Dakota Beacon

ND WELL-REPRESENTED  Both NDSU and UND will be hosting a Saturday afternoon FCS playoff game this weekend.  Both are in the playoffs as at-large teams.  NDSU will play E. Washington and UND will play Missouri State.  If they win and continue, both teams probably lose home field advantage.

JAMESTOWN SHOWS IT’S SERIOUS  The city is proposing a $60 million Buffalo City Park to include an amphitheater, museums, rides and cultural educational opportunities.  The sponsors seek to obtain financing from the ND Legacy Fund’s new Infrastructure Fund.  The Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. has authorized $600,000 for work on a preliminary estimate and design for the park.  This would also appear to be a gesture to signal the Legacy Fund that Jamestown and Stutsman County are solidly behind the project — final approval for the $600,000 grant requires a sign-off by both.

GRAND FORKS AFB is being considered by the Pentagon Space Development Agency for a satellite operations facility.  The facility would operate SDA satellites and also link them with unmanned aerial systems.  The SDA Director said Grand Forks was chosen for its expertise in tactical aviation and drone operations.  The mission is not yet approved and its budget and scope have not been disclosed.

ND JOINS NEIGHBORS  Gov. Burgum has signed a “Stand-Your-Ground” law broadening the circumstances when Nodaks can use deadly force to defend themselves.  ND joins Montana and SD in this regard; Minnesota has not adopted the law.  In a Forum poll, 58% favored the law.

REGRETTABLE PRECEDENT?  Rob Port points out that many states responded to ND’s request for assistance during the DAPL protests, but Minnesota declined.  Port believes Mark Dayton, governor of Minnesota at the time of the DAPL protests, was the obstacle.  Dayton’s response drew a letter of dismay from the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association, who felt he was setting a regrettable precedent.   Minnesota turned to other states for law enforcement backup ahead of this week’s decision in the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer.

MINNESOTA NICE was the subject this week of a column by Mike Jacobs.  He reviewed three related New York Times articles by writers from Minneapolis.  The articles considered why there are such large gaps between Black Minnesotans and white Minnesotans.  Here is a simplified version of their conclusions:  There is a “Minnesota Paradox,” a veneer of tolerance hiding buried racism.  One of the writers said, “Unlike places where racism was (and is) open and transparent, racism in Minnesota is obscured by progressive policy.”  The writers thought reality belies those policies.

A DISSENT  There has been a wave of elation and relief in Minneapolis about the guilty verdict in the Chauvin case.  StarTribune commentary editor D.J. Tice had a different take.  Make no mistake, he believes Chauvin guilty, but thinks it should have been the lesser charge of manslaughter, because the state failed to prove deliberate harm “beyond reasonable doubt.”  He noted something else that may have future significance.  Elected officials from President Biden to Congresswoman Waters of California made, in his judgement, unfortunate public statements about the defendant.  The city of Minneapolis announced a $27 million wrongful death settlement in the middle of the trial.  The effect of these and other actions may have pressured the jury and provides a basis for appeal. 

EXTREME DROUGHT  ND continues to be in the worst shape (for drought) in the Upper Midwest and is the only state in the region that has extreme drought conditions spread across the state. Over 75% of the state is now in extreme drought conditions.

“IT ISN’T OVER ’TIL IT’S OVER” — Lloyd Omdahl quoted Yogi Berra, but he was referring to ND’s efforts to reach a high rate of immunization.  There are concerns that southwestern ND may become an obstacle.  Omdahl thinks ND “political culture” is the major factor and rugged individualism in the southwestern part of the state could end up costing lives.

DEL TIEDEMAN commanded five C-47s in a high risk mission during the WWII Battle of the Bulge.  Tiedeman, who died last week at age 100, was a reader of this digest.  He was born in Verona, ND (20 miles southwest of Lisbon), graduated from NDSU and eventually became president of Cal Gas in California.  He was a patriot and a humble, gracious and honorable man.

RETURNING HOME  Chuck Haga’s column in the GF Herald speaks about ND lives which “come full circle.”  The related picture is drawn by Gary Gunderson, a retired Lutheran pastor.  He describes how people who grew up in small ND towns found “the economy of Dakota . . . too fragile and too narrow to retain them all.”  So after lives in cities they return “back home where they always belonged but couldn't stay.”  Their friends and relatives wonder why they choose to be buried and “spend eternity in this godforsaken, wind-blown, dry, brown, unnamed piece of prairie.”  One explained, “the Dakota wind and rain and snow and sun will look down upon me.  And I shall be at peace.  For I will be at home.”

ALCHEMY  Like other oil producing areas of ND, the MHA Nation at Ft. Berthold still has plenty of flared gas.  The MHA are planning to use their flared gas to power large greenhouses to “achieve food sovereignty” for the tribes.  The project, called Native Green Grow (NG2), will grow vegetables for the tribes and sales outside the reservation.  Construction of NG2 is expected to begin next spring near Parshall, ND. 

DAKTOIDS  A planned Amazon facility in West Fargo will hire about 100 people — that would be on top of a nearly completed 1.3 million- square-foot center near Hector Airport, which will hire an estimated 500 workers . . . The price of oil at $57 a barrel is considerably higher than the $40 in the ND budget — a GF Herald editorial advised “Make hay while the sun shines”. . . The Minneapolis StarTribune is gaga about NDSU quarterback Trey Lance (from Marshall, Minn.) who is expected to be drafted in the first round of the NFL draft — the SF 49ers have been sniffing around.