Month: January 2015

Okay, I’m going to take another whack at the Outdoor Heritage Fund after getting off on too many tangents in yesterday’s article. Plus, there’s new information coming out daily in light of the sharp drop in oil prices, leading to a sharp drop in state tax revenues. Here’s what we know for sure: The Outdoor … Continue reading Wading Through More Outdoor Heritage Fund Questions

During last year’s campaign for and against Measure 5, the Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks amendment to the North Dakota Constitution, opponents of the amendment—the Greater North Dakota Chamber, the North Dakota Grain Growers, the North Dakota Petroleum Council, the North Dakota Farm Bureau, the North Dakota Farmers Union, the North Dakota Stockmen, the Lignite … Continue reading What If the Governor, the Attorney General and the Agriculture Commissioner All Went to the Pokey?

If I were a North Dakota Democrat, here’s what I would say to my fellow party members: I turned on the Rachel Maddow show last night and, as usual, she had her headlights on bright, and the deer in those headlights was a young North Dakota Democratic-NPL legislator named Corey Mock. The subject was the … Continue reading THE ANSWER

           Based upon the analysis contained within the Elkhorn Gravel Pit EA, and taking into consideration the applicants private property rights, my regulatory authority, and considering public comment received, I have decided to implement Alternative 2 as described in the EA (pages 23-25) for Elkhorn Minerals LLC’s development of the proposed Elkhorn Gravel Pit. Under … Continue reading Elkhorn Ranch Update #2

Over the past few years I’ve written a number of stories about the threats to the Elkhorn Ranch Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's a pretty sacred site to a lot of North Dakotans and Americans, and it needs to be protected. Aside from the fact that the 218 acre site in northern Billings … Continue reading Elkhorn Ranch Update #1

            A rerun. I wrote the piece below for a guest editorial in The Bismarck Tribune about ten years ago now. We were at war in Iraq. Now the wars are over. Sort of. I’ve updated it a bit. Bringing Home The Troops             Well, the troops are on their way … Continue reading Next: Canada

When I started this blog half a decade ago, it had a longer name. It was The Prairie Blog: Politics and Prairie Literature. And that’s what I wrote about. I’d go on rants about politics until my friend Wayne Tanous would send me a message, like “Hey, Jim, it’s Spring. Lighten up.” And so I … Continue reading Politics and Prairie Literature