North Dakota Democrats walk a fine line on energy issues in North Dakota. Nationally, Democrats (up to and including President Barack Obama) are very much anti-oil and anti-coal. But here in North Dakota, both fuels are important to the economy. Not only that, North Dakotans are aware that those resources can be safely and responsibly…
REAC Building Boondoggle Dumped On The Taxpayers By Unapologetic Higher Ed Officials
“In my 38 years in the legislature, this is one the most egregious examples of thumbing nose at a legislative directive. Period.” That’s what state Senator Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, told Prairie Public about the deal in which the UND Research Foundation, controlled by UND officials, dumped the financially-challenged REAC building onto taxpayers. I’ve written about…
From The Left: The GOP Lies On Health Care Reform Have Real Life Consequences
Last week, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong chose to tell a company-wide conference call that two AOL employees who had “distressed babies” requiring high health care costs and the Affordable Care Act was forcing him to make cuts to 401(k) benefits. Following the public outcry over this “distressed babies” comment, including a well written article by one of…
Heitkamp Votes For Debt Ceiling Hike, Hoeven And Cramer Vote No
Yesterday the US House passed a debt ceiling hike that, for the first time since 2009, had no other spending or policy concessions included in it. Today the Senate followed suite. In the House, Rep. Kevin Cramer voted against the hike saying he couldn’t approve of one without conditions attached. “I could not in good…
Kreutzer Column: North Dakota Isn't Immune To The War On Coal
The effect of new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules and those expected next year could end coal-fired power over the next 30 years. Despite its recent oil boom, North Dakota will feel the effects of these misguided policies. While the coal industry will be directly affected by the EPA’s proposal, the resulting higher energy costs,…
Obama's Minimum Wage Argument Is Bunk Says…White House Slide Show?
President Obama has been making a heavy pitch for increasing the minimum wage, even going so far as to use his executive power to mandate a $10.10/hour minimum wage for federal contractors, but data compiled and presented by the White House itself undermines many of the President’s claims. “The White House prepared a slideshow dated February 12,…
North Dakota Diploma Mill Sees Continued Decline In Enrollment
Dickinson State University, still recovering from a “diploma mill” scandal that saw the institution issuing hundreds of phony diplomas to foreign students (but hey, they kept their accreditation!), is claiming their enrollment numbers are “above historical averages,” according to the Dickinson Press. That’s some heavy duty spin. In reality, spring 2014 enrollment is actually down slightly…
Heidi Heitkamp Still Hiding From Her Constituents Behind Social Media
“Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he’s enjoyed working for the people of North Dakota at their at-large congressman and has also sought to remain as accessible as possible,” reported the Bismarck Tribune earlier this week. “He said accessibility equates to providing accountability to the people, something he plans to continue to do if elected to a…
Kudos To Senator Heidi Heitkamp For Pushing Normalized Relations With Cuba
According to a recent (though controversial) poll put out by the Atlantic Council, a majority of Americans support normalizing relations with Cuba. If that’s not true, it should be, because while Cuba remains in the grips of an autocratic socialist dictatorship, the best way to undermine the grip of that dictatorship is for countries like…
Hunger Games America: Districts Beat The Capital In Job Creation
America’s present economic malaise is often described in terms of the popular book and move franchise The Hunger Games. It seems fitting. “While the provinces starve, the Capital City lives it up, its wheeler-dealer bigshots growing fat on the tribute extracted from the rest of the country,” wrote Glenn Reynolds (of Instapundit fame) for USA Today back in November of…