The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
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Few things in the area of meetings or events surprise me these days, especially after some 60 years or more of attending just about all types of gatherings involving people and their programs. But this one did . . . the situation/gathering at the Open Season Lodge in Sheyenne on Saturday, October 29. It was the day set aside to fill shoeboxes. These are boxes filled with clothes, goodies, personal items, fun things, dolls and small blankets. Just a host of items that children around the globe...
When people say they did something on their bucket list it usually means going to Hawaii, buying a BMW or running in the Boston Marathon. For me, one of those bucket list items has been much different. It was implementing a radio wave propa-gation phenomenon called passive reflection, sometimes referred to as passive reception. In most cases this is done in radar, microwave and sometimes TV in the mountain west. I decided to do it with FM radio because my situation is such that passive...
Yes, It’s true. I have been a male chauvinist most of my adult life. I grew up in a family where the Dad was a poster guy for chauvinism, no questions asked and no answers given. He never touched us but he had an air of authority that we never questioned. Not only did I get chauvinism at home but I also got it in church. When I was young, just about every church taught men that they were the head of the family and taught women that they were merely “complimentarian”. So chauvinism was the norm...
My husband and I started our relationship on a gravel road in rural Wells County (somewhere between Barlow and Cathay, if my memory serves me correctly) exactly 22 years ago this past weekend. At that time there were over a dozen Wobbema family members out for the opening day of deer gun season. I remember the sea of blaze orange and caravan of pickup trucks. That was my first adult experience hunting, and I will carry it with me for life. Since I didn’t have a tag, I walked treebelts in my p...
As we find ourselves at the end of October and into early November, the growing season has ended and nearly all farmers’ markets have ceased across the state. It’s always a bittersweet day when you attend your last farmers’ market. You’re sad that you won’t be coming back next week, but happy that you’ll be able get a much deserved break. Most of the general population believes that farmers’ market vendors turn off a switch at the end of the season, but that couldn’t be further from the truth....
Dear Editor: There are 15 states that have enacted term limits on their state legislatures. There are also 36 states which have term limits on their governors. Our state now has the opportunity to join both lists as it votes on Constitutional Measure 1 at the ballot box next month. I am excited about this prospect. And I’m not alone. A recent poll showed that 81% of voters in North Dakota support the ballot measure, which would limit state legislators and the governor to a 8-year lifetime limit. This makes good sense. Positions of power in o...
This week Transcript Publishing brought a new publication into existence. My sister, Victoria, is an artist. Ever since she was a little girl, she has drawn and painted and brought things to life with her imagination. Recently, she drew a series (26 in total) of sketches related to witches, and then she brought me her sketchbook with a project in mind. She wanted me to publish her sketches into a coloring book she could launch just in time for Halloween. Welcome “Witch, Please!” to the list of p...
Most of us know about LaMoure because we’ve either been there or we’re familiar with Loboes sports teams, namely football and volleyball, in recent state tournaments. LaMoure is just like any other small-town county seat in North Dakota. Its economy is based on farming. In fact, R.D. Offutt, synonymous with John Deere, got its start in Lisbon and LaMoure in the late ‘70s. LaMoure has a good school system, a strong Main Street and other attractions like nearby Lake LaMoure and it’s about 100 mile...
According to news reports, North Dakota officials have 250 sexual assault cases waiting for possible criminal charges, most of which have aged beyond resolution. In the meantime, there are 250 victims waiting for justice to be done - and if state officials continue their behavior - justice will never be done because the viability of rape cases lasts only a couple weeks. Many of these cases are months old so evidence is blurred, perpetrators are on the loose, defense lawyers drag their feet,...
This week I’ve given up a large part of my column space so readers can hear other perspectives. With just weeks remaining until the 2022 midterm elections, and contested races on the ballot both locally and statewide, ‘tis the season for voters to share their opinion about the decisions to be made at the ballot box. This week we feature three letters, one from state legislative candidate Charles Linderman and the other two in opposition to the statewide ballot measures: Measure 1 establishes ter...
Dear Editor, NDFB urges a no vote on Measure 2 this November, citing its long-standing policy against the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in North Dakota. “Our concerns are based on the unintended consequences for farmers, ranchers, employers and rural communities,” said NDFB President Daryl Lies. “Workplace safety and accountability are a huge concern for NDFB. If passed, the measure will compound North Dakota’s workforce shortage, particularly if an employer requires applicants to pass a drug test. We believe the uninten...
Dear Editor, Measure 1 is portrayed as a “fix” for North Dakota politics. Again, out-of-state money and individuals are trying to influence our state’s election process. I’m tired of out-of-staters telling us what’s good for North Dakota and trying to take away our right to vote – the very thing we pride ourselves on in America! The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association, North Dakota Farmers Union and North Dakota Farm Bureau oppose this measure. Agriculture stands together to support our right as citizens to cast our vote for whomever we w...
