Dakota Beacon

FOOTBALL SEASON SHRINKS  UND and NDSU are both members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference which will be playing no league games this fall.  UND’s former conference, the Big Sky, has also opted out of fall play.  Additionally, the NCAA has called off the FCS Playoffs.  NDSU hopes to play three games this fall and eight MVFC games in the spring, while UND’s plans for the fall are still unclear.

“WELCOME TO NORTH DAKOTA  Be Legendary.”  This is the wording on new billboards at five major entry points to the state:  Two on the Montana border and one each for Minnesota, South Dakota and Canada.  The background for the lettering is a paradise-like picture of the ND Badlands.

MORE MEDICAL MUSCLE  They may not have seen welcome signs, but 500 medical personnel from 38 other states came to ND since March.  Of those, over 200 were doctors and 90 were nurses.  They are the result of an executive order by Gov. Burgum to allow health care professionals licensed in good standing in other states to practice in ND.  This was one of two efforts to give the state more health care muscle during the pandemic.  The other initiative made it easier for retired and inactive nurses to return to work.

ND IS STRUGGLING to control the coronavirus.  In the past seven days, ND had 120 new cases per 100,000 residents, compared to MN, MT and SD which are tightly grouped around an average of 75 (pretty much the middle of all states).  New cases in ND are moving from east to west — the Bismarck/Mandan area is still a hotspot, but is being joined by Stark County (Dickinson) and some of the Indian reservations.  In total cases per 100,000, ND, MN and SD are tightly bunched around an average of 1,100 (in the middle), while MT is a very low 500.

VACCINE PILOT PROJECT  ND has been selected as one of four states to be part of a federal pilot project for COVID-19 vaccine planning.  A logistical plan will be created for distributing a hypothetical vaccine to residents.  ND was chosen, in part, because its five Indian reservations will provide experience in reaching tribal populations.

POLICE POPULARITY  Across the nation, there are calls to defund or reform police departments — in some cities there is substantial hostility towards police.  The opposite seems to be true in the small towns of ND where national unrest has led to greater support for law enforcement.  Police in a sample of small communities were interviewed by a writer for the ND Newspaper Association — rural police are better known to their residents than police in large communities.  Officers in some rural communities are thanked for their service - an important morale builder.

TRUE NORTH EQUIPMENT is a John Deere dealer with nine locations in the northern Red River Valley in ND and Minnesota.  The dealerships have always had competition for space between routine equipment maintenance and space consuming activities such as assembling new equipment.  The owners are trying a unique solution — they have acquired a 66,000-square-foot industrial building in Grand Forks to receive, assemble and refurbish farm equipment.  New equipment often arrives from the factory knocked down on flat-bed trucks.  The building has large overhead cranes to facilitate offloading and assembly.

SOUTH DAKOTA’S SALES TAX for the first half of the year was better than the legislative forecast.  This is due in large part to the state not issuing a statewide lockdown.  The state’s per capita coronavirus cases are near the national average. See comment about Sweden (below).

SWEDEN WAS BAD BEFORE IT WASN’T  Sweden took a risk by using a light touch to control coronavirus.  It left precautions largely up to the judgment of individual residents.  At first it looked like a bad bet, Sweden had more per capita cases and deaths than similar countries.  But as more time elapsed, its health losses began to fall in line with other European countries and its loss of GDP was less than Europe and the U.S.  The final score is not in, but the Swedish model is gaining respect.

TAKE YOUR CHANCES  Health officials are warily watching the Sturgis Motorcyle Rally.  Will it be a mini-disaster and spread coronavirus infections to many states, or will rally officials manage to keep a lid on the danger?  GF Herald columnist Chuck Haga visited earlier rallies as a reporter, but is studying this 80th rally from a distance because he expects many will ignore masks and social distancing.  Some states are contemplating a quarantine for returning riders. 

CHINESE COUNTERFEIT  In 2007, Canada opened a container port in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, which became the shortest route from China to North America.  Today, several 2-mile long container trains leave the port each day on the Canadian National Railway headed for the U.S. Midwest.  They angle southeasterly across Canada and enter the U.S. at International Falls, Minnesota, making it the busiest international rail crossing in North America.  At International Falls, 30 custom officers are dedicated to detecting counterfeit goods.  All containers are X-rayed and suspicious containers are removed from the trains by big forklifts and opened for inspection.  Over $8 million in phony merchandise has been stopped this year.

DAKTOIDS:  Elmer Petersen (91), creator of the World’s Largest Buffalo in Jamestown, has died.  He was an art teacher at Jamestown College . . . The Fargo Police Department is in the process of acquiring body cameras . . . No mandate yet, but as coronavirus cases rose in ND, Gov. Burgum announced a new campaign to encourage face masks . . . ND has 35,800 (5%) foreign-born residents — the largest number are from the Philippines.