SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - AUGUST 24, 2015
KEEPING SCORE I compared the economies of ND and three similar neighbors (Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming) for the past five years. Minnesota was not included, since it is much larger and more economically diverse than the four smaller states combined. In 2010 ND’s Gross State Product (GSP) was the smallest of the four states, but by 2014 ND’s GSP nearly doubled and now substantially exceeds the other three states. ND’s median household income exceeds that of MT and SD, although WY, another energy state, remains higher.
WHO ARE THE NEIGHBORS? During the past five years ND’s population increased about 10 percent while its three neighbors increased in the low single digits. Non-Hispanic whites range from 83 to 86 percent in the four states and are slowly decreasing as a percentage of the total. Hispanics have increased as a percentage in all four states, but particularly in Wyoming where they are about 10 percent. Hispanics are around 3 percent in the other three states. American Indians are the largest minority in each of the four states, except Wyoming.
"I FEEL A LITTLE SORRY FOR WISCONSIN. They're never going to be able to keep up with Minnesota. It's just pure math. Minnesota's economy is much more diverse, and Wisconsin doesn't have an area like the Twin Cities metropolitan area.” -- Comments by Minnesota’s commissioner of Management and Budget before the Willmar Rotary Club. He reminded Rotarians that Minnesota was recently ranked the nation’s top state for business and said “Minnesota is doing really, really well.”
TRUCK BYPASSES “We battled with the effects of the oil boom, but now with the slowdown, we have a chance to breathe and get some things accomplished.” -- The chair of the Dunn County Commission at a groundbreaking for the construction of a highway bypass in Killdeer. Bypasses have been completed or are near completion in Alexander, Dickinson, New Town, Watford City and Williston -- the result of an ambitious state highway program to get trucks off Oil Patch main streets.
TRUMP How does that sound for the name of a tiny ND town? Craig Cobb is a fan of Donald Trump and would like to change the name of Antler in The Donald’s honor. Antler has around 20 residents and is perched on the Canadian border in Bottineau County. Cobb is a white supremacist who failed to work his magic in Leith, ND, before being chased north. Antler Mayor Bruce Hanson says media attention is the bottom line with Cobb; Hanson suggests “If I was you, I’d just ignore the guy.”
ONE MORE FEDERAL PROGRAM The Standing Rock Reservation straddling the ND/SD border has a 40 percent poverty rate; the Pine Ridge Reservation in SD has a 95 percent poverty and unemployment rate. The Minneapolis Federal Reserve said those are among the reasons it is establishing a Center for Indian Country Development for 45 tribes in its six state district. Many other federal agencies attempt to help the same reservations.
ALL ABOARD Former Three Affiliated Tribes chairman Tex Hall was fond of grandiose schemes. One of his favorites was a gambling yacht intended to ply the Missouri in summer months as an extension of the 4 Bears Casino. It didn’t work -- Hall forgot to check with the National Indian Gaming Commission before spending over a million for the yacht. The 150-seat yacht has been sitting around for three years while the casino got a commercial operator’s license. The yacht is now being used for pleasure cruises on the Missouri River.
THE TAT TRIBAL COUNCIL has asked the U.S. Attorney to investigate Hall’s financial relationship with a murder suspect and Hall’s potential abuse of tribal trust. Hall continues to run the trucking and oil business which is central to the allegations.
THE CROW INDIAN RESERVATION is located just southeast of Billings, Montana. The Crow have large coal deposits, but since U.S. coal demand is shrinking, owners are looking at overseas markets. The Crow, Montana’s largest reservation, agreed to take a minority interest in a proposed coal terminal on Puget Sound in Washington. The terminal faces steep challenges and must pass environmental reviews and obtain permits which are opposed by Puget Sound tribes.
THE SIOUX WERE SILENCED is a group which will hold a rally tomorrow in Grand Forks demanding the immediate resignation of UND President Robert Kelley. The group also wants “North Dakota” to be considered as an alternative to a new UND nickname. A news release indicated delegations from the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes will participate.
ARE THEY ALL PETULANT? The Fargo Forum is unable to keep its fingers out of the UND nickname issue and gleefully stirs the pot. In a recent editorial it called people (including students) advocating the “North Dakota” alternative “a small, but noisy cabal of unreconstructed ‘Fighting Sioux’ fans” and urged UND’s president not “to continue to pander to them.” A letter published in the Forum called the same students “petulant, belligerent and dishonorable.” The Forum seems unimpressed by a recent poll of UND students indicating nearly 70 percent favor considering the “North Dakota” alternative.
JENKINSON “Now that we are rich beyond the dreams of our grandparents, and North Dakota has become one of the most prosperous states in America, we are getting a little cocky in our denunciations of the federal government.” -- Bismarck Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson. He suggested Nodaks look at the history of federal contribution and support in their state and said, “Ask yourself just what North Dakota would look like if the federal government had said, ‘Welcome to statehood. By the way, you will be entirely on your own. Good luck with that. Oh, and start saving your pennies to tame the Missouri River.’”
NARCOTICS ARRESTS are a serious side effect of the ND oil industry. In turn, those arrests result in children entering foster care because of parental substance abuse. Forty percent of the children in foster care In nine southwestern counties are there for that reason.
WHAT WILL YOU HAVE - - chardonnay or cabernet? But wait, there’s another selection, a ND wine. May we offer you a dry rhubarb from Mapleton? A NDSU chemistry professor has a winery there called 4e currently offering five wines made from locally grown products -- it’s the 13th winery licensed in ND. If rhubarb wine doesn’t suit your taste, how about a nice sugar beet variety from another winery?
