The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
Sorted by date Results 26 - 42 of 42
Some negative people think that getting old is something to be feared but there are advantages when you pass the 75-year mark. It’s like a period of “no fault” because no matter how much you screw up all you need say is “I’m old!” Which is a good thing because as you get older you are inclined to do more foolish things - like buying a 30-year term insurance policy because it is renewable, sending letters without stamps so when they come back you feel like you’re getting mail, demanding a 2...
In one of Rob Port’s May writings, he indicated that former State Senator Roscoe Streyle was running for a seat in the legislature on the strength of a proposal to cut North Dakota property taxes by 50%. Having served on the Appropriations Committee, Streyle was automatically seated on the interim Budget Committee. Besides that, his interest in money issues probably emanates from his banking experience. In recent years, the legislature has decided that the low tax burden in North Dakota w...
Even though he doesn’t stuff the envelopes, North Dakota Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus deserves credit for the efficient manner in which his department is serving the public. His turnaround time is just a matter of days while the Internal Revenue Service takes months. (If Commissioner Kroshus ever uses this compliment in a political campaign, I will deny that I ever said it – plead temporary insanity or something else believable.) For an agency that touches thousands of people, the Tax Dep...
Walsh County Record (Grafton) Editor W. Todd Morgan reminded us last week that June observed the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Civilian Conservation Corps, an organization of young men 18-20 that did scores of public projects in North Dakota. And what the CCC didn’t do, the Works Progress Administration did. While the CCC consisted of young men in a semi-military setting, commanded in barracks by regular military officers, the Works Progress Administration used older men that worked o...
We had free access to guns when I was growing up. Common gun sense ruled the country. There was seldom the kind of mass shootings of kids as we see occurring today. Ironically, the strongest defenders of our killing gun culture are also the same people who allegedly stand for sanctity of life on the abortion question. When guns are involved, sanctity of life goes down the drain. Most gun owners, from single shot pistols to AR-15s, argue that these are necessary for self-defense. But if you know...
The drumbeat for abolishing student debt is growing as students and former students feel the financial crunch of poor employment and increasing inflation. Forty five million (45,000,000) Americans owe $1.6 trillion ($1,600,000,000) for federal student loans. But there is a lot of hidden debt acquired from private sources that is impossible to calculate. We know it is big. Twenty-four percent have student debt, leaving 76% without student debt. The political facts tell us that 24% will be eager...
May being Mental Health Awareness month, it seems appropriate for us to confront an issue that eludes our attention until it strikes home. It is odd that mental health has become a major problem in a country flowing with money and professionalism, both essential for attacking the problem. Nevertheless, Judith Warner writes a lengthy analysis in the Washington Post Magazine about young people: “Over the last several decades, we’ve been seeing an increase in mental health conditions in chi...
A lot of people in the Grand Forks area are looking with suspicion at the proposal from a Chinese company offering to build a massive corn-milling plant on the windward side of town. Critics have a number of legitimate concerns but the fear of communism has been pronounced. The “red scare” is back. Being a Christian obedient to the government, I have been trying to find the opportunity to meet the State’s challenge to “be legendary”. I was wondering whether or not the Fufeng controversy would be...
Well, we’re at it again. It seems that in the case of Senator Ray Holmberg many are rushing to judgment without knowing the circumstances of his sin. According to former students, Ray Holmberg was an excellent Grand Forks teacher and served the State of North Dakota in the senate for 44 years. He was no ordinary senator. He took the challenge seriously and made every effort to put together a biennial budget that was fair to all parts of the state. No One Powerful He had considerable influence o...
“This here emergency meeting is called because Little Jimmy thinks he can make our town a spring Mecca for the flocks of robins that come in freezing weather,” Chairperson Ork Dorken announced as he looked over the 11 electors that made up the Community Homeland Committee. The other two people in town refused to participate, but took up shelter in the topless old church basement in case the Ukraine thing got out of hand. It was now well into the spring and the electors were huddled around the...
The Democratic-NPL party will be honoring the legacies of Governors William Guy, Art Link and George Sinner at a fifth annual raucous party in Bismarck on May 7th. On behalf of former lieutenant governors – at least Wayne Sanstead and me - I am boycotting the event, tired of being treated as the expendable appendix or tonsil of body politic. The government wouldn’t fall but just hobble along without our traditional back-up for the governor. Governors never back-up even though that’s reaso...
Here we are 250 years after the Founding Fathers declared that “we the people” were creating a government with the consent of the governed, we are still trying to define who “we the people” are. At first, we the people consisted of white property and asset owners who had a stake in society. After a bit, new forms of wealth occurred and the definition had to be broadened to permit people with different sources of income to vote. Then in the Andrew Jackson era, the flood gates were opened and eve...
In 1854, when the United Kingdom was engaged in the Crimean War, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the “Charge of the Light Brigade” to describe the slaughter in the Battle of Baraclava against the Russians. It is somewhat descriptive of the recent Democratic-NPL state convention in Minot where a maximum of 200 people attended in person and online and failed to nominate candidates for all of the offices on the November ballot. This is not a once-in-a-lifetime historic event. If you live long eno...
As discussed in last week’s column, rape is a crime in which victims are traumatized for life and the perpetrator experiences none of the pain and shame. The lives of the victims are shattered; some never recover. The consequences are so serious that even though I believe in the sanctity of life as a Christian principle, I would not want to live in Texas where the government has decided to increase the punishment by putting a bounty on any woman opting for abortion. Is it the proper role for t...
For people who believe in the sanctity of life, it is important to understand the numerous complications involved in the abortion issue. There are facts that must be considered by both sides of the issue. They speak to the seriousness of sex crimes. In the area of sex crimes, which sometimes raises the question of abortion, men get off scot free while innocent women spend a lifetime trying to overcome the trauma. For men, rape, incest and other sex crimes are a lark. For women it is a lifetime...
In the creation, it is rumored that the earth was without form and void. And that was before anyone ever saw North Dakota. The Jockey Club in New Jersey protested the creation of a state that was a blank nothingness. Minnesota claimed that we would never make it here. So we must ask: who suggested a state at this location. The Northern Pacific and Great Northern protested because they had no business here and North Dakota just made it farther to Seattle. While we filled a place that would...
Last week, some of America observed the heroism of one Martin Luther King who was murdered because he thought that “We, the people” should include more than white European immigrants. While some celebrated, others did not, doing their best to see that black lives did not matter. In 2021, 19 states passed 34 laws aimed at excluding minorities from participating in elections. This is not about election fraud. It is about denying citizens of the United States their right to vote. Election Fra...
