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Friday, November 13, 2009

SCHMID - LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST: NOVEMBER 13, 2009

ITS GOING TO HAPPEN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER -- that’s the message Devils Lake is delivering to Valley City, the Red River Valley, and even Winnipeg.  The D.L. people note that the lake rose over three feet this year and is expected to continue rising next year.  If down river folks don’t become more realistic about controlled releases, then they may face vastly greater uncontrolled releases as the lake reaches its natural outlet.


“The Bakken is clearly the BIGGEST OIL PLAY IN THE U.S.” according to the ND Petroleum Council.  The state’s capacity to export crude is rapidly improving and production could soar 50% in 2010.  Pipelines are expanding and, very soon, a 100-car unit train of oil will leave Stanley each day.  The GF Herald urged eastern ND lawmakers to generously support oil-related infrastructure needs in the west, especially if the east wants help with its own future needs (think both Missouri River diversion and flood control).


President Obama met with the nation’s Indian tribes -- all ND tribes were there.  Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Levings appeared before the conference in a war bonnet and made a silver-tongued presentation.  First, he put his full name on the table: Marcus Dominick Levings -- Ee-Ba-Da-Gish -- White-Headed Eagle.  He then reminded Obama that Obama had received a quilt in patriotic colors from Levings’ mother.  Obama acknowledged the quilt and its beauty.  Levings then got down to business, saying his tribes, which had been so kind to Lewis and Clark, were living on hilltops in 77-below wind chill weather.  THE TRIBES NEED NEW HOUSES -- 1,000 would do for now.  Also, they want to develop oil and gas, would Obama please squeeze the bureaucracy and make the process easier?  Obama’s “to do” list grew.


Tribune columnist Ken Rogers can’t help noticing the sharp increase in the number of ND millionaires.  Mind you, he doesn’t begrudge them, but in his eyes their wealth “doesn’t necessarily equate with having lived a good life.”  Rogers says, “LIVING THE GOOD LIFE IN NORTH DAKOTA does not come from a bank balance . . . it comes from being in this place with family and in community, and sharing life here.”  His idea of ND is “working hard, and on a good day, being pretty much middle class.”


The Bismarck Tribune faulted REP. EARL POMEROY for voting for the House version of health care reform just “to keep the conversation going.” The Tribune noted the legislation “does not appear to effectively control the rising costs of health care or insurance.”  The Tribune said there is a belief floating around “that it doesn’t matter what the reform package ends up being, as long as something passes” -- that it can be fixed later.  “It was critical to get it right the first time,” said the Tribune, and Pomeroy should have voted no on the legislation.


Get thee behind me [Satan], Bible, Matthew xvi. 23.  Well not exactly, but this is close to what Forum Publisher Bill Marcil said in one of his infrequent editorials.  Marcil was talking about the recent problems with NDSU, its foundation, and its soon to be ex-president Joe Chapman.  More precisely, Marcil said, “We need to GET THIS AFFAIR BEHIND US . . . NDSU lost arguably its most successful president . . . It’s time to step back, take a deep breath, and start the healing process.” 


Joe Chapman has many admirers, particularly among Fargo business leaders and politicians.  But there are DISSENTING VOICES, John Calvert, a retired NDSU teacher and sometimes Forum columnist, put it this way, “Chapman himself never, so far as I know, uttered a single word about issues that are related to education.”  Calvert believes universities talk too much about growth and too little about education.


ND Legislators have important public jobs and should disclose material CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.  But it is a part-time job -- most members are intensely engaged only for a couple months every two years -- they are “citizen legislators.”  Therefore, it is unreasonable to ask ND legislators to annually disclose every detail of their family’s employment, clients and affiliations, income and asset values, and more, as recommended by the Center for Public Integrity.  The standards are difficult, even for full-time legislators.  Tom Dennis of the GF Herald flunks ND for not having these standards, although they discourage accomplished candidates with complex interests, but present little barrier to people without assets or income.


Someday, it may be a TV movie: Philip Gattuso, a widowed dentist living with his 3-year-old daughter in Fargo, was found brutally murdered, his car missing and his apartment ransacked.  His wife,  the mother of the girl, died this year after a lengthy illness.  Fairly quickly, police located an EX-CONVICT HANDYMAN in Oklahoma who appeared to have driven to ND, did the murder and trailered the car back to Oklahoma.  That last little bit got him -- a surveillance camera at a rest stop on I-29 captured the plates on the trailer.  The plot thickened, the handyman had been hired by the girl’s grandfather to make the hit.  Clearly, the grandfather didn’t like his former son-in-law.  Relatives of the deceased are battling relatives of the grandfather for custody of the little girl.


MURDER, MURDER, MURDER dominated ND news in 2006 and 2007.  Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. came first -- the sex offender and ex-convict murdered UND coed Dru Sjodin in 2003 and his nationally followed trial, conviction and death sentence occurred in 2006.  On his heels, ex-convict and sex offender Moe Gibbs murdered Valley City State coed Mindy Morgenstern.  He received a life sentence in 2007.  Aaron Nichols was next, the hothead Fargo truck driver drove to Sykeston in 2007 and shot and burned the former in-laws of his girl friend -- another life sentence.  The 2007 stabbing murder of Minot State coed Amy Knutson was similar to the Morgenstern murder, but remains unsolved.  Gibbs and Nichols are confined in Bismarck; Rodriguez is in federal prison and his death sentence appeals drone on.


THIS AND THAT:  Sounds right to me -- the Fargo Fire Dept. reports someone dumped a harmless red dye into Rose Coulee . . .  In hunting season in ND, a large number of men leave their homes -- this phenomenon is exploited in Fargo by a “Hunter Widow Vendor Sale.”  Widows flock to special deals on decorating items and makeup . . . Dickinson is experiencing more than “bad luck” -- the year is not over and the small city has had a tornado, homicide, murder-suicide, and a gun battle with escaped Alabama convicts.  The latest tragedy -- three Dickinson state women softball players drove their SUV into a pond and drowned . . . Herald Publisher Mike Jacobs reminisced about “Wild Bill” Langer, former ND governor and U.S. senator, on the 50th anniversary of Langer’s death.  Langer is a hero to some and an embarrassment to others.


DAKTOIDS: Military officials say up to 75% of today’s young people are not fit for military service, due to lack of physical fitness, criminal records or failure to graduate from high school.  Young adults in ND fairly shine by comparison, about 45% of them are not fit for service.

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