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Letters to the Editor

Value of polls lies in their use

James Maxson, Minot Polls are somewhat similar to a carpenter’s tool. They are as valuable as the skills of the artisan utilizing them. I recall a very pleasant one on one dinner in 1995 with the head of a “special interest” group based out of Washington, D.C. My dinner companion was a self-made man, who due to talent, hard work and the luck of having been born in the USA, had lifted himself up from rural poverty to someone who could afford to live in Aspen, Colorado. His organization had done a number of polls to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various ...

Politics has gone to the birds

Ron Schmidt, Tolna Donald Trump. Joe Biden, So this is what we call DeMOCKracy. Give me the smoke-filled room, the place where policy, not rhetoric, prevails, the nuts and bolts of how things are to be done. Last week my sister-in-law and her sister stopped in for a visit. They had been our braving the elements, “Birding.” I’m thinking they could have done so from the warmth of the living room. Just turn on the TV. See Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a turkey or ostrich, with his head in the sand and a dodo. Donald Trump and whomever. A rooster, more accurately a peacock, ...

Support should go to base load providers

Clint Feland, Bismarck All new “Clean or Green” energy projects should have to provide documentation from all existing coal or other historic base load energy providers with the effect their project will have on the existing base load infrastructure and profitability. If they have a negative effect on the base load suppliers, they will have to provide the suppliers with an equal percentage of any subsidy they receive based on their comparable output. If the “green energy” project being subsidized or considered for construction is owned by the base load provider, then ...

U.S. has long history of immigration concern

Bob NcNamara, Upham Ellis Island opened in 1892. However, immigration had been with us long before that. It was in 1917 that the Immigration Act of 1917 was passed which limited immigration from most Asian countries. Immigration was again addressed in the 1924 Immigration Act which put quotas from countries and just about eliminated immigration from Asian countries. Coincidentally, the first mention of illegal immigration occurs in 1924 and the border patrol is established to crack down on illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican and Canadian borders. Think about that — 100 years ...

MPS’s playbill gets bad reviews

Michael Bakk, Minot Act I - Schools are overcrowded Synopsis: Let’s build a new high school, remodel and add on to the existing one and convert the downtown school to a middle school. That should take care of it. Taxpayers, “can you spare $100 million to help out?” Act II - Enrollment is declining Synopsis: Maybe we should close a school or two? Oh, and we forgot to tell you we might be short about $3 million to operate that new school we talked about in Act I. We just need to find about $7 million for next year (and maybe every year) and we will be fine. Act III - To be ...

Long road taken to necessary fix

Don Morrison, Bismarck Thank goodness U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte decided to fix North Dakota’s violation of the Voting Rights Act. The remedy will give voters from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and the Spirit Lake Nation a fairer opportunity to elect representatives of their choice to the North Dakota Legislative Assembly. It’s been a long road to get here. During the 2021 North Dakota Legislature’s Special Session for Redistricting, the two tribes came to the legislature to recommend district boundaries for their area. The tribes had their proposal ...