With apologies to Meriwether Lewis: “Our vessel consists of a Subaru Outback. This little vehicle, although not quite so respectable as those of Columbus or Capt. Cook, is still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs; and I dare to say with quite as much anxiety for … Continue reading We Proceed On

This just in (Fortune magazine October 1948, page 29): "Barring a major political miracle, Governor Thomas E. Dewey will be elected the thirty-fourth President of the United States in November. Such is the overwhelming evidence of Elmo Roper’s fifth pre-election Survey in recent months, the last that will appear this year in Fortune.             "So … Continue reading And The Winner Is . . .

I didn’t read about this in the Bismarck Tribune. I didn’t see it on KXMB or KFYR’s 6 o’clock news, and I didn’t hear it on Joel Heitkamp’s News and Views radio show. Apparently it wasn’t very big news here. But I just knew that there was a story out there, and I couldn’t get … Continue reading Getting The Lead Out

Here's an e-mail that was in my inbox this morning: Friends,             As a long-time Bismarck resident and asthma patient, I know the importance of clean air and clean water when it comes to one’s health.             That’s why I’m worried about Montana-Dakota Utilities’ Heskett coal-fired power plant, right across the Missouri River from Bismarck … Continue reading Closing Down A Power Plant?

The headline blaring across the top of page 1B of the Bismarck Tribune Wednesday morning read “Oil Production Sets Record.” Note to Tribune editors: Just leave that page layout on your computer screen, and insert new numbers a month from today. The headline will still apply. And the month after that, and after that . … Continue reading A Standing Headline

            Memo to North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring: You are up for re-election in 2014. Campaigns are expensive. Pretty soon it will be time to get going with your fundraising. If you need a place to start, just click here, and a list will be provided to … Continue reading Bought And Paid For

So who gets credit for Heidi’s election? Cass County gave her almost a ten thousand vote margin. Grand Forks County three thousand. But a lawyer friend of mine who studies elections says it was the turnout on the traditionally Democrat-voting Indian reservations that won her the U.S. Senate seat.  How influential were the reservations in … Continue reading United States Senator Mary Kathryn (Heidi) Heitkamp. How About That?

I’ve been pretty quiet here about the 2012 election. My team is losing, generally, and I don’t have much to add to the debate, except to point out the betrayal of the state and its values by the current Governor. It’s going to end badly for my team Tuesday night, I’m afraid. I’ve been poised … Continue reading Milton Who? Norman Who? Redux.

The stories of the selling out of the North Dakota Bad Lands to the oil industry by our state’s leaders continue unabated. Almost daily now, there are more and more stories of shoddy management of cultural and natural resources in the name of greed. Readers of The Bismarck Tribune aren’t getting good coverage of the … Continue reading Some Things Never Change

Somewhere in Montana this morning there's a young woman on a bus with a half-eaten sandwich and an unfinished quart of chocolate milk, heading west toward an uncertain future. She's there because of a friend of mine, and I want to tell you a short story of true compassion and an unspoken reaffirmation of a … Continue reading The Kindness Of Strangers