Dakota Beacon

“We had outstripped our supply line,” said NDSU Interim President Dick Hanson.  He explained how in its quest for size NDSU got ahead of its resources.  In an interview with the GF Herald, he announced a shift in NDSU strategy: it will no longer compete with UND by creating rival programs.  He explained “Getting bigger isn’t the point; getting better is the point.”  Hanson is meeting with state leaders to smooth NDSU’s image  --- making the rounds may serve another purpose -- Hanson is a candidate to be the permanent president of NDSU.

Listen to the chorus, ND may be taking its economic boom for granted.  But in the background, some voices are urging caution and suggesting it may be risky to extrapolate the recent past.  Ken Rogers of the Tribune says amber lights are flashing for the state’s coal industry.  Efforts to regulate carbon emissions may end growth in Coal Country and the number of jobs will probably fall off.  A retired energy executive speaking at Minot State said ND should be smart about spending oil money, because, while the boom will boost the economy for awhile, investment and jobs will decline once the wells are in.

A strange legal and political battle has been going on in Bismarck since 2007, when “Sandy” Blunt, the director of a state agency, was charged with and later convicted of misspending.  The charges against Blunt have always been puzzling -- they seemed, at most, about mismanagement, never about conduct which normally leads to criminal charges.  Steve Cates, the publisher of the conservative Dakota Beacon journal, has been a supporter of Blunt and has doggedly followed each twist and turn in the case.  Cates has alleged misconduct on the part of the Burleigh County State’s Attorney’s Office which prosecuted Blunt.  The matter may ultimately land in the lap of the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the attorney general’s office.

Tribune Editor John Irby wrote a column about Sunshine Week, a national initiative for open government.  He said government officials, even when not breaking laws, play games that include exclusion and evasiveness.  He used Rep. Earl Pomeroy as an example.  Pomeroy was asked if he would return past contributions from Rep. Charles Rangel who has become entangled in ethics problems.  Irby said it was a simple question, but a Pomeroy spokesman responded by saying, “Earl could be named king for a day and the Republican Party would find some kind of mud balls to throw at him.”  Irby felt “yes” or “no” would have done fine.

If it seems to you like weather in the Red River Valley has grown wetter, you are right.  Forum weatherman John Wheeler says annual precipitation since 1993 has averaged slightly more than 25 inches -- during Dust Bowl years from 1929 through 1940 the average was barely 15 inches.  That is a big jump!  Wheeler says those are the type of swings which create long-term averages, which from 1881 to 1992 were about 20 inches.

The spring drill is on in the Red River Valley.  Various states of emergency are declared, levees raised, bridges and parks closed, volunteers called and filling sand bags is the principal recreation.  On March 19, everyone was wary and prepared, but rivers were expected to crest below disaster levels.

Flooding is becoming intolerable in the Red River Valley.  The Corps of Engineers estimates that, in the absence of long-term flood control, economic growth in Fargo-Moorhead will be limited to one to two percent a year.  With such control, growth could be double, three to four percent a year, because of greater business confidence.  F-M is roughly one-fourth of the ND economy.

A project in southwestern ND draws water from the Missouri River; a similar project in the Minot area will do the same.  Fargo also hopes to divert water from the Missouri for needs in the Red River Valley.  In March, the state announced that two projects will tap the Missouri for more than 5 million gallons a day for oil drilling.  Others, including Indian tribes, are lining up for more water.  Each project is accompanied by an assurance that it will have very little effect on the flow of the vast river.  It stands to reason that at some point, people down river will take political action because of the diversions.  The state of Missouri has already joined Manitoba in a suit opposing the Minot project. 

“Charging is the action of a player, who . . . checks an opponent violently in any manner from the front or side” -- from the esoterica of NCAA hockey rules.  Matt Frattin of the UND hockey team received a five-minute penalty for charging in the third game of the Sioux-Gopher series won by the Sioux.  After further review, the WCHA disqualified Frattin from the first game of the playoffs in St. Paul.

The loss to UND did not go down well in Minnesota -- to get the flavor, scan over 200 online comments to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  The Minnesota fans were angry with everybody: their coach (fire him), their players (wimps), officials (incompetent) and, finally, the dirty, rotten Sue or little Prairie Gophers (among the kinder names) and their despicable “Ralph.”  One of many comments aimed at “Sue” fans, “What do you do after the hockey season?  Oh I know, fill sand bags.”

The suspense drained out of the 2010 political season in ND when Sen. Dorgan announced he would not stand for re-election and Gov. Hoeven settled into the driver’s seat.  That’s the way GF Herald Editor Mike Jacobs sees it.  He said Hoeven is an able politician and the odds-on favorite for a seat in the U.S. Senate.  Jacobs concluded, “All of this has wrung much of the suspense, and much of the excitement, out of the 2010 political season.”  The next chance for excitement is 2012.