The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
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Posted December 24, 2024 The first third of the biennial 69th Legislative Assembly session convening Jan. 7 in Bismarck is likely to see property tax reform as the main challenge for legislators, according to leaders from across the political spectrum. Most don’t expect the more than 50 anticipated property tax reform measures to engulf the proceedings, but the large number of bills expected will complicate matters during committee meetings, particularly for newer legislators just getting t...
Like all states, North Dakota has been in the process of gathering records from municipal water systems and information from citizens about whether old lead service lines bring drinking water to homes. This is part of a process of implementing the latest Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules on lead in service lines. The rules aim to protect people from exposure to lead in drinking water in their homes from pipes directly connected to municipal water sources before lead was banned in the...
North Dakotans overwhelmingly support continued production of coal and oil resources in the state but also desire stronger environmental protections when it comes to energy extraction, according to a new poll. They just aren't so certain about what lengths the state should go to in any fight with the federal government in reducing reliance on fossil fuels, the poll shows. Overall, 79% of respondents support the state in fighting to preserve coal and oil production, with only 14% opposed. The...
Throughout her 25 years as a school social worker, Michelle Vollan can't recall a period when the number of acute youth mental health situations requiring hospitalization was as high as it was post-Covid. Vollan has seen anxiety issues increasing, and along with that, attendance concerns and drops in grades for those affected. On the most severe end of the spectrum, thoughts of suicide and self harm have increased leading to cases of psychiatric hospitalization. And while a spike two years ago...
Tuesday, October 29 The recent loss of Drake's only grocery store has the rural community searching for solutions. The closing of Drake Fresh Foods came with just three weeks' notice, leaving the town's 280 residents without convenient access to fresh produce and staples like milk, eggs and bread. Grocery stores in Harvey, about 25 minutes away, and Velva, around 30 minutes, are options for most, but harder for the homebound or elderly, said Fr. Thomas Graner, a pastor serving Catholic churches...
The newspaper's motto reads "Real data. Real value. Real news." But there is nothing real about it. The Central ND News has many of the hallmarks of a legitimate news source - headlines, infographics and 12 pages of newsprint. But the newspaper mailed to residents of one North Dakota county this October were uniformly right leaning, largely lacked bylines identifying the stories' authors and in some instances had a clear target - the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. "When I got it, I thought,...
October 22, 2024 Several North Dakota pilots, truckers and other businesses voluntarily ferried relief supplies to areas devastated by Hurricane Helene in the past few weeks. The hurricane tore a wide swath of death and destruction across several southeastern states in late September. It will take months and likely years to rebuild infrastructure, homes and normal lives again. With over 230 deaths confirmed across six states and nearly 100 still missing in North Carolina alone, the death toll...
On the surface, Republican candidates for the top political races in North Dakota appear set for a clean sweep with just over a month until the general election, a poll commissioned by the North Dakota News Cooperative shows. Undecided voters could still potentially be a swing factor, however, with roughly 20 percent in the three main races still unsure who they'll vote for. The race for U.S. Senate between Republican incumbent Sen. Kevin Cramer and Democratic-NPL challenger Katrina...
North Dakota voters appear split and largely undecided about four of the five ballot measures up for a vote on Nov. 5, a new poll commissioned by the North Dakota News Cooperative found. The four ballot measures – Measures 2, 3, 4 and 5 – are expected to have major ramifications if approved. Trevor Smith, chief research officer of WPA Intelligence, which conducted the North Dakota Poll between Sept. 28-30, said the large number of undecided voters shows a "lack of understanding." "The ini...
Cathyann Santos wanted to get clean. An offer came along that she couldn't refuse. A free flight to Southern California where she could get a new start at a sober home far away from her circle of users. Addicted to fentanyl, and unable to get detox in her community of Spirit Lake, she took the chance. "For us addicts, when we hear there's help and we want it, we're gonna go," Santos said. Two months later her boyfriend Benjamin Barragan, father of five of their children, took the same offer....
Posted September 18, 2024 Cathyann Santos wanted to get clean. An offer came along that she couldn't refuse. A free flight to Southern California where she could get a new start at a sober home far away from her circle of users. Addicted to fentanyl, and unable to get detox in her community of Spirit Lake, she took the chance. "For us addicts, when we hear there's help and we want it, we're gonna go," Santos said. Two months later her boyfriend Benjamin Barragan, father of five of their...
Dr. Ana Tobiasz, a maternal-fetal specialist at Sanford Health in Bismarck, said she has contemplated leaving the state because of the state's abortion ban. The near total ban on abortions in the state went into effect in late April 2023, which prohibits all abortions except for when the health of the mother is at risk or in cases of rape or incest, but only within the first six weeks of pregnancy. The initial language of the law was amended to allow terminations of ectopic pregnancies, where a...
