Dakota Beacon

It’s a full court press. The ND governor’s office and Chamber of Commerce are laying out a program called 2020 & Beyond to build on the state’s success and visualize and plan the future. Eight business reps from the state’s eight largest communities will join six legislators to lead the program. Bill Marcil Jr. of Forum Communications and consultant Kathy Neset co-chair the committee. Gov. Jack Dalrymple wants to see career opportunities in the state expand beyond traditional paths to a variety of professional pursuits including engineering and medical technology.

The state is changing so rapidly that big picture thinking is needed. But one can’t help believing "2020 and Beyond" has an additional purpose -- to avoid charges that the state’s response to the oil boom is “too little and too late.” Ryan Taylor, potentially Dalrymple’s Democratic opponent for governor, made that charge in a letter to the state’s papers. These are opening salvos in the 2012 governor race.

News editors in ND face interesting choices. There is much news outside the oil patch, but at times news from the oil patch is so dramatic that it can’t be ignored. On Sunday, January 28, the Forum’s front page was dominated by articles related to western ND: “Ripples of oil boom felt in Fargo,” “Oil Patch fire departments stressed by increase in calls,” and “Grand Forks businesses reaping benefits of oil boom.“ The top article in the Bismarck Tribune was “Williston Walmart becomes a mecca for oil job seekers,” an account of how newcomers survive winter in the Walmart parking lot.

In December, Herald columnist Ralph Kingsbury was puzzled by GF’s surprising economic growth. The article in the Forum (noted above) provides part of the answer. GF firms, particularly in construction, engineering and architecture, are growing because of new business in the oil patch. While some of the businesses have placed branches in Williston, others continue to operate from GF because of severe shortages of housing and other amenities in the west.

The sudden growth of the ND oil industry is causing colleges and universities to reexamine there curriculum. A new department at UND is offering degrees in petroleum engineering and enrollment is climbing rapidly. Bismarck State is adding courses in energy management. The Bismarck Tribune welcomed the new president of Dickinson State and urged him to shift the school’s focus from ranching to the oil industry.

Each day, BNSF Railway runs 33 trains through Minot, more than one an hour. The 33 includes an average of two unit crude oil trains -- 110-car trains devoted exclusively to oil. The cars need inspection and maintenance -- BNSF has just opened a $30 million shop in Minot to handle growing freight volumes in ND.

Marc Landblom of Dickinson says “the chaos in northwestern North Dakota is heartbreaking.” Landblom identifies himself as an outfitter in the Badlands. He says, “The whole point of camping is to see the stars and enjoy the sounds of the natural world, not listen to the machines and passing trucks while watching the orange flare light flickering over the hills.” The purpose of his letter in the Bismarck Tribune: “Please help keep the oil exploration out of the Little Missouri National Grasslands.”

In January, there were two unrelated murders in small Montana towns near the ND border. Both murders are alleged to have been committed by workers attracted to the oil patch. An article in the Billings Gazette tells how population spillover from ND is straining the resources of northeastern Montana. Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser says they must educate Western Montana on the need to get more state oil revenue allocated to cities affected by the Bakken oil field.

Oil is flowing in ND and so are drugs. Fu Wong was pulled over for a traffic violation in Mandan. The Oregon man was found to have 45 pounds of marijuana, a taser, a big knife and various drug paraphernalia. Traffic stops suggest I-94 is a river of drugs flowing from the W. Coast.

When is race relevant in reporting? Newspapers are concerned about racial prejudice, stereotypes and sensationalism, and, especially in ND, there is an awkwardness about reports involving race. A February 2 article in the Jamestown Sun told of an upcoming trial related to the murder of a Somali immigrant who arrived in Jamestown in March 2011 and was murdered in April. Race was not mentioned, although this will possibly be the first black-on-black murder trial in ND history. The victim is black and a co-defendant is a black ex-convict from Minnesota. On the same day as the Sun article, the Bismarck Tribune defended itself against a charge of racial bias for not reporting a misdemeanor case involving black victims.

We are informed by economists that if a group is given special benefits the size of that group invariably expands. Residents of ND’s Indian reservations receive a host of special subsidies that, predictably, maximize the size of the needy groups and promote fraud. The reservations are rife with conflict of interest and corruption. The Spirit Lake and Turtle Mt. reservations are near the front of that line. There is rarely a month that goes by without a report of fraud, usually involving tribal officials and federal programs, at one of the two reservations. In January, Justin Yankton of Ft. Totten, former secretary-treasurer of the Spirit Lake Tribe, was found guilty of defrauding a federal fuel assistance program. In December, Patricia Robertson of St. Michael, a coordinator of the same program, was sentenced for embezzlement.

State and federal authorities are dismayed by their inability to control crime on Indian reservations. Weak courts and law enforcement on the reservations, plus jurisdictional confusion, are a big part of the problem. Individuals commit crimes and hide on reservations. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the indictment of 24 members of the Native Mob, a structured, violent gang that “wields power from the Twin Cities to reservations throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.” Minnesota had a statewide prison lockdown to keep word of pending arrests from getting out. The indictments were the result of coordinated efforts by various law enforcement agencies.

Billy beats up people and threatens city councilmen; his brother Cody also delivers beatings and knocked an elderly neighbor unconscious. The teenage Deese brothers terrorize the small town of Wimbledon (240) in Barnes County. The Deeses’ mother calls the charges a “witch hunt” and says the family has been treated unfairly in Wimbledon. Why did the boys go astray?

A cluster of five counties in central ND is seeing a resurgence of meth. The problem was subdued about five years ago, but is becoming a problem in Stutsman, Barnes, Eddy, Foster and LaMoure counties according to their Drug Task Force. The chief of police in Jamestown attributes a lot of the problem to orginal offenders now getting out of jail.

DAKTOIDS: Trouble, trouble. ND uses a formula to value farmland for property taxes -- the formula indicates a 30% one-year tax increase is on the way . . . Williston is adding 2,000 housing units; Dickinson 2,300 . . . Until the 1960s, ND towns with at least 1,500 people probably had a movie theater. Valley City with 6,800 people is closing its last movie theater . . . Williston native and basketball Hall of Famer Phil Jackson is working on a memoir called “Eleven Rings” . . . Dickinson and Williston have housing prices averaging a little under $200,000 -- the highest in the state.

Oops! We forgot to file seven years of income tax returns and, oh yea, we forgot to pay our property taxes too. ND Rep. RaeAnn Kelsch of Mandan laid out her problems at a press conference at ND Republican headquarters. RaeAnn employed the “innocent spouse” explanation -- her attorney husband takes care of messy things like tax returns and finances. This will be a hard sell for Kelsch who is a member of various legislative committees dealing with taxes and fiscal matters.

Do you ever peek at titillating “National Inquirer” headlines when you are stalled in a supermarket checkout line? At times, the Forum’s SheSays section provides the same experience. A recent article exclaims how a “trio of life-altering miracles”
changed the future of a former Filipino medical student now living in Fargo. After surviving deadly brain inflammation, Roanne “Anne” Guerrero persevered to cure her mother’s cancer and save her infant son from a “potential full-blown
(speech) disorder.” Rather than seeing her experiences as misfortunes, Guerrero views them as miracles. The article was intended to show how “difficult times shape us for the better.”

How did this happen? Canada is blessed with beautiful scenery such as Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies, and dynamic cities like Toronto and Montreal. So what did Canadians pick as the top tourism spot in Canada? I’m afraid to tell you, it is
“The Forks” in Winnipeg. I’ve seen it -- it’s where the Red River from ND is joined by the Assiniboine River and together slowly wind their way north toLake Winnipeg.

