uh forty thousand foot uh snapshot uh it's a perfect example of the type of opportunity investment we have in this state here we have two companies that already are investing millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars coming together recognizing the importance of the deposit its potential coming together to say hey let's get this over the finish line and look at another project or more projects down the road and it's more investment in minnesota more opportunity for a resource we need for everything going forward in our domestic future frank you've been in this uh industry for a long time are you surprised at how long it is taking to get copper nickel mining off the ground you know you go into these things and you recognize that any large industrial project is going to be a challenge it's going to be time consuming it's going to be multi-year but in a word yes the years go by and the challenges continue progress is being made and it's inevitable these projects are going to happen but they could happen more timely there's there'll be challenges and that's why it's time for passing a torch with some new energy new talent and a new message uh for the region with julie taking taken to hell so julie what is the status of the polymed water discharge ruling so we're still holding off on that we don't have the ruling out there yet and there are a couple other parts of the polymet permitting that are also waiting so right now we're just holding tight it was delayed again early this year was it not correct by the courts julie you said you you love to talk about copper nickel mining and it's so important to green technologies um and i don't know if everybody realizes how vital that is speak to that a little bit and the opportunity that that presents to minnesota i think that's why i'm so excited about it because we don't our future starts here in minnesota as far as green technology to have this deposit that is the world's largest untapped reserve of these metals is just it's mind-blowing to me and it's such an opportunity to be the leaders and to show that you know green energy has to come from green mining if all these metals are going to go into our windmills and our solar panels and our cars and all of that we need to feel good about it we need to feel good about where those metals came from and i know having been in this industry for 20 years that if it's mined in minnesota we can feel good about how that was done we can feel good about the environmental regulations and the people the labor that is involved with bringing those metals into our cars and all those other technologies i mentioned there are certainly people who worry about this frank how much cleaner is mining today than say it was when our grandfathers began 100 years ago yeah certainly that you know the old legacy mines uh pre-environmental regulations uh there were you know uh maybe not as many things addressed that should have been but we learn over the generations we have environmental regulations anybody proposing a project has to demonstrate that they will meet all state and federal regulatory requirements that they will basically mitigate all their impacts and the ability to do that here in minnesota with our regulations instead of exporting our jobs and exporting our environmental conscious to other countries that don't have those regulations is important for all the metals we need for electric vehicles for anything we want to do to address climate change in our future frank have the environmental challenges well they haven't stopped any of the the projects have they made the projects better you know all kinds of groups take a look at projects and have the ability to weigh in during the process some issues come up that can result in projects taking another look at maybe how they mitigate a certain issue and in that case if they help make a project better fantastic if their sole intent is to simply stop a project and have a nimby not in my backyard approach then i think it hurts everybody short answer i need a short answer julie how big a commitment has tesla made it's a really respectable commitment and one that i personally am really excited about what does that entail it entails being able to take those metals from minnesota to make our teslas which is awesome all right well thank you so much julie welcome on board thank you have a great time in retirement and thank for all thanks for all the work you've done over the years appreciate it thank you both very much thank you [Music] it's time now for voices of the region each week we hear from an area journalist about stories they are covering this time our guest is marshall helmberger publisher of the timber j news in tower [Music] so we're reporting on a new bill that's been drafted by representative rob eklund that would extend unemployment benefits for workers at the north shore mining operations in babbitt and silver bay for an additional 26 weeks about 410 workers there have been out of a job since may 1st and this past week cleveland cliff's ceo larenko goncalves announced that north shore would be idled at least through april of next year now the workers unemployment benefits are scheduled currently to expire november 1st eklund's bill would extend those benefits through next april but without a special session he won't have an opportunity to present his bill until the legislature reconvenes in january legislative leaders and governor tim walsh have so far been unable to reach an agreement on the parameters for a special session the legislature adjourned back in may without completing a number of spending measures including significant bonding and tax measures critical to major projects in northeastern minnesota it's not clear how long unemployment benefits might be needed at north shore the it remains in doubt because of changes in cleveland cliffs operations and an ongoing dispute over royalty payments to the musavi trust which owns mineral rights at north shore's peter mitchell mine near babbitt resort owners and business owners up there are very concerned about what they see as overzealous law enforcement in the park since a new head ranger josh wentz was appointed there a little over a year ago those concerns were brought to a head recently when the owner of a long time houseboat operation in the park was tased twice by a law enforcement official there we've been trying for the past two weeks to get details on