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Our community is changing right before our eyes

As 2021 nears an end, it’s easy to look back on the past 12 months and remember the challenges brought on by a continuing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic and political ramifications. But we would be wrong to ignore the number of resilient and forward-thinking projects that are physically and philosophically changing our community. The examples of long-term investment in our community and our residents are everywhere. The project to relocate City Hall to the former Wells Fargo building in downtown Minot took significant steps toward becoming reality this year. The City ...

Suddenly, the Gospel is for everyone

"And the angel said to them ‘do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all people for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11) Ordinarily, many professing Christians and unbelievers would rather not hear about religion but we have license because Christmas is such a universal holiday and celebration. Even the atheists will accept it. Anyone who follows the trends of thought measured by statistically sound polls knows that the United States is becoming less and less ...

Vaccine mandates nonsensical, intrusive policy

Between various recent court rulings pertaining to President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine executive orders, as well as the work of the state legislature in November, several citizens have somewhat of an early Christmas present. For a variety of reasons, many people are not interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Likely the most common reason is that it is a new type of vaccine, and we don’t know the long-term effects. That statement, very simply, is fully accurate and cannot be refuted. For that reason alone, people ought to be able to decide whether they believe the benefits ...

North Dakota’s lignite industry has been a good neighbor

The state’s bountiful, economical lignite coal reserves are estimated to last another 800 years at today’s production rate of nearly 30 million tons a year. Besides being a sustainable industry, it has also been a good neighbor providing high paying jobs, taxes to local and state treasuries as well as affordable and reliable electricity to utilities and electric co-ops not only in this state but surrounding states. This history of the lignite industry dates back to the 1870s. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that utilities stepped on the accelerator to build the industry we ...

Questioning the ethics of the Ethics Commission

The ethics of the constitutional North Dakota Ethics Commission are being subjected to questioning by North Dakotans for Public Integrity, creators of the Commission, because the rules proposed by the Commission would permit a continuous conflict of interest involving campaign contributions and state officials. Comments on the proposed rules closed on December 10 and it is highly unlikely that the drafters will make any changes because the political forces – legislators, elected officials and lobbyists — that proposed the rule will still be fighting to protect the language. ...

When ideology meets real world politics

What a “catch 22” we conservatives purportedly have. We believe in limited government, free markets, and personal responsibility. We believe the government should limit spending and taxing such that it funds only those things that are within its necessary and proper function. We strongly advocate for all of those things, and when possible, we vote accordingly. Yet we live in a society that has much more taxing and spending than we think necessary. The government intrudes in all manner where we believe it should not. It takes our money in taxes, and redistributes it in a manner ...