Two billionaires benefit from President Obama’s decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. Warren Buffet gains because his company Berkshire Hathaway owns BNSF Railway which hauls 75 percent of the oil that leaves ND. Oilman Harold Hamm benefits because he is the biggest operator in the ND Oil Patch and his reserves have greater value when there is less oil from Canada. Despite the boost, Hamm said, “I don’t think it’s a good thing for America.” There is no indication either man attempted to influence the decision.

Even Bismarck Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson reluctantly endorses the Keystone pipeline. He is an
avid environmentalist. Who does that leave?

In January 2011, four American Indians were the shooting victims of what appeared to be closely related murders in Minot. A Somali man with a criminal background was arrested for one of the murders. Two of the victims also had criminal
backgrounds. A year has passed, the remaining murders are unsolved and the police and media have little to say about the victims or their relationship with the man accused of murder. The complete silence and lack of progress in the cases is hard to understand. The 2007 stabbing death of Minot college student Anita Knutson also remains unsolved with no suspects and little
discussion.

What a pity -- he was doing such a good job! Poor Howard Kieffer. The Minnesota man was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for impersonating a lawyer in ND, oh yes, and at least nine other states.

“You won’t find a more Norwegian Christmas than in North Dakota.” Whose doing the bragging? Actually, the quote is from an article in the Norwegian magazine Kamille written by former UND students from Norway. Chuck Haga of the GF Herald traced the path of the writers as they researched Norwegian Christmas in ND. They particularly admired the lefse-making course offered at the Sons of Norway lodge in Grand Forks.

A Forum editorial was headed “Startling Oil Patch numbers.” There were many numbers, here are a few: Undocumented workers are flocking to the area and overwhelming authorities. The inmate population at the Williams County jail has doubled.
Trinity Hospital in Minot has hired 115 nurses from the Philippines. No, the Forum wasn’t suggesting hardworking Filipino nurses are causing trouble. The Forum was saying the boom may be getting out of hand and the oil industry should ratchet down until ND catches up. If that doesn’t happen, the Forum suggests the heavy hand of regulators may be necessary.

The beat goes on. Another hospital merger is being considered in western ND. St. Alexius in Bismarck and McKenzie County Healthcare (Watford City) are considering an affiliation. An Alexius representative said the purpose of the affiliation would be to allow McKenzie "to tap into our resources in order to help them get ahead of the growth on the western part of the state." The McKenzie CEO said emergency room volume has been doubling every year.

Recently, newspapers reported the discovery of a body along Montana’s Hi-Line near the ND border. What is the Hi-Line? Wikipedia says it’s that portion of the northern U.S. which runs along the mainline of the old Great Northern Railway and U.S.
Hwy 2. While the term usually refers to Montana, it can also mean the region from Minnesota to Spokane.

They left out one small detail. An article in the Bismarck Tribune said a court had approved the bankruptcy plan of Lee Enterprises, the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and nearly 50 other newspapers. The missing detail -- the Tribune
is one of those 50 newspapers.

Devils Lake and Jamestown sighed with relief in early 2011 when efforts to repeal the Essential Air Services Act were defeated. The Act subsidizes air service in certain rural communities -- under the ACT each passenger that flies out of Jamestown on a commercial flight receives a federal subsidy of $380. That wasn’t enough, Delta Airlines threw in the towel. Great Lakes Aviation is stepping into the gap and will use 19-passenger planes to provide service from Devils Lake and
Jamestown to Minneapolis.

While I was a UND student, a meeting room filled with business students eager to hear a talk by entrepreneur Harold Schafer. He died in 2001 and his name is now familiar to only a few Nodaks. Schafer was the founder of the Gold Seal Co. known for household products such as Gold Seal Wax, and was also the father of Ed Shafer, whobecame governor of ND. After the sale of Gold Seal, the senior Shafer put personal money and energy into restoring the town of Medora and creating a
greater appreciation of the Badlands. Schafer’s 100th birthday is February 1.

“Their communications skills were inadequate” -- the reason given when Dickinson State dismissed five Chinese students. Translated from university speak that means the students were unable to speak English. The students were placed at DSU by a contractor, the HECATE Center of Cultural Communication. The several hundred Chinese students at DSU contribute to the diversity and international flavor of the campus, but also bring something else -- valuable tuition revenue. The former president of DSU lost his job for, among other problems, inflating enrollment statistics.

1. OIL PATCH

Production records fell nearly every month.  ND became the No. 4 oil production state in 2011 expecting to bump California and become No. 3 in 2012 and to displace Alaska as No. 2 in 2013.  The state is straining to build roads, housing and industrial infrastructure to support the oil industry.  Billions are being invested in rail loading stations, pipelines and natural gas plants.  Local government in the western part of the state is reeling under the strain of hyper growth.

2. FLOODING EVERYWHERE

Flooding in recent years has largely been a Devils Lake and Red River Valley problem.  But in 2011, almost no major city or area in ND was spared.  The Missouri River hit Bismarck hard; the Souris River hit Minot harder.  Minot will be recovering and rebuilding for years.  Overland flooding enveloped roads and fields in large parts of the state.  Multiple projects are underway to drain Devils Lake into the Sheyenne River; planning has started on a project to divert heavy flows on the Red River through a new channel west of Fargo-Moorhead.

3. FIGHTING SIOUX REDUX

Again, the UND Fighting Sioux nickname and logo was the story that wouldn’t go away -- there may not have been a week when it was not high in the news.  The nickname seemed doomed at both the beginning and end of the year, but had large ups and downs in between.   As the year ended, members of ND’s Sioux tribes swung into action to place the issue on a statewide ballot.  That was a major change during the year -- the growing realization that the Sioux tribes might be the biggest losers if the name is retired.

4. THE NATION’S NO. 1 ECONOMY

Superlatives are almost used up -- ND leads the nation in nearly every indicator of economic growth and fiscal health.  It’s not just oil, agriculture and technology are also strong.  Average ND household income is closing on Minnesota and has passed neighbors Montana and South Dakota.  The Minnesota legislature voted down a large tax increase, in part, because it might drive taxpayers to the Dakotas.  Everyone is aware of the boom in Dickinson and Williston, less noticed is Bismarck, which one economist referred to as the “chosen one” benefiting from energy spending and expanding government.

5. MAN CAMPS

This term became known to most Nodaks during 2011.  Man camps are dormitory style facilities used to house single workers in the oil patch.  The monthly room and board tab, $3,000 and up, is often paid by employers.  The camps are big -- by June, Williams County had approved 9,400 man camp beds.  In September, the same county placed a moratorium on camps saying that it was out of water, sewage capacity, roads, in fact, everything.   In the tiny town of Almont in Morton County, a builder converted an old school house into a camp for nine workers.  Other small communities in the oil patch began erecting policy barriers.

6. SOUR FEELINGS IN SUGARLAND

American Crystal is the nation’s largest producer of beet sugar with 1,300 union workers in the Red River Valley and refineries in Minnesota and ND.  During August contract negotiations, the company offered generous salary increases to employees, but demanded flexible work rules and an increase in the employee share of health insurance costs.  The union, misjudging the resolve of management and farmer owners, declined the offer and American Crystal responded with a lockout.  Everybody had an opinion, including the governors of both states, but by year-end the impasse was unbroken.  Four months of unemployment stressed the locked-out employees and the small communities in which many live.

7. IS IT A SERIOUS MEDICAL FACILITY OR A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE?

A U.S. Senate  committee found the Indian Health Service in ND in “a chronic state of crisis” and the Belcourt IHS hospital was the most troublesome part.  Massive theft, chaotic records and unlicensed doctors were among the complaints.  Problems at the Belcourt hospital did not occur in isolation -- they are part of a larger culture of corruption at the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

8. AMTRAK -- A WASTEFUL MODEL

Passenger rail service doesn’t work in most of America.  Rail is best suited for shorter runs in densely populated corridors where rail is competitive with air.  ND presents some of the worst extremes -- a light population and hostile operating conditions.  Amtrak service in ND was disrupted for most of the first half of 2011.  Yet, bipartisan political coalitions pressed to maintain wasteful, inefficient service.  The ND congressional delegation is arranging $100 million of financing for repairs to Amtrak roadbed near Devils Lake -- a cost which will never be recovered.

