My daughter and I made a date this week to visit my elderly Aunt Junette Henke at Edgewood Vista Assisted Living in Bismarck. I am blessed with many very strong and independent women in my life, and my Aunt Junette stands in front of that line. She is my godmother, my mother’s older sister, and like me, the middle child. …
My husband and I took off this week from our duties at Red Oak House for a quirky blue highways trip. We zigzagged across the area between Bismarck and Grand Forks and had a thoroughly wonderful time, on a cerulean-sky-puffy-cloud kind of day. We departed from Red Oak House on Wednesday morning and headed north to Wilton and then east. …
They’ll bury Herb Meschke later this week. I don’t know if it will be in the North Dakota Bad Lands, where he was born and raised, or in Minot, where he spent most of his life. Wherever it is, his presence will enhance the stature of the cemetery. Herb was a cowboy, a lawyer, a legislator, a judge and a …
I’ve given some more thought to the issue of Little Missouri River water permits since I last wrote about it May 3. I reported then that Gov. Doug Burgum had signed into law an amendment to the Little Missouri State Scenic River Act, making industrial use of Little Missouri water legal for the first time since the act was passed …
It’s not even a close call, so save the coin toss. Cramer takes North Dakotans for granted and assumes he’s in a safe district. Why, because he’s such a charmer? Guess again, smirk-boy. Smug-boy. Whatever. I’m older than the kid, so I can say that. Plus, I don’t care. I don’t feel any pleasantness oozing from my aura. After decades …
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum may not have been in politics very long, but he has learned the No. 1 rule already: Politics is the art of compromise. To that end, the governor DID NOT veto the section of North Dakota House Bill 1020, which now that it is law, legalizes the issuance of industrial water permits from the Little Missouri …
Dear Gov. Burgum, Let me quote from the conservation easement you signed for some ranchland you and your friends own in southwest North Dakota’s Bad Lands six years ago: “The Protected Property possesses agricultural, scenic, and historic, and cultural values. The Protected Property is located in the heart of the only Ponderosa pine forest in North Dakota, south of Teddy …
Petrichor: The smell in the air before or as rain falls on hot, dry, stony ground (petra = stone; ichor = divine fluid. As defined by one of my favorite authors, Robert Macfarlane, on his Twitter account. Word of the Day March 18, 2017 by Robert Macfarlane I love this word and I love the smell. My first memory of recognition …
There are two or three days left in the legislative session. A lot of bad things are going to happen to North Dakota in that short period of time. I’ve been watching every legislative session since 1975, and this one is by far the most irresponsible I’ve seen. One of the worst things that could happen this week is the industrialization …
You don’t have to go to western North Dakota to catch a good glimpse of wildlife. Just ask Grand Forks photographer Michael Bogert, who never seems to come up empty when searching his favorite Red River Valley haunts — including Kellys Slough National Wildlife Refuge — for watchable wildlife.
I took the above picture in 2006 of Sentinel Butte, N.D. Its population today is 61 compared to 229 in the early 1950s, when our family lived there for several months. The town is a few miles west of Medora, which in those days was not yet much of a tourist attraction. Neither was Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which had …
Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons and his wife, Paulette, took a trip to Medora, N.D., over the weekend. While there, they spent much of the time checking out the wildlife and the scenery in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. According to Russ, “I love this place!” What’s not to love? (Check out more photos from Russ Hons here.)
