Dakota Beacon

A CUTE BUFFALO CALF caught the attention of a 55-year-old Iowa woman with a group of Sturgis Rally motorcyclists in South Dakota.  Despite numerous signs and warnings about keeping a safe distance from buffalo, the woman approached the calf.  You can guess what happened next — the buffalo mother charged the woman, tossed her violently and ripped off her pants.  She fell to the ground unconscious and the buffalo herd ran away.  The woman escaped serious injury.  Lesson learned?

WRONG DIRECTION  "The numbers are not headed in the right direction in the state of North Dakota right now." -- Gov. Doug Burgum.  The state announced Thursday record highs in the number of positive COVID-19 cases in one day (274) and active cases (1,394 ).  Burleigh County (Bismarck) continues as a hot spot and has the largest number of active cases, while Stark County (Dickinson) is second in the number of active cases.

BUDGET OPTIMISM  ND’s Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner said he expects the current budget cycle to finish next summer "in pretty good shape.”  He was referring to the two-year 2019-21 cycle which ends June 2021.  Lawmakers learned that overall state revenues for the general fund, which funds general government operations, were 3.4% ahead of forecast in July and state officials are optimistic that revenues have bottomed out.

THE JASPER HOTEL is scheduled to open 125 luxurious rooms in early 2021 and will be a central feature of the Block 9 project on Broadway in Fargo.  A press release gushed that “the hotel will act as a beacon of Fargo's community, incorporating the arts and culture that make the city special.”  That’s not all, the Rosewild restaurant will feature “rustic Nordic dishes and ingredients for up to 54 guests, a nod to the strong Norwegian heritage of North Dakota’s initial settlers who arrived in the 1800’s.”

ROAD TRAINS  Australia is one of the few countries to permit road trains, trucks that pull two, three, even more trailers on major roadways.  Larry Luick, a ND legislator, is proposing a road train test in ND.  If he is able to obtain approval in ND, federal approval would still be required to open access to interstates I-29 and I-94, where the road trains would be most feasible.  The appeal of the trains is to improve the efficiency of the trucking industry and alleviate the shortage of drivers.

DESIGNS FOR TR LIBRARY  The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library moved a step forward this week when three international architectural firms presented their detailed designs.  Snohetta (Oslo), Studio Gang (Chicago) and Henning Larsen (Copenhagen) made presentations in Medora before the library board, Gov. Burgum and potential donors.  Library foundation CEO Ed O’Keefe is confident they will raise the $100 million necessary to receive a $50 million endowment from the state of ND.  O’Keefe estimates the library will open in 2024 or 2025.  A Fargo Forum article pictured the designs in detail and a followup poll showed about half of those in the poll favored the Snohetta design.

HAT IN HAND  The presidents of UND and NDSU teamed up in 2018 to ask the Legislature for $100 million of research money to be split between the two schools.  The proposal did not get legs in the 2019 Legislature.  Dean Bresciani (NDSU) and Andrew Armacost (UND’s new president) are back and propose a split of 15% of Legacy Fund earnings up to $45 million.  A GF Herald editorial backed their proposal, but in a period of weak state revenues it’s a hard sell.

FORBES has named Fargo to its list of top 25 cities for retirement.  Fargo was the only city to have made the list all 10 years that Forbes has compiled it.  Rochester (MN), Sioux Falls and Des Moines were also on the list.

“IT COULD BE A REAL ZOO” — A wildlife specialist commenting on the impact of a closed Canadian border on duck hunting in ND.  Thousands of duck hunters who usually go to Canada will be going to wetlands in ND.  The specialist said “if they get blasted” the ducks and geese could temporarily backtrack into Canada.

BREMER BANK in Minnesota has numerous ND branches.  The Bremer Trust is the controlling shareholder of the bank and makes substantial charitable donations in the states in which the bank operates using dividends from the bank.  The Minnesota Attorney General wants to replace the trustees of the trust, who want the bank to be sold.  Management of the bank wants it to remain independent.

IN OTHER STATES  It would have been hard to imagine a few months ago, but Minnesota’s Mall of America, sometimes billed as the country’s largest mall, has missed mortgage payments and risks foreclosure . . . The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is over and they are tallying the damage: 5 deaths, injuries up, most categories of crime up, but DUIs down.  Attendance was surprisingly strong.  It remains to be seen if the Rally is responsible for the spread of coronavirus cases.

ACKNOWLEDGE THE OBVIOUS  “But why can’t the University of Minnesota in effect sponsor a professional football team to compete against teams backed by the universities in Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin?” — Lee Schafer, columnist for the Star Tribune.  He said big-time college football is no longer amateur — it’s a professional league.  He asked, “Could this be the year (because of the pandemic) college athletics finally undergo fundamental change?”  Under the scheme he proposes the players wouldn’t even need new football uniforms.

DAKTOIDS:  A GF Herald editorial said ND should shift from 80-day legislative sessions every two years to annual 40-day sessions.  The editorial cites, as one reason, the volatility of ND’s commodity economy . . . A district court found that Travisia Martin, the Democratic nominee for ND Insurance Commissioner, did not meet residency requirements.