Category: Law, Government, Politics

SURPRISE! LOOKS LIKE KEVIN’S IN Kevin Cramer lives, eats, breathes and sleeps politics. So you just knew it had to happen. Kevin said in the paper today he might just run for Congress in 2012. All Kevin has ever wanted is to go to Washington, D.C. as a Senator or Congressman (I wrote about this … Continue reading Weekenders

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service posted the scoping documents for the “Elkhorn Gravel Pit” on its website.  The documents tell you what Roger Lothspeich, who owns half the surface minerals on the Elkhorn Ranchlands, plans to do to this historic site. As I’ve noted in the three previous blog posts on this issue, citizens … Continue reading Your Comments Welcome . . . And Necessary

Take a look at the list of names below. They are the members of the Advisory Council of the Friends of the Elkhorn Ranch, the organization formed in 2007 which helped gain public ownership of the former Eberts Ranch, now the Elkhorn Ranchlands, which is threatened by gravel mining by the surface mineral owners. Theodore … Continue reading Here’s A ‘Who’s Who’ List For You

Continuing with our discussion of the Seven Deadly Sins. Our revisionist group identified two more, pretty much unanimously, that should be submitted for ratification: Stupid, and Ugly. Stupid, not in the sense of being born with diminished intellectual capabilities, but doing or saying things that just don't make any sense to anyone, and should not … Continue reading Stupid and Ugly

During a recent campfire discussion among friends, we decided, only half jokingly, that it’s just possible the Seven Deadly Sins need an update. I mean, they date back to about the 6th Century, and the world has changed a bit since then. Don’t get me too wrong here—they’re still bad things, and should be avoided, … Continue reading A Deadly Sin

SENATOR BERG? MAYBE NOT As North Dakota Democrats scramble to find an opponent for Rick Berg, our state’s self-appointed next U.S. Senator, perennial candidate Duane Sand has stepped in to fill the breech until Democrats get their act together. In an announcement last week so underwhelming even I, one of the state’s most avid politics-watchers, … Continue reading On Politics

The sky over Bismarck this morning was as beautiful as an 8 a.m. sky in September ever gets.  I took a picture and am trying to put it into this blog post. I hope it works. It is not a great picture because I am not a great photographer, but it gives you an idea … Continue reading Cirrus From The West

Yes, it has been a long ten years. On August 29, 2001, I sat beside my wife’s bed as she looked up at her doctor, exhausted, pale and gaunt after two years of unrelenting chemotherapy, and said “No more. No more chemo.” Quietly, the doctor said, “You know what that means.” “Yes,” Rita answered. “How … Continue reading The Tenth Anniversary

The last time North Dakota had two Republican U.S. Senators was 51 years ago this month. August 1960. Milton R. Young and Norman Brunsdale. Young had been in office since 1945, when he was appointed to fill out the term of Democrat John Moses, who died in office that year after serving only two months … Continue reading Milton Who? Norman Who?

I’ve read two North Dakotans’ memoir books in the past few weeks, written by two very different men. Yet there are surprising similarities between them, which made reading them back to back more interesting. Both Bud and Sam were raised in strict North Dakota Catholic families, although there is nearly a generation difference in their … Continue reading Bud and Sam