SAY GOODBYE TO Darling.
The women’s clothing shop at the corner of Washington and Front closed its doors for the last time Friday after a nearly five year run.
The reason, according to an employee, was tied to a family issue, not the store’s profitability.
The owner, Paula Hughes Jonsson, still owns the Morrison Shop in Escanaba, and that will remain open.
What’s next for the Darling location which lies directly in the heart of downtown? There’s been interest in the space, according to the (former) employee, but nothing official yet.
Whoever moves in should do it quickly. Winter’s on the way but so is the Christmas season.
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NOTHING PROMISING TO report at Cliffs except that the contract extension with the miners has been extended yet another week. Negotiations continue but neither side is saying much.
Meantime, there’s plenty of other news concerning Cliffs.
1) The third quarter financial report came out. The company lost money, but less than expected, so investors are encouraged. The stock price jumped. It’s now flirting with three dollars a share. Three. Woohoo.
2) Cliffs laid off miners at its Alabama and West Virginia operations.
3) Essar Steel Minnesota, which is building a facility that will compete directly with Cliffs in spite of the fact that there’s already a worldwide glut of steel and iron ore, continues to have problems. Reports of layoffs and failure to pay contractors. Skeptics still question whether the troubled Essar facility will ever go online.
Holiday season is approaching. It’d be nice to get the contract all wrapped up and give the miners and their families some security.
They’re a huge part of the Marquette County economy.
And the steel industry has to rebound some time, doesn’t it?
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IT’S BEEN A year since Invent@NMU opened, and in the words of its founder and director, Dave Ollila, things have “exploded.”
Like, “exploded” in a good way.
Invent@NMU is a program that helps wannabe inventors–students, alumni and local residents–determine whether their “inventions” are truly marketable and then helps the inventors bring their products to market.
As far as we can tell, it’s unique: the only such program in the nation at a university.
In the last year, more than 100 ideas have walked through the door of Invent@NMU, a couple of them have actually gone to market, and between 5 and 15 are on verge of hitting the market.
That’s a remarkably good percentage, says Ollila, who himself is a prolific inventor. In fact, he’s taking one of his own inventions through the Invent@NMU process right now, and hopes to have it out by Christmas.
The staff at Invent@NMU, by the way, consists of students. Talk about a valuable education and great life experience.
No wonder Governor Snyder is bragging about the program all around the state.
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THE ADMINISTRATOR OF Word on the Street, Justin Carlson, is becoming a digital media mogul.
He’s starting up four other news sites on the Internet–in Escanaba, the Keweenaw, Marquette, and Grand Traverse County.
The Escanaba site, escanabanow.com, went online a week ago and it’s slowly building. Carlson’s looking for writers. The other three sites won’t be up for a few months yet.
They’ll all provide what’s known as “hyperlocal” news, as well as a listing of events in the community, some opinion or perspective pieces, and promotions for businesses.
In other words, they’ll be newspapers online, but maybe a little livelier and targeting a younger audience.
Marquette, of course, already has a few such digital outlets–Word on the Street, UP Second Wave, Marquette Magazine, and Marquette Social Scene–but Carlson is hoping his sites will find their own niche.
Some may succeed, others will fail, but it’s clear that the age of digital news is upon us, and the traditional media will have to adapt–as some are–or they will fade in importance and eventually die.
Question of the Day: So…like…isn’t that white stuff supposed to start falling from the sky at this time of year? Even just a little bit?
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