From last summer through the first couple of months of 2017 there was an all-out assault on the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Protesters, summoned to rural south central North Dakota by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and a myriad of environmental groups, blocked roads and set fires and harassed pipeline workers all in an…
John Andrist: Must We Pay All Those Bills?
In today’s world most of us would concur with the wish that everyone could receive quality medical care. And who among us would not bring food to a neighbor in need? The very thought of someone in our neighborhood going hungry is simply unacceptable to us. We regularly pass on used clothing to those in…
The Dakota Access Pipeline Has Reduced Oil by Rail Shipments by 20 Percent in First Month of Operation
The opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline, many of them political extremists with a propensity for vandalism and violence, told us that the line was a risk. The truth beyond those talking points is more complicated, as it so often is. According to a recent report from the North Dakota Pipeline Authority (see below), rising…
Report Shows Where You Get Divorced in North Dakota Could Have a Big Impact on Child Custody Outcomes
North Dakota has had a long-running debate over shared parenting. Multiple ballot measures, and multiple legislative efforts, over the years have resulted in some reforms though shared parenting proponents still want more reform. Opponents of reform tell us that there’s nothing all that wrong with the status quo. That custody cases are adjudicated fairly and…
A.J. Schultz: Address Hate by Empowering Judges and Removing Politics
Everyone is aware of the incident involving those women in that Fargo Walmart parking lot, and the debate we now have about hate crimes legislation. It’s been a long time coming: North Dakota ranks second-highest in hate crimes per capita, and has ranked no lower than second since 2011. The point of any criminal law…
Audio: Ward County Farmer Suggests Weather Modification Efforts Are Keeping Rain From Falling
Darin Langerud, director of the North Dakota Atmospheric Resource Board (the state agency in charge of cloud seeding programs in North Dakota), has said that weather modification efforts have suppressed crop-damaging hail by 45 percent and increased rain fall by 5 to 10 percent. But that’s news to Ward County farmer Nathan Smith. “Every time…
John Andrist: Rediscovering Pieces of the Heart
Last week, together with 1,195 others, I spent a whole day listening to 22 short speeches suggesting we take a look at our world with new eyes. The event was not political, not anything for that matter, other than idea sharing. They call it TEDx, which stands for technology, education and design. The presentations were…
Hate Crime Legislation Is as Pointless as the Death Penalty
Proponents of the death penalty justify that policy by suggesting that it deters crime. The problem is there’s no evidence that it does. There seems to be no causal relationship between the death penalty and crime incidence at all, anywhere. So why bother with the expensive and legally/emotionally fraught exercise of putting prisoners to death?…
State Rep. Rick Becker Says Decision on Senate Run May Have to Wait Until September but Won’t Hinge on Cramer
We know that state Senator Tom Campbell of Grafton is considering a run for the NDGOP nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Senate incumbent Heidi Heitkamp (who is absolutely running for re-election despite her silly posturing). We also know that both Kathy Neset, an oil industry consultant and member of the North Dakota State Board of…
North Dakota May Have Finally Found Rock Bottom in Revenues Free Fall
Yesterday the Office of Management and Budget released their final general fund revenue report for the 2015-2017 biennium which ended on June 30. You can read it in full below. Compared to the previous biennium – which set a record for general fund revenue collections – the State of North Dakota was down over $1.68…