9.   SOMALIS IN THE NEWS

At the end of 2010, I said, “Expect to see Somalis increasingly mentioned in news about North Dakota.”  Little did I know.  By the end of the year, a Somali man was arrested for involvement in the Minot murder of four American Indians.  Another Somali man was the victim of murder in Jamestown.  In both cases, the alleged murderer has a criminal background from Minnesota’s Twin Cities.  The cases are scheduled for trial in 2012 and the state’s daily newspapers are strangely tightlipped.  

10. HE KNEW NOTHING

That was the defense of Dickinson State President Richard McCallum when he was accused of cooking bogus students into the school’s enrollment books, including the mayor of Dickinson and his wife.  McCallum received very little sympathy from his staff -- earlier, 30 percent said they were dissatisfied.  An administrative law judge concluded McCallum should be fired and the Board of Higher Education quickly obliged.

Grassy  Butte is a wide spot on U.S. 85 near the northern Badlands.  A resident sent a letter to ND newspapers.  The letter included selective emotions and perceptions about the oil boom -- the underlying problems will challenge state leaders in 2012.  Here are a few excerpts from the letter:

“Thousands of homeless people are crammed into campers — and Dalrymple declares thousands more are coming. Crime has skyrocketed. Housing prices are outrageous. Highway deaths are soaring. An entire town has gone dry of water. Our quiet, safe, agricultural lifestyle is being annihilated.”

Clearly, the letter writer takes a bleak, extreme view of ND’s oil boom.  Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson tapped into that view.  He wrote “the people of North Dakota . . . have begun to worry that the boom is geting away from us . . . that it is going to wreck that which we love.”  Jenkinson says it is possible to tame the boom and suggests that those who care about ND take a drive around the oil patch in early 2012.  He proposed a route which begins in Minot, passes through Williston and ends in Dickinson.  Jenkinson urges state government to “chasten the boom and restrain the kinds of destructive excesses that are otherwise invevitable.”

“More of everything” -- that is what the Tribune sees for Bismarck-Mandan in 2012 if the oil industry continues its frenetic growth.  The Tribune says it is time to make sense of this growth --  Bismarck, Mandan and their respective counties should jointly and cooperatively put planning resources in place.

A block of four counties (Mountrail, McKenzie, Williams and Dunn) account for 80 percent of ND oil production.  The four counties are in the forefront of another statistic -- traffic fatalities.  The northwestern region of the state accounted for over 40 percent of 2011 vehicle deaths.  The other three regions, although more populated than the northwest, each had 20 percent or less of the state’s traffic fatalities.

McKenzie County is cowboy country, Badlands country, even Lewis and Clark country, but recently it has been getting an “out of control feeling.”  The county has adopted its first-ever zoning ordinances.  County tax director Deidre Berquist has a new objective: "My goal is to know what in the heck is going on out there."  Man camps are in her gunsights.

“Any other place, I would have just gotten a ticket for disorderly conduct or taken to a drunk tank. But in North Dakota, they put you in jail for a week.”  -- that was bad Jimmy Baldwin blowing off steam after he was arrested for disorderly conduct in Williston.  He said, “If they want me to go, I’ll go.  People aren’t very godly or friendly here anyway.”  Earlier, a Colorado homeless center gave Jimmy a one-way bus ticket to ND.

UND President Robert Kelley disliked the Fighting Sioux nickname when he came to Grand Forks in 2008 -- he likes it less now.  His administration recently asked news media to restrict use of the nickname and logo.  It may be too late, but we’ve finally figured out what went wrong.  Kelley failed to to learn the lyrics to “Fight on Sioux,” which begins “Fight on Sioux, we’re all for you, We’re thousands of strong and loyal souls” and concludes “We’re the fighting Sioux from North Dakota U (add a few drumbeats).”

The Forum’s 2011 Area Person of the Year is American Crystal Sugar CEO David Berg.  He is the person thought to have had the most impact on the area in the past year.  There will be little dispute -- American Crystal’s union employee lockout was the most discussed event in Fargo-Moorhead in late 2011.

Where is the easiest state to find Norwegians?  Try ND, 33 percent of Nodaks identify themselves as having Norwegian ancestry, the highest of any state.  Minnesota is second (20 percent) and SD third (17 percent). 

One more Kleinsasser item.  Over Jim Kleinsasser’s 13-year career with the Minnesota Vikings there have been many comments here about him.  Since this newsletter is utterly free of bias, you can be sure the items had nothing to do with Kleinsasser being from Carrington.  The Jamestown Sun jumped aboard and awarded JK one of its cherished “Bravos.”  The Vikings did more than that, sending two bus loads of Carrington fans to participate in the “fear the beard” celebration at Kleinsasser’s last football appearance in Minneapolis.  Many of the 125 Carrington fans wore his No. 40 jersey.  A Star Tribune photo showed Jim hugging his 4-year-old son Carter Kleinsasser, who wore a miniature No. 40 jersey.

Somewhere near the end of 2011, Montana exceeded a population of 1 million.  ND is one of six states with populations under a million -- the others are Alaska, Delaware, SD, Vermont and Wyoming.  Whatever its population, ND is doing well economically -- a Creighton University economist predicts ND will have 2012 job growth of 3.4 percent  and a 5.7 percent increase in real GDP.  Translation -- when GDP grows faster than jobs, average incomes usually increase.

DAKTOIDS: Nodaks have some work to do in 2012: over 50% are not getting enough exercise, 66% are overweight or worse, and 88% have diabetes or are at risk for developing diabetes . . . Hunting is becoming more difficult in ND  -- one reason, acreage in the Conservation Reserve Program has dropped to 2.6 million acres from 3.4 million at its 2007 peak . . . The oil boom is turning into an attorney boom -- Bismarck has 400 of the state’s 2,200 attorneys, many feeding off delicious business coming out of the oil patch . . . The 2010 census indicated the number of Hispanics in ND increased 73 percent since 2000.  The first Fargo baby of 2012 was a Gonzalez . . . The obituary for Charlotte Hetherington (80) of Jamestown declares she was an enthusiastic member of the Jewels of the Prairie chapter of the Red Hat Society.

It's a very merry Christmas for the parents of 11-year-old Cierra McMahen of Bismarck.  She passed out and was choking to death from a piece of hard candy stuck in her throat.  Luckily, this happened at school, where teacher Sandy Fuller recalled first aid training 16 years ago.  Fuller calmly applied the Heimlich maneuver -- out popped the candy and up popped Cierra.  Fuller was modest -- the McMahen's were grateful.

The Burgum family has played a major role in revitalizing downtown Fargo.  Doug Burgum has been instrumental in key real estate investments and his family’s philanthropy backed the Plains Art Museum.  The family announced donations near year-end to provide funding for a 27,000 square foot annex to PAM.  The annex will be named for Doug’s mother and called the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity.  The Center will house a joint art education effort between PAM and the Fargo schools.  The Center will add life to downtown, just as the NDSU

 downtown campus has done.  The Forum reported that a PAM director and former school board member was moved to tears by the gifts.

The Census indicates that in 2010, 16 percent of Americans were poor and 48 percent were low income (that is, above the poverty level, but less than double that level).  The numbers for ND were less shocking, 13 percent and 29 percent, respectively.  Poverty rates on ND Indian reservations are easily double the state average, and, unexplainably, one of three people in Grand Forks is classified as low income.  Richard Rathge, director of the State Data Center, says high-paying jobs generated by the oil and gas industry are only in the western half of the state and only available to those with qualifying skills.

