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SB 2310 needed to address child care crisis

Robin Fuehrer Bismarck As the director of Community Church Child Care in Bismarck I see first hand how the child care crisis is impacting both providers and families. I am, yet again, in the middle of a hiring process at my Center. My previous hiring phase was 6 months ago. I had over 100 applicants, was in contact with 68 of them, managed to schedule interviews with a dozen or so, had 6 of them not show the interview, hired 4 and had 2 of those no-show either the background check or their first day of work. Of the two left one is still with me and the other has moved on to another ...

HB 1281 is opportunity to right a wrong

Kara Gloe, Fargo HB 1281 is an opportunity to right a wrong. The current law is discriminatory and codifies stigma faced by people living with HIV/AIDS. Similar laws don’t exist for herpes, hepatitis, or other STIs with no cure. Considering there have only been three convictions under this law, it’s a solution to a problem North Dakota has never had. Frankly, it does more harm than good. As a mental health therapist serving people living with HIV/AIDS in North Dakota, every client discusses the stigma. For many, someone discovering their status without their consent is a fear ...

Hypocrite overtones coming from DC

Tom DeVilbiss, Westhope Looking at the news today, I saw Rep. Kelly Armstrong crying alligator tears at KX News over the national debt costing more than military spending. According to him, the only answer is to cut mandatory spending. OMG! How can we afford Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? We gotta pay that debt! The following article in my stream brings me to David Jolly’s Jan. 18, 2023, Tweet, “For context, roughly 25% of our total national debt incurred over the last 230 years actually occurred during the 4 years of the Trump administration. That’s right. 25% of ...

School lunch is back on docket

Deven Mantz, Minot You know what’s cooler than having piles of cash sitting around in the state’s coffers? Feeding the next generation. Right now, we have many public-school boards that shame our children when they don’t have enough money in their lunch accounts. This needs to stop. Not only that, but kids should not have to worry about that, ever. During the pandemic, the federal government stepped in and paid for every meal for children at public school. This was an overwhelming success. Unfortunately, they stopped the funding for this. Fortunately, North Dakota has ...

Are we legendary or lost?

Kris Mount, Bismarck When Governor Doug Burgum gave his State of the State address he spoke of courage, curiosity, gratitude and humility. Ending with, “We are all here today because we love this state. Let us remember to love each other as well.” Watching bills come out of the Legislature regarding pronouns, bathrooms, books, drag queens, reproductive health care, and our LGBTQ+ community, I see fear, apathy, ingratitude, false-pride, and hate. Members of marginalized communities have been bullied our whole lives and most have tools to deal with these things as adults. The ...

ND grant to Utah university questioned

Julie Reiten, Grand Forks Most people in North Dakota know that we have a very worrisome teacher shortage in the state, and that the teaching programs at our universities are working on ways to recruit more future teachers. The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) is also working on this issue. However, recently I was deeply saddened to learn that hundreds of thousands of dollars were awarded to Western Governors University (an online university located in Utah) when it could have been awarded to one of our own teaching colleges within the state of ND. Within the ...