DAKTOIDS: Almost a billionaire -- Forbes Magazine says Fargo entrepreneur Gary Tharaldson has a net worth of $930 million making him the wealthiest individual in ND.
WHO ARE THE NEIGHBORS? During the past five years ND’s population increased about 10 percent while its three neighbors increased in the low single digits. Non-Hispanic whites range from 83 to 86 percent in the four states and are slowly decreasing as a percentage of the total. Hispanics have increased as a percentage in all four states, but particularly in Wyoming where they are about 10 percent. Hispanics are around 3 percent in the other three states. American Indians are the largest minority in each of the four states, except Wyoming.
"I FEEL A LITTLE SORRY FOR WISCONSIN. They're never going to be able to keep up with Minnesota. It's just pure math. Minnesota's economy is much more diverse, and Wisconsin doesn't have an area like the Twin Cities metropolitan area.” -- Comments by Minnesota’s commissioner of Management and Budget before the Willmar Rotary Club. He reminded Rotarians that Minnesota was recently ranked the nation’s top state for business and said “Minnesota is doing really, really well.”
TRUCK BYPASSES “We battled with the effects of the oil boom, but now with the slowdown, we have a chance to breathe and get some things accomplished.” -- The chair of the Dunn County Commission at a groundbreaking for the construction of a highway bypass in Killdeer. Bypasses have been completed or are near completion in Alexander, Dickinson, New Town, Watford City and Williston -- the result of an ambitious state highway program to get trucks off Oil Patch main streets.
TRUMP How does that sound for the name of a tiny ND town? Craig Cobb is a fan of Donald Trump and would like to change the name of Antler in The Donald’s honor. Antler has around 20 residents and is perched on the Canadian border in Bottineau County. Cobb is a white supremacist who failed to work his magic in Leith, ND, before being chased north. Antler Mayor Bruce Hanson says media attention is the bottom line with Cobb; Hanson suggests “If I was you, I’d just ignore the guy.”
ONE MORE FEDERAL PROGRAM The Standing Rock Reservation straddling the ND/SD border has a 40 percent poverty rate; the Pine Ridge Reservation in SD has a 95 percent poverty and unemployment rate. The Minneapolis Federal Reserve said those are among the reasons it is establishing a Center for Indian Country Development for 45 tribes in its six state district. Many other federal agencies attempt to help the same reservations.
ALL ABOARD Former Three Affiliated Tribes chairman Tex Hall was fond of grandiose schemes. One of his favorites was a gambling yacht intended to ply the Missouri in summer months as an extension of the 4 Bears Casino. It didn’t work -- Hall forgot to check with the National Indian Gaming Commission before spending over a million for the yacht. The 150-seat yacht has been sitting around for three years while the casino got a commercial operator’s license. The yacht is now being used for pleasure cruises on the Missouri River.
THE TAT TRIBAL COUNCIL has asked the U.S. Attorney to investigate Hall’s financial relationship with a murder suspect and Hall’s potential abuse of tribal trust. Hall continues to run the trucking and oil business which is central to the allegations.
THE CROW INDIAN RESERVATION is located just southeast of Billings, Montana. The Crow have large coal deposits, but since U.S. coal demand is shrinking, owners are looking at overseas markets. The Crow, Montana’s largest reservation, agreed to take a minority interest in a proposed coal terminal on Puget Sound in Washington. The terminal faces steep challenges and must pass environmental reviews and obtain permits which are opposed by Puget Sound tribes.
THE SIOUX WERE SILENCED is a group which will hold a rally tomorrow in Grand Forks demanding the immediate resignation of UND President Robert Kelley. The group also wants “North Dakota” to be considered as an alternative to a new UND nickname. A news release indicated delegations from the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes will participate.
ARE THEY ALL PETULANT? The Fargo Forum is unable to keep its fingers out of the UND nickname issue and gleefully stirs the pot. In a recent editorial it called people (including students) advocating the “North Dakota” alternative “a small, but noisy cabal of unreconstructed ‘Fighting Sioux’ fans” and urged UND’s president not “to continue to pander to them.” A letter published in the Forum called the same students “petulant, belligerent and dishonorable.” The Forum seems unimpressed by a recent poll of UND students indicating nearly 70 percent favor considering the “North Dakota” alternative.
JENKINSON “Now that we are rich beyond the dreams of our grandparents, and North Dakota has become one of the most prosperous states in America, we are getting a little cocky in our denunciations of the federal government.” -- Bismarck Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson. He suggested Nodaks look at the history of federal contribution and support in their state and said, “Ask yourself just what North Dakota would look like if the federal government had said, ‘Welcome to statehood. By the way, you will be entirely on your own. Good luck with that. Oh, and start saving your pennies to tame the Missouri River.’”
NARCOTICS ARRESTS are a serious side effect of the ND oil industry. In turn, those arrests result in children entering foster care because of parental substance abuse. Forty percent of the children in foster care In nine southwestern counties are there for that reason.
WHAT WILL YOU HAVE - - chardonnay or cabernet? But wait, there’s another selection, a ND wine. May we offer you a dry rhubarb from Mapleton? A NDSU chemistry professor has a winery there called 4e currently offering five wines made from locally grown products -- it’s the 13th winery licensed in ND. If rhubarb wine doesn’t suit your taste, how about a nice sugar beet variety from another winery?
DAKTOIDS: Almost a billionaire -- Forbes Magazine says Fargo entrepreneur Gary Tharaldson has a net worth of $930 million making him the wealthiest individual in ND.
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