Dakota Beacon

There was little surprise left when Gov. John Hoeven announced his intention to run for the U.S. senate seat being vacated by Sen. Byron Dorgan.  The Forum reported that despite this, “Supporters declared their support with deafening cheers and booming chants of Hoeven’s name.”  ND Democratic Chairman Mark Schneider seemed close to glum resignation when he said, “If Hoeven won, the state would be faced with the prospect of a freshman Senator in the minority party and a new governor.”

Mr. Schneider made an amazingly quick recovery -- in a letter to the state’s papers, he advised Nodaks how to act if they should encounter  “negative and distorted campaign rhetoric.”  He said do what Dorgan might do back in Regent, N.D., -- “scrape your boots, mount your steed and take the high ground.”  Schneider is new in his job, but could soon become a master of mixed metaphors.

The news from Sen. Dorgan pretty much determined the subject of editorials in the state the following Sunday.  The overall sense was, whether you agreed or not with his politics, Dorgan was a hardworking, effective prairie populist and his retirement will greatly diminish ND’s influence in Washington.

Bismarck Tribune Editor John Irby examined the various explanations for Dorgan’s decision.  He did not believe Dorgan feared running against Gov. Hoeven, rather he thought that after so many years, Dorgan may have lost “fire in the belly.”  He urged us to “take Dorgan at his word.”  Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson was pure adulation.  For him, Dorgan was one of the greatest senators in ND history, “the most quintessentially North Dakotan,” and “the embodiment of the American dream.”  “We . . . have reason to grieve.”  And Jenkinson said much more.  Other papers tended to speculate on political outcomes arising from Dorgan’s decision.

The collapse of Minard Hall at the NDSU campus on December 27th is becoming less of a mystery.  Prior to the collapse, a 25-foot hole was excavated next to the building exposing damp clay.  Donald Schwert, a geosciences professor at NDSU, said, “Weak clays have been the reason for many building collapses in Fargo-Moorhead, with the most famous being a 1955 grain elevator collapse.  The clay-rich sediments from the Lake Agassiz basin are too weak to hold up massive structures.”  The weight of the building may have squeezed clay into the excavation and  vibrations from a pile driver added to the problem.  While definitive studies had not been concluded, the geoscience faculty at NDSU was pointing the way.

Does ND place special importance on character?  The obituary of Frank Staples (87) tells of a rich career -- after high school the ND native started as a pipe fitter in the Bremerton shipyards repairing ships damaged at Pearl Harbor.  Next, he was in the Army in Europe, then he graduated from Jamestown College, became a Honeywell engineer, retired and pursued an interest in orchids.  His obit concluded: “And of all that can be said, what is said best is that Frank was an honorable and caring man and a devoted husband, father and grandfather.”

Did that really have to be said?  The obituary for “Ken” Lueck, 91, of Jamestown said he graduated third from Spiritwood High School in 1936.  So far, so good, way to go Ken -- polite applause.  Then the obit noted that his graduating class had only three members.

The life of “Tex Riehl” (67) of Cannon Ball was shorter than most, but there may have been  good reason -- he led an unusually active, often dangerous life.  After graduating from high school in Bismarck, he became a bullfighter, as he got a little older he slacked off and was a rodeo clown for 21 years.  In retirement, he throttled down further as a ranch hand.  

Amtrak is an interesting way to travel, but be prepared to reach your destination late.  The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported: “Scores of Amtrak passengers are stuck in St. Paul after bad weather further west caused a backup that could take days to resolve.”  Usually, it’s hours rather than days, but Empire Builder service is still generally unreliable.

A typical California prison inmate is young and either black or Mexican.  A typical prisoner in ND is white, about 34 years old, and sentenced for a violent crime.  The general population of ND has been level the last 15 years, a period in which the prison population has increased 150%.  Experts attribute the increase to a surge in drug related crimes.  Even so, the state has one of the lowest imprisonment rates in the nation.

In a letter to the Tribune, McKenzie County state’s attorney Dennis Johnson said: “Nearly one-third of the fatalities (ND auto deaths) come from an area that has maybe one-tenth of the population of the state.  Something is truly wrong with this picture.”  Johnson expressed a frustration which is increasing in western ND: “I, my family and many of my friends and neighbors have been run off the road by oilfield traffic, which passes with impunity, speeds with a passion and ignores stop and yield signs.”  He urges the state to use some of its oils riches to improve the safety of the roads and provide enforcement to keep oil field traffic driving safely. 

The AP publishes an Economic Stress Index calculated from a monthly analysis of factors such as unemployment and foreclosure in more than 3,100 U.S. counties.  ND was first in the nation with an index score of 4.3 (lower is better) while the national average was 10.2.  Ward County at 3.35 had the second lowest county score in the nation.  Ralph Kingsbury, economic columnist for the GF Herald, said two matters boosted Ward County: Minot became the headquarters for oil exploration in the area and Minot AFB was assigned an additional 1,000 people.

The GF airport had 347,500 takeoffs and landings in 2009 making it the 21st busiest in the nation.  Minneapolis-St. Paul had 399,000 operations in the same period.  What gives?  How did GFK get up there with airports in cities with populations many times that of Grand Forks?  The answer is student pilots from the UND Aerospace School, who represent 95% of the traffic at GFK.