The impact of the oil boom has left North Dakota—and many North Dakotans—in the most amazing financial position we have ever experienced, or could ever have imagined. That’s good. I was State Tourism Director back in the 1980’s when a pair of Rutgers University professors suggested we turn western North Dakota into something called the … Continue reading The Case For The Critters: An Overview Of The Oil Industry’s Threats To The Land

I know, it's only Wednesday, but my friend Tweed is here, and we're going hunting for a few days, so I thought I'd just put this up here today and then get out of Dodge. WHERE’S ED WHEN WE NEED HIM? Testing your memory:  Here’s a short story from High Country News, March 21, 1994 … Continue reading Weekenders

Mike Jacobs, in his 1975 book One Time Harvest, wrote “The coal industry has come west in search of four basic resources: cheap clean air, cheap coal, cheap water and cheap politicians. They’ve found each of these in North Dakota.” If he were to write another book in 2012 (and I wish he would), he … Continue reading 30 Pieces Of Silver

Earlier this year, the Center for Public Integrity gave the state of North Dakota an “F” grade on its Corruption Risk Report Card, which rated all 50 states on the risk for election and government corruption. Most of us viewed that report with a skeptical eye, but then when things happen to reinforce the notion, … Continue reading Just Trust Us

“How,” my friend and classmate Carla recently asked “can you be both Norwegian and Catholic?” A reasonable question. We grew up in Hettinger, North Dakota, where the Germans were Catholic and the Norwegians were Lutheran. For the most part. Catholics were named Schmidt and Nagel and Slater and Seifert and Schmaltz. Lutherans were named Braaten … Continue reading A Norwegian Catholic?

The threats to the Bad Lands, and to some of North Dakota’s most important pristine places, never seem to end. In fact, the pace of the threats quickens each month, each week, each day, it seems. I’m not sure why I just learned about this—I must not have been paying attention—but a story in Sunday’s … Continue reading Every Frackin’ Acre

If I ever become a rich man, Or if ever I grow to be old, I will build a house with a deep thatch To shelter me from the cold . . . I will hold my house in the high wood, Within a walk of the sea. And men that were boys when I … Continue reading On Reaching 65 – Hooray For Me

CUE CARDS Mike Jacobs, publisher of the Grand Forks Herald, wrote one of his political analysis columns this past week. Jacobs has long been the most astute journalist in North Dakota. Two quotes stood out. Commenting on the closeness of the race between Heidi Heitkamp and Rick Berg for the U.S. Senate, Jacobs made reference … Continue reading Weekenders

THE CHANCELLORS’S NEW CAR “I’m not coming from San Francisco. I am not a Beverly Hills person,” he said. “Most of my board members never (wear) ties ... and they drive pickup trucks,—and in fact, I will be driving a truck too.” That was the new North Dakota University System Chancellor Hamid Shirvani, quoted in … Continue reading Weekenders

In spite of what you read in the newspaper, don’t pop any champagne corks and celebrate victory over the dude who wants to dig a gravel pit at the Elkhorn Ranch just quite yet. As Yogi Berra says, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. The Associated Press reported last week that “Development of a gravel … Continue reading Hold The Champagne