SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - AUGUST 8, 2016
BELT TIGHTENING “I would say that the challenge of putting together the next budget (2017-19) is probably as big a one as I’ve ever seen in all of my years of hanging around this Capitol.” -- ND Gov. Jack Dalrymple speaking from over 30 years of experience in state government. The current budget will be balanced by further budget cuts and by exhausting the state’s rainy day and general funds. State agencies took across-the-boards budget cuts of 4% in February; additional cuts of 2.5% will bring the total to 6.5%.
BEST-RUN CITIES WalletHub ranks cities on excellence of services. Many top ranked cities are in Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states. Boise was ranked #1, Missoula #4, Bismarck #8 (best overall services), Sioux Falls #9 and Fargo #16.
THE TWIN CITIES HAD WEAKER RANKINGS St. Paul ranked #72 and Minneapolis #96. The lower rankings were caused largely by low scores in education. Minnesota announced another round of disappointing standardized test results. No help from the teachers union -- the state president said the tests “offer little in the way of useful information” and she discouraged students from taking the tests. At a number of Minneapolis high schools over half the students are not taking the tests. The state’s education commissioner was not encouraging. She said, “the state may never boost the academic performance of students of color without first addressing the outside factors that hold children back in school.”
HOSPITAL STAR RATINGS A new federal system rates hospitals on a five-star scale. Mayo Clinic in Rochester was the only five-star hospital in ND and Minnesota. Essentia in Fargo and St. Alexius in Bismarck got four stars. Sanford hospitals in ND and Altru in Grand Forks received three stars. Trinity in Minot got one star.
THEY JUMPED BEFORE THEY WERE PUSHED A Forum article discussed disciplines given to 30 Fargo-Moorhead law enforcement officers in the past year. Several officers resigned before they were fired. One was Jen Meslow, who worked as a Cass County jail officer. In less than a month, she sent 1,178 text messages while working to her boyfriend, who is a Burleigh County (Bismarck) sheriff’s deputy. Sadly, this caused Meslow to fall behind on her job and she had to work overtime.
“THE QUARTZITE BORDER” is the title of a 1988 book by UND history professor Gordon Iseminger. The book tells the story of monuments placed on the ND/SD border by the federal government in 1891, two years after statehood. The border is 360 miles long and the markers were placed every half mile -- the 720 quartzite markers each weighed 800 pounds, were 7-foot tall and were 3-1/2 feet buried and 3-1/2 feet above ground. Over the years, the markers have been covered by roads, stolen and toppled. About half remain. The Border Marker Project is a group of mostly farmers formed to locate and preserve the markers.
THE DAKOTA MARKER is the name given to a smaller (78 pounds) replica of the original monuments, which goes to the winner of the annual football game between NDSU in Fargo and SDSU in Brookings. This year the marker resides in Fargo.
MYSTERY How much did ND Republican gubernatorial candidates spend on the spring primary? It’s definitely in the millions, but may never be entirely known -- ND is the only state that does not require disclosure of campaign spending, nor does it require candidates to make the type of personal financial disclosures common in many other states.
FORUM COLUMNISTS Mike McFeely and Rob Port rarely head the same direction, but they agreed on one thing, NDSU and its President Dean Bresciani were attempting to impose egregious restrictions on media sports reporting at NDSU. McFeely mocked the effort and promised that he would “Always refer to NDSU president Dean Bresciani as ‘His Eminence’ and athletic director Matt Larsen as ‘His Excellency.’ " NDSU quickly ditched the new rules and claimed Bresciani had not been consulted -- this, of course, drew more ridicule from the columnists.
WHO ARE YOU? For most, some type of personal ID is necessary to function in everyday life. This is not the case on Indian reservations -- a tribal member at the Spirit Lake Nation said, “And a lot of people maybe 40 to 50 percent of the adults up here have no legal ID." He said many people in Indian country can't get a ride to update their IDs, and couldn't afford to pay for it if they did. The tribes praised a judge’s decision to temporarily strike down ND’s requirement for voter ID.
IT’S OK TO IDENTIFY RACE OF VICTIMS The Minneapolis Star Tribune is very touchy about identifying the race of criminals. The U. of Minnesota has the same reluctance regarding campus crime. The most common explanation is they do not wish to create racial stereotypes. Not so on victims. Police have recently twice warned Latinos in certain sections of Minneapolis they may be targeted for robbery, particularly, as they leave or arrive home. No indication about whom they should be wary.
HERE ARE THE RULES: If you are a nonblack person participating in Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Minnesota, you may not speak for or about the group, or otherwise exercise your white privilege. All BLM meetings exclude whites. The intent of the rules is to highlight black voices and to require nonblacks to defer to black leadership and take a secondary role.
DAKTOIDS: The 2018 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Las Vegas will feature a men’s hockey game between UND and the U. of Minnesota . . . The Deuce of August celebration in Mountain, ND, is said to be the largest Icelandic event in the U.S. The town, which has less than 100 residents, had 97 visitors from Iceland . . . About 40% of ND Indians live in poverty, a rate similar to Minnesota and Montana. Half of SD Indians live in poverty.
BEST-RUN CITIES WalletHub ranks cities on excellence of services. Many top ranked cities are in Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states. Boise was ranked #1, Missoula #4, Bismarck #8 (best overall services), Sioux Falls #9 and Fargo #16.
