Dakota Beacon

What does it take to become head of emergency services and flood recovery in ND?  Answer: you should be a Major General and your last name must be almost unpronounceable.  Maj. Gen. David Spryncznatyk heads state emergency services, while Maj. Gen. Murray Sagsveen heads state flood recovery.  They had bad news for Minot flood victims.  In Minot, 4,100 structures were affected by flooding of which 3,200 are extensively damaged, including 800 completely damaged. Only $40-50 million of FEMA money is available for those homes -- meaning the majority must move ahead with limited assistance.  Sagsveen said, “That money isn’t even close . . . there’s no point in comparing Minot to Grand Forks . . . I know this is a difficult fact.” 

The news for flooded farmers was not much better.  State Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring said that nearly 6.5 million acres are affected by flooding and wet weather.  Think of it this way --- 6.5 million acres is about 10,000 square miles.  The majority of that acreage doesn’t qualify for federal disaster programs.

The Northern Plains Electric Cooperative headquartered in Carrington is ND’s geographically largest electrical coop.  N. Plains serves the Highway 281 corridor from Jamestown to the Canadian border.  Unfortunately, the northern part of the corridor is smack in the line of Devils Lake flooding.  The coop finds itself regularly dropping service to individual farmers as their properties are lost to the lake.  The coop currently has 90 miles of line in water -- the lines serve 100 customers.  If the lake rises further, 200 miles of line serving 450 customers will be in water.

You’ve heard about properties around the nation which are "under water," that is, the value of a mortgaged property is less than its mortgage.  But properties in Minot were literally under water.  Banking officials are cautioning owners of flood-damaged homes not to give up and walk away before they have fully considered their options.  A Minot credit union is advising that help may be available and homeowners should not panic and ruin their credit.

Jamestown is warming up for a lurid trial.  Although the city has few black residents, it may now have its first “black-on-black” murder.   “Ra Ra” Howard (34) is a black Jamestown resident with a criminal record from Minnesota; he is charged with murdering Abdi Ali Ahmed, an 18-year-old Somali refugee.  Howard’s white girl friend, Janelle Cave (22), is also accused in the death.  Kayla Zimney of Buchanan (a neighboring town) is pregnant by Howard -- she is alleged to have been involved in disposing of evidence.  The Jamestown Sun has yet to spell out the relationships and backgrounds of the victim and the three individuals tied to the crime.

Lutheran Social Services receives both praise and criticism for what some see as misguided efforts to place African refugees in ND.  A different LSS activity, Lutheran Disaster Response, gets unanimous praise.  LDR is organizing thousand of volunteers to help with Minot flooding.  Bonnie Turner heads the effort; she says her army will focus on “cut and muck,” cutting out wet drywalls and carpet and removing muck from basements.

Gov Jack Dalrymple appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” (an investment show) to discuss ND’s economic accomplishments.  ND definitely deserves credit, but at a time of huge federal deficits, the state still relies heavily on federal money.  Near the time of the governor’s appearance, it was announced that the federal Education Department was funding a replacement for a flood threatened school in Minnewaukan ($10.5 million), another federal agency was raising the road to Grahams Island State Park ($15 million), and USDA Rural Development was behind stimulus package financing for 88 percent of a new $52 million regional medical center in Jamestown.  The center has a $25 million annual budget and 240 employees, it will be nice for Jamestown, but will pull business from smaller communities in the region.

Mississippi and Colorado remain kings of fat and thin, respectively.  MS held its crown as the most obese state (35%); CO was the least (20%).  ND and SD lie pretty much in between -- SD was ranked 17th (29%), while ND was 21st (28%).  Two-thirds of the adults in both Dakotas were overweight.  Neighboring states of Minnesota and Montana were both in the quartile with the lowest level of obesity.  MS is in a cluster of south central states which are especially obese; most of those states have large black populations -- the obesity rate for blacks was over 40% in 15 states.

I wouldn’t blame readers for concluding this newsletter overweights the UND Fighting Sioux issue.  Yes, it intrigues me, but the attention given this complex and emotional issue, particularly in eastern ND, is hard to overstate.  For example, on Sunday, July 10, the majority of the letters in the GF Herald were about the issue.  One stood out -- ND University System Chancellor Bill Goetz emerged from relative silence to lambast Herald Editor Mike Jacobs for an earlier column.  Jacobs deserves credit for biting his lip and publishing the letter, since it ripped him from one end to the other.  Goetz said Jacobs’ comments (about Goetz) risked “crossing the line between editorializing and gossiping.”

The nickname issue is obviously largest in Grand Forks, but on the Sunday mentioned above the Fargo Forum also had Fighting Sioux letters.  In addition, a commentary by Ross Nelson castigated UND President Robert Kelley for cowering before the nickname issue.  Nelson said the NCAA’s position is demonstrably wrong, “What if Kelley and others fought back?  What if they campaigned to inform the world?”  Nelson said UND should “stand up and fight the lies and take the consequences” -- he believes “the sports tail (and money) wags the academic dog.”

DAKTOIDS: The ND State Fair in Minot is the state’s largest public event.  Officials hoped to salvage a downsized 2011 fair, but the flood aftermath became too much and the fair has been canceled . . . Dickinson had 18,000 residents in the 2010 census.  The ambitious city expects its 2015 population to reach 25,000 . . . On July 4, a Fargo man obtained an illegal piece of commercial fireworks and blew his head off.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is on the case.