One of the key objectives of our visit to the settlements was to meet the people involved in the South Sudan Leadership and Community Development cooperatives and share their stories. These cooperatives are what set SSLCD apart from most aid organizations because they are literally organized by the refugees and for the refugees, as we seek to empower their leadership …
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about some bad bills in the North Dakota Legislature that attempt to ban books from our pubic libraries. One, SB 2123, was a goofy bill that just removed libraries from the list of places “dirty books” are allowed to be displayed. It was such a bad bill that it failed in the Senate …
They say it’s about the journey, not the destination. But on our return trip to Entebbe, Uganda, it was reaching the destination that gave me the greatest joy. We had planned to take the African Bus back to Kampala on Saturday for our return trip home Sunday. However, for several logistical reasons, as well as the fact that a few …
I recently said good-bye to an old friend. A warm, wrap-around friend who was always able to comfort me to the core in the harshest times. I gave away my North Dakota parka. I have gone whole years here in Omaha, Neb., without having to wear it. The coat was really too heavy for Nebraska’s relatively milder winters. This was …
This is one of an occasional series of articles Governing is publishing this year by Clay Jenkinson on some of the less well-known presidents of the United States. In the tributes to Jimmy Carter that have flooded the news and social media in the wake of his announcement that he will live out the last days of his life at home under the …
In addition to our work with trauma healing and peace-building training, one of the other reasons we as board members of South Sudan Leadership and Community Development come to visit is to provide support to our on-the-ground organizers and help assess the needs and strengths of the cooperatives. We believe the work being done in refugee settlement camps through SSLCD …
One of the key principles of South Sudan Leadership and Community Development is that we operate within the settlement camps through cooperatives. We have three organizers who work within the camps to focus on leadership training, which is part of our work this week, and on community development. Our focus is to improve the lives of the women, children and …
Our second day in the settlements took us to Olua, which is a bit closer to Adjuman, a little over a half hour away. The two camps are very different. Olua is more concentrated, so it appears to have more buildings, whereas Mungula has more space and appears more sparse. Even in refugee settlements, there is an urban/rural demarcation. Although …
Colorado’s Poudre Canyon, a glacier-formed valley through the foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains northwest of Fort Collins, Colo., offers some spectacular viewing as photographer Jeff Olson and his wife, Joanne Plager Burke Olson, can attest. Jeff and Joanne recently took a hike through the canyon, which begins high in the peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park …
After a mostly sleepless night, thanks to the loud bed-shaking music playing outside our hotel until after 5:30 a.m. — which, I might add, seemed eminently unfair since they must have been the only place in Adjumani with electricity — we spent the morning getting supplies to provide for breaks during our day at the Mungula Settlement. Hospitality is a …
Lent is just around the corner, which means it’s fish fry season. But I can remember a time when there was a fish fry every Friday night at the American Legion Club in my hometown of Crookston, Minn. I recall trips to the Legion as a kid, but they were few and far between. Our Fridays were usually dominated by …
Riese Gaber’s third goal of the weekend early in the third period gave the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team a come-from-behind 2-2 tie with St. Cloud State University in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Huskies (18-9-3 overall, 10-7-3 NCHC) gained the extra point with a shootout win. Gaber, who scored twice …
As the American people decide whether to panic, assign blame or shrug at the violation of American airspace by a handful of strange objects, one of them certainly a Chinese spy balloon, it may be useful to look back to a previous moment of national space panic. The Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite Oct. 4, 1957. Sputnik — …
Four flights and a 9½-hour ride on an African bus later, I am happy to report I am safely in Adjumani, Uganda. Denise, my fellow co-chair of South Sudan Leadership and Community Development, and Christine, who also serves on the board, and I met in Detroit. Given a variety of travel concerns in the Midwest due to snow, I am …
Riese Gaber scored two goals, including the winner in overtime, to lead the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team to a 4-3 win over St. Cloud State University in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks (13-13-4 overall, 7-10-2 NCHC) trailed 3-1 before Jake Schmaltz cut the lead to one goal early …
