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All treats, no tricks this Halloween

No doubt many adults are annoyed by reminders that we need to be on our toes to protect children in our communities. After all, we are adults, are we not? We don’t need to be told to watch out for the kids, do we? Apparently, we do, especially on the eve of Halloween. Children are twice as likely to be hit and killed by cars on Oct. 31 than on any other day of the year, according to the National Safety Council. Trick-or-treating will be permitted in most local communities on Thursday evening. Thoughtful parents understand a few simple safety precautions — all common sense, ...

Social services redesign requires extensive planning

As of Jan. 1, 2020, North Dakota’s 43 social service offices will be replaced with 19 human service zones. By April 1, 2020, these new zones must hire directors and then submit their zone plans to the state by June 2020. A major change like this is not easy but is a wise move if it means providing better and more consistent service to clients statewide. There’s another benefit to the restructuring of the state’s social service system. It is expected to eventually reduce costs. Ward County and other counties with a population 60,000 or more have the option to create a ...

Congratulations to Capt. Burns and Minot Fire Department

First responders must have excellent training. Such training not only is essential to a first responder but also to his or her teammates. A local first responder is being honored for his work in training others. The North Dakota Firefighter’s Association named Capt. Austin Burns of the Minot Fire Department its instructor of the year. He was scheduled to accept the award this past weekend at the NDFA instructor conference in Devils Lake. Burns said in a news release from the City of Minot announcing his selection that he is honored to be named top instructor in North Dakota but ...

National security demands US be first to perfect quantum computing

We Americans have a habit of bragging about our feats of technology. Our chief economic and military rivals — namely Russia and China — seldom do. They prefer to keep their secrets. No one in this country is certain, then, how far the state-controlled economies of those nations have gone in developing quantum computing. What is certain is that our national security, both militarily and economically, demands that the United States be first to perfect the technology. The reason for that was demonstrated in an announcement Wednesday by technology giant Google. Google officials ...

Don’t expect end to conflicts involving the Kurds

For several days, President Donald Trump was viewed as a traitor to the Kurdish people. Suddenly, he has been “rehabilitated.” On Wednesday, a Kurdish military commander in Syria thanked Trump for his “tireless efforts” in defense of the Kurds. So the relationship between our nation and the Kurds is back to the proverbial square one. At some point a new crisis involving the Kurds will break out. Count on it, because the future of that people is among the great unsolved dilemmas of world diplomacy. Trump was criticized earlier this month for pulling a handful of U.S. ...

Good old American skepticism needs to be brought back, dusted off and used

ussian trolls who have been successful, probably beyond their wildest dreams, in sowing discord among Americans may be getting a good chuckle out of an announcement by Facebook. Officials at the widely used social media company said this week they will increase efforts to keep Facebook from being used as a propaganda weapon. Facebook will label state-controlled media, will fact-check content more thoroughly and will spend $2 million on “media literacy.” Elections have changed since 2016 “and Facebook has changed, too,” said company CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday. Indeed, ...