SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - DECEMBER 29, 2013
The ND economy has been blazing hot for several years. Expect some cooling in 2014 as commodity prices head south. The director of the Department of Mineral Resources sees “an economically ‘soft year’ ahead for state oil production.” Oil fell to $73 per barrel in November. Wheat and corn don’t look any better. Wheat is around $6 a bushel -- a drop of 22% for the year to date. Corn isn’t helping -- it’s down nearly 40% this year.
Clear your calendar -- Schmid’s Ten Biggest ND Stories of 2013 will burst on the scene on New Year’s Day. Of course, the Associated Press and the state’s newspapers have their own lists, but let’s face it, they are pale imitations. The AP made new laws restricting abortion their biggest story. There were a scattering of stories related to the oil boom, white supremacist Craig Cobb got a few more moments in the sun, and the AP’s final story was about the locked-out American Crystal sugar workers. About 400 returned to work after 20 months; 900 employees retired or resigned during the impasse.
Technology is changing farming -- not just equipment, but seed and crop technologies. This creates an opening for new, innovative companies. Peterson Farm Seed in Harwood is such a company. Wheat is giving way to corn and soybeans in ND, because of seeds that are Roundup Ready (reference to a Monsanto herbicide) and better tolerate growing conditions in the state. PFS employs 40 people and sources seeds from 20,000 plots. The Forum says PFS is “the largest independent, corn and soybean seed company in the region.” PFS has an advantage because its seeds are tailored to the Dakotas and eastern Minnesota, while larger competitors have seeds that must sell across a much wider geography.
UND’s new football coach is nicknamed Bubba and is a tough German that comes from Zeeland, ND (Emmons County). Do you want to know more? Bubba Schweigart (51) is a Jamestown College graduate who was most recently the football defensive coordinator at S. Illinois University. Previously he was an assistant coach at UND for 15 seasons. If it makes you feel better, former President Bill Clinton was also a “Bubba.”
German-Russian immigrants were particularly tough and resilient people. Their descendants, who live in Emmons, McIntosh and Logan counties (the Sauerkraut Belt), were sorely tested Monday of this week. The three counties lost electrical power at a time when the temperature in Bismarck was minus 31 degrees.
“There’s nobody that’s worse off than us.” -- Ag Commissioner Roger Johnson in 2003 lamenting the seemingly irreversible trend of young people leaving ND. Today, ten years later, the state has the top spot on MoneyRates’ list of Best States for Young Adults. Tessa Sandstrom of the ND Petroleum Council says a growing and diversifying economy has created a kind of excitement that attracts people from across America.
Not quite what they had in mind. The Legislature passed the Outdoor Heritage Fund which provided $30 million primarily as a conservation measure to moderate the effect of oil development. Alert communities were quick to jump on. Among the requests is one from Carrington in the amount of $13,000 for a new restroom and shelter facility on their golf course. In a Minot Daily News poll, three out of four readers voted against using fund money for playgrounds and golf courses.
"He's a tin-man Nazi, we call them Hollywood Nazis." -- Even Tom Metzger, former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon, was quick to sneer at a right wing colleague of Craig Cobb, the wacky little white supremacist who plotted to take over the town of Leith (pop. 19), ND.
There’s no one to chase ambulances: four ND counties have no attorney; eight have one. The Legislature funded a program in conjunction with the UND Law School to place three law students in summer clerkships with judges in rural counties. The program hopes to encourage young attorneys to practice in rural communities.
What will they do with them? U.S. customs agents seized 25,000 counterfeit “Beats” headphones at the ND Portal border crossing. The phonies were found in a container on a Canadian Pacific train. The container originated in China and was headed for Chicago. Over 70 percent of counterfeit merchandise seized by customs comes from China.
Nonprofit fundraising in Fargo has a peculiar feature. Organizations such as Team Makers (NDSU athletics) and the Plains Art Museum are allowed to raise funds through charitable gaming. The nonprofits oversee and staff blackjack and pull tab games at licensed sites, mostly bars.
DAKTOIDS: The Grand Forks Lamoureux sisters led the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team to a 4-1 victory over Canada in front of the largest crowd ever to see a women’s hockey game in ND. The contest was a prelude to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia . . . The NDSU Bison football team will roll on to Frisco, Texas, for their third straight national FCS championship game after defeating New Hampshire 52-14. Nearly 19,000 fans posed for ESPN cameras in the Fargodome . . . ND has oil and wheat, but doesn’t have Christmas trees. The official tree at the Capitol is a balsam fir from Wisconsin.
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