Elections, as they say, have consequences. What’s been going on in Billings County, North Dakota, elections has been pretty consequential. Billings County is an important place. It’s home to the Bad Lands, Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. And the Little Missouri State Scenic River. More about elections in a minute. You’ve been reading here for more than 10 years …
I was saddened when my mother told me that JoAnn Derry had passed away. She was 90. Her obituary described her as “a firecracker with grit and determination.” Yup. That was her, all right. I met her in Sunday School at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Frederick, S.D., in 1968. I was misbehaving one day — hard to imagine, I …
The University of North Dakota men’s basketball team won its third straight game with a 76-73 overtime victory over the University of Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Summit League play. Four players for the Fighting Hawks (10-17 overall, 4-10 Summit) hit double figures in scoring, led by Matt Norman’s 21 points. Tsotne Tsartsize chipped in 17 …
And so the annual circus continues, and we have slipped another rung. The 2023 State of the Union Address on Tuesday night was marred by heckling, and what’s left of our republican norms is slipping between our fingers. If Jefferson Was President Today, He Would Have Made It an Email The first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, delivered their State …
It started last weekend. I began receiving weird text messages from unknown phone numbers outside the 701 area code. I didn’t think about it much the first time, but then they kept on coming, sometimes three a day. I ignored them, like I had been told to when I got my first cellphone. By the way, I remember my very …
Those who grew up in the 1950s and ’60s probably ate their share of hotdish and casserole. Not only were they standard fare of many a stay-at-home moms but also of school lunch programs. We always had hamburger and macaroni hotdish at least once a week at home and occasionally one made with leftover chicken paired with rice. School hot …
There are people who can name all the presidents, some forward and backward. I can do pretty well from George Washington through Andrew Jackson (1-7), but once you get to Tylers and Taylors things get a little murky. And I can count backward from Joe Biden to Herbert Hoover (46-31), but then I start second guessing myself about Coolidge, Pierce …
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a really bad bill in the North Dakoa Legislature, HB 1205, which starts banning books from our libraries. I’ve since learned there’s another one just as bad, SB 2123, which pretty much does the same kind of thing. One’s in the House, the other in the Senate, and both have had hearings and should …
Photographer Dave Bruner captured some beautiful landscape images on a recent visit to the North Dakota Badlands along with his wife, Sheila. For more photographs of Dave Bruner, to go Dave Bruner Photography or www.flickr.com/photos/davebrunerphotography/.
Prince Harry’s “long-awaited” memoir, “Spare,” is anything but. Its 410 pages are causing a big stir in both Britain and the United States and it must be a source of great angst within the royal family. It’s hard to know whether his publisher urged him to ratchet up or ratchet down his conflict with his father, his brother, his sister-in-law …
Nothing in recent memory has stirred up as much emotion among Bad Lands enthusiasts as the goofy process now underway to rid Theodore Roosevelt National Park of its wild horse herd. The papers have been flooded with letters to the editor, and newspaper editors themselves have even published editorials telling the National Park Service to keep the horses. My friend, …
Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner and his wife, Sheila, went out to the North Dakota Badlands a couple of weeks ago in the hopes of photographing some nice winter scenes and capturing the wildlife in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in this setting. He was extremely fortunate to capture some beautiful images of the buffalo (bison), elk, deer and wild …
Ah, we meet again, as many of us have since 1991. Remember the ‘Sixties warning — don’t trust anyone over 30? What would they say about someone who’s been “opinionating” longer than that (and, in the process, inventing words)? I often have a mental lineup of topics I want to cover. Despite advice from some in the beginning that I …
It’s been 10 years since that night I left Ian’s basketball game at halftime because I knew I needed to go to the nursing home to see Steve. Driving through snow and bitter cold because I knew that was where I was supposed to be. When I walked in, he wasn’t responsive, but I’ve been around death enough to know …
