The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
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The United States Postal Service is a vital partner to newspapers. We pay them to provide a service, that is to deliver our print editions to every address in America. That partnership, however, is facing new challenges. I was among a select few representing North Dakota newspapers at a roundtable discussion hosted by U.S. Sen. John Hoeven on Monday. An article about that meeting first appeared in the Grand Forks Herald on Tuesday, and is republished in this edition of both the Transcript and th...
We’ve all heard the creepy, campfire stories that scare us out of our wits. But there are actually documented accounts of the unexplained happening in various parts of our state. You can choose to believe it or not, but the people who tell these stories are quite serious. For instance, during Prohibition, tunnels underneath Minot were basically a haven for bootlegged booze and speakeasies. There was also crime in those tunnels because there was a lot of money changing hands. It is said that s...
All anybody needs to know about a free economy is alive and well thanks to social-media flea markets, such as Facebook Marketplace. While procrastinating every morning, I review this site looking at cars, lakefront homes and a wide variety of highly entertaining items people are trying to hock. Facebook Marketplace offers a hands-on lesson in how free-market economics really works. You see, commerce and trading are what humans do. They are the basis of wealth creation and a thriving...
Simplicity, simplicity. If I was really practicing it, I would have said it once. I've been trying to cut down on the clutter in my life, mostly because I keep stubbing my toes on it. But also because people say it helps you focus on the things that matter. Well, not stubbing my toes matters to me. So I've been donating or throwing out every unnecessary thing I own. It's out with my presidential bobbleheads, my chess set with the missing pieces, and my refrigerator. When you think about it, you...
I’m sure we’ve all been in Bismarck at one time or another. But, if you don’t live near Bismarck and don’t get there very often, the next time you do, you’ll most likely notice changes. The city of Bismarck seems to defy just about all of the rest of North Dakota and continues with a robust growth that has now pushed the city to 75,000 in population. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the state capitol is located there, but it also sits in a strategic location in North Dakota which makes it a na...
Sen. Bernie Sanders has sponsored a bill to mandate paid vacations for all employees. Like so many of Bernie’s proposals, it sounds good until you get into the nitty gritty. Look, it’s true, as Bernie argues, that the United States is the only advanced economy that does not require employers to provide paid vacation time. It’s also true, reports CNN, that “not only do American workers get less vacation time than workers in other industrialized countries, but they also opt to take fewer days of...
We constantly hear that we will no longer need print. However, we believe print's value is increasing in a world of digital distraction, shallow learning, and increasing polarization as people shift from focusing on local news to national television outlets and the Internet. "As a professor of linguistics, I have been studying how electronic communication compares to traditional print when it comes to learning," Naomi S. Baron, a professor of Linguistics at American University, writes. "Is...
On July 28, we attended the Medora Musical with our grandchildren. It’s always fun to get away from the monotony of our every-day routines to enjoy some taffy, ice cream and the musical. Since that Sunday night, a number of people have commented about the musical after we told them that we had attended. The first thing that should be mentioned is it’s amazing that there are people here in North Dakota who aren’t aware of the musical. In their defense, their often transplants who have come here...
School is officially starting for New Rockford-Sheyenne, Carrington and many other area schools this week. With school starting, that usually means taking pictures for the newspaper at the local football and volleyball games. However, my schedule this year will be just a little different. My first-born, Peyton, will be starting pre-K at New Rockford-Sheyenne school this year. She is quite excited for this new adventure and so am I, but I can't say that I am not getting teary-eyed thinking that...
I had the wonderful opportunity for the past 10 weeks to be an intern at the Foster County Independent, and here I am to tell you about the wild summer I had. I never expected the skills that I would learn and develop through the experience. I graduated from Carrington High School in 2023 and just completed my first semester of college in the spring. I am attending the University of North Dakota and pursuing a degree in forensic science. At the end of the school year, I was not entirely sure...
A couple of weeks ago KFYR-TV in Bismarck reported North Dakota now has only 29 grade A dairy farms, down from 53 in 2020. That seems unusual given that milk is the official North Dakota beverage. The number of dairy farms has been sinking for many years with no recourse to keep the industry from spiraling out of control. Back in the 1950’s there were thousands of dairy farms in the state. Thousands might be a little misleading because back then, any farm with 10 or more milk cows was c...
For the first six decades of my life, I was content to travel throughout the United States as opportunities arose. I was blessed with parents who both loved history, so any trek we made in the US was replete with stops at historical sites. However, traveling to Europe happened only through reading, movies and daydreaming. But in 2011, all that changed. An international student at LRSC, to whom Doug and I became quite close, shared my passion for Anne Frank. When her mom came to visit, they invited me to visit them in Luxembourg and promised to...
Imagine, if you can, coming to the realization that something you held to be true for four years is, in fact, wrong. And no, this is not about my personal politics. Slow your roll there, smart alecks. It all started with a seemingly innocuous Facebook post Wednesday night, July 24, congratulating our baseball boys from Carrington Post 25 on capturing another District 4 championship and advancing to the State ‘B’ American Legion Tournament in LaMoure. At the bottom of the post, I made an “at...
