Dakota Beacon

Many folks reading this are, like myself, graduates of public universities in ND.  How do their alma maters place in national rankings?  The short answer -- they don’t.  There are many ranking systems, U.S. News and World Reports and the Princeton Review are two of the best known, and it’s hard to find a ND school in any of them.  Valley City State was ranked #47 in a list of Midwestern undergraduate colleges by U.S. News, aside from that, ND schools are absent.  Why?  A partial answer: ND universities are open to most of the state’s high school graduates of whom about 30 percent are not ready for college work.  ACT scores for students at ND universities are in a lower range than ranked schools.  So, while ND colleges are very accessible, they sacrifice academic reputation in the process.  This is the way the system is designed.

In Garrison Keillor’s fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon “all the children are above average.”  When I recruited at colleges in the West, I quickly learned that all state universities are also above average.  Each is able to identify reasons that place them above the pack -- this was no less true in ND.  For those who feel bad about any of this, be comforted to know that both NDSU and UND made one U.S. News list . . . they were included on the list of “Best Schools for B Students.”

Easy Pickings -- that's what college football teams like for the first home game of the season.  The U. of Idaho in Moscow got just that -- a 45-0 win over UND, which is a relative Division I newcomer.  For those of you who keep a trivia log -- Idaho is where Sarah Palin graduated.  No, the team is not called Mama Grizzlies, it's Vandals.

U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy is normally energetic, but, as election nears, he is especially active and visible in ND.  On a recent August day, he was in Casselton “fighting a wane in enthusiasm for ethanol in both government and the public.”  While Earl was on the prairie, Tribune government reporter Rebecca Beitsch and her “little cousins” visited his Washington office.  Beitsch said it wasn’t a palace, actually, pretty normal, but “My cousins took turns taking pictures of themselves sitting at Pomeroy’s desk, and we all admired the Earl Pomeroy bobblehead on it.”

By now, you know I peruse ND obituaries with wasteful fascination.  Frequently, I see one that makes me think, “darn, wish I had known that person.”  Dale Stewart (85) of Regent is a good example.  Here are snatches of his obit: “His memorial was held at the Ulmer-Zich American Legion . . . Dale was born a Doc Hill baby . . . he married the love of his life (yep, I see that a lot) . . . they ran a cafe . . . He then made a move to the West Coast, but was never really at home there . . . back to the prairies of North Dakota . . . played drums in many bands . . . foot-tapping rendition of Pop Goes the Weasel on his harmonica . . . charter member of the Sodbuster Saddle Club.”

How to win friends and influence people.  A 43-year-old Bismarck man needs to spruce up his personality -- he angered Nelson Gipp who hit him nine times and broke his nose, a few hours later he got crosswise with Stephanie Brown who smacked him on the head with a glass.  Judge Sonna Anderson is the alleged victim’s protector -- she prohibits Gipp or Brown from having any contact (literally) with him.

They are known as The Indian and the White Guy -- the 42-year-old musical comedy team of Bruce Williams and Terry Ree specializes in making fund of race relations and politics.  They play venues like the Buffalo Chip in Sturgis, SD, and Kick’n Up Kountry in Thief River Falls, MN.

Several government agencies jointly calling themselves the Devils Lake Basin Technical Review Team have just released a report for the consideration of a federal task force.  The team made a string of linked recommendations:  An outlet should be created on the east end of the lake creating a need to support water treatment improvements in downstream communities on the Sheyenne River.  As the lower-quality water moves into the Red River and north it may be necessary to relax water quality standards in ND, Minnesota and Canada. 

“We can recount their warts some other day” -- thus Lloyd Omdahl concluded a column with a Labor Day theme about the benefits of labor unions and the historical lack of respect they receive in ND.  Most of us probably agree that labor unions can be a beneficial part of a healthy economic system.  However, the warts Omdahl mentioned can become sizable if the relation between unions and employers gets badly out of balance.  Public employee unions and weak public officials are close to bankrupting California.  Aggressive unions and inept management also drove the U.S. auto industry into a ditch.

Divide County sits in ND’s northwest corner -- go any further and you are in Montana or Saskatchewan.  The Crosby Journal reports “with all the oil activity comes a price to pay by governments that deal with the social consequences.”  The sheriff needs a 25 percent budget increase -- the state’s attorney wants 7 percent.  A Divide county commissioner says, “It’s jaw dropping.”  Oil producing counties are brainstorming these problems plus growing infrastructure concerns in advance of the 2011 Legislature.  The counties expect state assistance to alleviate some of the pressures.

A single prisoner is consuming the entire medical budget of the Cass County jail.  Authorities won’t say who he is or what’s the problem.  Forum Editor Matt Von Pinnon hints that a person with an expensive medical problem might commit a crime to obtain treatment.  The Forum is asking the county for more information about the incident and, if necessary, may seek an opinion from the state attorney general.

DAKTOIDS: Hey, it’s just ND.  Linton was devastated by floods in 2009 and was threatened again last spring -- now, it has a drought, no rain for a month and a half . . . Picture three yards and a cloud of very black dust -- Beulah bested Hazen 21-20 in overtime to win the Coal Bowl football game . . . The attraction of oil -- July airline boardings in Williston were up nearly 50 percent from last year.  All ND cities served by commercial airlines hit 10-year boarding records, except Fargo . . . The number of licensed grain elevators in ND has leveled off around 400 -- average capacity is just under one million bushels.