The Fargodome looked great on national TV -- a sea of gold shirts against a crisp green field.  The NDSU Bison won 35-7 and are moving on to a national football championship game against Sam Houston State in Frisco (Dallas area), Texas on January 7th.

So, what did you expect?  A police investigator was taking time off, kicking back, getting drunk and in the mood listening to his favorite metal band, Five Finger Death Punch, at a private suite at The Hub in Fargo.  Afterwards, he was arrested for, among other things, punching his girlfriend.  His surprised boss, the W. Fargo police chief, says the incident is under investigation.

The Forum’s SheSays section provides guidance and wisdom for women.  Columnist Michelle Turnberg said “I like people with gumption . . . those who stand firm in their beliefs even when they are condemned by those around them.  I like Tim Tebow.”

Another pressing need is met.  The Jamestown Sun awarded a “Bravo” to a high school senior who created an app for Apple devices which identifies duck species.  In case you want one -- it’s called iDuckID.

Who can blame them for picking such low hanging fruit.  Everyone is congratulating Jamestown on its new $2.4 million air terminal -- Gov. Dalrymple flew in for the opening celebration.  Most of the money came from the FAA, the state chipped in about 12 percent, and all Jamestown had to do was find the remaining 12 percent.  The subsidies don’t end with construction.  Jamestown is eligible for federal Essential Air Service subsidies which means taxpayers pickup a large part of the cost of air travel from Jamestown to the next airport.  Why wouldn’t a city want a new terminal if it pays only 12 cents of each dollar?

The Fargo Forum bristles at any criticism of NDSU.  In September, when questions were raised about the cost of the school’s 8-passenger aircraft, the Forum contended the plane was essential for efficiency at the school.  At the time, I called an air charter service and learned the school’s needs could be met at a fraction of the cost of leasing.  A legislative committee has since determined the plane costs $7,600 for every hour flown -- far beyond reason.

Supporters of the Fighting Sioux nickname are not the only ones raising questions about the NCAA.  A writer for Time Magazine’s website has asked, “Isn’t the organization picking the wrong fight here?”  The author wonders if the NCAA doesn’t have something more important to worry about, like increasingly common college athletic scandals.  The writer concludes the UND nickname is “harmless,” even “a positive for the Sioux nation.”

Many years ago, I spoke before wheat boards in W. Canada -- my subject, trends in U.S. marketing cooperatives.  The wheat boards recently had their teeth pulled.  The boards were powerful monopolies through which Canadian farmers were required to market grain.  The boards equalized transportation costs -- a grower near the Arctic Circle received the same price for a bushel of wheat as a grower on the U.S. border.  The monopoly is no more -- legislation in Ottawa becomes effective August 1, farmers can pursue the open market and Canadian grain can move freely into U.S. markets.

“I believe that if things remain as they are today — including the cost of labor — then the end of American Crystal is certain. And it won’t be the fault of the farmers.”  These are the views of Ralph Kingsbury, GF Herald economiic columnist.  American Crystal is four-months into a labor dispute and lockout with its union sugar workers.  Kingsbury believes past management negotiated unsustainable labor agreements.

Hardly any small city in the country has Williston's growth stress.  The city has considered buying an apartment house to help employees with housing.  The Public Works Director said he hired two employees -- one is living in an RV park and the other in a car.  The city’s schools are screaming “help,” they estimate enrollment could soar 45 percent next year.  Williston's third quarter taxable sales soared 90% and in total exceeded those of Fargo.

What am I missing?  The ND Housing Incentive Fund claims to “incentivize” private investment for affordable housing.  This is accomplished by giving taxpayers (including corporations) a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit for targeting contributions to the fund.  What does this accomplish?  No additional money is available -- the only difference is the allocation to housing is made by individual taxpayers rather than the Legislature.

There are Hutterite colonies in both Dakotas.  When a colony reaches a certain population size, it splits and forms a daughter colony.  A colony near Mitchell, SD, will start construction of a new colony in southern Traill County, roughly 30 miles northwest of Fargo.  The new colony will have about 20 families engaged in food production and processing.

DAKTOIDS: The Industrial Commission reports that 30 percent of ND natural gas is flared.  From 2011 to 2013 the industry plans to invest over $3 billion in natural gas gathering and processing infrastructure in the state . . . “Animal House” is closed.  The UND chapter of Phi Delta Theta has been suspended for risky behavior including drug use and distribution.  UND’s oldest fraternity has always been playful . . . Anyone feel crowded?  ND reached a record population of 684,000, exceeding the previous high of 681,000 in 1930.

The Jamestown economy has taken a blow and Minnesota’s second-largest electric utility is sitting on a $437 million problem.  Great River Energy is a wholesale cooperative owned by 28 electric cooperatives.  GRE spent $437 million on a coal plant (Spiritwood Energy) near Jamestown.  The state-of-the-art plant met a confluence of problems: cost overruns, low demand and prices, and the loss of an ethanol plant which was to be a major steam customer.  The plant will be off-line until 2013 or later.  Spiritwood Energy Park is Jamestown’s major economic development project.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a lengthy story about the Spiritwood plant.  Two days later the Jamestown Sun briefly noted the plant is on standby.

In three separate articles, Tribune writer Lauren Donovan covered different aspects of “fracking,”  underground injections used to recover oil in ND:

 In the first article, Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources, predicts near catastrophe for the ND economy if the EPA declares a moratorium on fracking (EPA officials hurriedly denied such an intention).

 A second article discussed how large oil companies are voluntarily disclosing details of their fracking technology in order to reduce environmental concerns.

 The third is somewhat of a head shaker.  Donovan interviewed Kris Kitko, a self-described Bismarck musician and writer, who maintains a website called “Bakken Watch” and publishes anti-fracking charges faster than oil companies can rebut them.  Some of her charges are emotional (fracking kills kittens) and others seem technically off base (she cites dangerous chemicals not used in fracking).  Whether her charges stick or not, a squad of attorneys and experts is kept busy responding to the accusations.

Tiny town allows tiny man camp.  Almont is 30 miles southwest of Mandan and has only 85 residents. The town reluctantly agreed to permit a Colorado builder to house nine workers in an old schoolhouse, but prohibits any further dormitory-style housing.  Ken Rogers of the Tribune says small towns are not welcoming man camps -- they fear being overwhelmed “by people who do not share their values” and “That along with these ‘outsiders’ will come social problems and crime.”

In many western states, construction has ground to a halt, but ND has become the Happy Hunting Grounds for out-of-state contractors.  The Minot City Council just awarded a $1.1 million contract to a Boise firm to demolish and remove over 100 flood damaged homes.

They have various names, “cannon balls” is most common, technically, they are naturally concreted geographical rock formations.  Harmon Lake is a recreation area to the northwest of Mandan -- 70 to 80 cannon balls were unearthed there during excavation for a dam system.  The balls resemble their nickname and appear to be several feet in diameter.  The Morton County Park Director says the boulders will be used as traffic barriers.

Below freezing temperatures and a wind chill factor of 14 degrees seem harsh, yet that didn’t stop Cherie Schumaker of Hope from camping outside a Fargo Target store at 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day; Mike Piechowsky did the same outside a Target in Bismarck.  Their goal: to be the first to snatch big flatscreen TVs at bargain prices when the stores opened at midnight.  They came well-equipped for Black Friday and the Pizza Hut delivery person had no trouble spotting them at the front of the line.

Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson does not object to the bedlam and antics that accompany Black Friday.  What he does object to is screwing up what he thinks is our best national holiday.  He says “the thing that makes Thanksgiving so wonderful is that it has not been overwhelmed (yet) by the tidal waves of materialism and consumerism.”  He laments the increasing encroachment of “soulless consumerism.”  He suggests holding off to Saturday.

