Joe Bowen
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Joe Bowen covers education (mostly K-12) and American Indian affairs for the Bemidji Pioneer.
He's from Minneapolis, earned a degree from the College of St. Benedict - St. John's University in 2009, and worked at the Perham Focus near Detroit Lakes and Sun Newspapers in suburban Minneapolis before heading to the Pioneer.
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History
- Member for
- 2 years 5 months
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BEMIDJI—Bemidji Area Schools is still working on a broader and longer-term slate of district goals. School Board members on Monday checked out a set of plans and goals for this school year and the next three to five years, which is a departure from previous "aims, goals, and measures" documents that generally only set their sights on year-end figures.
BEMIDJI -- Bemidji-area K-12 students and BSU and NTC students won’t have class on Tuesday. Staff at Red Lake School District, Cass Lake-Bena Schools and Bemidji Area Schools announced Monday afternoon that they’ve canceled class on Tuesday, when the National Weather Service predicts wind chills as low as negative 54 degrees and gusts of wind as fast as 29 mph.
BEMIDJI -- Sherry Lee’s husband Douglas used to leave a tray of her cupcakes in the break room at his construction job. Doug’s co-workers started to leave cash in the empty tray, and, from that came the germ for SimpLee Sweets, the couple’s bakery business. Douglas, whose knees were starting to falter, left the job and went back to school as he and Sherry worked to get the business off the ground.
RED LAKE -- An anticipated spate of cold weather means students at Red Lake School District and Cass Lake-Bena Schools can sleep in a little later on Friday. Red Lake officials announced Thursday that schools there will start at 10 a.m. -- two hours later than normal. Start times at Cass Lake-Bena vary, but all will be pushed back two hours. Early Friday morning, staff at both districts will consider canceling school outright that day.
LEECH LAKE—In December, as a federal shutdown loomed, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe leaders asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service to send as much money as they could muster. Now, as the shutdown lingers and the $2 million Leech Lake received starts to dwindle, the band is beginning to tighten its belt—and it's not alone.
RED LAKE—Red Lake Comprehensive Health Services was supposed to receive a new round of federal funding on Tuesday, Jan. 1. A federal government shutdown means that money hasn't showed, but tribal health workers there are continuing on nonetheless. "It doesn't stop just because the money isn't there," said Oran Beaulieu, tribal health director. "Just because the government shuts down, we can't."
BEMIDJI -- Hayden Fisher only paused for a moment. “Clavicle,” she intoned. “C-L-A-V-I-C-L-E. Clavicle.” Correct. The cafeteria at Bemidji Middle School burst into sustained applause as Fisher took her seat, victorious and smiling.
BEMIDJI—A batch of Bemidji and Lumberjack High School students got a head start on their tentative careers on Tuesday. Northwest Technical College staff awarded certificates in mechanical fabrication, electrical work, jobsite safety, CNC lathes or nursing to 17 students in Bemidji Area Schools' career academies, which are coursework and internship packages designed to let them dabble in potential post-graduation careers and schooling, then set them up with jobs that keep them in or around Bemidji.
BEMIDJI—Dozens marched through Bemidji on Friday to highlight the challenges facing Indigenous people worldwide, which many framed as broader issues facing the world as a whole. Drumming and singing in the sub-zero chill, the Indigenous Peoples Movement March headed from the Paul and Babe statues in downtown Bemidji to the American Indian Resource Center at Bemidji State University, pausing briefly to warm up in a church foyer. The march here coincided with a thousands-strong one in from the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., to a park near the Lincoln Memorial.
A Blackduck High School senior’s yearbook photo is set to include a shotgun. Blackduck Public School Board members voted unanimously Monday to allow Antonia Long to submit a photo for the school’s “Black Quill” annual yearbook that shows Long, a decorated trap shooter with the high school team, posing with the gun across her shoulders.