Category: Law, Government, Politics

In the next couple of weeks, former Governor George Sinner, my former boss, is going to release his memoir, a month or so later than originally planned because of an apparent printing error in the first run. I'm eager to see it. In it, he's going to tell his version of what happened in the … Continue reading One Governor Too Many

ATTENTION NORTH DAKOTA NEWS MEDIA. THE NORTH DAKOTA GAME AND FISH DEPARTMENT HAS PREPARED A REPORT ON THE IMPACTS OF OIL DEVELOPMENT ON WILDLIFE IN WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA. SOMEONE IN THE NORTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE TOLD GAME AND FISH TO HIDE THE REPORT. IT GOT HIDDEN FOR SIX MONTHS. THEN IT GOT RELEASED, SORT OF, … Continue reading WEEKENDERS VIII

Colonel Clement Lounsberry is best known (and actually quite well-known by North Dakotans) as the founder and first editor of the Bismarck Tribune, and the man who brought the news of the “Custer Massacre” to the world through his telegraphed story to the New York Herald in the summer of 1876. Six years later, at … Continue reading A Visit To Pyramid Park

I am sick in my heart at what I have learned and come to realize the last couple of weeks about the future of western North Dakota. Two weeks ago, there surfaced a report prepared by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department last summer on the potential impact of oil development on wildlife in … Continue reading “What I Have Failed To Do . . .”

I came across what I think was a pretty good scam attempt the other day, and thought I might warn you about it. I was retrieving a friend's car from the short term parking lot at an unnamed central North Dakota airport not so far from my house while he and his wife were on … Continue reading Count Your Change

Some years ago, I was out for a Saturday morning walk on Bismarck residential streets and happened by a rummage sale. I'd never have stopped if I had been driving by, but I wandered into the garage, which was quite close to the sidewalk, and spotted a box of books, with a price tag on … Continue reading A SHORT ACCOUNT OF A SATURDAY MORNING WALK

EARL WAS BACK, AND HE WON Earl Strinden saved his best for last. Twelve years after closing out a 25-year career in the North Dakota Legislature, Strinden earned what is possibly, for him personally, his biggest legislative victory ever. He saved the Fighting Sioux. For the time being, at least, the Fighting Sioux will live … Continue reading WEEKENDERS VII

I don't remember, exactly, how I was introduced to Debra Marquart, or rather to her work, but right after I was, I found her e-mail address on the Iowa State University website and sent her an e-mail asking her how I could buy her two poetry books and one poetry CD, and a week later, … Continue reading The new guy just couldn’t sing

A SWEDE, BY ANY OTHER NAME . . . Memo to the dude who calls himself Oley Larsen. You're a North Dakota State Senator now (as unlikely as that may seem to a lot of us). You can't just go around making shit up and using it to justify an argument any more. People are … Continue reading WEEKENDERS

Okay, that's enough politics for a while. Time to bring the blood pressure back down and share a little prairie literature. There's a fascinating story unfolding in Medora right now. It has to do with the von Hoffman House, ordered up by Medora's mother, the Baroness von Hoffman of New York, so that she and … Continue reading Some Foley Poetry