Dakota Beacon

A Bismarck Tribune headline proclaimed “North Dakota reading scores high” followed by an article saying ND students have achieved some of the nation’s highest reading scores.  This is an illusion repeated from year to year.  ND’s white 4th-grade students scored 228 and 8th-grade students 271 on a national reading test -- almost exactly the national average for white students.  California shares last place in the nation on an overall basis, but its white students scored about the same as ND's.  On an apples-to-apples comparison, ND scores are anything but the nation’s highest.  

The scores of ND students are mediocre.  The state appears to rank highly only when its scores are compared to those of other states on an “overall” basis -- this comparison ignores large minority populations in many states which bring down overall scores.  White students make up 85-90% of the students in ND.  Indians are the only significant minority students in the state (9%) and their scores are below the national average for American Indians.  The state and its press are slow to acknowledge something is amiss in student achievement in ND.

Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson has consulted with advisors: “North Dakota is going to be awash in cash” from coal and the Bakken oil field and “wealth is shifting from the Red River Valley to the carbon corridor.”   He quotes a former ND governor who refers to this activity as a “one-time harvest.”  Jenkinson invited his readers to submit brief memos addressing two questions: “How can we manage this decades-long extraction boom” and “what should we do with the money?”

Time for a reality check.  Spirits are high at political conventions -- Sandra Donaldson, a delegate to the state Democratic convention from Grand Forks, gushed about the prospects of state senator Tracy Potter, a candidate for U.S. Senator.  “I almost have no words to describe how excited I am about Tracy Potter,” she thought he would win the seat and keep it under Democratic control.  About the same time, Rasmussen Reports released a survey showing Gov. Hoeven leading Potter 68% to 25%.

Earlier, CoDoPo, ND’s congressional delegation, professed degrees of uncertainty about the health care bill.  Sen. Conrad said a bill would not be worthwhile unless it had bipartisan support, Sen. Dorgan (retiring) was strangely reserved, and Rep. Pomeroy said perhaps it was time to start over and advance the reform in pieces.  They refused to take a position until vote time -- all voted for the bill.  Bismarck Tribune Editor John Irby said CoDoPo “must now live with the good, bad and ugly of the bill.  That could result in career changes.”

Charles and Ellen Linderman of Carrington are a husband and wife team who are Democratic activists and prolific writers of letters to editors of ND papers.  Both have been outspoken advocates of the health care reform bill -- Ellen has spoken of her difficulty, as a farmer with a pre-existing condition, to purchase health insurance.  Some newspapers have policies which limit the frequency of letters from a single individual.  The Forum published a letter from Charles praising Rep. Pomeroy as a hero for voting for the health care bill.  Several days later, a letter from Ellen appeared in the Forum, again, hailing Pomeroy as a courageous leader for his vote on health reform.

Drake (300) is located about half way between Harvey and Velva on U.S. Hwy. 52.  Typical of ND towns of it size, Drake lost its grocery store.  Neither grocery chains nor private investors were interested in replacing the store.  A new community store opened in Drake with a $185,000 grant from the USDA -- other small ND communities have received similar grants.  Advocates see the grants as a way of preserving underserved communities.  Critics see the grants as a waste of money which threatens the viability of stores in neighboring towns by denying them sales.

It happens every couple years -- a national publication tallies federal convictions of public officials in each state, divides that into the state’s population and calculates a corruption ratio.  ND is usually deemed to be one of the most corrupt state’s by that measure.  Last year USA Today reported that ND public officials are the most corrupt in the land -- a conclusion that doesn’t make sense to most people living in ND.  Lloyd Omdahl is among those who have looked into these conclusions in the past; ND Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem did the same recently.  What they usually discover is that the ND numbers are inflated by convictions of tribal officials.  In certain prior years, almost all the federal corruption convictions in ND related to the reservations.

During the 1980s oil boom, the city of Williston invested about $20 million to build infrastructure to spur housing development.  The subdivision lots sat empty for many years at a heavy cost to local taxpayers.  This time around Williston wants someone else to take the risk -- they are asking the state to guarantee about $100 million in municipal bonds to help solve what they describe as a housing crisis.  Approval would require a special legislative session.  Williston officials say the guarantee would benefit the state because it would facilitate faster oil development and greater extraction and production taxes.  Gov. Hoeven says existing state programs can do the job until the next legislative session in 2011.

Tom Dennis of the GF Herald beats the drum for unmanned aerial systems.  He ranks UAS as a “revolutionary” technology just as computers were in the 1980s.  He said, “Unmanned systems deserve all of the time and attention UND, North Dakota and the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp. can muster.”  Specifically, he wants Grand Forks county and city to pony up for a new position to coordinate UAS opportunities.

“Feathers ruffled” was the caption on a Forum photo of fighting geese -- just below was a headline “Hanson ‘disappointed’ to be removed from consideration for NDSU president.”  Dick Hanson, NDSU interim president, was scratched from the list of finalists for president.  Selection committee members said Hanson did not have the breadth of experience of the eight candidates who will be considered in the finals.

A UND philosophy instructor is using the low-brow movie “Slap Shot” for a high-brow discussion of hockey culture.  Slap Shot stars Paul Newman as the coach of a dubious, fictional pro hockey team with three violent Hanson brothers who specialize in bloodying themselves and others.  Prof. Jack Weinstein will use the movie and a panel to explore issues such as fighting and sports loyalties.