A few weeks ago, Kent Olson, Managing Editor of the Minot Daily News, contacted me to see if I would be interested in writing a monthly column. I jumped at the opportunity, and certainly appreciate the MDN seeking input from Minot State University for its newspaper. So, what you are reading ...
The data unveiled recently as part of Minot’s One Brand campaign was something of an early Christmas present. The research, compiled by Odney and presented to community stakeholders on Dec. 9, showed that most Minot-area residents surveyed have a positive view of our community. In fact, ...
Have you ever wondered how valuable your time is versus your money? Time is much more valuable than money, we can use our time to make money, but we cannot use our money to purchase more time. Believe me, I have checked! Can you remember what you spent your money on last year for Christmas ...
On December 1, the “suffragettes” of North Dakota met at the State Heritage Center to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920 giving women the right to vote. It was a long time in coming. Too long. Historians mark the beginning ...
I’m an optimist, but in the wake of the Burleigh County Commission’s turbulent 3-2 vote to accept 25 refugees, it’s about realism. It’s not a victory. It sure wasn’t North Dakota nice. Let’s call it what it is — a start. We don’t get bonus points for doing the right thing. Not ...
Let’s start here: North Dakota is a wonderful place. That was a subtext of the refugee resettlement debate in Burleigh County this last week, though one overlooked by most. The county commissioners had before them the opportunity to exercise a veto over continued refugee ...
The Trump administration has given the states and local governments the ability to opt-out of federal refugee resettlement. The feds, or the private groups doing resettlement for the feds, haven’t always been cooperative. City and county governments, not to mention school districts and ...
It is unfortunate that we must hang our dirty linen before the whole state to address the selection of a new president for the University of North Dakota. However, it is a fair subject for a statewide columnist because we are talking about the University of North Dakota and not the University ...
There were three newspaper deaths in the family last Friday, in the North Dakota towns of Killdeer, New England and Hettinger. I knew them all as the news director for Dickson Media in the ‘90s, but the loss of the Adams County Record in Hettinger hit especially hard. Following a 12-year ...
Ever noticed how the news media appends words like “without evidence” to claims President Donald Trump makes? I don’t blame them. Our president’s endless adventures with falsehood are undeniable. The man lies, with bald-faced constancy, about things both trivial and consequential. The ...
i would like to direct your attention to a Facebook page called North Dakota Lock Out. It was created after the debate in the Legislature earlier this year over SB2315. That bill would have reversed the backward presumption of public access to private land in our state. Currently, those ...
The 2020 Census is fast approaching, and the national once-every-decade population count is an opportunity to confirm what we’ve been anticipating: Minot’s population has hit the 50,000 mark. By April 1, 2020, every home in the United States will receive an invitation by mail to take part ...
The town’s 12 electors were stumbling through the north door of the community hall, stamping their feet and muttering about the cold, when Chairman Ork Dorken rapped his Coke bottle against the hollow core door converted into a head table. “Find a seat around the stove and we shall begin ...
If you needed another example of democracy for sale, Michael Bloomberg is spending $37 million to buy the presidency. Based on the current conversion rate, that's 2.37 billion rubles. Enough to buy 23 million Big Gulps. It's said history doesn't repeat itself but that it rhymes. Well, roses ...
One of the wonders of our free society is that nobody is required to do much of anything. Sure, there are certain imperatives. We all need food and shelter, and getting those basics requires effort. Yet our society enjoys a level of convenience and wealth which would be almost unimaginable to ...
Shame on 9 of the 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota and the Dakotas for their responses on revoking the Medals of Honor awarded to 20 U.S. soldiers for their parts in the Wounded Knee Massacre. Reporter Natasha Rausch of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead did an ...
What is it about sports which bring out the absolute worst in some parents? We’ve all seen the headlines, and sometimes the videos too. Parents brawling at a fourth-grade basketball game in Oklahoma. A half-dozen grown men punching each other at a game played by 7-year-olds in Ohio. A man ...
The era of good feeling between Thanksgiving and Christmas is an excellent time to take a serious look at a country muddled in violence, bigotry, intolerance, polarization and hatred. Polls show that the polarized Republicans and Democrats hate each other more than ever before and the ...
Dear South Dakota, Are you OK? Because your new ad campaign is freaking us out. Folks, I’m no conspiracy theorist — I still believe Jeffrey Epstein strangled himself to death and that Prince Andrew was out getting pizza at the time — but South Dakota’s weird new meth awareness ...
I wrote a column recently about local journalists getting blowback for the bias of the national news media. I almost always get a lot of feedback from my writing, which I’m deeply thankful for, but this particular column garnered more responses than I expected. Mostly from two categories ...