The Twin Ports’ shipping season finally begins today, with the arrival of the Alpena carrying cement bound for the Lafarge terminal in Superior and the departure of the James R. Barker bearing about 57,000 tons of coal for a power plant in Presque Isle, Mich.

This has been an uncharacteristically slow start for the port. Typically, local docks spring into action in anticipation of the Soo Locks opening March 25. But not this year, with the economy in the doldrums and steel mills operating at only 40 to 45 percent of capacity. That means a whole lot less demand for iron ore pellets.

Often freighters are lined up waiting for the Soo Locks to open March 25. However, the locks saw no traffic until Sunday, March 29, this year.

The 1,004-foot James R. Barker began loading coal this morning at Midwest Energy Resources Co.’s terminal in Superior and left at about 3 p.m. That should put the laker at the Duluth lift bridge around 4 p.m.

The Alpena was the first to cross under the bridge this season, arriving at around 3 p.m. The same 519-foot member of the Inland Lakes fleet also earned the distinction late Sunday of being the first upbound vessel to pass through the Soo Locks.

The first downbound vessel to reach the Soo Locks this year was the Joyce L. Van Enkevort, powering a barge called the Great Lakes Trader. The vessel is carrying iron ore pellets from Marquette, Mich. to Toledo, Ohio and arrived at the locks Sunday afternoon.
 

Members Cooperative Credit Union in Cloquet will eliminate 12 positions as part of a reorganization, said a news release today.
MCCU President and CEO Tammy Heikkinen said the changes won’t impact the union’s 33,000 members.
“The reorganization made no changes to the member service side of our operation,” Heikkinen said in the release.

This just in from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development…

"St. Paul – The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced that additional unemployment insurance (UI) benefits will be available to unemployed Minnesotans who have exhausted both regular UI and Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits.

These benefits become available to those who are paid the last of their EUC benefits for the week ending April 4 or later, and are still unemployed. The program provides up to 13 extra weeks of benefits to those who are still seeking work.

“With this extension, unemployed Minnesotans could be eligible for up to 72 weeks of Unemployment Insurance benefits,” said DEED Commissioner Dan McElroy. “This provides additional security to people and families affected by unemployment.”

To qualify for extended UI benefits, applicants must expand their job search to include work outside their normal occupation, and accept work offered that they are able to perform.

DEED will identify and mail information to potentially eligible individuals as they get close to exhausting their EUC benefits. The first letters were mailed this week.

For more information, check the “What’s New” section of www.uimn.org, e-mail ui.mn@state.mn.us or call 651-296-3644; toll free: 1-877-898-9090; (TTY for the hearing impaired: 1-866-814-1252). "

A new frugal shopping option is coming to Duluth as a Savers thrift store will open April 2.
The store at 1740 Mall Drive will sell clothing, shoes, jewelry, electronics and furniture. The store’s goal is to offer bargains, especially during the economic recession.
The National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops projected that thrift stores will grow five percent this year, with an estimated 18 percent of Americans now thrift shopping.
Savers also have Minnesota stores in Bloomington, Columbia Heights, Maplewood, Minneapolis, Rochester and St. Cloud.
 

The Housing Authority of Superior will receive about $1 million in federal stimulus money, according to a news release today from U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
Also receiving funding for low-income housing in Northwestern Wisconsin is the Ashland Housing Authority ($288,000) and the Ashland County Housing Authority ($61,000).
The money is part of $26 million for 96 housing authorities in Wisconsin, Feingold said. About $3 billion is expected to be allocated nationally.
The Housing Redevelopment Authority of Duluth will get $2.3 million, with a number of rural communities in Northeastern Minnesota set to get smaller amounts, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Chisholm, announced Tuesday.

At least one tracker of home values sees upward movement in Duluth’s market.

First American CoreLogic reported today that home prices in Duluth rose 4.2 percent between January 2008 and January 2009.

That stands in stark contrast to a national downward trend. Across the country, the 12-month resale value of homes fell 11.6 percent in January 2009, according to First American CoreLogic and its LoanPerformance Home Price Index.

The report paints a markedly different picture than what data from the Duluth Area Association of Realtors earlier showed. That organization reported the median price of homes in Northeastern Minnesota slid 4.2 percent to $143,000 during the course of 2008.
When I brought this apparent discrepancy to the attention of Lori Guyton, a company spokeswoman, she responded:

“The data from the Duluth Association of Realtors is likely looking at median sales prices of both new and existing homes, whereas First American CoreLogic data is a repeat index which tracks the prices of the same homes over time and is, therefore, immune from changes in the distribution of home sales prices that distort median and average prices. For instance, there could be a case where a high number of lower priced homes are sold in a particular area. In this case, using median prices to determine fluctuations in value could show a decrease in home prices for the entire area, when, in fact, that may not be the case. That’s the value of the Home Price Index and why we base our results on this index and not strictly looking at median pricing for what’s been sold. In addition, we pick up some data they do not, such as “For Sale by Owner,” homes not listed with Realtors/MLS’, cash sales, etc. The Home Price Index (HPI) is a very complex modeling analysis that takes numerous factors into account. It incorporates more than 30 years worth of repeat sales transactions, representing more than 45 million observations sourced from First American CoreLogic’s industry-leading property information database. Does that help clarify? “

Yes, it does, Ms. Guyton.

Other cities in Minnesota have seen even more precipitous falls in value. First American CoreLogic reports home prices in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area are down 11.1 percent.
 

Minnesota as a whole had the eighth-worst erosion of home prices in the nation, dropping 10.8 percent in value, the same study shows.

Of course, it could be worse. Homes in Nevada and California have respectively dropped in value by 26.9 and 26.7 percent, according to CoreLogic