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Enjoy a ‘gem’ within the city – Roosevelt Park Zoo

If you haven’t been to Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot lately, it’s time to pay a visit. There’s some spectacular new animal habitat to view plus seeing the beautifully maintained grounds of trees, plants and countless flowers. The new African lions’ habitat allows an upclose view of these cats. Sometimes the lions will give visitors a chance to view them so close that you feel you can almost reach out and touch them. But don’t worry, there’s the safety of three-panes of thick safety glass between you and the cats. This habitat also has a Jeep parked partially inside the ...

Some cops need more training on use of force

Use of excessive force by law enforcement personnel is a problem that transcends race, as a video shot in Buffalo, New York makes clear. Taken by a television news crew, the video shows Buffalo police responding to a demonstration in the city’s Niagara Square. Like so many throughout the United States, the protest was linked to the death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd died after four Minneapolis officers arrested him, placed handcuffs on him and forced him to lie face-down on the street. One officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into Floyd’s ...

Ward County voters not deterred by absentee ballot election

Holding all elections by absentee ballot, whether ballots are mailed in or dropped off, does not seem appealing. We can only hope what was prompted by COVID-19 for the primary election doesn’t become part of the “new norm.” Certainly, the technology to hold elections that way exists. But there is something to be said for heading to the polls on Election Day and casting your ballot alongside another voter who might be checking the exact opposite boxes as you. That being said, Tuesday’s primary election in Ward County saw a record turnout. Ward County counted 12,919 ballots in ...

Slavery in America not to be forgotten

No one knows with certainty how many human beings — men, women and children — were forced to stand on the 800-pound stone that remained planted in the ground on a street corner in Fredericksburg, Virginia for 176 years. What we do know is that each and every one of them was treated like an animal. Each and every one was sold and bought. They were enslaved black Americans. The stone was an auction block used solely to display human beings being bid on by white people. Last week, Fredericksburg officials had the stone removed. The local NAACP chapter had called for the action in ...

Racism in law enforcement not to be tolerated

Prosecutors in Minnesota last Wednesday made the right move by broadening the reach of their efforts in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Now the three officers who stood by and watched Derek Chauvin press his knee into Floyd’s neck until he stopped breathing have been charged with aiding and abetting a murder - and Chauvin’s charge has been upgraded to second-degree murder. In discussing the new charges, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the protests after Floyd’s death “dramatic and necessary,” and said Floyd “should be here and he is not. His life ...

Defunding the police is insane

Calls for massive “defunding” of law enforcement are simply insane. When political correctness addles our brains to the point we fail to recognize the critical need we have for the “thin blue line” to safeguard us from crime, we Americans will be in real, imminent danger. Yet some politicians not only are listening to calls that law enforcement agencies be destroyed, they are leading the charge. A few days ago, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti proclaimed his eagerness to slash $150 million from his police department’s budget. “To see legislators who aren’t even ...