A California resident isn’t expected to know much about the ND Farmers Union, but I actually know a little.  When I was 13, my parents sent me to a FU camp in Medora.  The campers formed a mini-cooperative store and sold candy bars and soft drinks to each other -- a way to indelibly imprint the principles of cooperatives.  But I digress, the FU remains ND’s largest farm advocacy organization and the related Centex convenience stores and gas stations are everywhere in the state.  Farmers from the southwest ND towns of Flasher and South Heart, respectively, are the FU’s newly elected president and vice president.

Newcomers will be the big political unknown in ND’s 2012 elections.  GF Herald Editor Mike Jacobs speculates on the impact.  It’s not likely that new residents will have a big effect on statewide races in 2012, but local races in western ND -- that’s another matter.  Take Dunn Center, the Dunn County town of 150 residents has 200 housing units under construction.

You might wonder where ND counties got their names, especially all those “McSomethings.”  Curt Eriksmoen finds that seven of the names can be traced to one man, E. A. Williams, an attorney and early legislator.  Williams so admired his friends that he named six counties after them: Burleigh, Dunn, Mercer, McKenzie and McIntosh.  For good measure, he added his father-in-law, Mathias Hettinger; by then, a little reciprocity was in order and his friends designated Williams County.

Here’s a tutorial: glycerin is a byproduct of producing biodiesel from (mostly) canola.  UND plans to buy large quantities of refined glycerin (45,000 gallons a month) to partially substitute for coal in its power plant.  Why?  While not saving money, glycerin will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and coal transportation, handling and ash removal.  BenchMark Energy, the company providing the glycerin, plans to build a new refinery in Grand Forks.

In early December, UND will circulate ground rules for transitioning away from the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.  Meanwhile, elves are at work at the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock reservations preparing a petition for a statewide vote on the issue.  The elves are enlisting volunteers off the reservations, such as retired Hebron teacher Marilyn Schoenberg (63).  She sent the following statement to several newspapers: “We have become a nation ruled by victimization-mentality minorities and special interest groups driven by political correctness.  We have lost our democracy. The majority voice no longer governs our once-great nation.”  UND officials are warily eyeing the elves.

Huh!  The Kleinsasser scholarship?  Can that be right?  Jim Kleinsasser is a blocking tight end for the Minnesota Vikings and the team’s most senior player -- he is best known for knocking over 300-pound men.  The Carrington native and the Vikings are offering a $10,000 scholarship to a 2012 UND freshman.

Kleinsasser must be proud of his home state -- ND was picked the #3 best-run state after Wyoming and Nebraska.  Who was at the bottom?  You won’t be surprised, California, Illinois and Michigan.  The picking was done by a financial news company.  It does seem to help if you are a small prairie state.

“Jerry, Are you crying?” is the punch line in a State Farm Insurance commercial.  The speaker is a perky agent named Jessica.  Jerry is a hapless driver standing by his car, which is up against a telephone pole.  Jessica reminds Jerry that he dropped his State Farm coverage.  The woman playing Jessica is Jessica DeCleroq, an actual State Farm agent in Mayville, ND. The commercial was filmed in Hollywood and has been a business booster for the real Jessica, who now participates in a second State Farm commercial.

For 20 years the twin cities of Mayville and Portland have used the catchy slogan “The way America is supposed to be.”  It didn’t work and they have taken down the signs.  A confident new slogan and logo proclaim that M-P stands for “many possibilities.”  Get it?  The logo incorporates the Goose River which joins the two towns.  Tribune columnist Ryan Bakken says the rebranding targets commuters from Fargo and Grand Forks.

Explosive growth in the oil patch may cause us to forget that very different trends are still present in other areas of the state.  Steele is a Red River Valley county that had 7,400 residents in 1920; by 1970 the population had halved to 3,700; and in 2010 halved again to 1,900.  The county seat of Finley shrunk to 450 residents and is physically falling apart -- street lights are failing and the water tower needs help.  The only remedy the city could think of was doubling the one percent local sales tax.  An election on that matter is scheduled for January. 

In his weekly column in the Bismarck Tribune, Ken Rogers observes that ND was desperate for the current oil boom: “The state was on the wrong side of economic growth for decades. North Dakota was losing population. Towns were slipping away. The countryside was emptying out.”  Now, he says, “The economy and the environment, as well as much of life in the state's oil producing counties, are out of balance.”  Right now, if these things are not brought into balance, he says the state “runs the risk of great regret.”

A state representative said Williston State College faces “extraordinary” circumstances” --  while other communities have faced floods of water, “Williston is actually experiencing a flood of people.”  At a special session, the Legislature gave WSC $2 million with no strings attached.

Roads on the Fort Berthold Reservation are in dangerous condition.  The Three Affiliated Tribes were unable to maintain roads prior to the oil boom and things have gotten worse. The tribes are asking major oil companies to assist with repairs.  Residents of White Shield said they had been complaining about damaged roads since 1997.

Another billion dollar baby.  Prior to the 2011 floods, the Devils Lake basin had already received a billion dollars of flood relief aid.  U.S. Sen. John Hoeven announced the state will receive another billion in federal disaster assistance for the 2011 floods.  Neither billion includes money spent in the past for Red River Valley floods.

Almost monthly, projects in the $50-100 million range are announced in western ND: pipelines, natural gas plants, rail facilities, etc.  So, projects that once seemed large, now seem small by comparison.  A proposed $7 million railroad loop to serve the Spiritwood Energy Park near Jamestown is an example.  The local municipal development corporation will go out on a limb and invest $3.75 million in the project; the remainder will be borrowed.  The rail loop will serve Spiritwood Station, a power plant, and Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, a hoped for biomass refinery.

ND became accustomed to being one of the states with the highest earmark dollars per  capita due to the influence of its congressional delegation.  That’s all changed -- the delegation is less influential, but more importantly, the earmark process has been discontinued.  This may mean the loss of tens of millions of earmarks for research at NDSU.  The university is scrambling to find funding from private companies.  UND President Robert Kelley reports similar drops in earmarked research funding.  He said UND will be “learning to work differently” at the federal level.

Over a month ago the Fargo Forum obituary page changed abruptly -- gone were most of the obituaries and pictures.  The website now has mainly death notices.  Here’s the deal: obituaries are now considered to be paid ads.  The minimum cost is $100 a day, another $99 if you would also like the obituary online.  Don’t try an end run by selecting online only -- that will be $199.  

In ND, obituaries have a significance that goes beyond the deceased -- they record an important part of the state’s history and culture.  For example, the obits show paths of migration, such as people moving from ND to the West Coast defense industries during WWII.  Ethnic and religious patterns are also documented.  An invaluable record is being lost.  One reader charged the Forum with a lack of civic responsibility and accountability for the change, but obituaries are an expensive service and the Forum is not alone in dropping them.

Did they think it through?  A grassroots group convinced the Turtle Mt. Tribal Council to pass a resolution banning “fracking” on the reservation to protect “Mother Earth.”  The reservation was about to receive bids for oil leases on 45,000 acres of land.  Fracking is a hydraulic fracturing process generally used over a mile below the surface to recover oil in ND.  The widespread practice has not been associated with environmental problems in the state.

Clyfford Still is relatively unknown, but is considered a leader of abstract expressionist art.  Four of his paintings just sold for $114 million in New York.  ND has a claim on Still; he was born in Grandin (25 miles north of Fargo) in 1904, but his parents soon moved to Canada.  A newly opened museum in Denver is exclusively dedicated to his work.

Both UND and NDSU finished their regular football seasons and share the championships of their respective conferences.  UND in the Great West Conference and NDSU in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.  Next year, UND enters the Big Sky Conference.  NDSU is a #2 seed in the Div I FCS playoffs where it will be a host team.

