This morning state Senator Oley Larsen, a Republican from Minot, finally got around to addressing the controversy over a false Facebook meme he shared claiming controversial Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was trained by al Qaeda. In other posts he also called her a terrorist. He apologizes for sharing inaccurate information, but says: “I want to…
Trump’s Ban on Flavored Vaping Products Is a Dumb, Knee-Jerk Reaction
In recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of headlines about vaping being linked to hundreds of cases of lung disease. In our region, North Dakota has reported at least one case of vaping-related lung disease, while Minnesota has seen a similar case end in death. This has, unfortunately, provoked some hysteria. Newspaper editorial boards are…
Case From Minnesota May Force the Supreme Court to Decide How Far Our Right to Say “No” Really Goes
“No” may, from the perspective of individual liberty, be the most important word in the English language. Encapsulated in that word is our freedom. There are some things in our society we cannot say no to. We must pay taxes, or face the consequences. We must obey the laws our political process creates, from traffic…
No, Grand Forks Herald, Tougher DUI Laws May Not Actually Be Right for North Dakota
The Grand Forks Herald today has an editorial praising Minnesota for their progress in reducing DUI-related fatalities, and lashing North Dakota for failing to achieve the same progress. The editorial is correct in a top-level sort of way. Minnesota has made tremendous progress on this front. From 1998 to 2017 the state saw a more than…
Print Column: Xcel’s Coal-Free Plan Is Politics Not Reality
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…