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Fedorchak misses mark on health insurance

Vicki Voldal Rosenau, Valley City In her Nov. 20 column mocking the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Julie Fedorchak got one thing (and only one thing) right: “Clearly, we need an off ramp from these massive payouts to insurance companies.” But any changes she advocated would still leave the for-profit insurance monstrosity wielding life/death power over us all! Nothing would improve for worried consumers who are, indeed, “fed up with” the existing insurance-dictated scheme. Real reform necessarily means eliminating the root problem. That is: removing the stranglehold of ...

Good leaders refrain from too much poking

James Olson, Minot The best leaders are those the people hardly know exist; they become servants of their people. For only he who is the lowest servant of the kingdom is worthy of becoming its ruler. Good government is unobtrusive and this enables the people to become whole. It doesn’t interfere with the people unnecessarily.. “Governing a large country is like frying small fish. Too much poking spoils the meat.” – Lao Tzu (old master). Namaste.

Shutdown reinforces need for nest egg

Kevin Nelson, Minot My grandfather was born in 1883 and homesteaded near Makoti in 1912. In that era, farmers saved seed from the crop in order to plant the next year’s crop. Grandpa said that he always saved an extra bin so he could plant again if he had a crop failure.This may not have been a common practice, but having a “nest egg” to cover unforeseen events is a good idea. We never know when something unforeseen, and expensive, may occur and having something set aside to avoid having to borrow, or do without, is a good idea. The concept of a nest egg seems to be ...

Proud Americans, not terrorists, join rally

Jerry Ness, Nome After being told by House Speaker Mike Johnson that the crowd would consist of anti-American, Hamas supporting terrorists, we were filled with trepidation and concern. Our minds were filled with scenes of violence and debauchery. Maybe Central Avenue would be ablaze. Perhaps the bakery would be being looted by crazy people scooping up glazed doughnuts and long-johns. I had visions of farmers throwing soybeans at local law enforcement. Our hearts were filled with fear as we descended the hill past the Bubble. Imagine our surprise when we found a large, calm, and ...

Parks impacted by federal shutdown

Lillian Crook, Bismarck So here we are, November 2025. The National Parks in North Dakota are shut down, including Knife River Indian Villages and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the only national park in the United States named after a President, whose birthday was in October. No visitor center, no rangers, some restrooms, which we can only hope someone is stocking with toilet paper. 25% of the National Park Service staff have been fired since January 2025. Look it up. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been reading lots of stories about the grand opening of the Theodore ...

Ranchers right with beef checkoff fight

Steve Fallgatter, Driscoll It comes as no surprise that the constitutionality of North Dakota’s Beef Commission Act has landed in court. Ranchers who choose not to pay dues to the Stockmen’s Association have been advising the legislature for a decade or more about their dissatisfaction with the law’s preferential treatment of certain select groups, yet the legislature has ignored them. It would have been so easy to amend and correct the century code, yet here we are, to no one’s surprise. The first mistake out of the gate was to assign oversight and governance of the state ...