DAKTOIDS: ND has the highest percentage of people over age 90 in the nation; South Dakota is close behind . . . The Bismarck Airport had the most passenger boardings ever in October; other airports in western ND also had large increases; but there was little change in boardings in Grand Forks and Fargo . . . The Fargo Beer Co. was used by the Wall Street Journal as an example of “Equity Crowdfunding” -- the use of online social networking to finance a business startup . . . The ND Tax Dept. reports that the number of millionaires (those with adjusted gross income over $1 million) rose 38 percent from 384 in 2009 to 532 in 2010.  Yes, you guessed right, oil royalties were the biggest reason.

What are the chances these days that a legislative body will smoothly settle an agenda of major items in record time?  In this age of gridlock -- not much chance.  But the ND Legislature did just that -- it came to Bismarck for a special session and in less than five days settled major issues including redistricting and a $539 million disaster package.

One of the matters handled by the special session was the repeal of pro-Fighting Sioux legislation passed last March.  You could hardly have two more different views of that process than those presented by editorials in the GF Herald and Fargo Forum.  Tom Dennis of the Herald saw the process as serving a healthy, useful purpose -- letting the issue play out and building broad agreement.  The Forum continues to view the process as a reckless embarrassment and deployed its full bag of negative labels.  For starters: “snarky pandering, cleverly vacuous, spitting into the wind, tilting at windmills, petulance, stubbornness, monumentally parochial and transparently juvenile.”  Phew!  Hope the Forum editorial staff feels better now.

Annie Hessinger, a UND student, told the Legislature that the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo were about more than athletics.  She said, "It's not just the hockey team or the athletic teams. All of the students here are Fighting Sioux."  Virg Foss, a retired Herald sports reporter, presented the sports fan view, “We will never have a better name, one that invokes such passion, one the fans love so much.”  He suggested, that after the loss of such an elegant name, it might be sufficient to be just “North Dakota.”   “There’s plenty of Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my, and Mavericks, Badgers and Beavers running around the playing fields of college sports.”

We won’t overstate things -- UND is still a small school in bumpy transition to Division I sports, but there are some bright spots.  In early November, UND’s football team traveled to the Univ. of California Davis and came out a 14-7 winner.  The Herald reports the win was special for a couple of reasons.  “UND had never beaten UC Davis as a Division I FCS program.  It was the program’s first win in California as a Division I program and it also gave the Sioux a winning road record this season at 3-2.”  Earlier, UND played powerhouse Fresno State tough, leading at half time and losing narrowly.  The Sioux will play the Univ. of South Dakota for a conference championship.

Stereotypes can be inaccurate and unfair, but also amazingly persistent.  Fifty years ago the Phi Delta Theta, the oldest fraternity at UND, was seen somewhat as “Animal House,” a place for heavy drinking and crude behavior.  Recently, Grand Forks police raided the fraternity finding it involved in open drug usage and sale.  They arrested Spencer Martin Miller (19) who updated the old stereotype by claiming that most of the current residents were drug users.  Altogether, eight members of the fraternity, including the president, were arrested or cited.

"At this point, we're basically playing catch-up since the load has developed so quickly."  The Basin Electric Power executive was speaking about demand for electricity in the oil patch, but he could have been describing almost every infrastructure need in the oil patch.  Lauren Donovan of the Tribune reports Basin’s projections indicate that by 2025 oil patch power needs will increase to the extent of one-fourth of all power now produced in ND.  Basin is planning a 190-mile transmission line from a plant in Coal Country to the Williston area.  Montana-Dakota Utilities is planning a large natural gas-fired power plant north of Mandan -- it proposes a 24-mile pipeline to bring natural gas to the plant from a major pipeline south of Mandan.  These projects spell jobs, jobs, jobs.

“You can’t explain it.  You have to experience it.”  This was the superintendent of schools in Alexander (a town about 20 miles south of Williston) talking about the safety of roads and travel.  He said no one ever anticipated that 5,000 to 8,000 trucks a day would pass through Alexander.  The only relief in sight is a proposed expansion of U.S. Highway 85 to four-lanes.  Tom Dennis of the Herald calls the expansion of U.S. Highway 2 from Minot to Williston “among the bet-timed public works projects in the history of the state.”  He said the situation would be unimaginably worse if there were still only two lanes.

Go about 20 miles east of Alexander, still on Hwy 85, to Watford City and prepare to be surprised.  The following projects are underway: six 42-plexes, 24 twinhomes, 42 townhomes and a 77-bed motel.  The scramble of construction involves very little public planning and oversight.  This would be a lot of building in any ND town, but Watford City had only 1,750 residents in the 2010 census. 

Williston had 15,000 residents in the 2010 census, today it’s estimated to be 23,000, and estimates for the next five years range from 40,000 to 60,000.  Williston is expected to soon outgrow W. Fargo and become the state’s fifth-largest city.  Three years ago, Williston did not see this coming and downsized their hospital in anticipation of a dwindling and aging population.  In the three years since, urgent care and emergency room visits have doubled.  Williston’s Mercy Medical Center is experiencing a critical shortage of medical personnel and has a 40,000-square-foot outpatient facility under construction.

You’ve seen or had one of the huge women’s purses that have been in vogue the past few years.  They are temptingly large, and some women fill them with everything: wallets, cameras, cosmetics, IPods and jewelry.  Michelle Turnberg’s column is part of the SheSays section of the Fargo Forum -- she uses her column to turn her personal trauma into teachable moments.  She left her giant purse in her truck while she took a hike -- baddies broke the back window and took the plump purse which contained everything listed above and more.  Now, Michelle has these wise words for women: have a little purse with almost nothing in it, and keep it with you.

The North Dakota way!  Andrew Salus (30) attempted to holdup up a McDonald’s in Fargo -- two employees “french fried” him with hot cooking oil.  Andrew’s next stop was the hospital.

The Farm Bureau is ND’s second largest farm advocacy organization.  Its president Eric Aasmundstad is stepping down after 12 years on the job.  The real news is the reason: he is no longer a full-time farmer because Devils Lake swallowed most of his family’s farm.

A “Fortune” magazine article about Cargill highlights a Bottineau native.  Greg Page is a UND graduate and CEO of Cargill, the world’s largest company in the food production industry.

Do you know what are pulse crops?  I thought not -- they are beans, chickpeas, peas and lentils.  ND is a great place for these crops -- the state has 57 percent of the nation’s dried peas and 45 percent of lentils, plus the state has a special shipping advantage.  Shipping containers arrive in Minot with frack sand used in the oil industry -- the containers are available to take pulse crops out.  This type of “In” and “out” is vital to efficient trade.  United Pulse Trading, a global company, has purchased a pulse processing plant in Minot and plans to make it their North America processing center.

“I think it’s good we continue to out-perform the nation.”  This was Paula Iler, NAEP coordinator for ND, crowing about the 2011 performance of state fourth and eighth-graders on standard tests.  She would be correct if she compared ND students to black students in Mississippi or Hispanic students in New Mexico, but if she compared ND students to white students nationally, she would find ND students are just average.  The light is beginning to go on with the ND media and there are steadily fewer headlines bragging about state performance on standardized tests.

A proposed oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is being delayed by environmentalists protesting oil production from Canadian oil sands.  President Obama will ultimately have to make the call.  Something similar is taking place regarding electricity produced in ND’s lignite-fired plants.  Minnesota restricted the use of that electricity, but its Legislature voted to repeal the restrictions -- the repeal was vetoed by Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton.  ND will take Minnesota to court.  Proponents of the lawsuit argue that business between states is a federal responsibility -- one state cannot regulate another.  A parallel argument would be that the U.S. should not attempt to regulate oil production in Canada.