The North Dakota State Water Commission has violated state law more than 600 times in recent years, by issuing permits for industrial use of water (read: fracking oil wells) from the Little Missouri State Scenic River. Employees there claim they didn’t know they weren’t supposed to do that. I believe them. But that’s no excuse. More on that in a …
Jason Halek wandered in and out of Bismarck on Wednesday. He wasn’t all that excited about being here, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t stick around to visit with old friends, instead likely heading back to Texas to sell some more used cars. For a couple more months. I wrote about Halek last month, after his lawyer negotiated a plea agreement …
Just in case the few hombres who feel the need — some have legitimate reasons — to carry a concealed pistol underneath their cardigan while walking the street of Pisek were thinking that the Republicans in the Legislature hadn’t gone the full mile, to fulfill their every whim, they need not worry. Minot Sen. Oley Larsen stepped up his game. …
After some reading and TV reports on the relationship between fracking and earthquakes in oil county, I’m concerned. Studies have shown that oil extraction by hydraulic fracturing is behind a number of earthquakes in areas not usually associated with seismic activity, especially Oklahoma. There are two forms of man-induced earthquakes. One is clearly related to fracking. Hydraulic fracturing involves the …
Moorhead, prepare for a possible influx of new business. It seems that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and his gang are pushing for a law authorizing the use of parking meters — for downtown Fargo. Never mind that he has substantial holdings in Central City, and never mind that the cost of each unit, including installation, could be in the …
I’m exhausted from winning so much. America is so great again. Stop it already. My trophy case is full. Sure, a lot of people think the House of Representatives didn’t have the votes to pass health care reform last week, but when you factor in the Electoral Collage, it was a huge win. Yuuuge. You should have seen everyone coming …
In the early 1990s, a group of 17 conservation organizations, as diverse as the National Wildlife Federation, the Bismarck-Mandan Bird Club, the North Dakota Wildlife Society and the Fargo-Moorhead Audubon Society, gathered under a symbolic big tent and produced a document outlining the dangers facing the North Dakota Bad Lands and offering a plan to protect some of North Dakota’s …
Call Your Senators — Oppose Efforts to Repeal the BLM Methane Flaring Rule The splash of light in the center of North America at night, seen from space, shines like the opposite of a black eye. It doesn’t mark a big city or conglomeration of cities like the other light spots across the continent. In fact, it’s coming from where there …
Congratulations to the Moorhead Spuds boys hockey team and to the Shanley High Deacons girls basketball team. Each team and their coaches represented their communities and schools extremely well. My nephew, Steve Jacobson, coach of the Deacons, overcame some serious heart and health issues, claiming that basketball provided the outlet he needed to heal. Only in the Jacobson family could sports …
It did not go unreported that Kevin Cramer might run for Senate in 2018, but the news was largely lost in the fog of the scandalous AMC miniseries, “The Case of the White Pantsuits and Other White Outfits,” based on the true story of a primitive male, with a bad combover, and his faithful miniature poodle, Port, named for the …
A thousand trucks a day. That’s what Billings County Commission Chairman Jim Arthaud bragged to the Dickinson Press one day, a number of years ago, when he was asked how many vehicles would use a new bridge over the Little Missouri River north of Medora, N.D. A lot of water has flowed beneath that proposed bridge since 2012, the last …
The engineering firm drafting the Environmental Impact Statement for Billings County’s request to put a new bridge across the Little Missouri River north of Medora, N.D., has determined the best place to put the bridge is just 17 miles north of Medora, about a third of the way — as the crow flies — between the two current bridges near …
Sorry to disappoint you, but no checks are in the mail. A standing-room-only crowd showed up for Rep. Kevin Cramer’s Fargo “Coffee with Cramer” town hall last week. Let’s call them “lively.” Trouble was clearly brewing. They packed a local coffeehouse to pepper him with comments and questions about health care, the bungled travel ban, the Great Wall of POTUS …
I’ve lost several minutes of sleep over the past few weeks, and I’m sure that others were also on edge. The freedom of something was on line. Our food, it turns out, to my surprise. I looked in the fridge. Everything was fine there, but then I learned that criminality was taking place in all corners of state, but nobody …
An apology to my readers. I was born with a weak spine. Literally but not figuratively — I hope. So, I’ve had these recurring back problems since I reached middle age. They’re usually fixable, but it takes some time, and I’m in one of those time periods right now. The doctors started working on it in early February, and they …
The president of these United States, in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, wined and dined Japanese Prime Minister Abe at his own “Winter White House” in Florida. It’s bad enough he personally profits from his wholly owned country club with these state visits, but now he has also compromised the security of the country. While having dinner, …
