SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - FEBRUARY 10, 2014
Happy 125th Birthday! ND became a state in February 1889, along with SD, Montana and Washington.
What a deal! The federal government through Essential Air Service will pay about $10,000 a day for air service to Denver from Jamestown and Devils Lake. That’s $10,000 a day for each city for a handful of passengers. It’s easy to understand why Jamestown Airport Manager Matt Leitner said, “We are over the moon thrilled with SkyWest (an affiliate of UAL) being awarded the bid.” You might call this the “Go West Young Man” contract -- previously Great Lakes Airlines provided service to Minneapolis from the two ND communities.
It was mentioned last week that Amtrak’s miserable service to Devils Lake grew worse with news that the Empire Builder was rerouted directly from Fargo to Minot. A Devils Lake resort threw up its hands and announced cancellation of the Perch Express fishing package, which brought in anglers on Amtrak, mainly from Minnesota. For the time being, no more merrymaking on the Perch Express.
Drilling in the Oil Patch is slowing down -- the development phase has arrived it's time for fine tuning. UND’s Energy and Environmental Research Center has an $8 million state grant supported by an additional $100 million of resources from the oil industry. It’s all about well-site optimization: how many additional wells can be drilled on one pad, how many geological layers can be tapped, etc. EERC is partnered with Continental Resources on the project.
The latest oil drilling rigs are marvels of efficiency. They can do many things with fewer people and that includes walking the giant rigs around drilling pads. A slight catch, they cost up to $20 million -- about 20 times the price a decade ago. The high prices squeeze out smaller drillers.
Herman Stern who died in 1980 was a member of the family which operated the Straus Clothing stores. His grandchildren have a store in Fargo, but the chain once had a presence in seven other eastern ND cities. Stern was a community and business leader with an astonishing list of accomplishments. He founded the Greater ND Association and was a leader in starting the ND Winter Show in Valley City. He will receive the 40th Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award.
Robert Veline was 15 when he began a journey to pop music fame. In 1959, the Fargo native was a stand-in for rock ‘n roller Buddy Holly, who was killed in a plane crash. Veline’s career was furthered by a new name (Bobby Vee) suggested by colleague Bob Dylan. In 1999, Bobby Vee received the Rough Rider Award. The 70-year-old has Alzheimer’s, but released a new album this week, “The Adobe Sessions.”
“When the price of propane reaches $6 (a gallon) there’s going to be a dire need --Life or death.” The statement was made by Dave Archambault II, Chairman of the Standing Rock Reservation. He was talking about the high price of propane used for heating in 5,000 reservation homes. The chairman wasn’t exaggerating -- Debbie Dog Skin was found dead of hypothermia in her mobile home at Ft. Yates. The temperature inside her home was one degree below zero and the propane tank was empty.
Yes, please fail me! After a lengthy investigation, NDSU decided to fire its library dean for creating an “atmosphere of intimidation, mistrust and fear.” How did that work out? Dean Michele Reid walked away with $300,000, a private office and travel fund. NDSU would not comment, citing privacy concerns, but lawyer types said the settlement was probably made to avoid the distraction and costs of a legal battle.
What’s fair -- it’s hard to know. A commentary by a Minneapolis resident published on the New York Times website claimed that, “Our local papers, the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press will almost never allow comments on articles related to the Somali community, and when they do the comments are heavily censured.” The writer said she understood “not wanting to provide a space for ignorant racial ranting,” but it also meant there was not a single open forum where the Somali issue can be discussed. The “Somali issue” to which the writer refers is crime, violence and disregard for social conventions in the large Minneapolis Somali community. The NAACP in Minneapolis has its own solution -- don’t publish the race of crime suspects.
The Twin City papers want to avoid stereotyping Somalis and associating them with crime and violence. In a StarTribune article, a former member of Gov. Mark Dayton’s campaign staff wrote “these controversies (about Somali-Minnesotans) are a sideshow.” He contended the real story should be how the Somali are a growing political force “from Minneapolis to Mogadishu.” Forum papers in Fargo and Grand Forks are also reluctant to portray Somali residents in an unfavorable light, although the Forum publishes names and photos of violent crime suspects. The Forum reported a rash of January armed robberies, the suspects were all black and appeared to be from East Africa.
“The department’s approach risks alienating some people who believe that if people just picked themselves up by the bootstraps things would be better.’” -- Minnesota Health Commissioner Ed Ehlinger commenting on a report from his office concluding that many of Minnesota’s health disparities can be traced to structural racism and white privilege. Minnesota has some of the nation’s worst disparities between health outcomes for whites and blacks. Ehlinger hopes people won’t get hung up on the report’s conclusion. The report contained no clear recommendation for solving what it refers to as “health inequities.”
Yah, it’s pretty weird. Karlstad, Minnesota, about 50 miles northeast of Grand Forks, is home to Mattracks, a business which makes rubber track systems which convert pickups into snowmobiles. Mattracks’ TV ads were shown during the Super Bowl.
The Diedes died. Brothers Sherrill (59) and Curtis Dale (61) Diede were born in Deadwood, SD. Both have connections to Jamestown, both were truck drivers and both died in Reno, Nevada, this January.
DAKTOIDS: A block of four counties provides 87% of ND oil production: McKenzie (Watford City) 30%, Mountrail (Stanley) 26%, Dunn (Manning) 16%, and Williams (Williston) 15% . . . A $650 million pipeline from Watford City to the northwest tip of Minnesota will be the single largest project in the history of Bismarck’s MDU Resources . . . Details, details: The Fargo Forum won the award for the best non-metro newspaper -- in Minnesota.
DakotaBeacon