News : LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST

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IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED. Is the Farmers Union preparing to dump its Agraria restaurant In Washington, D.C.? The NDFU opened a second restaurant nearer the White House called Founding Farmers featuring food direct from the farm served in a “green” space. General Manager Ralph DeRose said his team is “trying to get it right the second time.” That does not sound like good news for Agraria, which a Washington Post article describes as “built in a massive, darker space in the city's Georgetown neighborhood. While popular with tourists, it has struggled to catch on with people in the city since opening in 2006.”

THE CHEF FOR THE NORWEGIAN OLYMPIC TEAM is also the chef for En To Tre, a fine dining restaurant at the Norsk Hostfest in Minot. Stole Johansen says of the Americans he has encountered at Hostfest: "They are very friendly, honest and very proud of their heritage."

NO SEATBELTS, NO BRAINS. A large share of auto fatalities in ND involve drunken drivers without seatbelts. Three young people were spared that traditional fate, when their car rolled three times off an unused township road near Cooperstown into a cornfield, ejecting and injuring them all. The driver was drunk and nobody wore a seatbelt. Hours later the driver wobbled to a road, where a passerby called for help.

ALIEN TECHNOLOGY is a California company with a plant in Fargo producing smart (RFID) tags. The little tags have a microchip and an antenna and are most commonly used to track the status of retail products as they move from production facilities to stores. Mike Nowatski features the Fargo plant in a 2,100 word article in the Forum. The bottom line: the plant was given extensive public incentives (loans, tax exemptions, etc.) because it was expected to have over 300 Fargo employees by this year. It has 35.

SELECTIVE DISCLOSURE. The Fargo Forum assailed city leaders in Williston for causing the Marcil Group to stop developing apartment housing in Williston and “to pull out of town.” The Forum administered a hefty batch of leafy spurge. The article hastened to explain the Marcil Group does not have a business connection with the Forum’s CEO, William Marcil, but did not disclose he is related to the head of the Marcil Group.

LAURA BUSH had potluck lunch at the 110-year-old Sims Scandinavian Lutheran Church near Almont, ND. The Morton County church is the oldest Lutheran church west of the Missouri River and has been preserved by the non-profit Prairie Churches program. The first lady's visit was part of a national effort to preserve historic places.

PRAIRIE SEED CAPITAL. Technology startups in ND face a lack of capital and business know-how. Arthur Ventures intends to help with both needs -- it’s a new $11 million venture capital group headed by Doug Burgum, the former CEO of Great Plains Software. Individual investments will range from $1-2 million. While this is small money in Silicon Valley terms, it is an important new source of backing in ND. Arthur’s first investment is Intelligent InSites, a Fargo business producing wireless software to manage health care facilities.

THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE is Minnesota’s largest newspaper and has historically had circulation in ND. The paper was owned by McClatchy Newspapers until 2007, when there was a leveraged buyout. The Tribune has over $400 million of debt on which it missed a $9 million payment in early October. Interestingly, California-based McClatchy has also been forced to restructure its debt.

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS: Fly ash is a byproduct of burning lignite at power plants and can be blended with Portland cement to produce better, stronger concrete. The new I-35 bridge in Minneapolis used 10,000 tons of fly ash from the Coal Creek Station near Underwood, ND . . . When suspended in air, grain dust is more explosive than gunpowder. Dust explosions used to be commonplace in ND. Cleaner elevators and better-educated employees have greatly reduced dangerous incidents.

DAKTOIDS: Before 2008 is over, ND expects to pass New Mexico to become the No. 6 top-producing oil state. ND was No. 8 at the beginning of the year . . . Allegiant Air has inaugurated flights from Grand Forks to Las Vegas -- the planes are packed with Canadians who happily drive two hours from Winnipeg to obtain substantially reduced fares . . . Joseph Chapman celebrates 10 years as president of NDSU, a period in which the school has grown 35% in size and become an institution with $100 million in research.