The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
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Last week’s article showed the diversity of North Dakota and that we fall into the No. 1 category in a number of areas, mostly with grain and row crops. But, there are some areas in which we could do far better with our diversity. Let me give you some examples. • One of them is horseradish. This plant grows very well anywhere in North Dakota, including the wild and thrives in just about any kind of soil type. Yet there is no commercial horseradish production in the state. Two counties; Mad...
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...
Fellow Fourth Estater Neil O. Nelson, who pens good and interesting stories at the Herald-Press newspaper for the Harvey/Fessenden area caught my attention last week. His personal column dealt with his serving in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, where he went and returned without any fanfare. His father greeted him when he returned home from serving with the words, “Home, huh?” while mom went into hysteria for a good 10 minutes, “because I hadn’t been home in something like ten years.” At the local...
Lately I’ve been seeing indicators of how powerful North Dakota is as an agricultural producer. Statistics are generated by the USDA, Department of Agriculture and others but numerous people have been regurgitating said statistics on social media. We’re No. 1! Following is a list of the crops in North Dakota that are considered No. 1 in the nation in production; beans, canola, flax, honey, oats, sunflower seeds, spring wheat and durum wheat. North Dakota is No.2 in the following crops: Len...
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...
I’m sure many of us watched Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy live via video on American television Wednesday as he addressed the U.S. Congress about the need for more aid to stop the Russian aggression. It came one day after he spoke via video to Canadian Parliament requesting more aid. Whether you know it or not, there are much deeper ties than political or diplomatic ones between the United States and Ukraine and Canada and Ukraine. As of the 2020 Census, there were 1.08 million p...
A tiny portion of my “day job” at a farm-and-home cooperative involves writing radio commercials and on-hold phone messages. More often than I like to admit, I get stuck for a closing zinger and settle for trite sentiments, such as “Let our friendly staff help make this your best hunting season/New Year/spring ever!!” (Note to self: next spring, remember to try something dignified like “Please, please make your money quit hibernating!”) But I really do hope my readers enjoy the best spring ever....
If I could, I think I'd wake up with the sun. There's nothing better than rising with the sun as it streams through the west window of my bedroom. This time of year, I'm usually still in a stupor from the time change, as the first weeks of Daylight Saving Time have me waking up and preparing myself for the day in darkness. After a long winter like we've had this year, those early mornings of pitch blackness zap the energy right out of me. That's why I'm watching the bill before Congress to elimi...
A friend recently said to me, “You must have many stories you can tell about the many years you’ve been affiliated with newspapers.” I told him, “Yes, I do and I remember a lot of them like they happened yesterday.” “Any of them that really stick in your mind . . . kind of situational, a bit on the edge or something like that?” he asked. “I’d like to hear a few more like you’ve been placing in this space off and on,” he quipped. Well, yes I do have another, in fact it came to mind recently when...
Those of us who live in North Dakota like to think we are up-to-date with the rest of the nation, savvy about technology and on top the world because we are “North Dakota friendly.” Sorry to burst your bubble, but we’re not even close. We are so far behind in certain aspects of daily routine living that we may never catch up. It starts with customer service, or the lack of it. There are a lot of businesses in this state that seem to think their revenue is automatic whether they treat their...
“At no point does the article (“None injured in crash,” March 14) explain the car in front of me slammed on the breaks [sic] just before reaching an icy patch and lost control. In an attempt to avoid a severe crash, I slowed and applied the breaks [sic] gently to try to avoid also loosing [sic] control. Fortunately I was able to avoid the car in front of me, which I believe saved the two cars behind me from also being involved in the accident. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to avoid the oncoming individual. “Luckily no one was injured. In this c...
Next week I get the benefit of two nights out in a row. Both the New Rockford and Carrington chambers of commerce and economic development organizations will be hosting their annual banquet/meetings. Carrington’s joint annual meeting is first on the calendar, with the social, dinner and presentations scheduled for Thursday, March 24 at the Chieftain. New Rockford gets its night to shine on Friday, March 25. After three years straight of not hosting one in New Rockford, this year the New Rockford...
Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit the Dakota College campus in Bottineau. The reason for my visit was to meet a student and a staff member. What I found out, however, is having a lasting impression. It’s obvious that the big guys; University of North Dakota, University of Mary, North Dakota State University and Minot State University get most of the attention when it comes to higher education in North Dakota. Some of that attention ought to be shifted because after touring the D...
