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Monday, November 23, 2009

SCHMID - LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST: NOVEMBER 20, 2009

A Forum article summarized the views of U.S. senators from ND and Minnesota on health care reform. All four senators expressed a solemn interest in cost containment, although at the time of their interviews, they could think of very few specifics.  None said a word about TORT REFORM -- all receive substantial contributions from tort attorneys.


No, No, not you, it’s the other guys -- THE BAD GUYS.  The Jamestown Sun quoted Rep. Earl Pomeroy as saying in a speech about health care that we are “being taken to the cleaners by providers” (hospitals, clinics, etc.).  Pomeroy hurriedly prepared a letter to the Sun stating that his comment, of course, did not pertain to ND providers, who are “outstanding” and “conscientious.”  He meant bad guy providers in Florida, California and Texas.


EARMARKS ARE WASTEFUL, except ours.  A Forum editorial said it more discreetly, “But while one person’s earmark is irresponsible pork barrel spending, another’s is a wise investment of public dollars.”  A $750,000 earmark secured by Sen. Byron Dorgan to map Red River Valley flood plains was placed in the “wise investment” category by the Forum.


COLLEGIALITY HAS ITS LIMITS.  The entire ND congressional delegation (Conrad, Dorgan, Pomeroy) and assorted Democratic appointees posed and smiled for a media picture at the groundbreaking for a new Jamestown hospital.  The 25-bed, $46 million facility will float on federal guarantees.  Gov. John Hoeven was there too, but for some reason they were unable to fit the Republican governor in the picture.


“The state’s fortunes then rose and fell, sometimes painfully, with the price per bushel.”  The Bismarck Tribune described THE DOWNSIDE OF A MONOCULTURE -- a ND economy that once relied almost exclusively on wheat.  The Trib noted approvingly that ND has diversified, not only agriculture, but business in general.  The Trib believes the same thinking applies to energy and the state is moving from reliance on coal to a basket of coal, oil, natural gas, wind, hydro and biofuels.


Amy Taggart, president of the NDSU Senate, said, “faculty would likely be uncomfortable with a college president who doesn’t have a doctorate.”  Her statement was most likely directed at Doug Burgum, possibly NDSU’s most prominent and successful graduate, who has been suggested as a potential candidate.  He obtained a Stanford MBA before helping found Great Plains Software and was its CEO when Microsoft acquired the company in 2001.  He has been active since in development in downtown Fargo, including NDSU expansion.  A NDSU alumnus in Minot expressed what was on the minds of many, “some faculty members think highly qualified individuals such as Burgum need three letters -- namely Ph.D. -- to prove their worthiness as a candidate.  If anything is uncomfortable, it is this myopic vision . . . “

 

Moe Gibbs is in the news again.  In 2007, he was convicted of strangling 22-year-old Valley City State student Mindy Morgenstern.  He also pleaded guilty to a 2004 rape in Fargo and assaulting female inmates at the Barnes County jail.  HE IS IN PRISON FOR LIFE.  Now, he is seeking $24 million for an old wrist injury suffered in a fall at the Cass County jail.


As late as 1950, a good share of ND children still attended PRAIRIE SCHOOLS.  I know -- I was one of them.  If you weren’t there, it’s hard to imagine what the schools were like.  The teachers might be green, just a summer out of high school.  The number of pupils could shift radically from one year to the next as families moved in and out of the district -- there could be five students in one grade, none in another.  The Minot Daily News describes a school currently open near Minot with a principal and one teacher . . . and five students in four grades.  The article said it was no longer feasible to keep the school open -- what that usually means is the district is running out of money.  There are few of the little schools left -- the state is pretty much hands off, district residents are allowed to decide when a school should close.


The counterparts of the little schools, PRAIRIE CHURCHES, are doing better.  Many stubbornly hang on, nursed by small congregations.  Sheila Schoenwald, a member of such a church near Minot said, “It’s a place where we come and it is calming to us.  It’s where neighbors meet neighbors.”  Schoenwald added, “The church is a source of pride.  We keep it up.”  A congregation may be no more than 20 families -- an ordained pastor is beyond their means and lay pastors keep the doors open.


You’ve heard of the “GRANDMOTHER SCAM” -- a call comes from someone impersonating a grandchild, begging the grandma to wire money to another country to get the child out of jail.  Nodaks are not immune, in the Jamestown area alone, about $100,000 was lost in one year.  But the rate of successful scams may be coming down.  Bernice Wipperling (84) of Carrington received the dreaded call and she and her husband Wilfred scurried to Jamestown to send the money from Wal-Mart, but employees refused service and cautioned the Wipperlings.  Undaunted, they raced to Hugo’s, too late, Wal-Mart had already warned Hugo’s.  Now that the Wipperllngs have recovered their senses, they view the employees as heroes.


RON, STOP DIGGING!  Ron His Horse is Thunder lost badly as a candidate for tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux.  RHHT immediately ran in a special election for his successor’s seat on the tribal council -- he came in third.  It’s time for Ron to take a break -- he has led opposition to the UND Fighting Sioux nickname at Standing Rock.


DAKTOIDS:  In planning library services for Grand Forks, consultants assumed 20 years from now the city will have a population of 70,000 -- GF is now around 50,000 . . .  Oil companies in ND are doing a better job of capturing and selling natural gas instead of flaring it.  Good idea, the AP reports that enough natural gas was wasted each year in ND to heat every home in the state for two years . . . ND produces 75% of the nation’s sunflowers.

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Comments

Avatar for maninboat

Back in the late 80s I was practicing medicine in Minot. I took my family to a July 4 parade in which Mr. Pomeroy was appearing. My wife expressed to him our frustration over our problems with medical malpractice insurance.  He replied that he would like to “get those greedy doctors.” His comments only served to reinforce the already low opinion that I had of him.

maninboat on November 24, 2009 at 02:35 pm
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