Author: Jim Fuglie

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to spend an hour with Professor Debra Dragseth’s Business Ethics class at Dickinson State University. It was their last class of the semester, just two days prior to their final exam. The students were attentive and polite, but mostly unenthusiastic, as students will be in the waning … Continue reading Another Day, Another Fireball: Surprise–Heeeeeere’s Warren Buffett!

Here are a pair of Christmas poems from North Dakota Poet Laureate James W. Foley. Billy Peeble's Christmas is probably the saddest and happiest and best Christmas poem ever.   A Child’s Christmas Prayer By James W. Foley Dear Lord, be good to Santa Claus, He’s been so good to me; I never told him … Continue reading A Pair of Christmas Poems

Well, the Attorney General did good. At a meeting of the North Dakota Industrial Commission this morning—Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem is one of three members, along with Jack Dalrymple and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring—our Attorney General revealed his plan for protection from oil development, or at least consideration of protection, for a list of what … Continue reading A List And a Process–Thank You Wayne Stenehjem

THE NEW WEBSITE So now the North Dakota Health Department has activated its new Oilfield Environmental Incidents website, one that, as I understand it, has been in the works for a long time, but was activated in response to criticism that they held onto information from the major Williams County oil spill last fall (reportedly … Continue reading December Oil Patch Roundup

Salt water is in the news this week. You read in the papers this morning that a company called Denbury Onshore, a subsidiary of Denbury Resources of Plano, Texas, which is in the oil business in the Bakken in both Montana and North Dakota, “released” about 700,000 gallons of salt water into Big Gumbo Creek … Continue reading Time To Send Denbury Packing?

A short history lesson on the Little Missouri National Grasslands of western North Dakota. For thousands of years Indian nations hunted and thrived on the grasslands. A spiritual tie to the land based on Indian beliefs developed and is still honored today. However, as America pushed west, the grasslands became home to new settlers in … Continue reading Special Places? How About American Treasures?

I’m beginning to think that Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem might just be ready to really start looking at oil and gas drilling permit applications instead of just giving them blanket approval at monthly meetings of the North Dakota Industrial Commission. That would be the best news to come out of the Oil Patch since fracking … Continue reading Here’s How We Can Help Wayne Stenehjem Tackle The Oil Industry

A friend of mine once described me as a “lapsed journalist.” I corrected him and said I was a “recovering journalist.” In either case, the title gives me the credentials to tell you a story about the sorry state of journalism in North Dakota. Last Sunday, the Forum Communications Company’s North Dakota papers ran a … Continue reading Journalism 101

Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed, Then one day he was shootin at some food, And up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude.                                     The Ballad of Jed Clampett Well, it would be fun to think that was what happened up … Continue reading Black Gold; Texas Tea

There so much news coming out of the Oil Patch I can hardly absorb it. And, frankly, it scares the hell out of me. Partly because there really are things to be scared about, and partly because there is so much misinformation being spread around that I feel we’re in daily danger of not being … Continue reading Another Oil Patch Roundup