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Tuesday, June 14, 2016

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JUNE 12, 2016

LOOKS LIKE A WINNER! Mikhael Teryohin, a Russian candidate for the city commission, promises to “Make Fargo Great” by building a wall to keep Moorheadians from stealing jobs. Teryohin’s platform offers other equally high-minded policies.

YOU CHOOSE “It's an historic turn of events. In the November presidential election, American voters will choose between two of the most disliked, most reviled candidates in modern history.” -- A Forum editorial noting that both candidates have over 50 percent negative measures. The editorial concluded: “Is this the best the nation's political system can come up with? These two deeply flawed candidates are the choices? Discouraging.”

NO HELP FROM MPLS “Though Burgum is a big name in tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Seattle, he isn't well known in North Dakota outside of Fargo.” -- From a Minneapolis Star Tribune article saying Doug Burgum is an unusual candidate for governor. The Trib was both skeptical and condescending -- “But Burgum's quest might be the biggest stretch yet: a player in a glitzy, fast-paced industry becoming leader of a state where the cattle outnumber people, only about a dozen towns have a population bigger than 6,000 and many families make their livelihood in agriculture and oil.”

MIND OF HIS OWN “Schafer, however, deserves credit —not for choosing Burgum, but for going with his gut instead of the will of his party.” -- GF Herald Publisher Korrie Wenzel commenting on former ND governor Ed Schafer’s surprising decision to support Doug Burgum’s for governor. Schafer said he admired both Wayne Stenejhem and Burgum, “But right now, today, Doug’s the right person for the job.”

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK It’s risky to differ with Forum Opinion Page Editor Jack Zaleski -- you may quickly find yourself called slithering, whining and cynical -- these are tags Zaleski laid on the ND Farm Bureau for bringing a federal lawsuit to overturn ND’s ban on corporate farming. Forum columnist Rob Port took the other view, supported the Farm Bureau and said, “North Dakota deserves something better than a rote, knee-jerk defense of archaic and badly outdated policy.”

TOUGH TIMES ON FARMS With low crop prices and farmland values down 20 percent, ND farmers are finding it hard to obtain operating loans from banks. Those that get loans are required to put up more land or machinery as collateral. Many are turning to CHS, a large Minnesota farm cooperative, and government agencies for credit. Interest rates are in the 4 to 6 percent range.

THE “HOMELESS JESUS” STATUE is intended to help people think about homeless people in a less judgmental way. A life-size homeless man is depicted sleeping on a park bench at the First Lutheran Church on Broadway in Fargo. The church pastor said, “It begs the question, ‘Would this Jesus be welcome in our church?’ ” The bronze installation was designed by a Canadian artist and purchased by the church for $34,000. Casts of the statue are installed in other cities.

DRUGS IN INDIAN COUNTRY The chief medical officer at a Ft. Berthold health center said “drugs and alcohol were the No. 1 health care problem in Indian Country.” The chairwoman of the Spirit Lake Tribe said family structure “was disintegrating because of growing drug addiction among youths.” The quotes are from tribal leaders at a meeting in Grand Forks to address Indian health care issues. The meeting was attended by Mary Wakefield, a senior official at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, who was previously on the faculty of the UND Med School.

MARK FOX, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes, told the visiting head of the FBI, “The situation of excess crime on Fort Berthold is literally killing our people and tearing our people apart.” The FBI has opened a Williston office.

THE MUSIC STAR PRINCE had a dramatic, sometimes shocking, public persona, but his private life in Minneapolis was in many ways conservative and religious. His life as a student who played basketball and was involved in music at Central High School (no longer in existence) has been honored with a purple plaque at the elementary school that replaced Central. The plaque, bearing Prince’s emblem, is intended to keep his legacy alive and inspire students at the school.

“A MINNEAPOLIS JURY found three young Twin Cities men guilty of conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit murder abroad in the nation’s largest ISIL-related prosecutions to so far reach trial.” -- Star Tribune summary. The defendants face sentences of up to life in federal prison. Their trial, which was conducted with unprecedented security, was contentious and interrupted several times by disputes among Somali families in the courtroom.

IT’S NOT OVER “This is no time for people to stick their heads in the sand. This trial should be a wake-up call: All Minnesotans must resist the impulse to deny reality.” -- U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, who called the trial one of the most important in recent Minnesota history. Officials continue to call for “a community-based solution” to a threat they say won’t soon go away. A special FBI investigation is continuing and a Dept. of Justice program to counter radicalization is in an early stage.

THE SOMALI COMMUNITY, while not unanimous, largely believes the three men received an unfair trial. Matthew Palombo, a community college instructor, expressed this view in a Star Tribune commentary: “Nobody expected these young men to get a fair trial — not in this political climate, not with the shrewd manipulations by the FBI, not with their skin color, not with their religion.” He blamed their problems on environment: “They experienced poverty, racism and Islamophobia . . . and we know that Minnesota failed them.” The commentary received nearly 100 online responses -- most strongly disagreed.

DAKTOIDS: State Sen. Tim Flakoll proposes increasing college scholarships for teachers to $18,000 -- the grant requires graduates to work as a teacher in ND for three years after graduation . . . Season three of the television show “Fargo” will have a setting in St. Cloud, MN, but will be filmed in Calgary, Canada . . . You will be glad to know about NDSU’s Neil C. Gudmestad Endowed Chair of Potato Pathology.

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