In 2009, I came home to a rent-free house and a job that I thought would be at maximum 20 hours a week. Layoffs, however, forced a good deal more responsibility on this intern's shoulders than he anticipated. During my time with the Hibbing Daily Tribune in 2009, I wrote literally dozens of stories, shot countless pictures and spoke with hundreds of people. Included here, with the permission of the Hibbing Daily Tribune, are a sampling of what I feel to be my best work.

June 14, 2009
The Schneiderman's furniture chain in Minnesota is well-known for it's comfortable couches and elegant armchairs. Last summer, the original store in Meadowlands, MN finally closed down, a victim of a frothy economy. I had the opportunity to speak with customers who had shopped at Schneiderman's for decades, talk to the CEO Larry Schneiderman and interview Etna Schneiderman, one of the founders of the company, who was 96 when I spoke with her. This story was particularly close to my heart, as my mother often sat in a Schneiderman's recliner when she was pregnant. According to family legend, she even got stuck in it in her ninth month. I told Larry about that, and we had a laugh.

June 20, 2009
A friend of mine from high school contacted me on Facebook one day and said he had been on the winning solar car team at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. I was eager to take the story due to its scientific nature, and it turned out as a nice profile.

June 22, 2009
One day, my DVD player broke, and I had no idea what to do with it. It served as the inspiration for a story which investigated what happens to technological trash in Hibbing, MN, and I came back with some surprising results.

July 12, 2009
I owned the front of the Hibbing Daily Tribune that day. I like the stories, but remember more the panic and satisfaction I felt when I left the office on Saturday, knowing I had finished on time.

June 25, 2009
Ever since my Greatest Generation project in 2007, veteran stories have been close to my heart. I decided to do a smaller version of the story coinciding with the 59th anniversary of the Korean War, also known as the Forgotten War. Unlike my WWII veterans, the three Korean vets I spoke with were often bitter, even cold about certain aspects of the war. I felt honored to be able to tell their story.

July 14, 2009
One of the most unusual stories I ever tackled also turned out to be one of the most fun. A group of local ghost hunters approached me, offering the chance to hunt for ghosts at the Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing. I interviewed them skeptically, but was blown away by how legitimate they were. The group seeks to simply find and document unexplainable activity through the use of scientific instruments rather than psychics. They really impressed me with their dogged determination and can-do attitude. I ended up accompanying them on their adventure. Did we find anything? You'll have to read the story to find out.

July 20, 2009
An Iron Range entrepreneur is pioneering a way for farmers to cheaply fertilize their fields. Kendall Dykhuis brought me on a tour of local dairy farms and explained how he took wood ash from city utilities that could be used to grow alfalfa and increase milk production in cows. It was a very interesting time.

"Just Remembering"
May 23, 2009
I talked about the importance of remembering veterans on Memorial day.


"Grandma's Lessons"
June 27, 2009
I described my experience running in Grandma's Marathon and the beautiful girl I briefly met, only to lose her around mile 15.


"How quickly nothing changes"
July 25, 2009
In the middle of the summer, I reunited with several of my best friends from college and wrote about the bonds of friendship.

I also took several worthwhile photographs that were featured on the front page. Here is a collection.


Beach fun
July 11, 2009