Changing Gears

RECENT POSTS

February 8, 2012 | 2:53 PM | By Kate Davidson

Cliffs Natural Resources Scraps Plans for UP Nugget Plant

courtesy of Cliffs Natural Resources

Cliff's Empire Mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

If you’ve been following our coverage of iron mining in the region, this might interest you.  Cliffs Natural Resources, North America’s biggest iron ore supplier, is scrapping plans to build an iron nugget plant in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

A nugget is just a little clump of very pure iron.  Big deal?  Well, here’s why the new nugget technology matters … and why Cliffs spent years studying it in cooperation with Kobe Steel of Japan.

Remember, the iron-rich regions of Michigan and Minnesota:

1) provided the iron ore

2) that made the steel

3) that helped the industrial Midwest become the industrial Midwest.

However, miners extracted so much high-grade ore, for so long, that mostly low-grade ore remains today.  Companies like Cliffs spend a lot of time and money processing that ore — essentially upgrading it into a product that contains more iron.  That product, called a pellet, is what they ship to steelmakers.

Nuggets have a far higher iron content than the pellets typically produced in the region.  They look like Junior Mints, but they’re almost 100% iron.  Very pure.  Which could make them very valuable to the next generation of steelmakers.

Check out our recent piece on a groundbreaking nugget plant in Minnesota.  Mesabi Nugget hasn’t reached full capacity yet, but it has produced more than 200,000 tons of iron nuggets.

As for Cliffs Natural Resources, the company decided a nugget plant in Michigan would not be commercially viable.  However, spokesman Dale Hemmila says that won’t prevent Cliffs from investing $60 million to extend the life of its Empire Mine to 2015.

The Empire and Tilden open pit mines are essential to the economy of the UP.  We reported earlier on one “company town” that relies on the economic oxygen of the mines.  If you’ve never been to Ishpeming, now’s your chance.

FILED UNDER: Industry, Changing Gears, Cliffs, iron ore, Kate Davidson, Michigan, steel, Steel Dynamics
February 2, 2012 | 3:34 PM | By Micki Maynard

Trombone Shorty Gets The Ultimate New Orleans Honor

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is special to us at Changing Gears. He gave us his song “Right to Complain,” for the Changing Gears theme song. He’s doing his part to help kids in New Orleans, in the same way that people are trying to help out in the Midwest.

Trombone Shorty

Now, Andrews has gotten the ultimate New Orleans honor. He’s the subject of this year’s Jazz and Heritage Festival poster. It’s called Porch Song, and shows Andrews on the porch of his home in Treme. The artist is Terrance Osborne.

Andrews, 25, is joining a heralded group of musicians who’ve appeared on the poster, including Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, Louis Prima, Jimmy Buffett, and Fats Domino.

We talked to him not long after Changing Gears went on the air in 2010. Hear his interview a few months ago with our friends Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis on Sound Opinions, from our partner station WBEZ.

FILED UNDER: Communities, Changing Gears, New Orleans, Trombone Shorty
January 18, 2012 | 5:00 AM | By Kate Davidson

The State of the State in Laingsburg, Michigan

Kate Davidson

Janae Jodway owns Body Works Medical Massage in Laingsburg

LAINGSBURG, Mich. – Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder gives his second State of the State address tonight.  He’s already signed more than 300 public acts.  That’s a new law for almost every day in office.

Over the next few weeks, Changing Gears is looking at how changes in state government are impacting lives and wallets across the region. Here in Michigan, people are riveted by some of Snyder’s big ticket changes, like giving emergency managers the power to strip control from elected officials in failing cities and school districts.

But this story is different.  It’s about one Mid-Michigan town and all the small, drowned-out changes that deeply affect people’s lives.  People like Janae Jodway.[display_podcast] Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Changing Gears, emergency managers, Kate Davidson, Laingsburg, Michigan
January 5, 2012 | 2:34 PM | By Niala Boodhoo

Changing Gears Special: A Retrospective on 2011

Our mission at Changing Gears is to report the economic transformation of the industrial Midwest, through the stories of people driving and experiencing this change.

Recently, our stations aired an hour-long encore presentation of our favorite series from the fall, as well as other stories from throughout 2011.

Have you ever wondered if small business really plays an important role in job creation? Or why our region seems to focus so much on one magic thing that will save the entire economy? And, have you wondered what will become of all the thousands of the empty houses and factories that litter our region?

Corey Greenwald's machines are shaping intricate designs in metal blocks, largely unattended.

We also went to a few factory floors to see what manufacturing is like these days – including one place where the machines continue to work at night, unattended, long after the human workers punch out.

We hope that these stories – about the Magic Bullets that are supposed to save our economy, innovative ways people are filling Empty Places, and what the modern factory looks like, help fulfill our mission.

Our partners at WBEZ are featuring our special on their site. You can check it out here.

FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, Innovation, Jobs, Changing Gears, WBEZ
January 5, 2012 | 1:32 PM | By Changing Gears

Changing Gears Special: “Getting By” Looks At How The Recession Is Affecting Us

Depending on the analyst and the statistic, the Midwest economy is on the mend or still in trouble or somewhere in between.

Getting By, a year-end special from Changing Gears, went beyond the experts and numbers.

"Getting By" participants

Senior editor Micki Maynard and WBEZ’s Steve Edwards gathered at a dining room table with eight Illinois residents from different places and different points of view to discuss the economy’s real world impact on their lives.

We talked about how the recession is affecting everyone, from veterans to business owners, single mothers to people struggling to find work.

Listen to Getting By here and see more photos of the people who took part.

Many of our participants came to us through our PIN network, and we’re always looking for people who can lend their insight. If you’d like to become a source for us, click here.

FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, Jobs, Politics, Your Story, Changing Gears, Getting By, Illinois, jobs
December 6, 2011 | 5:45 PM | By Kate Davidson

Can Technology Breathe New Life into the Midwest’s Old Iron?

Plant manager Jeff Hansen says Mesabi Nugget is a pioneer

The industrial Midwest might not be the industrial Midwest if it weren’t for the iron-rich regions of northern Minnesota and Michigan. These iron ranges have long supplied domestic steelmakers, depleting the highest quality ore along the way. Now, a plant in Minnesota is testing a process to dramatically upgrade the low-grade ore that remains.[display_podcast] Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, Changing Gears, iron ore, Kate Davidson, manufacturing, Michigan, Minnesota, steel, Steel Dynamics
December 5, 2011 | 5:53 PM | By Kate Davidson

NPR Features Detroit Blotters

Kate Davidson

Kevin Garcia is a "blotter" in Detroit

Remember our series on empty places? Well, our friends at NPR took an interest in the experiences of Detroit’s “blotters” — residents who annex vacant lots around them, creating block/lots.  You can listen to the NPR piece here. It includes the story of Kevin Garcia (above) who tried for years to buy the lot next door. He wants Detroit to cut down on the bureaucracy involved. City officials want that too, since Detroit currently manages more than 60,000 parcels of land, most of it vacant.

FILED UNDER: Communities, Changing Gears, Detroit, housing, Kate Davidson
December 2, 2011 | 2:44 PM | By Changing Gears

A Handy Changing Gears Resource Guide For Educators And Our Readers

Welcome to Changing Gears. We’re a public media project looking at the economic transformation of the industrial Midwest, telling the stories of the people that are living through that change. Changing Gears is shared by three stations: WBEZ Chicago, Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor, and ideastream in Cleveland. You’ll also hear our reports on NPR shows like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and on Marketplace. And, our team members are often guests on programs such as PBS NewsHour, Talk of the Nation and The Diane Rehm Show.

Changing Gears has reporters in Chicago, Ann Arbor and Cleveland, as well as a Web editor, a public interest journalist, and our senior editor. We’ve reported from Minnesota to New York, from big cities and small towns, and we hope we’re capturing a region that’s going through a transition.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Changing Gears, Education
November 30, 2011 | 7:00 AM | By Kate Davidson

EMPTY PLACES: New Life for Historic GM Complex in Flint

Kate Davidson

Workers at Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy prepare custom prescriptions

FLINT — There may be no better example of how the industrial Midwest is changing than the site of the old Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Michigan.  It was one of the factories sit-down strikers occupied in the 1930s.  The plant made tanks during World War II.  It was later closed, gutted and reborn as a GM design center.  But GM abandoned the site after bankruptcy and the new occupants don’t make cars.  They sell very expensive prescription drugs. [display_podcast]

There’s one group of experts who can always tell you the history and significance of an old factory.  They’re the guys at the bar across the street.

Dan Wright is still a regular at The Caboose Lounge.  He worked at Fisher Body No. 1 briefly in the 1970s.

“The bars were always full and restaurants were always full and stores were always full,” he says.  “And all these stores, bars and restaurants you go to now, there’s nobody there.  And it’s sad that Flint died the way it did.”
Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, Jobs, auto industry, Changing Gears, Empty Places, Flint, General Motors, GM, Kate Davidson, Michigan, United Auto Workers
November 9, 2011 | 7:00 AM | By Kate Davidson

EMPTY PLACES: It’s Not Squatting … It’s Blotting

Kate Davidson

"Blotters" are turning Detroit's empty spaces into family compounds.

DETROIT — Our Changing Gears project is looking at the challenges of the region’s empty places this month.  For many people, the most threatening emptiness isn’t a shuttered factory.  It’s the abandoned property next door.  But in Detroit, some residents are using that emptiness to quietly reshape their neighborhoods.  They’re annexing vacant lots around them, buying them when they can or just putting up a fence.

They’re not squatters … they’re blotters.[display_podcast] Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, blotters, blotting, Changing Gears, Detroit, Empty Places, Kate Davidson