Dakota Beacon

While we are doing other things, Devils Lake (the lake, not the city) is busy acquiring new territory.  In late April, State Highway 20, a major route through the Spirit Lake Reservation, was closed due to high water.  The lake threatens to close the Churchs Ferry bridge used by Amtrak's Empire Builder -- the state’s congressional delegation is pressing Amtrak about the issue.  Meanwhile, the Devils Lake City Engineer raised the odds of a natural lake overflow into the Sheyenne River in the next 10 years to 10%.  He says a spillover is unacceptable for downstream areas, and his city will urge a controlled release.

“I got a preliminary copy of the performance from the state. It is very embarrassing,” Hanson said. “It’s just awful. It’s bad.”  What was NDSU Interim President Dick Hanson moaning about?  He was talking about an audit report soon to be issued by the state auditor regarding the NDSU president’s house.  For Hanson, there is very little cost to the awful, bad things -- they happened on the shift of his predecessor, Joseph Chapman.

When Helen Rice Sorlie graduated from UND in about 1938, she received a degree in Home Economics and Commerce, Art & Clothing -- quite a mouthful!  Sorlie (90), who died in Bismarck in April, became well known in her own right.  She was also married to Glenn Sorlie, the son of a former ND governor and owner and publisher of the Bismarck Tribune before its sale to Lee Enterprises in 1978.

Rich city cousins are giving to poor country cousins.  The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux, owners of the Mystic Lake Casino in Minnesota, make grants to their poor brethren in the Dakotas.  The Lower Brule Sioux in South Dakota will get $1 million for a convenience store and gas station; United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck will get $1 million for a technology facility, contingent on getting an equal amount from other sources.

A Sharon rancher has 500 cows, 300 have given birth, of those, 50 (17%) had twins.  A vet says 3% would be about a normal rate.  There is no clear explanation, the best answer NDSU Extension can muster is that “all the conditions encouraging twinning came together at the right time.”  The owner of the cattle had an interesting speculation, nothing more: He has been feeding the cows dried distillers grain from the Casselton ethanol plant.  The distillers grain is nutrious and improves the cows’ condition.  Cows with good condition are more likely to conceive twins.

Dane Boedigheimer is a Fargo native who has achieved instant fame -- it remains to be seen if it’s fleeting.  Dane is the creator of a You-Tube video character called “Annoying Orange” which has a million and a half viewers in the course of a weekend.  Annoying Orange makes taunting comments about other fruit and is a favorite of schoolchildren -- a commentator says “The awfulness of the orange is what brings the enjoyment.”  Dane is a college film major who now practices his wicked craft in S. California.

“From North Dakota, the immigration issue might seem overblown,” said a Bismarck Tribune editorial, “But in Arizona, there are an estimated 450,000 illegal immigrants, a number equal to 70 percent of North Dakota's population.”  The editorial said Arizona’s tough new law is what happens when Congress fails to address the ongoing issue of illegal immigration.

The Tribune thinks it’s great that ND’s oil pipeline and rail capacity is now 400,000 barrels a day, well in excess of February daily oil production of 260,000 barrels.  But the state shouldn’t rest, greater oil production is coming, plus the challenges of pounded roads in western ND, housing shortages for workers, and a variety of social ills that come with the boom.  The state produced 80 million barrels of oil in 2009 and is moving toward annual production of 100 million barrels.

In an article headed “Employed, but homeless,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune highlighted one of the problems of the ND boom -- nowhere to put the people.  Many well-paid workers cannot find housing at any price.  They sleep in cars and campers.  The article indicated the situation is worst for locals who do not have lucrative oil jobs; they have seen their rents soar -- in the midst of prosperity ND saw a spike in homelessness.

It will be Bismarck’s biggest conference of 2010 -- the 18th annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference will be attended by 2,500 people -- twice the 2008 attendance.  The theme is “Bakken & Beyond” and the expo will have people from 40 states and 6 provinces.  Ron Ness of the sponsoring ND Petroleum Council says business development will be pursued by 300 exhibitors.  The director of the state Oil and Gas Division added sensation to the conference by doubling his estimate of the state's recoverable oil reserves from 2 billion to 4 billion barrels.

If ND were to have a patron cartoonist, it would have to be the late Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts.  With a German father and a Norwegian mother, the St. Paul native would have fit right into ND.  Like ND, Shulz was a little melancholy.  Here is a quote: ”Yesterday I was a dog, Today I’m a dog, Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog.  Sigh!  There’s so little hope for advancement.”

DAKTOIDS: West Fargo snuck up -- in 2000 the city had about 15,000 people, today, the city is estimated to have 26,000.  W. Fargo swept by slow-growth cities such as Dickinson and Jamestown to become the state’s fifth largest . . . The 450 Minuteman missiles in Montana, ND and Wyoming are supported by 9,000 personnel -- that’s 20 per missile.  The missiles first arrived in the 1970s -- the Air Force has committed $6.2 billion (yes, billion) to extending the life of the Minuteman III missiles . . . The Los Angeles and Phoenix areas have the worst air quality in the nation.  Want to get away -- go to North Dakota -- Fargo, Wahpeton and Bismarck have the nation’s cleanest air.