My mother and father keep our old photos in their hall closet in a sturdy old Pabst Blue Ribbon box. Sifting through old photos is a glorious experience - one, we now know, that relieves aches and pains by calming the brain, according to a recent study. The last time I looked through the box with my mother, we came across a black-and-white photo of a little girl. That photo was taken 82 years ago, when the girl had her whole life before her. She didn't know yet that one of her sisters would be...
Maybe it's because there has been mega coverage of high school hockey in the state and region the past weeks . . . along with the fact that I do watch what and where the UND Fighting Hawks are as their season comes to a close. And, just maybe all that brought back a lot of memories for me as a kid. The sport of hockey was not organized in the winter sandlot days at our large pond close to where I grew up. And back then, we played a lot of hockey in the winter months as ice skating and snow...
Have you been to a shopping mall lately? I haven’t until recently and it’s quite surprising at the lack of activity going on. Some of it could be attributed to COVID, but somehow I doubt it because we’ve seen a shift in buying habits before the pandemic and that’s undoubtedly due to the Internet. It doesn’t matter where you live in North Dakota, you probably have a mall within a reasonable distance. Take a look, go walk about, then think about that very same mall 10, or even five years ago...
Yes, receipts do seem to breed like rabbits in my poor overstuffed-with-credit-cards-and-gift-cards-and-loyalty-cards-and-hastily-scribbled-notes wallet. But that’s my personal problem to sort through at home in my quieter moments. That’s why I’m deeply disturbed by the recent phenomenon of retail clerks putting me on the spot with some variation of “Do you want your receipt?” or “Would you like your receipt?” Snap judgment time! I can understand “Would you prefer the receipt in the bag?” or “W...
Amid all this wonderful wintery weather we’ve been experiencing, it may appear that no work is getting done. To the contrary, winter is what I refer to as “planning season.” Whether we gaze out the window from our warm offices or hunker down by the fireplace in our homes, our wheels are turning thinking about the months ahead. What kind of a year will we have? When and where will we travel? How many weddings and graduations are on the calendar? Do we have proper attire for them all? Here at the...
I’m sure you all remember Craig Cobb? He was a self-proclaimed white nationalist who came to the Grant County community of Leith and tried to take over the town by buying up properties and bringing like-minded individuals to Leith. Cobb caused quite a stir that lasted a long time. His actions manufactured a lot of stress for the Leith City Council, the Grant County Commission and Sheriff’s Department and even the state of North Dakota. Sometime after the “siege of Leith” ended, Cobb, in 2015, a...
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...
There was a time in my life that I could eat almost anything . . . except chicken, turkey and lutefisk . . . and anything with feathers and fins! I never worried about what I placed into myself — eat until full and a variety of food that included fried onion sandwiches and liver and onions. It was all about taste, what I liked and the seasonings I placed on such food. I got along just fine, except for a time my weight began to fluctuate — and so it was time for a change. But I never thought a po...
The world of communications is constantly changing and most of it runs parallel to the changes in technology. And for those of us who work in communications, it’s sometimes been a difficult transformation. As an example in each of the past three years, North Dakota has lost three weekly newspapers in the Dunn County Herald in Killdeer (2019), the Walhalla Mountaineer (2020) and the Cavalier County Republican in Langdon (2021). In addition, nearly every daily newspaper in North Dakota has made c...
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...
Both Carrington and New Rockford hosted their annual archery tournaments over the past two weeks. As a parent of three teenagers, who all compete in archery and several other activities, I must say archery is among my favorites. Why? Well, as Jamie Risovi, retired head coach and founder of the Rocket Archery program at New Rockford-Sheyenne School once told me, "Everyone gets the same shot." It's absolutely true. Archery is a sport for the tall and the small. Each person is responsible for his o...
It wasn't quite the Iditarod, but we had our own version of long-distance winter recreation that was fun for a lot of people. How many of you remember a snowmobile race that started in Regina and ended in Minot? It was call the Regina Minot International 250 that took place in the 1970s and early '80s and usually happened in the month of February. There is currently some Internet buzz to resurrect this race and return that excitement to the prairie. And if you look at some of the Internet...
