Dakota Beacon

Pretend, for just a moment, you are crossing the snow-covered ND prairie on a dark, cold and silent December night.  As you approach a Canadian Pacific railroad crossing, you hear and see an astonishing apparition -- an object, about 1,000 feet long, moving rapidly in front of you with blaring horns and ablaze with thousands of tiny colored lights.  The light show passes and disappears to the northwest.  There is nothing like it -- it’s the CP Holiday Train which stops in places such as Harvey and Minot.  At each stop, a stage folds out from a car and musical entertainers perform.  The goal of the Holiday Train program is to collect food and money for local food banks.

Marvin Windows is an antidote to Scrooges of the world.  That needs some explaining.  Marvin Windows is a family-owned company in Warroad, Minnesota, about 90 miles northeast of Grand Forks,  with plants in Fargo and Grafton.  The recession and residential construction slowdown have closed dozens of plants in the window industry and led to the dismissal of hundreds of employees.  Marvin has found a way to keep all 4,000 of its employees.  The Herald’s Tom Dennis thinks the Marvin story has elements of redeeming holiday tales, such as “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  Is Tiny Tim joyfully stumping around Grafton?

Southwestern ND fully participates in the state’s energy boom, yet poverty there is rising.  Two broad reasons are given.  The first involves new residents -- Marcy Decker of Stark County (Dickinson) Social Services says, “We’ve seen a lot of people that have probably taken all the money that they had and spent that to get here and before they can find employment, they have no money.”  The second involves old residents who are buried by the cost of living.  Michelle Orton of Community Action Partnership says, “The climate (economic) in southwest North Dakota is making it difficult for people who don’t make energy industry income to keep their heads above water.”

Williston also has a large piece of the energy boom, yet its school district reports 91 “homeless” students.  Homeless for this purpose means anyone without  a permanent dwelling.  Many of the homeless students live in camper trailers or RVs -- what the school district refers to as stable but difficult situations.  A mother of homeless children spoke to the Williston Herald saying she wished to “warn other families who are thinking of moving out here and living in trailers.”  She said it is much more difficult than she had imagined.

More Devils Lake woes.  Highway 19 adjacent to the Devils Lake Airport was raised to keep the roadbed above the lake, but there were unintended consequences.  Raising the road effectively shortened the runway, so it can’t be used by Delta jets in windy weather.  When that happens, passengers are bused between Devils Lake and Jamestown (90 miles).  An airline with smaller planes will be replacing Delta.  Because of flooding, the Amtrak Empire Builder bypassed Devils Lake for a portion of 2011.

Let’s not get started today on the many reasons Amtrak service in ND doesn’t make sense.  Nonetheless, the state’s congressional delegation is assembling $100 million to repair 17 miles of flooded track near Churchs Ferry (now a flooded ghost town), so Amtrak can serve Grand Forks, Devils Lake and Rugby.  Those cities account for less than 15,000 Amtrak roundtrips a year.  $100,000,000 -- 15,000 passengers -- get it?

What does a county due when it’s desperate?  Stutsman County (Jamestown) has miles of road under water and its emergency fund is also underwater to the tune of $2.8 million.  First, it must agree to make permanent repairs that meet exacting federal standards -- then the federal government pays 80%.  Yes, but what about the remaining 20%?  Fhe county taps the state Disaster Loan program.  There you are, 100% paid for -- it’s magical.  Stutsman will make $18 million of fixes in 2012 with this ingenious financing.  Pay later!

Sports writer Virg Foss began his GF Herald column by repeating “Fighting Sioux” seven times -- once for “each of the seven proud and glorious NCAA hockey championships won under the proud and glorious Fighting Sioux banner.”  He indicated the Herald’s ban on using the nickname can be summarized in a word.  “Awkward.”  Meanwhile, down south, the Herald’s sister pities people like Foss who cling to the nickname.  With great relish, the Fargo Forum awarded Leafy Spurge to those “bent out of shape” by retirement of all things “Fighting Sioux.”  The Forum snarled, “Well, too bad. Time to grow up.”  The Forum believes that is the last word -- we shall see.

Listen, hear the rustling, petitions are being circulated to put the Fighting Sioux issue to a statewide vote.  Supporters vow to get double the required number of signatures.  If they succeed, repeal of the nickname would legally be on hold.  The sports editor at the Jamestown Sun (the Forum’s baby sister) is dumbfounded, he says, “It makes them (the petitioners) look small and selfish.”  He apparently sees Nodaks as Lilliputians. 

The question seemed innocent.  A reader asked the Forum’s government writer how ND’s oil taxes are collected and used.  Teri Finneman allowed it was a complicated subject, but she would give it a try.  About 900 words later, Finneman was out of space (and probably out of breath) and said she would complete the summary the following week.  Earlier, the state tried to illustrate oil tax uses with a flow chart of many colors and over 40 boxes.  Basically, the Legislature has devised a maze which is incomprehensible, except to a few technocrats.

The Predator B drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.  The plane is used by agencies such as the Air Force, CIA, and Customs and Border Protection.  It wasn’t anticipated the high tech plane would be used for catching cattle rustlers.  But that seems to be the case -- a Predator from the Grand Forks AFB was used to help the Nelson County Sheriff locate a family alleged to have taken three cows with calves.  The incident was first reported by media outside the state and is touching off legal concerns ranging from privacy to military roles in domestic police actions.

Humorist, cowboy and legislator Ryan Taylor threw his hat (literally -- it’s a big one) into the ring as Democratic candidate for governor.  He has a task that would discourage even a cowboy -- mayors of the ten largest ND cities have endorsed Gov. Jack Dalrymple for reelection.

DAKTOIDS: Patty Murray of Washington State is the Democratic party’s chief recruiter of women candidates for the U.S. Senate.  Murray takes credit for recruiting Heidi Heitkamp as a senatorial candidate in ND . . . Grand Forks, Bismarck and Fargo hold three of the first five positions on the Daily Beast’s list of the 25 coldest cities.  Anchorage is first on the list . . . An administrative law judge concluded that Dickinson State president Richard McCallum should be fired for violating leadership responsibilities -- the Board of Higher Ed promptly did so . . . At the end of October, ND had 20,000 job openings, 60% more than a year ago.