Dakota Beacon

The period from 2001 through 2010 was known as the “lost decade” in the domestic economy -- stock market and real estate values tumbled and jobs went nowhere. ND didn’t seem to notice -- it was in a period of growth and greater economic diversity. Here’s a stark illustration: From 2000 to 2012 ND added 100,000 jobs -- the state had 328,000 jobs in 2000 and 430,000 jobs in 2012. That’s job growth of over 30 percent in a state with an estimated 2012 population of 700,000.

There is no shortage of ideas about how ND should use its growing state revenues. A letter to the Wall Street Journal could easily have had the state in mind. The writer mentioned that blue states have aging infrastructures, unmanageable pensions and entrenched unions. He said, “The real lesson that up-and-coming red states should learn from their aging blue-state brothers is to plan for the future. Save your pennies while you boom. Don’t make promises you cannot afford to keep.”

A Wall Street Journal article included a ND map with color-coded counties. The yellow counties, mostly in the eastern and southern parts of the state, had average listed home prices under $100,000. The deep red counties, mostly in the northwest, had average prices over $200,000. The gist of the article was there is a critical shortage of affordable housing in the Bakken region counties. Federal and state income limits for subsidized housing lag several years behind current market rates in the oil patch. Workers at McDonald’s in Williston make too much to qualify for low-income housing. Watford City has trailer homes on school property for teachers .

“The most strident of the Luddities spent hundreds of hours attacking women through restrictive and unconstitutional anti-abortion laws.” -- You could tell Darrell Dorgan wasn’t enthusiastic about ND’s new abortion laws. In a letter to state newspapers, Darrell had other words for the legislators, such as “theocratic and fundamentalist pecksniffians.” He felt the lawmakers should have funded one of his favorite projects: “a transportation system so that people without vehicles could travel thoughout the state.” No mention of how that would be done or at what cost. Darrell is a former head of the ND Cowboy Hall of Fame and is a relative of former U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan.

When Hamid Shirvani accepted the leadership of the ND University System a year ago, he probably didn’t anticipate becoming a weekly news item. He was there again this week, the subject of a political style attack by a Ellen Chaffee, a former ND college president. Another article reported that Shirvani’s previous residence in Turlock, California, was significantly under assessed due to an error by the Stanislaus County assessor. Shirvani was president of Stanislaus State University. But the eye-catching part of that article was that the house sold in March for about $600,000, although subject to a Bank of America mortgage of $1,200,000. The “short sale” was scrutinized by the Modesto Bee, a newspaper in California’s Central Valley.

GF Herald Publisher Mike Jacobs called Shirvani ND’s “person-of-the winter.” Jacobs acknowledges Shirvani’s problems and missteps, even that he might not survive. But Jacobs says, “His ideas are powerful enough that the state should look beyond the personal charges and consider how to achieve what he’s suggested: a strong, unified (University) system. As it happens, there’s a word for what Shirvani suggests. The word is rigor. That’s what the North Dakota system lacks.”

The Rough Rider Hall of Fame in the ND Capitol contains portraits of 38 award winners. Louise Erdrich is about to be the 39th. The portraits are nontraditional -- they include symbols representing events in the lives of the subjects. For instance, the portrait of Phil Jackson contains a trophy and a Chicago Bulls logo; Eric Sevaroid has a microphone and is backed by a world map. Artists describe the pictures as montages. Vern Skaug (71) has done 21 of the portraits and is completing a work on Erdrich. Not everyone is enthralled -- Patrick Tupa (61), a full-time portrait artist in Fargo, thinks Skaug’s work looks commercial. He says, “It’s almost like an ad.” Tupa would like to have the job and take the portraits in a traditional, fine-arts direction.

ND lives with a contradiction -- the state’s laws and regulations to prevent corruption rank very low, yet the state seems to have little official corruption outside the reservations. Columnist Lloyd Omdahl thinks the state is vulnerable to corruption, but its politicians can’t be relied upon to improve ethics enforcement. He believes it will take a scandal or a citizens’ initiative to change the status quo.

Controversy continues to swirl around the Spirit Lake Reservation and its social service issues. Most residents of the reservation live in Benson County which wraps around the south and west sides of Devils Lake. Reservation problems pose a special burden for Benson County, where about half of the residents are white and the other half Indian, yet 90 percent of the county’s social services clients are Indian. The county is expected to compensate for deficiencies in reservation social services, although the county receives almost no taxes from the reservation.

In the past year, 65 law enforcement officers have been added in ND’s western region. But the bad guys are increasing faster. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says organized crime and other illegal activity is increasing sharply in the oil patch. He has asked the Legislature for $10 million for additional law enforcement support.

I occasionally summarize the obituaries of interesting Nodaks -- you may wonder why. David Rupkalvis, editor of the Williston Herald, says it well: “This may sound a little weird, but reading through the obituaries is one of my favorite parts of the job. No, I am not that interested in death, but reading about the men and women who died gives me a small glimpse into their lives. Way too many times, I feel regret that I didn’t get to meet these people and tell a story about their lives.”

Through most of its history, ND was the most rural state in the country. Growing up in ND was a far cry from life in the cities. The late Charles Blomquist (76) of Edmore began working in the fields when he was seven years old and never left -- he farmed until the time of his death. Like so many farmers, he had a great love of farming and the land. Blomquist acquired skills that came from farming -- he was also a custom combiner and long haul trucker. Charles had a round, smiling Norwegian face; he looks like someone you would have liked to know.