In recent years there’s been a lot of bickering about the dumbest things often resulting in long-term animosity among co-workers, married couples, friends and even students. Believe it or not, there are people, in North Dakota, who will argue with you about what kind of tires you should put on your vehicle or whether Italian food is any good. Some of it is just mind boggling. But instead of all that, maybe we should focus on the positive, the glass is half full as it were. And one sterling examp...
North Dakota’s legislators are people who volunteer to spend time away from their families, jobs, and businesses to serve the needs of their constituents and the people of North Dakota. Craig Headland has served in the ND House of Representatives for 20 years. We should thank him for his service and dedication. However, when considering recent issues, we can see it is time for change. Charles Linderman is uniquely qualified to provide that change. Headland: Co-sponsored legislation to allow corporations to buy farmland, a measure which was s...
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four U.S. adults has a disability. Yet despite ADA protections, federal tax incentives, and private sector opportunity programs, millions of individuals with disabilities looking for work remain unemployed. There is a non-profit corporation right here in New Rockford, Carrington and Fessenden that provides support for individuals with disabilities: 4th Corporation. Their mission: “We strive to promote growth and development enabl...
This is a continuation from last week about driving on North Dakota’s highways. We have 13 scenic byways and backways and each one of them affords unique natural beauty of its region. Three routes are along the Canadian border, seven are in western North Dakota and three are in the east. A byway is a paved road and a backway is a gravel road. Tourism numbers them so we’ll start with No. 1. Chan SanSan Scenic Backway: South and east of Jamestown, starting in Adrian, this backway highlights the...
American democracy is suffering from the symptoms of terminal illness. To have a “government of the people, for the people” it is necessary that the people are willing to govern. Through the decades, we have expanded the definition of “the people” to include millions of people who lack the interest to assume their roles as governors. For various reasons, we are able to muster only two-thirds of the voters in presidential elections and even fewer in the off-year races. One third of the populat...
We turned the calendar over to a new month this past week, at seemingly record-breaking speed. It has now been one year since I became publisher of two newspapers, and I just don’t know where the time has gone. I must be having fun! October is a month of transition. We move into a new season, one much colder than the season before it. Bundle up in a cable-knit sweater or wrap a cozy blanket around your shoulders and come along with me! I’m looking ahead to All Things October, because before I kn...
Most of us love North Dakota because of the sunsets, fishing, hunting and open roads. I love the open roads. We may not have the longest open road opportunities, but we are certainly up there toward the top. You can look at a map of the state and find long, straight highways just about everywhere. In my opinion, there is nothing better than getting out on the highway, turning up the car stereo and rolling down the hardball. For the past 22 years, I’ve been a 52-mile-per-day commuter, either t...
For those of you who don’t know, my more respectable gig for the past quarter century, or so, has been teaching college English. (Scary, I know.) Teaching English is sometimes like teaching a teenager to drive a car – including the sensations of intense frustration, looking away in terror, and dreading a catastrophic pileup of letters, words, and sentences. Take, for example, these 100% real writing samples I’ve collected from my students over the years. I truly love them all – the student...
Lifestyle changes are hard, especially when it comes to food. About two months ago, my husband and I decided to make a change in our diets. Since he doesn’t like it when I talk about him in my columns, I’ll focus on what we’re doing and why I took the leap. In a nutshell, it’s the Wobbema low-carb diet. We simply eat more grams of protein, and fewer simple sugars and carbohydrates. I’m doing it because it makes me feel better. I don’t need all that bread, baked goods, pasta and potatoes. I...
It isn’t easy to stay in business for 100 years, especially given that in the past century, any business to survive that long had to endure the Great Depression in the 1930s. But there are two businesses that have daily impact on many North Dakota residents and both businesses are radio stations. One of them is CHAB in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and the other is WDAY in Fargo. WDAY was the first radio station to go on the air in North Dakota on May 22, 1922. CHAB, originally called 10AB, p...
North Dakota needs a dream - a dream of equality for rich kids and poor kids, white kids and minority kids, smart kids and slow kids because every kid deserves an equal chance to succeed. We have the money to lift our kids out of a mediocre education system into the brightest one in the United States. Yes, we have the money. In this dream, we quit exploiting teachers and start treating them as professionals dealing with a wide variety of parental expectations. That means higher licensing...
We all have stories of readers desperately seeking reliable information, whether it be about COVID-19 during the pandemic or for a report of what's happening at city hall or the county courthouse. We at NNA see it in our daily government affairs work with members of Congress, who almost uniformly admire their local community papers regardless of how they might feel about the national press. We see it in the example of the civic leaders in Mineral Wells, TX, who were so distraught over the...
I attended an NR-S vs. Carrington volleyball match as publisher of both newspapers for the first time on Thursday, Sept. 15. I saw administrators and school board members of both schools at the match, not to mention plenty of readers and advertisers, a good crowd overall. My daughter is a varsity starter for the Rockets, so that added another element. Of course, I was wearing columbia blue and black, but I was paying close attention to both teams that night. The match was intense, probably the...