that incident but the park service has been very tight-lipped and the individual who was tased is also keeping mom on the situation but is consulting with a lawyer at a recent public meeting however the business owner's mother said he was trying to assist a client who would run a ground on rocks at the time of the incident that public meeting which included park superintendent bob degross had been called as a way to debrief on the park's response to this spring's flooding but folks in crane lake only wanted to talk about the tasing and other recent incidents they say that tasing fits a pattern a larger pattern of overly aggressive law enforcement in the past year or so and resort owners in particular are worried that the situation could give the park a bad reputation in some cases resort owners have said that guests have been stopped more than once in a week's stay and other long-time residents and business owners say they've been stopped as well in some cases for the first time ever during their years of living near and operating in the park we're featuring ely's mark harmon who has made it his mission to halt the spread of european buckthorn that's an invasive shrub that has had major impacts on forests in southern minnesota and is now spreading into our region including in the ely area to learn more about this shrub we talked to lee fralick and he's a forest ecologist with the university of minnesota and when he starts talking about buckthorn it can sound a bit like a horror story the shrub can grow up to 20 feet tall and it contains a toxin in its leaves known as emodin which prevents native plants from growing in the vicinity over time the plant establishes dense thickets and that further shades out other plants the imodine that's found in the buckthorn leaves not only impacts other plants as it's washed into nearby wetlands it's also toxic to developing amphibians like frogs and toad tadpoles as well as young salamanders the imodine also sickens birds although it's not known to be fatal to them even so frederick said most birds probably learn fairly quickly not to consume the berries although they usually probably don't learn until they've spread some of the seeds around not only are the buckthorn berries a poor food source for birds they have the potential to displace a number of shrub species that are that are major sources of food for birds and many other species freylick notes that buckthorn does best in in partial shade which he said is common in much of the superior national forest because the rocky train creates a lot of open and semi-open areas particularly under white pine aspen and paper birch and these are areas that are currently occupied by shrubs like blueberries juneberries pin cherries choke cherries and dogwood and all of these provide an abundance of wild food for native birds so if those shrubs are replaced by buckthorn the impact to native bird populations could be significant and it's not just the organisms we see that can be affected frelic notes that the presence of buckthorn alters the soil chemistry in a way that can impact soil microorganisms as well as the fungi so in other words it could have major ecosystem-wide impacts [Music] if you're interested in history or religion an event coming up at the deck in duluth in two weeks may pique your curiosity vatican unveiled is being called the largest collection of papal artifacts outside of rome here to tell us more is andrew hillicker president of stella morris academy which will receive some of the proceeds from the event and andrew thank you so much for coming in thanks for having me happy to be here yeah vatican unveiled um how'd this event come together and what are some of the most exciting artifacts that people will be able to see there yeah i'll share my top three in just a moment i'll kind of describe the event a little bit uh father rich koontz one of our parish priests here in duluth uh for the last 25 plus years he's been working on uh collecting it's a passion of his and he has collected uh just an astounding amount of truly remarkable people and saint artifacts and so these these are right here in our backyard and they a few years back we were able to have an exhibit at st scholastica college here in duluth but because of cove but it's been delayed bringing it back and so this year father rich and his collection will be on display august 19th through the 21st at the deck and it is a it is a significant fundraiser for stella mars academy and star of the north maternity home but we'll have over 200 of his artifacts on display that weekend how has he managed to collect what would seem to be improbable only father rich coons can answer that question the right way but i will tell you that's part of the beauty about this event is hearing father rich talk about not only the significance and what these artifacts are but how he's collected them over time it is truly it is truly his uh his pastime his calling outside the priesthood so he spends a lot of time uh growing what his collection looks like and the diversity of it but we were talking artifacts from 200 250 years ago and much much older to just the the relics of john paul the second if you're catholic or not these items should be seen absolutely if you're a history deep deep if you're a history buff one of the artifacts that i have to just mention that just i'm a history guy uh the story of napoleon bonaparte um pope pius vii father rich kunst has the clerics from pope pius vii that he wore to napoleon bonaparte's coronation i mean if you think about 225 years ago napoleon was installed and pope pius ii was there in in father rich kunst here in duluth has that material has the clerics right right here wow and that's among the things that people will be able to see absolutely and and we talk about you know it this is a rich history in the catholic faith but it's it's history of our world uh saint there's some other teresa of calcutta he's got a crucifix that she held in war while she was in the hot uh war on her uh hospital gown while she was in the hospital in san diego to one of her visits to the united states and whether you're catholic or not mother teresa has impacted the world in the way we look at serving others and you said the proceeds to this will be going to the star of the north maternity home and also to stella morris and some exciting things happening at the school yeah so maybe you can share that we've