SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - DECEMBER 29, 2014
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE LINE Last year the NDSU football team romped to a third national championship in the Football Championship Subdivision. This year two playoff games were nail-biters, as the Bison edged South Dakota State and Coastal Carolina, but in the semifinal game, the Bison crushed Sam Houston State 35-3. NDSU will play for its fourth straight championship in Frisco, Texas on Jan. 10.
BUBBA LOOKED DISCOURAGED The GF Herald pictured coach Bubba Schweigert leading his UND football team on to the field at San Jose State. They took an awful whomping. Bubba’s first season ended with a 5-7 record. Worse, the team had its lowest attendance since the opening of the Alerus Center in 2001. Bubba’s off-season assignment is to drum up support for the football program. Here’s a tip to energize everyone (players, students, fans and statewide supporters) -- bring back the “Fighting Sioux” nickname and logo.
A NEW TYPE OF REFUGEE An official in Sweden estimated that no more than 25 percent of refugees from Africa would ever become self-sufficient. A social services director in Cass County, ND was more optimistic, believing that about 50 percent could become self-sufficient. Lutheran Social Services plans to place about 400 refugees in ND in fiscal 2015, a drop form 500 refugees statewide in 2014. An official in Fargo said most new refugees are from the Middle East and have in some fashion worked for the U.S. Government. She said, “They assimilate really well into the community. They often are highly educated and have a great understanding of English already.”
SHOPPING IS BETTER IN ND One of the phenomenons of the holiday season is shoplifting gangs, usually from the Twin Cities, who have been hitting stores in ND’s I-94 corridor. A 21-year-old black couple from Minneapolis are wanted for large thefts at Best Buy and Target in Bismarck.
MESS OF AMERICA Shopping wasn’t very good at the Mall of America when, according to the StarTribune, “Thousands of demonstrators jammed the Mall of America rotunda Saturday as part of a national day of protest, disrupting the Twin Cities largest retail center on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.” Black Lives Matter had online posts exulting the closing of the mall and saying, “The police and security shut down the ENTIRE mall for hours -- amazing work everyone!”
ATTACK THE MESSENGER! This summer only 56 percent of UND law school graduates taking the ND bar exam for the first time passed -- that compares to passing percentages of 69-83 percent in the past. You might think this would lead to questioning the quality and preparation of the law students. Instead, a number of law school deans attached their names to a letter drafted by Kathryn Rand, Dean of the UND Law School, demanding a “thorough investigation of administration and scoring” of the July bar exam. The deans took special offense at a statement by the president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners to the effect that groups taking the recent test might be “less able” than prior groups.
A BOLD APPROACH Grand Forks through its Public Arts Commission in undertaking an ambitious project to differentiate the city with public art. The GF Herald calls the project “exciting and important.” In a letter to the Herald, commission chairwoman Laurel Reuter (also the executive director of the ND Museum of Art) urged a bold approach to choosing art for the city. She indicated most people feel “I like what I know” and beginners “typically favor the most conservative and traditional -- a vase of flowers, a landscape painting, a wildlife picture.” But as time passes, she said beginners become bored and gravitate to more difficult art.
A MORE CAUTIOUS APPROACH Herald opinion page editor Tom Dennis urged the commission to think of GF as a “beginner” community, not in a condescending way, but as a place where people, at first, will favor more “conservative and traditional” art. He felt it was better early on “to cement the project’s popularity” and not test sensibilities or offend traditionalists.
JOHN STRAND WILL TRY AGAIN. He is co-owner of the High Plains Reader and announced he will make a second bid for the Fargo City Commission. His previous campaign was torpedoed when he projected a campaign message on a city water tower -- the Cass County prosecutor ruled the tactic was illegal. Strand describes himself as a “fiscal-tightwad-social-liberal” and said he wants to create a New American Commission that would address the needs of Fargo’s recent immigrants. He also plans to focus on “hot buttons,” such as rail safety and the shipping of oil through the city.
BALANCING THE INS AND OUTS “We can’t let our foot off the pedal here.” -- Watford City Mayor Brent Sanford insisting the city must move forward on infrastructure projects, even though there may be a downturn in Bakken oil drilling. Watford City has $65 million in projects ready to bid in January. Williston has $75 million of shovel-ready projects. Larger Oil Patch cities face a dilemma -- their infrastructure lags growth and they need to catch up, but they also must stay aware that a drop in drilling activity could curtail funding. Williston Mayor Howard Klug said, “If it gets to the point where we need to start canceling projects, we’ll make a list.”
DICKINSON IS ROARING The city has 43 major infrastructure projects in its 2014-15 plan. The population is estimated to be between 25 and 30 thousand and is expected to double in the next decade. Dickinson is considering annexing an additional 6,100 acres (9-1/2 square miles). City planners are not the only ones to notice. The FBI says the Country Boy Crips gang in Bakersfield, California has moved up to 20 members to Dickinson. The FBI says the CBC is a violent gang which deals in drugs and women, and commits murders.
WHEEL FISH HOUSES What are they? They are a special type of travel trailer with holes in the floor which can be towed onto a frozen lake and lowered to the ice for fishing. The trailers are priced from $6,000 to $30,000 and have all the comforts of home. They can double as summer campers -- an East Grand Forks dealer has already sold 40 this winter.
DAKTOIDS: Dickinson is doing its part -- the Census Bureau reports ND’s population is at an all-time high and ND is the fastest-growing state. The state’s population is around 740,000 . . . It looks like ND will finish 2014 with the lowest temperature spread since the record-breaking year of 2002. The spread of 118 degrees, a high of 93 and a low of minus 25, would be considered a large range most places on earth . . . An extraordinary frost caused power lines in central ND to droop with some even lying on the ground.
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