SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - APRIL 24, 2015
MOVING UP Income tax information for 2012 recently became available. Eight ND counties were included among the top 100 counties nationally for average adjusted gross incomes. The eight counties were in the Oil Patch with the exception of Steele County (Finley) on the edge of the Red River Valley. McKenzie County (Watford City) was ranked 11th in the nation with an average adjusted gross income of $134,000 closely followed by Williams County (Williston) at $131,000. Twenty years prior, no ND county made the top 1,000.
MYSTERY FIRES The upper Red River Valley was an inferno -- two dozen fire departments fought fires along I-29 north of Grand Forks and eight people were hospitalized as a result of multi-car accidents caused by the smoke. The fires were the subject of huge speculation and a myriad of warnings. Finally, there was an explanation, simple, but weird. The blazes were started by burning coal blowing off a truck headed south on I-29 before it was stopped by the Highway Patrol near Grand Forks.
UND PRESIDENT ROBERT KELLEY is on the hot seat:
Supporters of the Fighting Sioux nickname took to social media to allege that Kelley was among leaders with an agenda “to rid the University of North Dakota of the Fighting Sioux name and make sure the Sioux people receive the blame.”
Kelley and others were the subject of a no-confidence vote scheduled by the UND Student Senate. The students alleged they were deceived by the UND administration. Kelley signed a compromise agreement to strengthen communications between the administration and students.
NDSU PRESIDENT DEAN BRESCIANI was on an even hotter seat. A whistleblower at the ND University System alleged that 40,000 Bresciani emails were intentionally deleted. She further alleges that there was a coverup by NDUS Chancellor Larry Skogen and Chief of Staff Murray Sagsveen.
CAN YOU BLAME THEM? The ND House denied $135,000 in funds to operate the boyhood home of Lawrence Welk. In 2014, the home had 650 visitors, roughly two a day. At that rate, $135,000 would translate into a cost of over $200 per visitor.
DON’T TRY THIS A troubled 59-year-old Fargo woman was hospitalized with hypothermia after she was found locked in a storage shed. Low April temperatures in Fargo hover around freezing. The woman was believed to have been living in a shed at Bison Storage when she was unable to work the lock and became trapped for three days. Her cries were not heard because of heavy truck traffic. It’s rare, but police sometimes discover people living in the storage units.
STRAIGHT SOUTH TO TROUBLE U.S. Highway 281 starts on ND’s Canadian border and takes a relatively straight path south down the Great Plains to McCallen, Texas on the Mexican Border. Across the Rio Grande from McCallen is Reynosa, one of the most violent cities in Mexico, characterized this week by a former mayor as “completely out of control.”
USE CRIMINALS TO CATCH CRIMINALS "People ask me, 'Well what's the three biggest problems in western North Dakota? I say methamphetamine, methamphetamine and methamphetamine." -- A Bismarck attorney who defends people charged with drug crimes. An article in the Dickinson Press said confidential informants (CIs) are pivotal to drug investigations. The CIs are former criminals who either work for money or leniency in their own drug charges. They are used because in a small city like Dickinson the police investigators can’t pose as drug buyers or sellers because they are too recognizable.
PROBLEM COMING CLOSER "We have a terror recruiting problem in Minnesota." -- U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger in a news conference this week. It was no big surprise -- six young Somali men from Minnesota were arrested by the FBI for conspiring to join the Islamic State and fight in Syria -- four arrests were made in Minneapolis and two in San Diego. “They are not confused young men,” Luger said they have been conspiring for months to join a terrorist organization.
LUGAR TURNED CRYPTIC and added the following statement, “This problem is not a Somali problem. It’s not an immigrant problem. It’s a Minnesota problem. It’s our problem.” These comments seem intended to appease the Minnesota Somali community where activists blame the U.S. government. One said “the United States has ‘failed miserably’ to counter the Islamic State’s sophisticated propaganda.” Another blamed the government for insufficient investment in the Somali community. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said the state needed to do a better job of helping Somali youth.
YOU FINANCE TERRORISM One of the six young men arrested is Guled Omar who has persistently attempted to reach Syria. His single mother has 13 children. One son went to East Africa to join terrorists in 2007 and has disappeared, probably dead. Another son was recently convicted of threatening the FBI. You may ask where do they get the resources to finance their escapades -- the answer, in part, is from you. The StarTrib reported that Guled “had withdrawn $5,000 in cash from his federal education aid debit card in the weeks leading up to the trip.”
DAKTOIDS: “Nikki Artis, 63, of Jamestown, ND, passed away Wednesday, April 15, 2015 at her home of a broken heart.” This unusual explanation was part of her obituary in the Jamestown Sun -- her longtime husband died last year . . . Dickinson State was ranked No. 2 in the nation in job placement -- it helps to be on the edge of the Oil Patch . . . Do Nodaks seem to be waddling more? Probably yes, obesity in ND inceased from 28% in 2010 to 31% in 2013.
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