MINOT, N.D. — In 1983, Gordon Kahl left a Posse Comitatus meeting in Medina, North Dakota, and ended up in a gunfight with U.S. Marshals attempting to apprehend him for a parole violation. The violent conflict ended with two cops dead, three injured, and an ugly blight on our beautiful state’s history. Kahl, on the run, would end his…
North Dakota school board members are giving up
MINOT, N.D. — Across our sports-obsessed society, the grownups who make youth sports possible — the coaches and the referees who are rarely paid much if they’re paid at all — are quitting. They’ve had it. They’re fed up. It’s not the kids; it’s the parents. I don’t have to explain this to you. You’ve seen it, as I…
The last time we were united
MINOT, N.D. — I was 21 years old and working for my father when the planes flew into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. We watched in the little coffee-and-toner scented kitchen in our office. It was the first time I’d seen my father, a Vietnam combat veteran and retired cop, look scared. We watched…
With his approval polls sagging, Biden changes the subject by declaring war on the unvaccinated
MINOT, N.D. — President Joe Biden has issued sweeping mandates for vaccination, announcing that his administration will try to force private-sector employers with workforces over 100, as well as federal contractors, to get shots. He’s also mandating shots for health care workers and federal employees. I say try, because this mandate will be swiftly challenged in court, and…
The inconvenient truth is that renewables are making our power grids less reliable
MINOT, N.D. — We’re not supposed to talk about it. There are so many political activists and pundits, corporate executives and politicians, invested in ram-rodding intermittent energy sources like wind and solar down our throats with massive subsidies and punitive regulatory policies for traditional baseload energy like coal and nuclear that speaking this truth will…
It’s time to stop pushing masks and focus on vaccines
MINOT, N.D. — In Fargo, despite rising number COVID-19 cases, Mayor Tim Mahoney says he doesn’t believe the public would accept a new mask mandate. “I think it would be extremely hard to do a mask mandate,” the mayor, who is also a physician, told reporter Patrick Springer. That’s a correct observation, from a political perspective. In the…
The best way to stop abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancies
MINOT, N.D. — A Texas law banning abortion after a heartbeat is detected has been allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court. We live in an unnuanced time, so the reaction to this development was glee from the right and Armageddon from the left — “It’s worth noting that many of the same people attacking the Biden Administration for…
The Texas abortion law is terrible policy whatever your stance on the issue
MINOT, N.D. — For the moment, please set aside your feelings about abortion. I know the law in Texas that the Supreme Court has let stand, for now, is explicitly about abortion, but there are reasons why that law is a bad policy that have nothing at all to do with that stickiest of sticky social issues. First, to the specifics.…
Despite protests, North Dakota’s vaccination rate is accelerating after months of decline
MINOT, N.D. — North Dakota’s Department of Health has begun reporting data on infections, hospitalizations, and deaths among residents who are vaccinated. The numbers are a resounding endorsement of the vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccines first became available in our state on December 14, 2020. Since then, just 0.0347% of people hospitalized for COVID-19 have been vaccinated. Just 0.00631% of…
Will it be one special session or two?
MINOT, N.D. — North Dakota is going to have a special legislative session this year. That was a given because the census numbers have been tallied and finalized, and our constitution now requires that we redraw political boundaries per those new numbers. But the state has issues beyond redistricting that lawmakers want to address, and…