Duluth Monitor

09/09/2026

BOULDER TRAIL

Today, we took a stroll on Hermantown's Boulder Trail for the first time--about 2.5 miles of blacktop between Hermantown Road and Maple Grove Road. We saw a couple of dozen people, several dogs, hundreds of dead ash trees, a hornets nest, and one homeless encampment.

It reminded us of Superior's Millennium Trail--a pleasant, mostly level walk through nondescript woodland.

09/08/2026

When road construction wrapped up near Adolph recently, project managers took the opportunity to rename the neighborhood.

09/08/2026

It was an all-around fiasco.

Gnesen Township, 13 miles north of Duluth, had been contemplating the installation of lighting for t... A subscription is required to access this article. Subscribe or click login below: Login

09/07/2026

The spruce trees across from Playfront Park on Railroad Street are not looking too healthy. Most of them have some discoloration and some are completely dead. It was a nice stand, too.

09/07/2026

NORTHWEST IRON LOT PROMENADE

Starting next Friday, the city plans to close the Northwest Iron parking lot in Canal Park from 10 pm to 5 am each night, due to the large numbers of young people who congregate there, generating police calls and making life uncomfortable for tourists.

Tonight, we strolled past the lot to see what we could see. It was rather uneventful.

09/06/2026

UNDERWATER HOTEL FRAUDSTER CLAIMS TO BE VICTIM OF FRAUD

One of the Monitor’s first big stories was about Mr. O, the mysterious “recluse billionaire” who was advising Two Harbors Mayor Chris Swanson to build a $500 million “underwater hotel” in Two Harbors in 2022. We exposed Mr. O as a conman and felon named Daniel Victor Hancock, about the furthest thing from a billionaire as could be.

Voters kicked Swanson out of office in a special election in 2022, in part due to his relationship with Mr. O.

In our expose, we briefly reported on Hancock’s connection to a crooked Las Vegas judge, who was involved in fraudulent Mexican land deals in 2006.

A reader has recently made us aware that Daniel Hancock is now claiming he was defrauded out of millions of dollars by a Mexican businessman.

In a Feb. 12, 2026, interview with Fox 5 San Diego, Hancock (looking very much the worse for wear) fights back tears as he describes the terrible way he was taken advantage of. He and his business partner, Dwight Jory (who also appeared in the Monitor’s expose), have set up a toll-free number for investors to call if they believe they, too, were defrauded.

The number is connected to the Universal Sphere Legal News Bureau, a weird website Hancock started after the Two Harbors debacle to “stamp out yellow journalism and those who practice it.”

The Monitor doesn’t know all the details of the Mexican land deal, but we would urge people to exercise caution before giving any information to Mr. O.

You can read the Monitor's coverage of Mr. O at the link below. We have lifted the paywall:

https://duluthmonitor.com/2022/02/20/unmasking-mr-o/

09/05/2026

BURKE APARTMENTS MANAGEMENT HAS NO IDEA WHEN ELEVATOR WILL BE FIXED

According to a notice posted on the Burke Apartments elevator on Sept. 3, no one has any idea when the elevator will be working again.

The notice encourages people to reach out to Accessible Space Inc. officials Amy Bauer and Jack Skagen with questions, but neither person has responded to multiple phone calls from the Monitor.

A phone call to elevator company TKE has also not been returned.

09/04/2026

Post Office surveillance thinks it's cool.

09/04/2026

YOUTUBE DEMONETIZATION PURGE HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF SUBSCRIPTION MODEL

On Aug. 31, 2026, without warning, YouTube demonetized hundreds of First Amendment auditing channels, depriving their owners of income.

First Amendment auditors record people in public and document their reactions. Recording in public is a protected First Amendment right, but auditors get yelled at, abused, physically attacked, and occasionally arrested for exercising this right. Despite their sometimes abrasive personalities, the Monitor believes auditors perform a valuable service and we were very disappointed to hear of YouTube’s purge.

This is why we cannot depend on social media. Although Facebook is a great way for us to heighten our profile and earn a little extra income, we do not imagine it will last forever. The wrong combination of angry people whining and complaining about our content could easily result in a scenario where Facebook revokes our right to use the platform. The bigger we get, the more powerful the complainers will become and the more likely this is to happen.

This is why we rely on subscriptions. It is much more difficult to grow a subscriber base than to grow Facebook followers, but once that base is in place, it is harder to dislodge. We have ignored the advice of many in order to follow this rougher, but ultimately more solid, path. Our power comes from the people, not the algorithm.

As for the auditing community, we have done our small part to support them in their time of need by subscribing to the Patreon channels of Long Island Audit and Honor Your Oath Civil Rights Investigations, two of our favorites. You can see HYO mastermind Jeff Gray holding his cardboard sign below. It is simply amazing how horribly his mere presence offends some people.

Subscribe to the Monitor here:

https://duluthmonitor.com/plans/all-access-memberships/

09/03/2026

HUSBAND OF BURKE APARTMENTS BUILDING CARETAKER LECTURES MONITOR

One of the more delightful aspects of reporting is when people accuse you of getting your facts wrong, but refuse to specify what is wrong or to provide you with the correct information.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, we posted an update to our Burke Apartments story, noting that the elevator in the building was still broken, as it had been for 19 days. Tenants were originally told the elevator would only be down for a day, but nearly three weeks have passed without it being repaired. The Burke caters to seniors and people with mobility issues, and the broken elevator has been making life difficult for tenants who live on the second floor.

Multiple voicemail messages left with the building management company (Accessible Space Inc.) have not been returned.

However, on Sept. 3, David Sowers, the husband of Building Caretaker Heidi Sowers, called us to demand that we stop “slamming Burke Apartments.” Sowers said we were “a week behind” in our reporting, but refused to say what he meant by that or to give us any additional information at all. We found ourselves caught in a Kafkaesque conversation.

MONITOR: So Burke Apartments has failed to respond to me.

SOWERS: Why would they?

MONITOR: Well, to tell me the details of what’s going on.

SOWERS: Why do they need to?

MONITOR: What do you think a reporter does? We ask people what’s going on. If they don’t tell us, we’re going to report that. If it sounds like a slam, that’s on them.

SOWERS: You have the wrong information. You’re a week behind.

MONITOR: Is the elevator operational?

SOWERS: I’m not saying a word.

MONITOR: You say I don’t do my due diligence, and yet everybody with information doesn’t tell me.

SOWERS: You have false information in your bu****it post.

MONITOR: That’s why you need to correct it, then.

SOWERS: Why do I need to correct it?

MONITOR: I’m asking you, who has the information, to tell it to me. That’s my due diligence.

SOWERS: I’m telling you your post is a week behind.

MONITOR: Does that mean the elevator is operational at this point?

SOWERS: I’m not saying a word.

MONITOR: [laughs] I’m going to publish this on my Facebook to show the challenges that reporters face … You don’t answer anything.

SOWERS: I don’t have to!

MONITOR: You say I get everything wrong, which implies that you know the answers, yet you won’t tell me the answers ...

SOWERS: It’s not my responsibility.

The conversation did not improve from there. We thought it was weird that the spouse of the building caretaker was calling us.

After the call ended, the Monitor visited the Burke Apartments to look at the elevator.

It’s still broken. We are now at 20 days and counting.

CORRECTION, Sept. 4. Heidi Sowers is the building caretaker, not the building manager.