“North Dakota’s Mount Rushmore,” is a term Governor Doug Burgum has been throwing around, touting the $50 million in interest earnings from North Dakota’s nearly $6 billion Legacy Fund to the build out of a $150 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora. I cringed when I read that Burgum was calling the project that.…
Audio: Lawmaker Says Laws Need Reform, “We Need to Stop Treating Animals Like Human Beings”
Yesterday I wrote about a rancher in Stark County who is facing animal neglect charges. The case caught my eye because law enforcement officials tried to seize the man’s livestock – his very livelihood – without so much as a hearing at which he could defend himself. On my radio show I interviewed North Dakota…
Essential Air Service Subsidies Are Hugely Wasteful and Trump Is Right to Cut Them
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget is causing quite a stir in political circles. Locally one cut the President proposes has our state’s congressional delegation seeing red. Particularly Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp: BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says President Donald Trump’s call to eliminate subsidized air service to rural communities could hurt three…
North Dakota Schools Cannot Force Vaccination On Your Kids
I’ve had a number of SAB readers email me this afternoon about this article about students in Dickinson who may be kept out of school because they’re not in compliance with state law on vaccinations. “Unvaccinated students to be kept out of school in Dickinson, N.D.” reads the headline. “Students not fully up to date…
North Dakota County Recorder Doesn't Want To Issue Gay Marriage Licenses
Some interesting news from Stark County (Dickinson) in western North Dakota. The county recorder there has religious objections to gay marriage and has asked the county commission to let someone else issue licenses to gay couples: The discussion topic was brought up by Stark County State’s Attorney Tom Henning, who said recorder Kathy Schwab had…
Sheriff, Police Being Sued over Bungled Dickinson Arson Case
The newly elected Stark County Sheriff, along with two Dickinson Police Officers and the City of Dickinson, are being sued by a former parochial High School Principal over their handling of an arson investigation stemming from a March 2014 fire at the school. Former Dickinson Trinity Principal Thomas Sander filed suit in federal court today…
Dickinson State President Distances University From Foundation After Arbitration Ruling
It didn’t take very long after voters shot down Measure 3, a constitutional amendment to reform the governance structure of the university system, that one of the state’s institutions has landed in hot water again. Earlier today I put in an open records request to the North Dakota University System for details about an arbitration…
Rep. Rick Holman: Oil Boom Brings Lasting Benefits For North Dakota
Forty North Dakota legislators spent two days touring the oil production area in Western North Dakota. As I looked up at the top of a drilling rig near Watford City on a beautiful summer morning, I could not help but think of the person who would be working 120 feet up in a January blizzard.…
Oil Impacts Are No Excuse For Bungled Arson Case In Dickinson
“Police work is difficult, but more so in western North Dakota.” That’s the lead-in for a Dickinson Press article over the weekend regarding the bungled investigation into a fire set at Trinity High School in Dickinson. The editorial seems to want to give a pass to the local officials who lead the investigation because of…
Someone Tell Heidi Heitkamp: Effective Minimum Wage In Oil Patch Community Is $14 Per Hour
A couple of weeks ago a photo taken by University of Michigan Professor Mark Perry of Walmart job listings in Williston, North Dakota, went viral on the internet as the lowest offered was $17.20 per hour. Now comes news that in another of North Dakota’s oil patch communities, the minimum wage is effectively $14 per…