The ND Legislature cleared the way to drop the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.  The state’s most popular and potent symbol is on the way out.  UND President Robert Kelley told the GF Herald that about half his time since taking the job of president in 2008 has been spent on the Fighting Sioux nickname issue.  In the last year, the issue had taken almost three-fourths of his time.  The name is the victim of the NCAA and two groups at UND: a treacherous faculty minority and a succession of administrations who have bungled the issue.

Jim and Sheri Kleinsasser are among the most well-known names in UND and ND sports history.  Jim for football; his sister Sheri for basketball.  In a brief, meaningful letter presented to the ND Legislature, the Carrington natives said they absolutely did not want to see the Fighting Sioux name discontinued, but UND and student athletes would suffer if the name wasn’t dropped.  They wanted future UND athletes to have the same opportunities they had.

A Pyrrhic victory is one which comes with staggering losses.  For many who opposed the UND Fighting Sioux nickname the loss of the name may be a Pyrrhic victory.  A few UND faculty opponents will remain forever smug, but many ND Indians will lose one of their tribe’s most positive identifiers without a corresponding benefit.  This realization may be the reason the Spirit Lake Sioux struggled so hard to preserve the name and gain the moral high ground.

Faculty members with a radical agenda punch above their weight at UND.  Their success at manipulating the NCAA about the Fighting Sioux nickname is Exhibit 1.  The case of UND student Caleb Warner is less known.  He was accused of sexual assault by a female student, found guilty by a campus faculty tribunal and barred from the campus.  Later, the accuser was charged with lying to the police about the incident, but UND still chose to believe the accuser rather than the police.  A Wall Street Journal op-ed about campus excesses described the incident and embarrassed UND.  Only then, did UND President Robert Kelley ask former law school dean Paul LeBel to revisit the matter -- the sanctions were vacated.  The GF Herald’s Tom Dennis notes, by that time, Warner’s reputation and education were seriously damaged.

The “boom inevitably goes bust.”  Tom Dennis is not predicting an early end to ND’s oil boom, but believes “one day, it’ll fade.”  He sees Norway as a model: “All but 4 per cent of Norway’s oil earnings must be placed in the fund for savings; nothing can be withdrawn from the fund until the oil is gone, decades from now; and — most crucially — absolutely none of the money can be invested inside Norway.”  In another column on a different subject, he said Minot will not get the level of federal flood recovery help that Grand Forks received, and it will be necessary for the state “to help Minot get fully back on its feet.”

Residents in flood stricken Minot are abuzz about a new restaurant with “authentic Italian cuisine” and hand-painted design features by Italian artisans.  The new arrival is Olive Garden.  Minot will be Olive Garden’s third ND location; a fourth, under construction in Grand Forks, was slightly delayed when immigration authorities carted away illegal workers from Honduras and Ecuador.  Despite the pretentious self-description, Olive Garden is a national chain whose consistently good reputation makes it a top choice in mid-sized markets.

Cory Smoot had a sinister, villainous appearance.  It was appropriate -- he was the lead guitarist for the heavy-metal band Gwar.  They are over-the-top -- if you wish to know, fake blood, goo, things like that.  His stage name was Flattus Maximus.  The Gwar tour bus was making its way to Edmonton, Canada after a show in Minneapolis -- Smoot was found dead when the bus stopped for a passport check in Pembina.  The Flattus Maximus name will be retired.

A good day’s work.  Former ND Governor Ed Schafer will receive stock worth $800,000 for joining the board of Continental Resources, which produces nine percent of ND oil.  The stock will vest over four years.  Schafer is the son of the founder of the Gold Seal Company.

The Agraria restaurant in Washington, D.C. has been a long-running disaster.  The ND Farmers Union opened the restaurant in 2006 to highlight farm-inspired food -- the restaurant industry saw it as a naive display of conceit.  The Fargo Forum said Agraria was a “marvelous display of visionary thinking” and Bismarck Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson praised the concept, while restaurant critics said Agraria was doomed.  In 2008, the FU groused that Agraria was incurring losses; later that year the name was changed to Farmers and Fishers and management was turned over to consultants.  Early this year Farmers and Fishers closed.  You learned none of this from the Forum, the Tribune or the Farmers Union -- it will go down as a case of provincial hubris.  The NDFU owns another more successful D.C. restaurant in partnership with the consultants.

Remember the western movies in which homesteaders stampede on to the plains and erect tarpaper shack towns.  It’s not quite the same, but a Minnesota developer is going to build an instant town called Centerville about 12 miles west of Stanley on Highway 2.  Centerville is expected to have 500 residents and will be mostly mobile home sites and a few lots for conventional homes.

Quote without comment: “This is the most exposure the World’s Largest Buffalo has received since it was renovated by Hampton Hotels.”  Jamestown was thrilled when a national television crew filmed the city’s highlights, including two homes for the elderly.

The Jamestown Sun made a first -- it awarded its dreaded Buffalo Chips to a fish.  The fish is the silver carp which has found its way to ND via the James River.  The carp is an invasive species and causes all kinds of trouble.  The fish can grow to over 40 lb. and leap 10 ft. in the air.  Boaters in high-speed watercraft have been injured by airborne fish.

Behind the scenes of ND’s new prosperity local problems simmer.  Townships in Stutsman County increasingly owe money to the county -- they have exhausted their funds repairing water damaged roads.  A county commissioner said, “It isn’t that the townships are shirking their duty. They just don’t have the money, after experiencing high water every year since 1993.”  Around Devils Lake local governments can no longer afford the local matching share of raising flooded roads.  Gov. Dalrymple cited FEMA rules as part of the problem.  Millions of dollars have been spent to raise roads to provide access to just a handful of rural farmsteads.  The governor said “why not buy the house for $150,000 and be done with it.”  A new FEMA official agreed, but said “federal regulations are difficult to change.”

Good news from ND’s congressional delegation -- 42 ND counties have won the disaster sweepstakes -- that leaves only 11 slightly disappointed counties.  Those 11 may slip aboard later in the year by qualifying as “contiguous” counties.   Some of the counties qualified because of drought, others because of excessive rain.  Each year nearly half of ND’s counties find their way on to the USDA natural disaster list and its attendant benefits.  Certain counties have been on the list for many consecutive years.  You might be surprised to learn that disasters are strangely selective -- they prefer years in advance of elections.

“I know nothing -- NOTHING!” -- this is the defense made famous by the bumbling Sergeant Schultz in TV’s Hogan’s Heroes.  Dickinson State President Richard McCallum was the latest to use the defense when he denied all knowledge of the enrollment of 180 bogus students, including the mayor of Dickinson and his wife.  McCallum was, of course, shocked by the charges, also insulted and offended.  He testified before a state administrative law judge. 

TV anchors develop adoring fans -- often they develop something else -- a legend in their own minds.  When an anchor is released, managers better watch out and be sure attorneys are covering their backs.  Michelle Turnberg was a TV anchor in Fargo until mid-2010, was let go and recently became a columnist for the Forum.  In her column, she said “I feel compelled to comment” (on the circumstances of her dismissal).  She followed with a tale of embarrassment, anger and suffering -- all caused, in her view, by a condescending manager trying to improve his bottom line.  The Forum received considerable commentary about the treatment of women in TV and whether they are ushered out the door at the first signs of aging.

Hettinger, get ready, you’re next.  Dept. of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms warned that choking traffic, dust, huge demand for water and man camps were all headed for Hettinger County (the town of Hettinger is in Adams county) as oil development edges south.  Helms said he tried to warn everybody three years ago and now time is running out.  County officials said they are hustling to prepare for an invasion of oil rigs.

The Williams County sheriff first said a positive ND thing, “On one hand, we need to count our blessings,” then he got down to business, “On the other hand . . . We have come to the point here where we’re almost overwhelmed.  It’s very close.”  Arrests in Williston for crimes such as DUI, assault and theft in the first half of 2011 were already twice the total for all of 2010.

