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Squared Away

VA Health Care. At some point, I will be accused of sounding like a broken record. The complexities of the federal machine are not lost or minimized when it comes to a very significant Veterans benefit… VA health care. Even the most seasoned writer would find it difficult to completely explain this benefit in a single article. I will engage my freshman writer abilities over the coming weeks or months to elaborate on the common, as well as the lesser-known, areas of VA health care. If you want to skip ahead and learn more about this benefit, then please visit www. va.gov/health-care/.

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Silver Bay Northshore Mine Facility to be Idled in Spring

Cleveland Cliffs, in its Quarter 4 2021 Earnings call, announced that they will be idling their mining facility in Silver Bay, along with the Peter Mitchell Mine in Babbitt. According to the statement made by Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves, iron ore needs have dropped with the use of additional scrap metals, and the ability to produce DR-grade pellets at their Minorca facility.

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What is the Mesabi Trust?

The announced idling of Northshore Mining in Silver Bay in Zay will have major impacts on the employees, their families, and the North Shore community. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has announced that its royalty checks to Mesabi Trust, based on the price of pellets, the weight of extracted ore, and the volume of shipped pellets from Northshore, have played a substantial role in this decision. Other factors were at play, according to CEO Lourenco Goncalves who in a 4th Quarter 2021 Earnings Call statement (Feb. 11, 2022) stated that the company’s strategy “to stretch hot metal by adding increased amounts of scrap to the BOFs (basic oxygen furnace) is working extremely well. With more scrap in the BOFs, we need fewer tons of hot metal to produce the same tonnage of liquid steel.”

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Lake Superior School District Applies to Continue Four-day School Week

The Lake Superior School District (LSSD) is once again broaching the issue of whether continuing a four-day school week is the best option for serving the educational needs of students in the area. The first four-day school week, with Fridays off, was approved in 2009 under the leadership of then-superintendent Bill Crandall, using the logic that four-days was a more efficient use of resources, and would save the district money in terms of transportation, and staffing costs.

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