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Letters to the Editor

Highest vote getter should win

Barbara Headrick, League of Women Voters ND, president, Fargo The North Dakota Legislature is considering a resolution (SCR 4013) proclaiming support for the Electoral College, our system for electing the US President. Under this system, a candidate doesn’t need to get the most votes to win. Indeed, five times in our country’s history, the presidential candidate with the most votes didn’t take office. Their opponent won with fewer votes, but a majority of the Electoral College. When you vote in the presidential election, you are voting for a slate of “Electors,” usually ...

State’s education investment should be in public schools

Ashley Gaschk, Bismarck North Dakota’s 69th Legislative Assembly is nearly halfway over, and lawmakers will soon decide whether to create Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), which would use taxpayer money to cover tuition at private schools. For most North Dakotans, the prospect of spending public money on private school tuition solicits a resounding “No.” These schools are not required to open their budgets or board meetings to the public, and in a largely rural state, most families won’t even have the option of using an ESA. Public dollars from rural taxpayers should go ...

ND SB 2208 must be quashed

Rick Schlecht, Kulm George Soros makes a point against BlackRock Inc., pouring monies into China interests, per an article by Bloomberg: George Soros says BlackRock’s China investments “tragic mistake”: 7 Sept 2021, by Russell Ward. Soros explains, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, “Pouring billions of dollars into China now is a tragic mistake.” “It is likely to lose money for BlackRock’s clients and, more important, will damage the national security interests of the U.S. and other democracies.” This writer believes BlackRock now is interfering in American ...

Taxes, control should be local

Kevin P. Nelson Minot It is interesting to follow the proposals on cutting, reimbursing or eliminating property tax. There seems to be a continuous movement for higher levels of government to take over the funding, and then the control, of what has been a lower level’s responsibility. A prime example is how, over time, the Department of Education has supplied funding and taken control of what should be the responsibility of the teachers, administrators, school boards and parents. I also notice in the paper, almost daily, that several “grants” have been issued by the federal ...

Thank you to city workers

Jeannie Sovak Minot On Tuesday evening, as I was coming home at 9:30 pm after being gone, West Central Avenue was blocked off and I could not get into my driveway. There were heavy equipment machines and trucks parked all around my house. I walked up to a worker in a city pickup to ask what was going on and if I could go home. He told me the water main had burst, but that I would have water again within an hour and yes, I could go home. These men had been working in frigid -30 temperatures all day and evening in the freezing mud. It seems they were committed to restoring the ...

Attention mineral owners with coal leases

Troy Coons NWLA Chairman The Northwest Landowners Association (NWLA) hopes to raise awareness of House Bill 1459 and its potential serious consequences for your mineral rights. HB 1459 provides a framework for the development and permitting of critical minerals and rare earth elements, but it does something else extremely concerning for landowners and those who value rights to private property and private contracts. This bill seeks to change terms in private coal lease contracts that you or your ancestors may have negotiated and signed. As an organization, NWLA supports ...