The Baseball Writers Association of America will announce the results of its 2023 Hall of Fame vote Tuesday, followed once again by griping about the 1992 election. That was the first year Pete Rose was eligible but left off the ballot, which turned Pete into a cause célèbre. He was one lucky feller that day. Not being in the Hall …
Immigration has always been a fraught subject in America. We all know that except for Indigenous people (Native Americans), at some previous point all of the rest of us made the long journey to America from somewhere else. In the past 400 years, Europeans, Africans and Asians have filled up the continent to the tune of 334 million people. The liberals and …
Riese Gaber, Gavin Hain, Lous Jamermik V and Jackson Blake scored goals as the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team defeated the University of Minnesota-Duluth 4-2 in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks (10-10-4 overall, 4-7-2 NCHC) won their four straight game against the visiting Bulldogs (9-13-1 overall, 4-9-0 NCHC). Drew …
I went to the North Dakota Department of Water Resources public hearing Friday on whether they should grant the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad permission to build a new bridge over the Missouri River between Bismarck and Mandan. To quote from the Department’s meeting notice, “The new bridge is intended to replace an existing bridge, the proposed removal of which will …
A lot of bad bills get introduced into the Legislature over the years. Most meet the fate they deserve — into the trash. But from time to time, a bad bill becomes law because of timing. A legislator catches a wave of public interest in a subject that’s in the news and takes advantage of that to introduce a bill …
Coho salmon may not have the great-tasting reputation of its cousin, the Chinook or King salmon, but it certainly isn’t anything to catch and release. One of five species of Pacific salmon found in North American waters (along with the aforementioned King, Sockeye, Pink and Chum), the Coho has bright red flesh and a slightly more delicate texture than Chinook …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team erupted for six goals against Western Michigan University on Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena but surrendered seven en route to a 7-6 National Collegiate Hockey Conference loss in redshirt goalie Caleb Johnson’s first collegiate start before a hometown crowd. The Fighting Hawks (9-10-4 overall, 3-7-2 NCHC) blew a three-goal lead to …
Thirty-five states gaveled open new legislative sessions last week. Many are making a point of how quickly they chose a speaker – the vote took all of 30 seconds in Washington state, for example. That is in sharp contrast to the chaotic events in the U.S. House of Representatives a week earlier, which were a sad reminder of how fraught …
One of the dirty little secrets about the American legal system is that might, that is money, often makes “right.” Those with the wherewithal can legally and financially exhaust others, effectively punish them with frivolous lawsuits. That seems to be the case with one of the unsung good guys in North Dakota, Jim Fuglie. Jim is a former reporter for …
The University of North Dakota women’s basketball team claimed a hard-fought 65-63 Summit Conference victory over the University of Nebraska-Omaha on Thursday night in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The Fighting Hawks ( (10-6 overall, 3-3 Summit) were led by Kacie Borowicz, who scored 18 points. Rakiyah Beal chipped in 10 points for UND, which remains unbeaten at home this season. …
Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner and his wife, Sheila, have been out and about recently, enjoying and photographing nature’s beautiful display of winter frost in the area.
Tyler Kleven scored two goals for the second straight game to lead the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team to a 4-2 nonconference win over Lindenwood University on Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Ben Strinden and Mark Senden also scored goals for the Fighting Hawks (9-8-4), while David Gagnon and Caige Sterger scored for the Lions (5-15-0). Goalie …
“Some of the old shepherds or men in the villages carve ornate sheep or sheepdog heads … to decorate their crooks, thought the best of these are never used for work but are simply for show. I will wave my crook to get the tup’s attention in the sale ring, and tickle it gently under its nose to get it …
Tyler Kleven scored two goals to lead the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team to a 4-3 nonconference win over Lindenwood University on Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Nick Portz and Farmer scored the other goals for the Fighting Hawks (8-8-4), while David Gagnon, Hunter Johannes and Caige Sterzer scored goals for the Lions (5-14-0). Goalie Jakob Hellsten, …
Again my Mother comes to me in a dream: My hair is long, down to my waist long. I wake up and my hair is long, but not down to my waist, which it has never been, which is silly. Hers as a young girl was. When I was a little girl, mine was thin and my older sister’s hair …