Trucking is booming in ND and so are crashes involving trucks.  The industry is estimated to have grown in excess of 100 percent during the last year and truck crashes in the first half of 2011 were double the entire year 2005.  Truck fatalities in 2011 appear to be on track to double 2005, and injuries for 2011 are likely to triple 2005.  The state and counties can’t stay ahead of the growth in truck traffic.

An interesting project that didn’t happen: “ND Horizons” reports, that in 1964, U.S. Sen. Quentin Burdick proposed a 500-foot statue of Sakakawea along I-94.  That would be twice the height of the ND Capitol and nearly as high as the Washington Monument.  The statue was to be made of glass block and projected to cost $28 million (in 2010 dollars).  It would have been eye-catching, alas, the idea was rejected by the National Park Service.

Coal ash is a byproduct of generating electricity with coal.  The ash has useful applications including use as a substitute for cement.  An ambitious federal EPA would like to classify coal ash as a hazardous waste and make it unmarketable.  Sen. John Hoeven has introduced federal legislation, supported by ND Sen. Kent Conrad and SD Sen. John Thune, that would maintain ND’s current standards for disposing of coal ash.

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. raped and killed UND coed Dru Sjodin in 2003 and was sentenced to death in 2006.  It is almost safe to say that in 2013, ten years after the murder, Rodriguez’s sentence will still be on appeal.  His new defense attorney, a Chicago law professor, has labeled the former defense team incompetent and contends Rodriguez was retarded and temporarily insane at the time of the crime.  This is an all too familiar pattern for death penalty cases -- millions of dollars spent in the courts and defendants likely to die of natural causes before appeals are exhausted.  The Rodriguez case is one more argument for abolishing the death penalty, which is largely futile, a boon to attorneys and a hoax on taxpayers.

ND is the No. 4 state in oil production.  Lynn Helms, the director of ND’s Department of Mineral Resources, says ND production will pass that of California in the second half of 2012 and will pass Alaska shortly thereafter, making ND the No. 2 state.  Currently, California produces about 539,000 barrels a day while Alaska produces 550,000 barrels.  ND wasn’t supposed to arrive this fast.

Good news, bad news.  Airports in western ND are setting passenger boarding records.  September boardings in Williston and Dickinson were up over 80 percent from the prior year; those in Grand Forks and Fargo stayed about the same.  Now, the bad news -- western airports need runway upgrades, and expanded terminals and parking.

Editorials in both the Minot Daily News and the Bismarck Tribune highlighted the rapidly developing need for affordable housing in western ND for people forced out of their homes by escalating rents.  The Trib editorial referred to “oil patch refugees.”

Because of the newness of many ND oil wells, there are not yet systems to collect and process natural gas from all wells.  It is common practice to flare (burn) the gas.  A system is being tested to use well gas as a substitute for diesel in engines powering drilling rigs.  This can save around $1,000 a day in fuel costs at each rig.

A Minneapolis Star Tribune article calls ND a “siren song of prosperity”  -- 27,000 Minnesotans worked in ND in 2009 -- the number is growing.  Keep in mind many of the workers live in border towns such as E. Grand Forks and Moorhead.  The article says ND is “the country’s fastest-growing economy” and has “the highest personal income gains.”  Many young Minnesotans have gone to the oil fields for adventure and money.  A Thief River Falls mother said her 22-year-old son makes $120,000 a year in ND as a crane operator.

The parents at a south-end Grand Forks elementary school have petitioned to reduce the number of English Language Learners (ELL) at the school.  Over 10 percent of the students are ELL.  While the students are identified only as immigrants and refugees, many are likely to be Somalis.  The parents are concerned that the ELL students take so much teacher time that other students are forgotten.  A few parents oppose the petitioners suggesting they are racist and intolerant of a vulnerable group.  The refugees arrived in Grand Forks as a result of resettlement programs of Lutheran Social Services.

Don’t call me “Buckwheat!”  The assistant principal in a Fargo high school will undergo sensitivity training for a calling a black student Buckwheat.  Buckwheat was a black character in “Little Rascals” comedies in the 1920s.

The Forum is getting tough.  Its young publisher, Bill Marcil Jr., said unequivocally: no “anonymous voices on our website.  I can no longer justify giving a platform to vultures who comment on our content.”  Come up with names and addresses or get out.

Do the GF Herald and Fargo Forum (both Forum companies) come up with “good cop, bad cop” editorials in totally independent fashion, or is there contrivance?  Tom Dennis of the Herald wrote, “On balance, North Dakotans remain satisfied with the existing system (for redistricting); and given the outlines of this year’s plan, they’re likely to stay that way.”  But the Forum was displeased, “Redistricting that makes it more difficult than it is now to recruit good candidates from rural areas can be perceived as an urban thumb on the scale.”  The Forum called for “something that will better serve rural North Dakotans.”  Both editorials were about redistricting that reduces the number of legislative districts in sparsely populated rural areas and increases those in more urban Cass and Burleigh counties.

“SheSays will be a trusted source of information for women who are smart and savvy.”  In early October, Forum Editor Matt Von Pinnon described the new daily section SheSays as an exciting change: “built daily for women by women.”  A trickle of dissents began coming in from women and by October 16th there was a torrent: The worst idea ever . . . journalistic talent wasted . . . stick to the news . . . boring . . . Good Housekeeping 1950 . . . gossip rag . . . when did Penne with Mushrooms become an important issue . . . and so on.  Will the Forum fine-tune the section, or will SheSays go the way of anonymous voices?

“This sense of moral superiority is pervasive in North Dakota politics.”  GF Herald Editor Mike Jacobs furnished many examples of what he called “a strong streak of moralism” in the state.  He speculated “Some of it probably arises from Norwegian pietism.”  He said this thinking “resonates with supporters of the (Fighting Sioux) nickname, native and white, who have wrested the moral high ground from nickname opponents.”

Whether Jacobs correctly identified the cause, he correctly described the attitude of Fighting Sioux supporters.  A state senator from GF said, “I personally don’t want to see the nickname go away.  A majority of people in the state don’t want to see it go away. And if you talk with the people in those two tribes (the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes), the vast majority don’t want to see it go away. They gave it to us . . . and I think it should be their choice.”  Despite such strong feelings, Sen. Lonnie Laffen said he would reluctantly introduce a bill in the November interim legislature to repeal the name, because the NCAA leaves no options.

When cameras at the Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks focus on the “Beer Grandma,” the crowd roars its approval.  The Beer Grandma is 85-year-old Beth Delano who has attended UND hockey games for over 50 years and, yes, has an occasional beer.  UND President Robert Kelley wants the cameras to look elsewhere, feeling the grandma reminds viewers of the school’s unwanted reputation for excessive drinking.  Tom Dennis of the Herald thinks the fuss is silly and the Beer Lady presents “UND sports in a friendly and flattering light.”  He says, in fact, she is a “symbol of both proper fan behavior and responsible use of alcohol.”  Kelley also disapproves of the Fighting Sioux nickname.

The federal EPA is demanding that ND power plants spend $700 million on technologies to reduce regional haze, although ND has some of the highest air quality grades in the nation.  Improvement from the new equipment would be imperceptible.  In other words, the demand flunks cost benefit tests.  Herald opinion page editor Tom Dennis said, “Eventually, environmental regulations reach a point of diminishing returns . . . And it’s the point the ‘regional haze’ effort is at today.”  A Tribune editorial said the spending wanted by the EPA is “a cost that would trickle down to consumers without observable benefits.”

Doug Burgum, the former leader of Great Plains Software, wrote a testimonial to Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs.  Burgum said there is a direct line from Jobs through Great Plains Software to Microsoft’s presence in ND.  Burgum also said numerous local software start-ups gained leadership and investment from that heritage.