This is a significantly revised version of my original blog posted on Wednesday with the addition of details I’ve located since that date as well as updates on the Thursday’s Unicorn showers. Although the annual Leonids meteor showers have come and gone, the news about a potential “rich burst” of shooting stars from the Unicorn meteor showers has me thinking back …
Jordan Kawaguchi’s goal 3:41 into overtime lifted the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team to a 2-1 win and a weekend sweep of St. Cloud State University on Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad University. The Fighting Hawks won 4-2 on Friday night. The win was the 100th of coach Brad Berry at UND. St. Cloud’s Jack Ahcan and UND’s Jacob …
The University of North Dakota football team outscored Southern Utah University 19-3 in the second half on its way to a 36-18 victory Saturday afternoon in the Alerus Center. Luke Skokna led the way offensively for the Fighting Hawks (7-4), rushing for 116 yards on 11 carries while scoring two touchdowns. Quarterback Nate Ketteringham chipped in 53 yards on the …
Shane Pinto scored the game’s first two goals to put the University of North Dakota men’s hockey on its way to a 4-2 National Collegiate Hockey Conference win over St. Cloud State on Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena fans. Cole Smith and Collin Adams (empty net) scored the other goals for the Fighting Hawks, who upped their record to …
Over the past week, we have seen highly ethical, nonpartisan and committed foreign service officers and members of the military with nothing to gain and everything but their integrity and vow to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution to lose, say essentially the same thing. Our policy toward Ukraine, which was in the best interest of our national security, was co-opted …
Dorette and I are spending some time in Grand Forks. The weather is touch and go this time of year, so I brought along some reading material. One of the books is Liesl Olson’s “Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis.” Of most interest to me is her account of the black writer, Era Bell Thompson, 1905-1986, who had …
Photographer Jeff Olson of Fort Collins, Colo., recently spent some time in Monterey, located on the south side of Monterey Bay along California’s Central Coast. Here are some of the sights he took in while on morning walks.
The three North Dakota Public Service Commissioners went to Emmons County last week to hold a public hearing. Emmons County is where the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL, in the vernacular) Co. plans to build a big station to boost the capacity of their still-controversial pipeline hauling oil from North Dakota to out-of-state refineries. The PSC is involved because North Dakota’s …
Is there any doubt I’m a cartographic geek? Is there any doubt I’m an Anglophile? Great Britain counties I visited in August-September 2019 England (of 48 counties, I went to 33) Bedfordshire. Berkshire. Buckinghamshire. Cambridgeshire. Cheshire. City of London. Cornwall. Cumbria. Devon. Durham. Glouchestershire. Greater London. Greater Manchester. Hampshire. Herefordshire. Herfordshire. Kent. Lancashire. Leicestershire. Merseyside. North Yorkshire. Northumberland. Nottinghamshire. Oxfordshire. …
The odds are too good. Washington does realize that this move will lower its chances of winning any fiery Bakken surprise prizes to zero, but it’s willing to forgo the suspense. Too much quid, so little quo. The Bakken Bosses — it’s an industry AND state enterprise — as in “Are you talking to me?” or “Ich spreche kein Deutsch.” It depends. …
Most people have heard of chicken cordon bleu, but there’s a good chance that many of them have never tasted it. And that would be a shame. The origin of cordon bleu dishes is somewhat in dispute. Some say it has its roots in France (chicken). Still others credit the Swiss (schnitzel) and the Austrians (veal). Wherever they came from, …
Jaclyn Jarnot scored the first double-double of her career (16 points,11 rebounds) and her sister, Alaina, added 10 points and five assists to lead the University of North Dakota women’s basketball team to a 65-63 win over Valparaiso University on Sunday in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Addison Stoller of Valparaiso (1-2) led all scorers with 23 points. The Fighting Hawks (3-1) …
The University of North Dakota football team picked up its sixth win of the season with a 45-38 victory over Northern Colorado on Saturday afternoon in the Alerus Center. Quarterback Nate Ketteringham was 26 for 37 passing with two touchdown tosses and one rushing score. His favorite receiver, Noah Wanzek, caught nine of those passes for 125 yards and a …
The University of North Dakota women’s volleyball team closed out its regular falling 16-25, 23-25, 25-16, 22-25 to Oral Roberts University despite a history-making performance by senior Ashley Brueggeman on Friday night in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Brueggeman became the eighth player in program history to reach 1,200 kills and 1,400 points with her 14 kills and three blocks. The …
Melissa Leet scored a career-high 15 points and Julia Fleecs added 13 to lead the University of North Dakota women’s basketball team to a 67-61 win over the University of Rhode Island on Friday afternoon in the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Leet added five blocks and three steals and Fleecs had a game-high nine rebounds for the Fighting Hawks, who raised their …