As the State of North Dakota trumpets Project Tundra, experts outside of the state raise questions about capturing carbon dioxide emissions from two units at coal-fired Milton R. Young Power Plant near Center, North Dakota. The only real certainty is that the initiative will be expensive and will result in unabated carbon emissions at least through 2028, if not longer, under the projected construction timeline. Costs of producing energy will also rise due to the technology needed to capture the...
The parent company of six Dollar General stores in North Dakota facing total penalties of $2.5 million related to work safety violations is contesting those findings, according to U.S. Department of Labor representatives. Dollar General stores in Casselton, Garrison, Hillsboro, Killdeer, Minot and Tioga were inspected by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigators in the final three months of 2022 after state fire marshals found hazards at four stores and complaints were received about two others. The hazards were related...
About half of all foster parents in the nation quit after a year, and only about a quarter make it past a second. “I would say that’s a huge problem,” said Annika Hapip, who felt her church needed to act. “You have a lot of kiddos who are in the foster care system, and they’re waiting to be placed in a home, and foster families are stretched.” Hapip’s solution, the Lily Initiative, working within Evangel Assembly of God in Bismarck, aims to address burnout by supporting foster families and encouraging others to become foster parents. The... Full story
After several years of declining scores, only one third of fourth graders in North Dakota are proficient in reading. Seeing that stark slide prompted one local newspaper publisher to act by providing a newspaper kids can call their own. Currently around 30,000 of the Kid Scoop News newspapers are being distributed to 70-80 schools in the western half of North Dakota. Hopes are, by the end of 2023, the paper could reach most schools in the state, according to Cecile Wehrman, owner of Journal Publishing in Crosby, which publishes the Journal of...
Patti Larson has many visions for Sheyenne. None of them include the town dying a slow death. That is likely its fate unless the town's demographics were to magically change. With two-thirds of its 185 residents over the age of 50, Sheyenne is indeed in its golden years. Community leaders in Sheyenne and other towns are hopeful that they've found a way to slow or reverse that aging process, but they believe it will take an influx of new Americans to do so. At the moment Sheyenne shows its age...
A relaunched effort to attract workers and families to settle in North Dakota aims to rely on local “community champions” to act as connectors between newcomers and local employment. Gov. Doug Burgum’s proposed funding of $25 million for the Find the Good Life campaign – revamped this past June – would focus on marketing North Dakota’s quality of life and initiatives such as bringing potential residents to communities across the state or helping businesses to entice them. Job Service North Dakota estimates 40,000 openings in the state with...
Most people just want to feel wanted. For Travis High, a friendly phone call with a relocation help desk representative was enough for him to drop everything and drive from Washington state to start a new life in North Dakota. "North Dakota was the first one to reach out and say, 'Hey, we want you here,' so I just started driving," High said of his relocation this past July. High, now a technician at ProIT in Minot, was the first of nine individuals or families to emerge through the pipeline of...
Signs of trouble should have been obvious long before Robert Bracken shot his son Justin, his older brother Richard, his employer Doug Dulmage, and finally, himself, with a .357 revolver on Aug. 29, 2022. With an unthinkable scene of four dead bodies in a blue-skied North Dakota grain field, it appeared an act fueled by towering instability had taken place. A formal investigation into the incident continues, leaving the ultimate motive and circumstances unclear. It was one of two tragedies late...
Recent worker shortages and the increased workload of processing large packages have complicated the work of mail carriers who have long deftly overcome the obstacles of snow, rain, heat and the gloom of night to get mail to its destination on time. Here in North Dakota, the outer edges of cities like Minot, Bismarck, Williston and other areas have experienced severe delays in mail deliveries recently, with citizens not seeing anything arriving in their mailboxes for days, and even weeks, at a time. For Howard Tweeten, who lives about four...
Nearly 20,000 residents of Coal Country in Mercer, McLean, and Oliver counties sit at the crosshairs of the energy transition. From West Virginia, to Beulah, to China, coal workers and their communities could disappear if decarbonization goals are met without carbon-free coal power in the mix. The United States' goal is a carbon neutral electricity grid by 2035 under Biden administration plans, and net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050. "We are very attuned to what is happening politically in...
Despite continuous warnings of rolling blackouts this summer, the grids serving North Dakota and the Upper Midwest held up. Pockets of record-breaking heat were manageable since they did not cover large swaths of the country all at once. No significant doldrums deadened wind power during heat waves. Yet concerns persist. A major winter storm or deep cold snap creating surges in electricity demand at the same time solar and wind power assets under perform keeps energy experts, regulators and grid operators up at night. Either significant...
For 37 years Anita Fettig has been the go-to for child care in Napoleon. From dawn until after dark each day she bounces between the care centers and the consignment shop she owns, which sits as an anchor in between the few city blocks where they are located. Fettig runs four day care facilities which serve around 90 children, accounting for full-time, drop-in and after-school care. Managing that many children in four separate facilities near her home at all hours of the day, calls for extreme...
