Author: Jim Fuglie

You may be reading in the papers this week a letter to the editor from a young man named Jacob Odermann.  If you haven’t read it, go here. It’s about the proposed Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks Amendment headed for the ballot this fall if all goes right. I don’t know Jacob, but his dad, … Continue reading Getting The Facts Straight

Okay, History/Current Events/Sports Quiz. Do you recognize the name Private Frazier? No? Well how about if it was on a list with Sergeant Pryor and Privates Goodrich, Gibson, and Hall?  Aha. Lillian Crook and David Borlaug and Tracy Potter think they know. As do Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs and Clay Jenkinson. Well, then, for the rest … Continue reading Right Off The Cliff

While going through some old papers this weekend, I came across a speech given by former Governor Art Link at the 4-H camp near Washburn in the Summer of 1977. Here are some excerpts. “You, as young people, are the vital and important basis for our state’s future. Your personal growth can certainly have an … Continue reading Art Link: “Consider Continuing The Prairie Lifestyle”

So, George B. Sinner is running for Congress. Good for him. I wish him well. Remember this: George B. Sinner is the State Senator from Fargo. He’s about 60 years old. His father is George A. Sinner, also from Fargo. He’s the former Governor. He’s about 85. Remember that. A = 85. B = 60. … Continue reading The Price of Politics

The United States entered World War II shortly after the bombing at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Just a few months later, in the Spring of 1942, at the close of the Devils Lake Junior College school year, a handful of young men from Devils Lake, the nucleus of the school's hockey team,  finished … Continue reading The Greatest Man I Ever Knew

Is half a loaf better than none? Put another way, does protecting half of Pretty Butte from oil development do any damn good at all? That’s what happened at the North Dakota Industrial Commission meeting Monday. Passing up a chance to display real leadership in the face of overwhelming pressure from the oil industry to … Continue reading Special Places? It’s All Over Except The Drilling

We have much to worry about in western North Dakota these days. I try to limit my worrying to the dangers posed by unbridled oil development to the countryside and its residents, both domestic and wild in the part of the state in which I grew up and have lived most of my life. Many … Continue reading The Democratization of Conservation

Well, I haven’t done this for a while, but I have a few things on my mind, and it is a weekend, so I thought I’d just share them with you today. NOBODY LOSES Okay, so the paper says today that Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway is going to upgrade its oil tanker fleet to make … Continue reading Weekenders

SURFACE OWNER PROTECTION Okay, I know I said I was done writing about this “Special Places” thing Wayne Stenehjem has going, but people keep bringing it up to me and there always seem to be some new ideas floating around, so I’m going to take one more whack at it. Not that I really think … Continue reading A New Look At A Couple Of Old Problems

Well, okay, if you have been following my attention to Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s effort to designate a bunch of places as “extraordinary” and to be careful when permitting oil wells around them, you know that I’ve kind of hoped that we had arrived at a policy that could be signed off on by all … Continue reading “Hey, Sailor . . .”