been about a minute two remarkable organizations that are near and dear to father rich's heart and so this event will will the the funds raised will support stella morris academy which i'm the president of catholic school system here in duluth and just just in this beautiful state of growth we're adding high school programming this fall we have a significant building renovation underway we're adding nearly 100 students to our our roster this year there's a lot of excitement with catholic education here in town there are certainly other people collections in the world nothing this complete nothing this complete uh it is well unless you're in the vatican exactly outside of that i think this this is it so whether you're a history buff or a or a faithful the catholic church or another religion it's really an event that you have to be at tickets are available vaticanunvailed.com gives a lot of detail about special events happening that over those three days but general admission and special events all right we're getting a wrap but andrea liquor thank you so much for coming in good luck with the event thanks for having me thank you so much it's great to be here thank you superior's world of accordions museum hosted world renowned concert accordionist michael bridge last week producer megan mcgarvey sat down with the musician to learn more about how far accordion music has come [Music] my mom went to a garage sale and she showed she was shown a little instrument for five dollars and then somebody recognized her at the garage sale and she was a little embarrassed that she was there so she just very quickly bought this accordion for five dollars and said i'm here for that and got out of there and that is where my first accordion came from my dad likes to say that's the most expensive five dollars that my parents ever spent and when i was about 15 i watched the world accordion championships and i got to see the whole wide world of concert or classical music being played on accordion which i didn't really know existed and since then i've changed the type of instrument that i play to play the concert accordion and it's become my life my obsession and a career path in a small industry but in an industry where there is more demand than supply so i'm happy to say that i'm very busy as a concert performer [Music] [Laughter] [Music] it's been four years since i was last here thereabouts this is a mecca of accordion in the world because there are about 2000 instruments physically in the building that show the history of the accordion and i'm here to make a little bit more history tonight playing a live concert on my main two instruments but also featuring a few of the museums collection as well there are a few instruments here that are groundbreaking or scandalous i would say because they show parts of the accordions development that are forgotten to history you know all about polka music which is very popular here i grew up with that too but i love to surprise people with accordion play classical music or pop music and people never see that coming so i like to just twist it a little bit and then that is something new for people or or occasionally i also cater to expectations like to play a french ballad or an italian love song that everybody knows and recognizes because everybody has an accordion story so you're able to connect quickly with people particularly immigrant populations in a in a very deep nostalgic way [Music] i've done about 50 world premieres now of brand new works for accordion and x whatever combination of instruments and that's a really exciting time for our instrument because we're i would say we are adolescent as an instrument not a baby instrument anymore but we're not as mature as a piano or as a violin that has evolved for for 500 years let's say so it's an exciting time to be an accordionist and there are growing opportunities for education as well and to study in europe in canada if you feel so inclined and to be a part of a really nice holistic community as well [Music] and you can visit worldofaccordians.org to learn more about the museum and its upcoming events finally this week it's a big weekend for two harbors hosting the festival of sale for the first time the event features sailing vessels that recall those romantic days before steam and diesel engines powered shipping wdsu producer isaac quick brings us the sights and sounds from the first day of the tall ships event it was 2008 we started and we do it every three years not every year so what are we like our seventh or eighth time now something like that we've done the parade of sail in our own boat when it's been in duluth but i've always wanted to be on this and it happens to be my birthday today and when i saw the parade of sale was on my birthday i thought for sure i have to get tickets this is my first time ever actually being out on the lake we've observed it from the shore many times now and it is just very peaceful and educational as well the event site itself is bigger than delete and i can put more ships in here so from that perspective it's easier from a mechanical event planner point of view there's not quite um as much infrastructure like electricity and whatnot that we have to bring that in this particular event site is owned by three different jurisdictions of government so i have three different sets of permits three different sets of rules three different sets of insurance that i have to follow so that's that's one of the challenges thank you to the folks in minnesota for bringing us here i i've always wanted to come and spend some time in minnesota and i hope to do so in the future but this is a good way to give me an excuse to spend some good time to see see the north shore of lake superior especially in the minnesota area [Music] well we're out of time but you can keep up with our latest updates by following almanac north on facebook and twitter visit the wdse website for program updates and more information about the station and download the pbs video app for on-demand viewing of almanac north and your favorite pbs programs and julie festivals all over the region this weekend if you're looking for something to do that's right other events as well i've got family in town for the brew house triathlon on sundays have fun have a lot of fun thanks to our guests and the crew in the studio with julie zenner i'm dennis anderson good night everybody and be kind [Music] you