It’s the sheer pettiness that bothers me most about the state Senate’s rejection of displaying the flags of North Dakota’s Indian nations in the Capitol. SB 2287 would have mandated the display of the five tribal flags. Sponsor Dick Marcellais of Belcourt said his utterly modest, bipartisan bill — with three Democratic and three Republican co-sponsors — “is all about …
For some reason, many people, including North Dakota legislators, think that trying to get the Bakken oil producers to “stabilize” the crude and THEN put it in the railroad tanker car is a big joke. I didn’t coin the phrase “bomb trains.” That label came from the within the industry because they knew. It’s just good ribbing, though. I’ve been …
My youngest sister posted a comment that is not only funny but sad because it is full of truth: “When I was little and made prank phone calls, my mother took the phone away. When my sons made prank phone calls, I took the phone away. Apparently, Donald Trump doesn’t have a mother.” She was, of course, referring to our …
I keep thinking that if Rip Van Winkle woke up this week, he’d crush up a bottle of Ambien and snort it all. It’s getting weird out there, and we’re only in the third week of America being great again. We’ve banned, unbanned and then banned Muslims again, according to tweets from the White House. The president and his press …
Humans vaulted, or quietly tiptoed, to the top of the food chain when our brains evolved enough to overcome our 1,246 physical shortcomings, including subpar vaulting, which the other critters made fun of, before having a quick snack. Generally, we’re slow, with poor climbing skills and buoyancy issues. We couldn’t catch much — or escape much. And being tender and flavorful …
I think I’m just going to rerun this column from the Unheralded.Fish website from two years ago about this time of the year in every odd-numbered year from now on. Nothing seems to change. Why should I spend a bunch of time writing something new? Nobody seems to be paying any attention anyway. JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — …
Considering that the whole of North Dakota Republican officeholders backed the callus free lunatic with the “narcissistic personality disorder,” who likes signing large menus — with covers made out of baby dolphin skin and then waving them around like he’s bringing in a airliner, it stands to reason that the North Dakota GOP and white nationalists would be on the …
It has become obvious to me that Donald J. Trump is not the actual president of these United States. The resident Nazi, Steve Bannon, is. As Trump’s so-called “chief strategist,” Bannon has authored all of the executive orders relating to barring immigrants from coming into this country. Even Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels didn’t have the powers Bannon has …
After serving four decades in the North Dakota Legislature, William “Billy” Kretschmar no longer has a seat in the House chambers. What the Venturia resident does have is perspective and more than a few thoughts on the state of politics today. Kretschmar (on left in above photo), who was first elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican in …
A few of you might remember a big dust-up about five years ago over the State Land Board’s decision to offer, for lease, the right to drill for oil on the west side of one of southwest North Dakota’s major landmarks, Bullion Butte. The butte and some of the acreage around it are owned by the U.S. Forest Service, and the …
It’s hard to keep up with the North Dakota Legislature, since the idiotic bills shoot out faster than Donald Trump running from a Syrian toddler. The kid was “yuge.” Believe me. Then, you add in the daily hijinks and lies of our new administration in D.C., and you have a bottomless stockpot of rancid confusing soup and a small slotted …
I’ve spent a lot of nights sleeping within spitting distance of the Little Missouri River. God willing, I’ll spend a lot more. I’m pretty sure I’ve slept there in every month on the calendar. Some nights — and some months — were better than others. I’ve slept there alone, I’ve slept there with canoeing buddies, I’ve slept there with wives, …
I’m feeling nostalgic as I write this, a mood brought on by snow falling outside my window. Reminds me of North Dakota. Friends may previously have seen this image, on Facebook or even in person. In 2010, the University of Washington, which owns the original, scanned and printed a copy for display in a historical exhibit I curated, “When the …
It’s bash the refugees season again. We have one every month, so you never have to take down the decorations — or buy new torches. This time, it’s in the form of North Dakota House Bill 1427, introduced by Republicans Chris Olson, Rich Becker, a pair of Koppelmans and four others. As always, they say they just want to know …
You are being rescued. Republican state legislators are taking North Dakota back. From themselves. In the immortal words of Stevie Wonder, who used to be a legislator from District 28, “Don’t you worry ’bout a thing, Pretty Mama.” And let me tell you, Al Carlson, another blind legislator, hates being called Pretty Mama. The mama part, anyway. There’s a lot …
One who writes for the Fargo newspaper (not to be confused with Moorhead’s No. 1 publication, The Extra) had some sharp advice to citizens who have issues with laws being proposed in North Dakota. Apparently, he believes those who oppose some legislation coming before the North Dakota Legislature as a “waste of time” are typical groaners and usually “lightly informed.” His advice: …