It seems like it’s been a long time, but Leonard Peltier is back in the spotlight for a couple of reasons. Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, who is now 79, is serving two consecutive life sentences in a Florida prison for his role in a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation that left two federal agents dead. First of all, he was recently denied parole from the prison that is approximately 70 miles northeast of Tampa. He has now been in prison for more than 29 y...
Bowling didn’t make the cut again. Neither will baseball and softball, ballroom dancing, pole dancing and a host of other sports be featured in the 2024 Summer Olympics games in Paris. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is picky about the sports it chooses. A sport must be widely practiced globally, draw a high level of interest among the media and public and also not pose too many cost and scheduling obstacles, such as the need to build large baseball stadiums. But in a perfect world, wo...
Most of us have likely seen it at least once before. We’re in the middle of an important task, such as entering thousands of entries into an Excel spreadsheet or posting our latest update to Facebook, and all of a sudden the computer screen turns blue. About a week ago, the screens of an estimated 8.5 million Windows computers came down with the blue screen of death. It was like watching Inside Out 2, when orange-haired Anxiety takes over our beloved Riley. The multi-day tech flub, dubbed the ...
As the Olympics are beginning in Paris, there’s some interesting information that many people may not be aware of even though they may be sports fans. This is the third time since the modern Olympics began in Athens, Greece in 1896, that Paris will be the host city. The games were also held there in 1900 and 1924. It is also one of only three cities anywhere in the world to host the games three times. The others being Los Angeles and London. A total of 206 nations are represented at this y...
This summer, my wife and I took a vacation with our three semi-grown daughters to one of the most expensive places in America. No, we didn’t visit our local insurance office. We toured several beautiful and fascinating cities in New England. Our first stop was Newburyport, Massachusetts. We hadn’t planned to visit this charming coastal city, but after deplaning, securing a rental vehicle ginormous enough to accommodate the US Olympic Team (or our luggage), and heading north to our first pla...
Dear Editor: The Carrington High School Class of 1984 held its 40th-year reunion on July 13 in Carrington. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with each other and with other community members. And we also enjoyed the various community activities and excellent dining options. Many of us recollected our positive experiences in Carrington and at CHS as young people, and we are glad to see Carrington thriving today. We were happy that our reunion coincided with the Central City Bash events, which we...
July has been a memorable month for severe summer weather, and as I write this we are only halfway through! On July 4, mother nature declared her independence. It was an experience I will not soon forget. I watched lightning web through sky off to the northeast as I drove to Carrington that afternoon, headed for the 5 p.m. Independence Day parade. Considering the pavement on Hwy. 281 was already wet, I assumed the storm was traveling east away from town, not toward us. The weather was...
There’s been a lot of chatter lately on social media about lack of customer service. It seems it doesn’t matter if it’s retail, wholesale, the service industry or even medical clinics. Why is this happening? The easy answer that has become a cliche is everybody is short staffed. Employees get stressed out when they are overworked. I get that. It’s happened to me numerous times in my career. But this seems to be happening to a lot of people “customers” and they aren’t happy about it. Yes, I’ve...
I’m urging you to vote “no” this November on the ballot measure proposing the elimination of property taxes. My impetus for writing? A recent incident that clearly outlines the necessity for maintaining local control with property taxes. In the early hours of July 5, 2024, 29 rail cars carrying hazardous materials derailed and caught fire about nine miles southeast of Carrington, where I serve as fire chief. The hazardous materials, including anhydrous ammonia, posed a significant risk to people in and around Carrington and Bordulac, but our r...
Just because there are trained professionals dealing with the infrastructure, logistics and marketing of the Summer Olympics, it doesn’t let the rest of us off the hook. To fulfill our obligations as world citizens, instead of just blundering into nearly three weeks of pageantry and athleticism, we should apply critical thinking to the whole phenomenon. But you’re probably way ahead of me. You’ve doubtless pondered why we don’t have Spring and Autumn Olympics. I can just imagine the former...
Have you ever heard of Interstate 27? It’s a freeway that currently runs north/south entirely in the state of Texas, from Amarillo to Lubbock. The length of 1-27 is 124 miles, but is about to change in a big way. An number of media, especially those in Bismarck, have been reporting that I-27 will be running through western North Dakota, from Bowman in the south, to Plentywood, Mont., in the north. In effect, U.S. Highway 85 is going to become I-27. It will also run through western South D...
As our country goes to pot, I find myself more focused on personal matters, such as this hopeful item I read on MSN.com: Researchers have identified a molecule called osteopontin, which is a potential game-changer for people who are losing their hair. That’s good news for fellows like me, whose hair has been slowly receding for years. For most of human history, you see, the roles of men and women were clearly defined. Since basic survival was so difficult, the division of labor was very clear a...
