Officially, police departments in North Dakota tell us that they have no way of knowing the refugee status of their inmates, and so, cannot report this data. This information gets transformed by the pro-refugee advocates as “there is no evidence that refugees commit more crime in our area!” Of course, they could just as easily…
Matt Evans: I Don’t Think the Republican Health Care Plan Actually Fixes Anything I Care About
I live in an area with many farmers. Since corporate farming is illegal in ND, every farmer is, in effect, a small business owner. I was asking one of my farmer friends, “hey, what do farmers in our part of the country do about health insurance?” His answer was interesting. Basically, he said that if…
Matt Evans: The Real Outrage Is That You’re Still Watching the NFL
Everyone is talking about that football player that decided to make a political statement about something related to race relations, I guess. I don’t know what is normal or expected in NFL games, so I guess I don’t have an informed opinion. The main sport I follow is Formula 1 motor racing. The drivers come…
Matt Evans: 2016 Is Looking Like a Bad Year to Be the Status Quo
The UK has voted to leave the European Union. Doug Burgum, a man who has not previously held public office, just had a successful primary victory over a competent and long serving attorney general. And Wednesday, Donald Trump gave the best speech he’s ever given. Even Slate magazine called the speech “terrifyingly effective”. The message…
Matt Evans: Does North Dakota Really Need To Change?
I did not grow up in North Dakota. I’ve lived many places in the US, all of them in suburbs of large cities. I came to North Dakota as a young adult, and it was here that my wife and I started our family. Until moving out to the country, Fargo was the smallest place…
Matt Evans: We Need To Talk Openly About Potential Health Risks From Refugees
The protests and news drama about refugees being a TB risk has died down. So why am I bringing it back up? I don’t think we’re having a perfectly honest conversation about refugee TB concerns. What did the Forum say about VNL’s story about the risk of TB from refugees? “Dr. John Baird, health officer…
Matt Evans: Doug Burgum Inspires Loyalty
Rob Port recently released a short analysis of Doug Burgum’s campaign donors. He concluded that about 2/3rds of the cash came from out of state, while only one third came from in state. He also mentioned that by donor count, about 2/3rds of the donors were from in-state. How can most of the donors be…
Matt Evans: North Dakota’s Voting Laws Undermine Political Parties
North Dakota has an interesting mix of laws regarding voting and political parties. For instance, North Dakota is the only state in the United States with no voter registration. (A hobby of mine is to point this out when political pollsters call and ask me if I am registered to vote.) In other states, you…
Matt Evans: How I Came To Support Donald Trump
Months ago, when I first heard that Donald Trump was throwing his hat into the ring to run for President, my reaction was about like most people’s: “we’ve had enough of this unserious clown” Now, of the remaining candidates for office, he’s my first pick. What happened? You may recall that last August, Trump was…
Matt Evans: A Quick Complaint About Smarter Balanced Testing
For the past three years I’ve taught computer science in a North Dakota public high school. It’s very difficult to find people who are properly trained to teach computer science and have the appropriate teaching certifications, so it’s very difficult to bring rigorous computer science to public high schools. To combat this problem, I’m part…
