Category: Law, Government, Politics

Call it our own private little Christmas miracle, if you will. It happened. After weeks and weeks of what I call a “white sky” over Bismarck every night—a function of city lights bouncing off a completely overcast sky—we had given up hope of seeing the expected nearly-full moon on Christmas Eve. They say the real … Continue reading Reflections on a White Sky

Well, every year about this time, in past years, Lillian and I would get together and draft a “Christmas Letter,” which we would then take to the print shop, have it printed on fancy paper, buy a bunch of colored envelopes and a whole lot of stamps, spend hours addressing each envelope by hand and … Continue reading In Lieu Of A Christmas Letter

Sebastian Fabian Hoffner, 91, Bismarck, died Thursday, December 17, 2015, at St. Vincent’s Care Center in Bismarck. Mass of Christian burial will be said for him at 11 a.m. Tuesday, December 22, at St. Boniface Church, Esmond. The praying of a rosary will begin at 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Nicknamed … Continue reading RIP, Buckshot Hoffner . . . One Of The Great Ones

And so the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery will remain dark at night. North Dakota’s Adjutant General, David Sprynczynatyk, whose command includes the Cemetery, made his decision at the end of a week of input from the public on the efficacy of a well-intentioned but poorly thought-out proposal to light the Cemetery at night. Thank you … Continue reading Honoring The Humility Of A Prairie Cemetery

Lillian had set the newspaper beside my coffee cup on the dining room table while I was at the Y the other morning. A big headline reading “Cemetery lighting project may seek $400,000” was circled and she had written across it in big black letters: “This is a bad idea.” She was right. The story … Continue reading A Resting Place of Reverence as the North Dakota Sky Grows Dark

Note: I posted this on my blog more than five years ago, in August of 2010, when immigration was in the news every day. It seems appropriate to repeat it now. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who, from all I can tell, is generally not a wacko, has joined forces, or actually taken leadership … Continue reading “He Is Already An American”

You might remember that memorable line, uttered by Dick the butcher, from perhaps the least memorable of Shakespeare's plays, Henry VI. I thought of it today because I was thinking about lawyers. And Governors. It’s been 30 years since North Dakota had a lawyer in the Governor’s chair. That’s about to end. Because it looks … Continue reading The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All The Lawyers

“Any discussion of proposed actions on the Elkhorn Ranchlands should harken back to a conversation held over pizza in the small community of Medora, ND, in 2000. Ranchers Ken and Norma Eberts carried a vision of theirs to then-Theodore Roosevelt National Park Superintendent Noel Poe for what is now the Elkhorn Ranchlands. That meeting pivoted … Continue reading Boone, Crockett, Roosevelt, and a New National Monument for North Dakota

In North Dakota, if you’re an oil field company and you violate laws or regulations, you sometimes get fined for your misdeeds. Sometimes the fines are as much as $200,000. Sometimes they’re only $50,000, or $10,000. No matter. No one ever pays them. Because the philosophy of the North Dakota Industrial Commission, and its chairman, … Continue reading A Collaborative Approach To Regulating The Oil Industry. Yeah, Right.

Tomorrow, I'll join about 90,000 or so of my best friends on one of North Dakota's favorite days, hunting pheasants on the opening day of Pheasant Season. I thought I might share here, for those of you who don't read a magazine called Dakota Country, an article I wrote for them earlier this fall. If … Continue reading What Color Is A Pheasant?