SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JULY 1, 2013
“Our crystal ball was cloudy.” -- ND OMB Director Pam Sharp explaining why the state will have a 2011-13 biennium surplus of $1.7 billion, when she initially estimated $51 million. One more indication of the state’s ample tax revenues.
ND’s U.S. senators split their opinion about the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. Sen. Hoeven regretted the decision saying “I continue to support and believe that marriage is a unique institution.” Sen. Heitkamp went the other way saying the “decision by the Court is a triumph for equality.”
“I plan to turn that around and say we are open, too.” -- The response of David Thompson, a candidate for governor in Minnesota, to billboards by the ND Chamber mocking the business climate in Minnesota. Thompson is a UND graduate as is candidate Kurt Zeller, a native of Devils Lake. A third candidate is a Detroit Lakes man who graduated from Concordia.
How do you know you are in ND? When the highest scoring candidates for Fargo district judge are named Anderson and Olson. In the Northwest district the top candidate was Schmidt. In ND, the majority of the population has either Norwegian or German background, or both.
As he went out the door, outgoing ND University System Chancellor Hamid Shirvani let fly with a draft evaluation of the university presidents. Three were scalded: UND President Robert Kelley (“lacks vision”), NDSU President Dean Bresciani (used misleading comparisons to make the school look good), and Minot State President David Fuller (poor leadership and no raise). Predictably, faculty and alumni groups at each school launched a defense of their president. Many others saw merit in the evaluations. The president of Dickinson State, previously the most troubled school in the system, received effusive praise from Shirvani.
If Shirvani’s evaluation was not enough, Dean Bresciani has problems of his own. NDSU is accused of deleting 45,000 emails to avoid a legislative inquiry. It’s a jumble -- the state attorney general is making an investigation.
An article in the Bismarck Tribune credited Rob Port’s “Say Anything” blog with posting Shervani’s evaluations online. What did the Forum think of Port’s effort -- not much. Here is what they said: “Credible answers have been elusive, but traditional in-the-trenches reporting – not political blogs or ratings-driven talk radio – eventually will get answers.” The Forum is staunchly parochial about any criticism of NDSU.
In a Forum commentary, writer John Calvert indicated that firing Shirvani was a case of killing the messenger. He said, “But if educational reform means you want to make students smarter, then you’re playing with fire. Now you’re talking about rejecting hordes of unqualified applicants, reversing grade inflation, requiring a substantive core curriculum and so on. Such proposals instill dread . . . “ The consensus seems to be that Shirvani had good ideas, but misread the politics.
A state representative from Minot weighed in opining: “Actually, the language used in the evaluations was neither repugnant nor demeaning; neither was it immoral or unprofessional, as certain board members quickly had claimed. If someone lacks vision, it’s important for their supervisor to say so. And if someone is myopic (a perfect word choice), that, too, needs to be said.” Shirvani made the latter references to UND President Robert Kelley.
In May, I said that new UND provost, Thomas DiLorenzo, hit the ground with a plop, by not dealing firmly with a problem in the College of Nursing. A GF Herald article indicates that he received a vote of no confidence from faculty at his former school, the U. of Alabama in Birmingham.
Tsk, tsk, who would be so careless as to allow a storage bunker for fireworks to explode. In this case, it was the Sanborn (near Valley City) Fire Department. The Fourth of July celebration may be called off, but one fireman was undaunted, he said, “Maybe we have to make a trip to Minnesota for more stuff.” Firemen in small ND towns have a special fascination with fireworks -- several years ago, a fireman in central ND, who was in charge of safety on the Fourth of July, was killed by an exploding shell.
“Just deserts” may seem a little harsh. A Roseburg, Ore., man used his pickup to harass and menace workers in a construction zone near Williston. Deputies gave chase and after lengthy high speed pursuit the man rolled his pickup which slid on its roof into the path of a semi. That was the end of the Oregon man.
Prairie demolition. About the same time, near Stanley, two semis and three pickups collided causing a semi hauling crude oil to explode and burn for five hours. Three died.
Does gun running sound like something going on in Africa? Canadian border guards seized 16 guns this week at the Pembina port of entry. An Oklahoma man was arrested and faces a long list of charges
Leonard Caron’s (74) obituary picture shows a broadly smiling man wearing an electric blue shirt and a giant yellow bow tie. He wore this garb for seven years as a Walmart greeter in Bismarck, where he became known as the “Bowtie Guy.”
DAKTOIDS: Williams County (Williston) again placed a moratorium on new or expanded man camps. County officials believe the camps hurt developers and stunt growth . . . Overall, ND may have enough doctors, but they are not where they are most needed. There is a serious shortage of doctors in rural areas. Well over half of the state’s doctors come from outside the state and 27 percent are foreign trained . . . The state historical society would like to buy Lawrence Welk’s Strasburg house from his elderly nieces, Evelyn and Edna Schwab -- so far, the state won’t fork over the money.
DakotaBeacon