Dakota Beacon

GF NEEDS PEOPLE  “We’ve kind of lost our mojo.  It’s a hard thing to put a finger on exactly, but I don’t think we’re seen as really growing – we’ve got to get people to come here.” — Brandon Bochenski, retired pro hockey player and candidate for mayor of Grand Forks.

VARYING REACTIONS  The Forum papers often carry news items from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  It was announced this week that the parent of the Pioneer Press, which owns 100 newspapers across the country, had acquired 11 Minnesota community newspapers, mostly in the Twin Cities area.  The Star Tribune in Minneapolis raised an eyebrow, it said, "The company (Media News Group) is known for taking a sharp ax to the publications it buys, cutting costs and shedding employees."  The Forum papers hastened to assure their readers that the acquisition agreement did not involve any of their newspapers.

IS THERE MORE TO COME?  Investors believe that when a company announces surprise bad news there is likely more to come.  Altru Health System in Grand Forks possibly fits that mold.  The first hint was the downgrading of Altru’s bonds by rating agencies who noted deteriorating operating and financial conditions, then Altru announced it was reducing the size and cost of a new hospital already under construction.  This week, Altru’s board fired the CEO and CFO.  Next, the GF Herald is preparing to publish the results of an investigation.  Altru may be a candidate for takeover, if more bad news arises, that could become a certainty.

THE GREAT PLAINS SYNFUEL PLANT near Beulah is operating at a loss — to be exact, $600 million since 2013.  The natural gas it produces costs more than its market value and is sold at a loss. The McKenzie Electric Cooperative in Watford City says it should not have to share those losses and is suing Basin Electric, the owner of the Synfuels plant.  Basin passes Synfuel losses to McKenzie by increasing electricity rates.

THE PRAIRIE ROOTS FOOD CO-OP in Fargo closed.  A Forum post mortem indicated the store lost money from the moment it opened downtown in 2017.  To use a colloquialism, it “crashed and burned.”  I’ve had plenty of direct experience with urban grocery cooperatives — believe me, they normally don’t work.  They are more an ideology than a business and rely on a core of true believers who usually aren’t sufficient to sustain the stores.  A Grand Forks natural food cooperative also failed.  Conventional supermarkets offer too much competition.

AG HEALTH  The farm sector has declined in recent years, but according to the USDA it’s better  off than the 1980s.  The principal reasons: Inflation adjusted earnings are close to long-term averages, plus low interest rates and land values which remain high.  Additionally, ag lenders are considered to be shrewder and more disciplined than they were in the 1980s, thereby avoiding the worst loans.

LIGNITE COAL is holding its own in ND, declining at a lower rate than the national average for the coal industry.  The reason, the unusual efficiency achieved by ND power plants located adjacent to mines.  ND has five lignite coal mines which supply seven lignite-based power plants.  The majority of the state’s coal production (83%) is owned by North America Coal Corporation.  Despite the positive news, Great River Energy is considering shutting down its Coal Creek Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in ND.

DOUBLE-BARRELED  Columnists Mike Jacobs and Rob Port both took a shot at State Rep. Jeff Delzer, an influential legislator from a rural district north of Bismarck.  Port characterized Delzer as a manipulative grinch, Jacobs was softer, but pointed the same direction.

PAROCHIAL INTEREST  “To reinvent education in North Dakota, let's take existing universities out of the state constitution.” — Rob Port said before the state launches the commendable goal of career academies (workforce development), it should amend the state constitution to eliminate a requirement dictating the location and function of eight of its eleven higher education institutions.  The requirement is old leftover “pork” which limits the flexibility of the university system.  Port expects the the smaller communities involved will try to derail any effort to make a change.

IT’S NOT SO SIMPLE  Microsoft, one of the nation’s largest tech companies, has a goal of eliminating its carbon emissions.  Great Plains Software, an affiliate in Fargo, presents a stubborn obstacle to that goal.  GPS receives power indirectly from Minnkota Power, a cooperative based in Grand Forks, which generates most of its electricity with coal-burning plants.  Additionally, GPS uses diesel generators on unusually cold days when Minnkota has peak loads.  A Wall Street Journal article used the Microsoft example to illustrate the complexity of carbon free goals. 

THE ZICKS FROM ZEELAND  In 1976, Wade and Ellen Zick, a couple in their 60s, were the victims of a sensational murder in Zeeland, at the time, a town of a couple hundred people near the South Dakota border in Lawrence Welk Country.  The bank manager and his wife were shot to death in a gravel pit after three young men kidnapped them and took money from the bank.  James Wolner, a California native living in Hebron, ND, has prepared a seven-episode, five-hour podcast documenting the crime in minute detail.  Although the young men were sentenced to prison, Wolner believed the lives of the victims were neglected, an injustice his podcasts attempt to remedy.  The podcasts can be found on DakotaSpotlight.com.

FIX-IT  Are you missing a headlight on your car or perhaps your turn signal is broken?  If you are in Minneapolis have no fear, the police are no longer permitted to issue tickets for routine  equipment violations.  The rationale is low income residents may not be able to afford fixing a broken taillight and a traffic citation may plunge them “deeper into the criminal justice system.”  Instead, police officers hand out coupons to pay for repairs and ask the violator to visit a repair center.  If they ignore the fix-it opportunity, drivers can have their license suspended.

DAKTOIDS:  In 2017 ND liberalized gambling laws and permitted electronic pull tabs, which became so successful they threaten the health of tribal casinos . . . The Indian Affairs Commissioner says the tribes feel duped by the Legislature’s expansion of gambling . . . Bismarck residents are circulating a petition to recall a county commissioner who voted in favor of refugee resettlement.