MINOT, N.D. — Let’s do some math. The fall 2019 enrollment number for full-time equivalent students in North Dakota’s public K-12 schools was 110,797. All of those kids are North Dakota residents. The fall 2019 enrollment for North Dakota’s public institutions of higher education was 35,353 full-time equivalent students. Nearly half of them, something like…
Gov Candidate Lenz’s Pandemic Plan Amounts to Appointing Someone Else to Lead
MINOT, N.D. — The governor’s job is to govern. The governor’s job is not appointing other people to govern. After reading her plan for addressing the coronavirus pandemic, I’m not sure Shelley Lenz, the Democratic-NPL’s gubernatorial candidate, understands this. The plan was released this week. It tosses a few bones to placate the nascent authoritarians…
Superintendent Challenger Questions Incumbent Baesler’s Qualifications for Office
MINOT, N.D. — The race for North Dakota Superintendent is heating up, with challenger Brandt Dick taking a shot at incumbent Kirsten Baesler’s qualifications. In a recent Facebook post, Brandt questioned Baesler’s descriptions of her résumé and education experience. “If my opponent applied for a Principal or Superintendent job in any ND school district, she…
Today’s Coal Power Isn’t the Same as Yesterday’s
MINOT, N.D. — There are two myths about coal that need be destroyed. The first is that the economics of coal don’t work anymore. This is true only insofar as lobbyists promoting the energy industry have been successful in politicizing the energy markets. Coal is asked to compete with energy sources like wind and solar…
Fargo Democrat Picks a Fight With Carrington Restaurant Over Native American Statue
MINOT, N.D. — Do you ever wonder, when you see people complaining about a business online, if that person even attempted to talk about the problem with the business before complaining about it online? Many people seem more interested in online griping than working with someone out in the real world to actually solve the…
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer’s Wife Endorses Democrat in Treasurer Race
MINOT, N.D. — It’s been a topsy-turvy year, hasn’t it folks? Here’s another weird bit of news from the world of North Dakota politics to make you feel like you’re living in the Upside Down. Kris Cramer, wife of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and also his campaign manager, has endorsed Democratic-NPL candidate Mark Haugen…
The Sports Industry Got Woke, and the Fans Don’t Seem to Like It at All
MINOT, N.D. — The polling firm Gallup has been tracking American attitudes about various business and industry sectors for two decades. In their most recent longitudinal survey, they found something interesting about the sports industry. It’s fallen out of favor with Americans, in a big, big way. To put it in perspective, only the pharmaceutical…
We Shouldn’t Force People to Wear Masks, We Should Encourage Them to Choose Masks
MINOT, N.D. — During a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Doug Burgum, while simultaneously reiterating his long-standing support for wearing masks during the pandemic, again declined to issue a mask mandate that would punish citizens for not wearing them. “We’ve had a great track record so far of relying on personal responsibility, and I guess I’m still hoping…
Can We Please Exercise Some Skepticism About That Report Linking Sturgis to 267,000 Cases of COVID-19?
MINOT, N.D. — A lot of people in the political world, and in the media industry, really want the recent Sturgis motorcycle rally to have been a pandemic disaster. And, to be sure, hundreds of cases have been linked to the event, which drew in the ballpark of a quarter-million attendees to Meade County, S.D.,…
Accepting Defeat With Dignity Is Important in a Democracy
MINOT, N.D. — If you want to live in a society like ours, with expansive political freedoms, you must learn to accept defeat with dignity. Some political outcomes won’t go your way. That doesn’t mean you have to abandon what you believe in, but if we want a peaceful society, you do have to accept…