If I were at home, I would probably take the day off. I woke up achy and miserable, after hacking all night with a cold our group seems to be sharing. At first, I was feeling sorry for myself knowing I couldn’t take a bread. I needed to charge through. But then I thought of all of the people we …
Clay Jenkinson wrote this Tuesday. I don’t deserve to pretend to be Thomas Jefferson. Not only don’t I speak and write French and Italian, but I have virtually none of Jefferson’s famous organizational skills. My home library has more than 20,000 volumes now, and though I have a relatively logical library classification system, I have a hard time finding books …
What would you do if, all of a sudden, your city was overwhelmed with desperate people? They gave everything they had to get to your city to legally claim asylum, fleeing violence and government oppression and starvation due to climate change. But after claiming asylum and being held in the “ice box” detention center for up to to 30 days …
Public impeachment hearings began in the House this week in Washington. They weren’t just seen on the cable news networks this time. Daytime game shows and soap operas gave way to the first public testimony on the major broadcast networks as well. Some of us of a certain age recall another set of Washington hearings, the Watergate hearings. By some …
“As some of you may have noticed before the formalities took the cocktail weenies right out of my mouth, I’m presently talking more like a normal person to give my jowls a rest. Do not be alarmed. It’s not easy to mimic the look of having no bones or teeth below the nose. Just lips and skin. It makes me …
What really happens when someone comes across the border and asks for asylum? That is a question many ask, hearing so many proclaim the stories of abuse as fake news. Pastor Rose Mary Sanchez, an ELCA pastor serving at Iglesia Luterano Cristo Rey in El Paso, Texas, knows. She serves a small congregation where only eight of the families that …
I’m fascinated and troubled by the mystery of Thomas Jefferson. I’m reading a biography in which he is working hard in 1784, spending political capital, to try to convince the Continental Congress to outlaw slavery in the American West. Jefferson is working on his celebrated Bill for the Government of the Western Territories. He reckons that if we can keep …
November is our 10th anniversary at Red Oak House and the longest I’ve lived in one place in my lifetime. The explanation for my peripatetic life is, in part, that I was an Army brat. Looking back, I think that my heart was seeking the perfect match for my home and didn’t find it until we bought Red Oak House. I …
This is different from my usual blogs. This is the sermon I preached at the funeral for my nephew, Joshua, who lost his battle with depression on Sept 30, 2019. He was 20 years old and a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus. He was a beloved son, brother, cousin, nephew and friend. His loss left a hole and I am sharing …
Jordan Kawaguchi, Matt Kierstad and Gavin Hain scored goals and goalie Adam Scheel stopped 14 of 15 shots to lead the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team to a 3-1 win over Michigan Tech University in the 2019 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks have won seven straight U.S. Hockey …
Grand Forks photographer Michael Bogert and his wife, Mary Bauer, recently returned from a trip to that took them through North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Sights taken in included Yellowstone National Park, Lucky Peak Recreation Area, Payette River and the Badlands and Sully’s Hill in North Dakota. These images are just a portion of what caught his eye.
It looks like Wylie Bice is going to have to write a check for $30,000 to the U.S. government and tuck away $100,000 in a bond bank somewhere as his penalty for building an illegal bridge on public land in the Bad Lands. (If you’re not familiar with this story, here’s the background.) Those are the numbers being floated around …
Today we crossed the border and entered into the reality of the struggles of those who live in Juarez, Mexico, and those who are forced to wait there as they seek asylum. It was a short trip across the river and a long journey into the depths of human pain. It was hard to comprehend that the squalor in Juarez …
Imagine you have walked for months from El Salvador to the United States with your family, fleeing threats of death from where you came and untold horrors on the journey. You finally arrive in Juarez, Mexico, and legally present yourself for asylum. Then the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent takes your family into a room and they take your …
“Don’t come here asking what you can do at the border to help. The work that must be done is where you came from.” So began Ruben Garcia, advocate for asylum seekers and the founder of Annunciation House, a place of refuge that houses those who have come to the El Paso, Texas, border seeking asylum. He told our delegation, …
What does the landscape look like in the fall above 8,000 feet? Autumn in Arizona is in full swing, and these i images from photographer Eric Bergeson highlight the colorful flora on and near Marshall Gulch Trail, up the hill from Tucson.
