My Sunday print column dealt with a report from Harvard researchers indicating that children, particularly males, with August birthdays have a much higher rate of being diagnosed with ADHD than children with birthdays in other months. Why is it happening? In his 2008 book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell noted that a disproportionate number of professional hockey…
Should Convicted Criminals Be Able to Serve on North Dakota’s School Boards?
Last week Bismarck Tribune reporter Amy Dalrymple ran a story about a Twin Buttes woman named Melissa Starr who was elected to the local school board despite a conviction for embezzlement she’s still paying restitution on. Embezzlement from the school district she was just elected to govern. “Starr was one of seven Twin Buttes School…
North Dakota, With Some of the Highest Oil Tax Rates in the Nation, Is Hardly a “Cheap Date”
Our left wing friends like to live in a fairy tale land where North Dakota is some noxious petrostate in the thrall of corrupt politicians who have sold out to the Big Oil barons. Of course, this fairy tale has little to do with reality, which is why Democrats struggle to win elections in North…
The Legacy Fund Was Created to Benefit All of North Dakota, Not Just Fargo and Grand Forks
Tammy Miller and Steve Burian had a letter to the editor recently, on behalf of the Fargo and Grand Forks based Valley Prosperity Partnership, backing a proposal which would take $100 million out of the state’s Legacy Fund to fund research projects at North Dakota State in Fargo and the University of North Dakota in…
Print Column: ADHD, August Birthdays and Why I’m a Conservative
MINOT, N.D. — Ideology takes a back seat in modern politics, and that’s not a good thing. People identifying themselves as “conservative” or “progressive” are associating themselves less with a school of thought than with the avatars representing those terms in our national political war. I’m talking about the cults of personality around people like…
It’s Just an Animal
A couple of days ago my colleague Robin Huebner reported a story about a 12-year-old Fargo girl Sylvia Peach Leiviska who shot a 600-pound wildebeest during a trip to South Africa. The hunt took place on a game preserve. None of the animals there are endangered. In fact, most of them are bred specifically to be hunted.…
Study: #NoDAPL Activism Cost Backers of the Dakota Access Pipeline Billions
According to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder’s First Peoples Investment Engagement Program, the activism against the Dakota Access Pipeline cost that project’s backers billions of dollars. The headline to an article about the study posted on the UC website states the #NoDAPL movement “cost companies at least $7.5 billion,” with that figure being…
Republican Lawmakers Introducing Bill to Allow Make up of Snow Days With Virtual School Days
As we head into another one of North Dakota’s notoriously unpredictable winters, school closures because of inclement weather will be much on our minds. But with school closures come make up days, which see schools opening when they’d be normally closed in order to meet state requirements for instruction time. It’s a drag, but a…
Trump Isn’t Handling General Motors Any Better Than Obama Did
In the dawn of the Obama administration General Motors, hit hard by declining sales and the Great Recession, went to the federal government for help. The Obama administration obliged, arguing that it would be a good deal for the American taxpayer. On top of billions in straight-up bailouts, President Obama gave GM some $30 billion…
Print Column: Burgum Can’t Paint Over the Mold Problem in Higher Education
MINOT, N.D. — I am dubious of a proposal to change the governance structure of the North Dakota University System. The idea comes from a task force Gov. Doug Burgum created to consider the issue, and it would replace our current eight-voting-member State Board of Higher Education with three boards consisting of nearly 40 members.…