MINOT, N.D. — “Xcel Energy plans to shutter its two remaining coal plants in the Upper Midwest a decade earlier than scheduled — a move that will make the utility coal-free in the region by 2030,” Mary Divine reported for the St. Paul Pioneer Press this week. That’s big news. All the more so because it’s…
Raising the Smoking Age Is a Dumb Way to Address Teen Smoking When So Many Teens Are Already Ignoring the Law
In Minnesota many local governments are joining a national trend toward raising the age for tobacco use to 21. In North Dakota, as the Fargo Forum reported over the weekend, that trend hasn’t found footing. That’s something the Forum would like to change, advocating for the age-21 tobacco prohibition in an editorial. There are a…
Plain Talk: Senator Cramer Says Special Olympics Funding Unlike to Be Cut, Enbridge Says They’re Ready for Any Protests Targeting Line 3
On this episode of Plain Talk, Senator Kevin Cramer takes listener questions on the USMCA, President Trump’s proposed space force, and the failure of the so-called “Green New Deal” in the Senate. Cramer also responded to a listener question about the Special Olympics, saying he doesn’t believe the cuts proposed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos…
Maybe North Dakotans and Minnesotans Spurn Heating Assistance Because They Think Self Sufficiency Is a Good Thing
“Most North Dakotans, Minnesotans who qualify for heating assistance don’t seek it,” reads a headline over a recent article by my colleague April Baumgarten. “Of the 55,358 households eligible for heating assistance in North Dakota, only 22 percent (12,331 households) received it in 2017, according to the most recent analysis by the National Energy and…
Minnesota’s Taxpayers Paid $10,000 for This Awful Painting Depicting the #NoDAPL Protests
In 2018, the Minnesota Arts Board gave artist Jim Denomie a $10,000 grant to “create a series of large paintings in response to Standing Rock and other contemporary events from a Native American perspective.” Here’s what Mr. Denomie produced (click for a larger view): I’ll admit that it’s…interesting. In the same morbid way that a car wreck…
This screenshot from YouTube shows so-called "valve turner" activists vandalizing an Enbridge facility in Minnesota YouTube
We Have to Hold the Groups Behind Valve Turners Criminally Responsible for Pipeline Tampering Before They End up Killing Someone
Yesterday a group of political extremists broke into an Enbridge pipeline facility in Minnesota and attempted to turn off two oil pipelines. Specifically the company’s Line 3 and Line 4 pipelines, which have a combined capacity of over half a million barrels of oil per day. The company is in the process of replacing the…
Public Health Officials Need to Stop Treating Vaping as Though It Were the Same as Smoking
Should we care that much if teen’s vape? It’s a question I asked in a recent print column – my conclusion is that the vaping “epidemic” is yet another in a long line of moral panics and that the rise of vape technology is a net gain for public health – and it drew a…
Public Service Commission Says North Dakotans Can Be Charged for Green Energy Policies in Other States
The Public Service Commission, in a split decision, recently gave the go-ahead to Xcel Energy to inflate power bills here in North Dakota to recover the cost of building wind energy capacity in compliance with green energy policy in other states. Commissioner Randy Christmann, who voted no, made it clear why this was a terrible…
Podcast: MN House Candidate Dave Hughes, a Health Care Discussion, and Opposition to North Dakota’s New Tourism Logo
On the radio show today Jordan Loftis, the organizer of an open letter with more than 700 signatories asking Governor Doug Burgum to undo a “brand refresh” he announced for the state’s tourism logo, explains why so many people are upset about it. Loftis says the logo will be used in tens of millions of…
Minnesota Has Been Refusing to Return a Captured Confederate Flag to Virginia for More Than a Century
Here’s a fun bit of history for a Wednesday morning that you might have been aware of but I wasn’t. Last night I stumbled across this City Pages article about the presence of Confederate flags at the Minnesota State Fair despite Minnesota a) fighting on the side of the Union in the war between the…