Nothing about the current immigration crisis in our country is simple or easy. After one day as part of the Abriendo Fronteras/Opening Borders delegation, spending six days in El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, exploring issues related to immigration, that is my greatest take away. Our morning began early, at 6 am. The group of 16 — which includes our two …
As an instructor at Brown College several years ago, I taught a course in Broadcast Sales. I recall there were two cardinal rules, supposedly instrumental for success: 1. When working with a client, be sure to underpromise, but overdeliver. 2. A-B-C stands for Always Be Closing. University of Minnesota football Coach P. J. Fleck is now in his third season …
Here’s part of an article that appears in the November issue of Dakota Country magazine, on the newsstands now. “If we find the moral courage to save the Little Missouri River Valley today, we will congratulate ourselves 100 years from now, just as we congratulate Theodore Roosevelt for bucking the industrial zeitgeist a hundred years ago to set aside 230 …
I cannot show you any photos of the women whose stories we heard today because their lives are at risk. But it broke me. We heard from five of the six women living in a safe house in Juarez, Mexico. They all fled their native Central American countries with their children because they were facing death threats from the police …
The firing of the Johanna Kiln, the largest wood-burning kiln in North America at St. John’s University and Abbey in central Minnesota only happens every two years. The 87-foot-long brick kiln was designed and built 25 years ago by the university’s master potter and artist in residence Richard Bresnahan, along with help from apprentices and volunteers. The latest firing was completed …
What the hell is going on? Why isn’t Congressman Kelly Armstrong patriotically leaking the great impeachment news — that the lamestream media refuses to report — that would exonerate Donald Trump of airtight charges stemming from a super successful witch hunt? The congressman is sitting right there as the “never Trumpers” testify. It’s the least he can do if he were …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team completed a weekend sweep of Bemidji State University with a 4-1 win Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Grant Mismash, Colton Poolman, Mark Senden and Jonny Tychonick scored for the Fighting Hawks, who improved to 4-1-1. Aaron Miller scored the lone goal for the Beavers (0-2-2). UND Goalie Adam Scheel had19 saves, …
A fourth quarter blocked punt in the end zone by Alex Cloyd and recovery for a touchdown by Jason Coley propelled the University of North Dakota football team to a 16-12 win over No. 9 Montana State University on Saturday in the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. Quarterback Nate Ketteringham was 27-of-36 for 220 yards for UND (5-3), and wide receiver …
Westin Michaud’s goal just 52 seconds into overtime gave the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team a 2-1 win over Bemidji State University on Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Jordan Kawaguchi scored the other goal for the Fighting Hawks (3-1-1). Owen Sillinger scored for the Beavers (0-1-2). Adam Scheel made 16 saves in goal for UND, while Zach …
On Friday, I worked joyously in the autumn sunshine at Red Oak House, on a rare still day, planting 92 tulip bulbs at the request of my husband. He had asked me last spring to plant more and when I received an email from a seed company mentioning bulbs, it hit me that there was still time. On Thursday night, …
Freshmen Kacie Borowicz and Lilly Keplin scored 19 and 15 respectively to lead the University of North Dakota women’s basketball team to a 98-19 exhibition win over Concordia College on Thursday in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Julia Fleecs added 18 points for the Fighting Hawks, who travel to Arizona for a Thursday game against the 2019 WNIT champion Wildcats. (Check …
“Checks and balances, Mr. Jefferson. Checks and balances,” said John Adams. We are only a republic if each of the three branches of the national government has some capacity to check the excesses of one or both of the other two. The Founding Fathers sought to ensure that no single individual or entity would ever have unlimited, unchecked power. The …
The University of North Dakota women’s soccer team was defeated 7-0 by the University of Denver in its final homestand of the season Thursday afternoon at Bronson Field. The Summit League champion Pioneers upped their record to 8-4-3 overall and 4-0-1 in the Summit. The Fighting Hawks (9-6-1 overall, 3-3-0 Summit) ended weekend play Sunday against the University of Nebraska-Omaha. …