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Monday, July 14, 2014

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JULY 13, 2014

“I LIVE FOR THIS. I’ve been coming to this my whole life. It gets me in the spirit. It’s tradition for me.” -- Missy Anderson, 43, dismayed by the cancellation of Mandan’s Fourth of July parade due to risk of thunderstorms. Anderson said, “We get our cars out here the night before and just get ready for the next morning to enjoy the parade.” The 3-hour parade was last cancelled in the 1970s.
 
“ALT FOR NORGE” A picture in the GF Herald shows the contestants in a popular Norwegian reality TV show. Americans of Norwegian descent compete for prizes in the show. UND grad Kent Luetzen (22) is in the center of the photo, grinning broadly. The Minot native filmed a season of shows, but his contract does not allow him to discuss details. He says the show’s producers looked for someone with a “unique personality.” The cast is varied -- contestants come from many areas of the U.S. and include a young California model and a 65-year-old man. Thumbs up for Kent -- he wore a stunning Fighting Sioux logo shirt for the photo of the contestants.
 
A SEASON OF DISCONTENT It may be perfectly normal, yet seems strange. UND President Robert Kelley is taking a 30-day “professional development leave” to study faculty tenure issues. The school has its share of stressful issues, including the recent firing of the director of UND’s Energy and Environmental Research Center. The College of Nursing has experienced chaotic leadership and UND is reconstituting its Communications Program which spiraled out of control and lost accreditation.
 
LET THE VOTERS DECIDE ND has an unusual law requiring pharmacies in the state to be majority-owned by a licensed pharmacist. This prevents chain stores, such as Wal-Mart, from owning pharmacies. A group is trying to get the issue on the November ballot. Last Sunday’s GF Herald ran dueling letters: one from the vice president of the ND Pharmacists Association -- you know where he stood; and another from a doctor in Bismarck advocating repeal of the pharmacy law. The GF Herald would like to see a statewide vote on the matter and guesses if voters are given a chance they will repeal the law.
 
POPULAR MYTH The perception that Wal-Mart fosters low wages and benefits is largely created and encouraged by organized labor. A Minneapolis Federal Reserve study shows Wal-Mart has very little impact on the overall level of wages. The big chain reduces wages in some highly unionized markets, lifts wages in smaller communities, but changes little in most markets. The GF Herald reports Wal-Mart in Devils Lake is offering $10-an-hour jobs and “forcing many other area businesses . . . to match the wages to keep the staff they have.”
 
RESERVATIONS ARE NOT A GOOD IDEA President Obama’s visit to the Standing Rock Reservation and his promise of a better future for Indian Country residents was met with widespread skepticism in ND. Additional skepticism came from an unexpected quarter, columnist Lloyd Omdahl believes the visit added to an “oversupply of rhetoric.” The former Lt. Governor once chaired the state’s Indian Affairs Commission. He said, “Reservations have never been good places for Native Americans” and “economic development on reservations, that is a pipe dream.” Omdahl believes delegating further authority to the reservations is not the answer, “Native Americans must think and participate beyond reservations.”
 
CAUSE AND EFFECT? A survey found that 59 percent of Minnesota American Indians smoke -- about four times the rate for the general population. Indians have a cancer rate much higher than the general population. The Minnesota Dept. of Health released a report in February that “attributed health disparities in American Indian communities to government efforts to uproot them from their land and destroy their way of life.” The American Indian health director in Minnesota, herself a member of the ND Turtle Mt. Chippewa, said, “Smoking is a coping mechanism for many American Indians.”
 
MINNESOTANS HANG THEIR HEADS “The Scandinavians and Germans who came to this area didn’t raise their kids to make a show of patriotism.” -- A Minnesota resident’s reaction to the state being ranked #49 for patriotism. California was #50, ND limped in at #36 and SD was a snappy #14. Moorhead residents didn’t buy it -- they believe they are quite patriotic, but nodded toward the Twin Cities where they say folks are “pretty liberal” and drag down the state’s rating. Who’s most patriotic? South Carolina (#1), Maine (#2) and North Carolina (#3) can puff out their chests. Who’s doing the rating? A dubious group called the Movoto Real Estate Blog.
 
CALIFORNIA LEADS ND is often referred to as one of the most agricultural states. That may be so on a per capita basis, but in absolute terms, the state is not one of the big boys. With $43 billion in ag sales, California overwhelmingly leads the nation’s production. Nine of the top 10 counties in terms of the value of ag goods sold were in California. Iowa, Texas, Nebraska and Minnesota make up the rest of the top five states.
 
THE EMPIRE BUILDER IS DELAYED AGAIN A Wall Street Journal article showed Boeing 737 fuselages partially submerged on an embankment of the Clark River between Superior and Missoula, Montana. The fuselages tumbled from a derailed BNSF train. The BNSF line runs through a rugged area paralleling I-90 in the Bitterroot Mountains. The route is routinely used to transport 737 fuselages from Wichita to Seattle.
 
MOST MALIGNED The former principal of Trinity High School in Dickinson may be defamed person of the year in ND. He confessed to burning his school and there seemed little doubt he was headed for prison. But his attorney mounted a vigorous public denial citing suppression of evidence, coerced statements and the failure of police to read the principal his rights. Slowly, the whole matter turned and a Stark County court dismissed the case. This doesn’t mean the principal is innocent, but at a minimum Dickinson Police bungled the investigation.
 
KHAT GOT YOUR TONGUE? When Somali refugees first arrived in Fargo, shipments of Khat soon followed. Khat is a popular narcotic in Africa -- users chew it in leaf form to get a mild high. Khat has since been banned in the U.S., Europe and the U.K. As evidence of the prevalence of Khat trade, recently, a cargo plane loaded with Khat left the Nairobi airport for Mogadishu and crashed into a commercial building killing four people.
 
HEY, WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? The obituary of Edith Estelle Barnett Howe Hammond (74) of Cleveland ND has an air of mystery. We understand the “Edith Estelle Barnett” part since that was her birth name, but what happened to Howe and Hammond. There is no further mention of them in the obituary. Edith’s daughter Goldie Howe Ingstad and other relatives are included. Deceased and former husbands are usually mentioned in obituaries, often fondly.
 
DAKTOIDS: The Jamestown Sun couldn’t hold back, it awarded a Bravo to volunteers for White Cloud’s (an albino buffalo) 18th Birthday Celebration . . . ND’s average farm is 1,250 acres -- three times the national average . . . Yah, Yah, pour me another -- last year ND held on to the top spot in annual beer consumption -- 43 gallons for each adult resident . . . The average annual wage is ND is $48,000, just shy of the national average of $49,000. Williams County (Williston) is highest at $78,000; Sheridan County (McClusky) again holds bottom at $27,000.

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