Dakota Beacon

ND AGAIN LED NATION The state’s 6.3% growth rate in 2014 was easily best in the nation. The other four states in the top five had growth rates ranging from 4.7% to 5.2% and were all energy producing states. The national growth rate was 2.2%. This year may be a different matter -- with both ag and energy lagging, ND growth may level off.

OIL IS KING There’s little doubt, oil is the mainstay of the ND economy. The state had a $55 billion economy in 2014 of which $9 billion, or 16 percent, came from the mining industry. Agriculture, the former leader, was $2.6 billion, or 5 percent, and down about 10 percent from 2013. Industries related to oil, such as transportation, grew at double digit rates.

MONTANA relies on natural resources and energy for about 20 percent of its economy. The outlook for energy in MT is dim. The Billings Gazette reports coal is on the ropes, oil drilling is down, and wind energy is stalled.

UNNEEDED TOWNS A Forum editorial notes that “failing rural churches are as common as falling down barns and abandoned farmsteads.” Rural fire departments and ambulance services risk going under. Towns desperately try to keep grocery stores by forming cooperatives run by volunteers. Schools close and consolidate. This was the Forum’s way of saying that the decline of rural towns is continuing and inevitable. ND’s agriculture economy remains healthy and strong -- it simply employs fewer people and more capital.

WHICH WILL COME FIRST? About five year ago, Minnewaukan was on front pages, its businesses and school were about to be gobbled by Devils Lake, once eight miles away, but then lapping at the school. Since then, $20 million of mostly federal money has been spent to create a new addition to the town, move residences and build a new school. Today, the population has shrunk and the town has lost most of its businesses. The lake seems to have stabilized leaving the town with a “chicken and egg” type dilemma. Businesses won’t come because there is so little housing; housing is not being built because there are so few business services.

SOMETHING FOR HIS RETIREMENT UND President Robert Kelley announced his resignation and retirement. Gerald Groenewold, the former head of UND’s Energy and Environmental Research Center ((EERC), is suing Kelley for $2.9 million. Kelley fired Groenewold for mismanagement. Groenewold became unpopular with EERC employees, as, ironically, Kelley became unpopular with his faculty and many UND alumni.

COLUMNIST MIKE JACOBS made a plausible case that Kelley “was cheated of greatness.” Jacobs said Kelley was a builder and visionary who was denied greatness. Who were the perpetrators? Jacobs believes Kelley was blindsided by the “Fighting Sioux” issue -- the fault of a number of parties, including the Board of Higher Ed, and something from which Kelley never fully recovered. Kelley added to his misery by choosing a leadership team, most notably Provost Thomas DiLorenzo, which didn’t serve him well. Finally, Kelley’s style of holding his cards close to his vest led him into a transparency trap.

LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES has a formidable presence in ND with 300 employees in the state of which 100 are in Fargo. LSS works in four impact areas: housing, behavioral health, senior and children’s services. The agency also has a major role in resettling refugees under a contract with the U.S. State Department. It’s this activity which gets LSS the most attention and criticism. This week LSS held a grand opening for a $5 million headquarters in Fargo.

A POPULAR WILLIE NELSON SONG warns mothers not to let their babies grow up to be cowboys. Columnist Lloyd Omdahl says that warning should be revised to replace cowboys with cops. He believes the media has exploited police shootings in a manner that makes police work the least desirable career: “We don’t pay police officers enough to require them to take the first bullet.”

AN EPIDEMIC A pair of social scientists writing in the StarTribune agree that police shootings need to be addressed, but should not obscure the real issue -- violence among young black men. In 2013, police killed about 150 black people; in the same year black people killed 6,500 black people. In Minnesota, blacks are less than 6 percent of the population, but 40 percent of all homicide victims and offenders are black. The intraracial homicides are eliminating a significant part of a racial-ethnic group.

CRAIG COBB frightened the residents of Leith, ND (pop. 25), in 2013, when he threatened to turn the southwestern town into a white nationalist community. Cobb was convicted of felony terrorizing and moved to Sherwood, ND, where he has maintained a low profile and not troubled the residents. He effectively moved from the South Dakota border straight north to the Canadian border. Cobb is again showing signs of life -- he is brewing plans to turn the nearby town of Antler, ND (pop. 20), into an all-white enclave. That shouldn’t be hard to do, since Antler is already all white. His logo for the new effort is Antler ND PLE. PLE stand for Pioneering Little Europe. So far, the citizens of Antler are taking the news calmly.

“CHILDLESS DOES NOT MEAN HEARTLESS.” -- Tammy Swift, Forum humor columnist, defending her decision to not have children. She said, “But much of it was fear. Fear that, without that powerful maternal instinct, I wouldn’t be a good mom.” However, there Is a saving grace: “I was born to be an aunt, and the world needs good aunts too.”

DAKTOIDS: The $3.3 billion ND Legacy Fund (oil and gas tax reserve) is cooking. For the year ended March 31, the fund’s long-term investment strategy earned 5.7 percent . . . An unnamed airline is proposing service between Fargo and Seattle -- Delta and Alaska are the chief suspects . . . Another eastern ND city is getting in on the oil boom -- the Devils Lake City Commission approved a development agreement for a 20,000 barrel-per-day refinery.