Cheers to Ward County Historical Society

June 1, 2020

Cheers to the Ward County Historical Society, which added to its Pioneer Village Museum in Burlington this past week. On Thursday the old Eureka School was moved onto the museum grounds. Eureka School has been split into two buildings, one of which contains a bathroom that will provide restroom facilities for the museum. The historical society might eventually put a military exhibit into one of the buiildings. Historical Society members hope to hold a “soft reopening” for the museum this summer that would enable visitors to visit the grounds, view the outside of the buildings and ...

Old, badly damaged dams need attention

May 30, 2020

About 11,000 people were forced to leave their Central Michigan homes a few days ago, when two large dams failed. No lives were lost, in part because the dams’ imminent failure had been anticipated for several days, as a result of heavy rainfall. In fact, concern about the dams dates back some time. Federal regulators warned of problems at one, used to generate hydroelectric power, in 1999. Two years ago, the dam’s license to operate was revoked. If all this seems familiar, it is. Just last fall, The Associated Press reported 1,688 dams in the United States, all classified as ...

States should redouble efforts to test long-term care facilities

May 29, 2020

Once the grim tally of deaths from COVID-19 is finalized — sometime later this year, we hope — there is little doubt it will be clear that nursing homes are the coronavirus’ favored killing grounds. To most public health leaders, that already is obvious. In some states, most of the epidemic’s victims have been in long-term care facilities. We know already that mistakes were made in how nursing home patients were handled. New York was a leading offender. There, according to The Associated Press, are more than 4,500 people recovering from COVID-19 after hospital stays were sent ...

Handling of Flynn case needs to be pursued

May 28, 2020

Regardless of our political leanings, what happened to Michael Flynn should concern every American. While we should insist on details about his case, a more important question needs to be answered: How many other people have been treated similarly by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies? Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who served briefly as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, seemed destined for prison until his handling by the FBI and federal prosecutors was revealed. In essence, what happened is this: Unable to find a shred of evidence about ...

Peace with Taliban is conditional

May 27, 2020

While we Americans were paying tribute to our fallen heroes during Memorial Day weekend, observant Muslims here and abroad were marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Even in Afghanistan, there was a pause in hostilities between government and Taliban forces. It came as U.S. and Taliban negotiators continued the lengthy process of devising a pact whereby American forces are withdrawn from the country. During the negotiations, Taliban troops have refrained from attacks on U.S. and NATO forces — but not from assaulting the Afghan government and people. Taliban leaders ...

Respect for veterans is due every day

May 26, 2020

We were moved by the statement Gov. Doug Burgum made in observance of Memorial Day. Burgum commemorated the day by delivering remarks during a virtual ceremony livestreamed from the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery near Mandan and in a video message as part of the virtual ceremony for the Fargo National Cemetery. He said: “This day of remembrance can inspire each of us to consider how fortunate we are to live in this great nation and how important it is for us to keep fighting for America’s future. As President Ronald Reagan wisely said, ‘Freedom is a fragile thing and is never ...