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If you’ve got any friends or relatives out in Stark or Billings Counties, around Belfield, tell them to start getting ready, because Meridian Energy Group is going to build them a refinery as a neighbor. It’ll be there in just three years, 10 months and 15 days--on Friday, December 12, 2025. That’s what Meridian CEO … Continue reading ‘The Wings Have Come Off This Pig . . .’

Today I am celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Best Day Of My Life. On January 19, 2002 I met the most extraordinary, fascinating, person I have ever known. Two years, two months and two days later I married her, in the same place I met her.  Her name is Lillian Crook. I love her. … Continue reading The Best Day Of My Life

            I’ve written about the proposed bridge across the Little Missouri State Scenic River north of Medora enough times that I don’t need to go into a lot of background to bring you up to date on the project. I decided last week that I needed a little Bad Lands time, and the Billings County … Continue reading Bridges, Oil Wells, And Open Meetings

“I’ve shot probably half a dozen, or maybe as many as ten, sage grouse in my life. I’m likely among a small group of North Dakotans alive today who can say that. And that group is not going to get any bigger. Ever. Because there’s an awfully good chance we’ll never have another sage grouse … Continue reading One More “Last Dance” For The Sage Grouse?

At about 2:00 yesterday afternoon, December 18, 2021, my friend Rick Maixner and I poured a couple shots from the bottle of cognac he keeps stashed at the Sunset Nursing Home in Mandan, North Dakota, and toasted the fact we are still here, 50 years after we walked off the gangplank of the USS Oriskany, … Continue reading 50 Years . . . And Counting

I wrote here a few weeks ago that you can’t really understand Covid-19 until you’ve sat at the bedside of a good friend on a ventilator. I can say now that even then I did not understand it completely until I buried that good friend last week. Until I watched that coffin being slowly lowered … Continue reading Damn, It Hurts To Bury A Friend

I’m thinking today of an old friend, Ardell Tharaldson, who left us ten years ago, December 6, 2011. Our friendship dated back to Democratic-NPL politics in 1972, when he ran George McGovern's campaign for president in North Dakota. An unabashed liberal and rebel, and a pretty darn good poker player, Ardell got dealt a couple … Continue reading Remembering Ardell Tharaldson

Some random thoughts, most of which appeared in an article in the December issue of Dakota Country magazine. How do you go about summarizing a year like 2021? Try this: It’s December, the year is almost over, and we’re still here. I’m still writing. You’re still reading. Y’know, considering everything, not much else seems very … Continue reading “Scumbags”

I have a friend who is familiar with the investment banking world. I don’t know much about it because I don’t have much to invest. But he’s been keeping track of the articles I’ve written about Meridian Energy Group, the company that wants to build a refinery next to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. From time … Continue reading Is A Refinery Really A Good Investment?

About three and a half years ago, a few residents of the Highland Acres neighborhood in west Bismarck sat down with some staff at the State Historical Society of North Dakota and began discussing the possibility of creating the Highland Acres Historic District, and to nominate it for inclusion on the National Register of Historic … Continue reading Highland Acres Historic District Is Becoming A Reality!