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ND says thank you to O’Mahoney, Millikin

All of us in North Dakota owe a big thank you to Joe O’Mahoney and Eugene Millikin. Never heard of them? Well, that’s not unusual. But if your water supply is from the Missouri River, or if you are an irrigator from that river, or use and enjoy its recreational benefits, or power benefits, or flood control benefits from its dams, then you should be aware of what these two gentlemen did to help all of us in North Dakota achieve those benefits. Joe O’Mahoney and Eugene Milliken were both U.S. senators during the 1940s when the federal government began finalizing legislation and ...

Is North Dakota due for another Non-Partisan moment?

In an age of fiery hyper-partisanship driven by intractable wedge issues, to be a centrist or anyone politically agnostic is to be left between a rock and a hard place, both of which are dying to squish you for daring to be caught in the middle. While the culture war rages on, the day-to-day concerns of everyone else often fall by the wayside as the political establishment goes through the motions of the kabuki theater of Washington. The more productive path usually is to look inward toward your own state’s situation, but that doesn’t do much to cure the discontent for any voter ...

Student debt: Fairness is the issue

The drumbeat for abolishing student debt is growing as students and former students feel the financial crunch of poor employment and increasing inflation. Forty five million (45,000,000) Americans owe $1.6 trillion ($1,600,000,000) for federal student loans. But there is a lot of hidden debt acquired from private sources that is impossible to calculate. We know it is big Twenty four per cent have student debt, leaving 76% without student debt. The political facts tell us that 24% will be eager to get rid of debt but the 76%, having no dog in the fight, will be less ...

Downtown changes started seven years ago

Seven years later, we look back on May 15, 2015, as an important date in the history of downtown Minot. Why? That’s the day construction began on the three-year, approximately $34.75 million Downtown Infrastructure Improvement Project. That’s the day concrete in part of the intersection of Third Street NE and East Central Avenue was removed to begin installation of new underground infrastructure. Of course, over the next three years, the work in that initial intersection expanded to some 26 City blocks, including everything from roads, curbs, gutters, storm sewers, sanitary sewer ...

Do we have a mental health crisis?

May being Mental Health Awareness month, it seems appropriate for us to confront an issue that eludes our attention until it strikes home. It is odd that mental health has become a major problem in a country flowing with money and professionalism, both essential for attacking the problem. Nevertheless, Judith Warner writes a lengthy analysis in the Washington Post Magazine about young people: “Over the last several decades, we’ve been seeing an increase in mental health conditions in children and adolescents.” Separating suicide from mental health To be clear at the ...

The Communists are coming; The Communists are coming

A lot of people in the Grand Forks area are looking with suspicion at the proposal from a Chinese company offering to build a massive corn-milling plant on the windward side of town. Critics have a number of legitimate concerns but the fear of communism has been pronounced. The “red scare” is back. Being a Christian obedient to the government, I have been trying to find the opportunity to meet the State’s challenge to “be legendary.” I was wondering whether or not the Fufeng controversy would be my chance. So I went to the internet to find out how one could be ...