THE TWIN CITIES HAD WEAKER RANKINGS St. Paul ranked #72 and Minneapolis #96. The lower rankings were caused largely by low scores in education. Minnesota announced another round of disappointing standardized test results. No help from the teachers union -- the state president said the tests “offer little in the way of useful information” and she discouraged students from taking the tests. At a number of Minneapolis high schools over half the students are not taking the tests. The state’s education commissioner was not encouraging. She said, “the state may never boost the academic performance of students of color without first addressing the outside factors that hold children back in school.”
HOSPITAL STAR RATINGS A new federal system rates hospitals on a five-star scale. Mayo Clinic in Rochester was the only five-star hospital in ND and Minnesota. Essentia in Fargo and St. Alexius in Bismarck got four stars. Sanford hospitals in ND and Altru in Grand Forks received three stars. Trinity in Minot got one star.
THEY JUMPED BEFORE THEY WERE PUSHED A Forum article discussed disciplines given to 30 Fargo-Moorhead law enforcement officers in the past year. Several officers resigned before they were fired. One was Jen Meslow, who worked as a Cass County jail officer. In less than a month, she sent 1,178 text messages while working to her boyfriend, who is a Burleigh County (Bismarck) sheriff’s deputy. Sadly, this caused Meslow to fall behind on her job and she had to work overtime.
“THE QUARTZITE BORDER” is the title of a 1988 book by UND history professor Gordon Iseminger. The book tells the story of monuments placed on the ND/SD border by the federal government in 1891, two years after statehood. The border is 360 miles long and the markers were placed every half mile -- the 720 quartzite markers each weighed 800 pounds, were 7-foot tall and were 3-1/2 feet buried and 3-1/2 feet above ground. Over the years, the markers have been covered by roads, stolen and toppled. About half remain. The Border Marker Project is a group of mostly farmers formed to locate and preserve the markers.
THE DAKOTA MARKER is the name given to a smaller (78 pounds) replica of the original monuments, which goes to the winner of the annual football game between NDSU in Fargo and SDSU in Brookings. This year the marker resides in Fargo.
THEY MAKE BREAK EVEN Devils Lake leaders were thrilled in 2012 when Ultra Green chose the city as a location to make food containers out of wheat straw. The city jumped in with $2 million based on UG’s promise to create 400 jobs. Top employment barely cleared 40 jobs and UG closed in 2015. Devils Lake was sore and prepared a lawsuit. UG said please don’t sue, we’ll give you our building. Last week the city received the building appraised a few years ago at $2.3 million.
OOPS OF THE MONTH KLJ engineers designed and the city of Dickinson built a splendid 150-foot water tower. It was then discovered that they couldn't get water up the tower, and, even if they could, the pressure of the water coming out would be too great. The tower was twice as high as it should be. KLJ admitted an engineering error and the tower will be shortened to 72 feet at their expense.
MYSTERY How much did ND Republican gubernatorial candidates spend on the spring primary? It’s definitely in the millions, but may never be entirely known -- ND is the only state that does not require disclosure of campaign spending, nor does it require candidates to make the type of personal financial disclosures common in many other states.
FORUM COLUMNISTS Mike McFeely and Rob Port rarely head the same direction, but they agreed on one thing, NDSU and its President Dean Bresciani were attempting to impose egregious restrictions on media sports reporting at NDSU. McFeely mocked the effort and promised that he would “Always refer to NDSU president Dean Bresciani as ‘His Eminence’ and athletic director Matt Larsen as ‘His Excellency.’ " NDSU quickly ditched the new rules and claimed Bresciani had not been consulted -- this, of course, drew more ridicule from the columnists.
WHO ARE YOU? For most, some type of personal ID is necessary to function in everyday life. This is not the case on Indian reservations -- a tribal member at the Spirit Lake Nation said, “And a lot of people maybe 40 to 50 percent of the adults up here have no legal ID." He said many people in Indian country can't get a ride to update their IDs, and couldn't afford to pay for it if they did. The tribes praised a judge’s decision to temporarily strike down ND’s requirement for voter ID.
IT’S OK TO IDENTIFY RACE OF VICTIMS The Minneapolis Star Tribune is very touchy about identifying the race of criminals. The U. of Minnesota has the same reluctance regarding campus crime. The most common explanation is they do not wish to create racial stereotypes. Not so on victims. Police have recently twice warned Latinos in certain sections of Minneapolis they may be targeted for robbery, particularly, as they leave or arrive home. No indication about whom they should be wary.
HERE ARE THE RULES: If you are a nonblack person participating in Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Minnesota, you may not speak for or about the group, or otherwise exercise your white privilege. All BLM meetings exclude whites. The intent of the rules is to highlight black voices and to require nonblacks to defer to black leadership and take a secondary role.
DAKTOIDS: The 2018 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Las Vegas will feature a men’s hockey game between UND and the U. of Minnesota . . . The Deuce of August celebration in Mountain, ND, is said to be the largest Icelandic event in the U.S. The town, which has less than 100 residents, had 97 visitors from Iceland . . . About 40% of ND Indians live in poverty, a rate similar to Minnesota and Montana. Half of SD Indians live in poverty.
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