Dakota Beacon

Hamid Shirvani’s goose may be cooked . . . and it’s too bad.  It’s hard to believe the chancellor of the ND University System will recover from the numerous allegations made against him.  Shirvani had been determined to exert greater central control over individual campuses and improve the quality of a weak system.  There was a lot of pushback from individual campuses and politicians representing the areas in which the campuses are located.  Shirvani worsened matters with an autocratic style.  An editorial in the Fargo Forum urges the chancellor to take buyout money approaching $1 million and run.  The editorial noted most of the problems were not Shirvani’s fault.

First N. Korea, then Fargo -- the noted humanitarian and diplomat Dennis Rodman visited Fargo and hosted the finals of the Liquid Ice Girl competition.  While in Fargo, he had a few liquids himself.  A cartoon shows Rodman with N. Korean leader Kim Jong Un and has Kim saying,"You see Dennis, with you at my side, I don't look so crazy."

Grand Forks city leaders don’t like the result of the city’s census.  They believe their census is understated and the city is losing federal assistance dollars.  One remedy would be for the city to pay for a recount.  Census bureaucrats are cranking out a cost estimate -- a recount could cost more than $150,000.  Since a recount has a predictable cost and an uncertain outcome, GF may be advised to wait for the 2020 census.

“Cirrus deserves an apology.” -- In an unusual editorial signed by publisher Mike Jacobs and opinion page editor Tom Dennis, the GF Herald concluded the city’s Growth Fund Committee had been rude to a representative of Cirrus Aircraft, a Duluth based company with operations in Grand Forks.  Cirrus asked the committee for a $1 million loan.  The Herald believed the rude behavior could tarnish GF’s business reputation.  Later, the committee granted the loan and its chairman extended an apology.  A footnote: Cirrus is owned by a company controlled by the Chinese government.

“Let us not chance it for a law that is premature at best — likely totally unneeded and based on fear, not facts.” -- Bruce Gjovig, CEO at the UND Center for Innovation, argued that a bill passed by the ND House to limit the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) could jeopardize Grand Forks' chance to be a UAS test site.  The bill would limit the use of UAS for surveillance by law enforcement except when authorized by search warrants.  The GF County sheriff said the bill was an ill-advised, premature attempt to control a maturing and growing technology. 

“North Dakota has had challenges in recruiting people from elsewhere.” -- Dr. Joshua Wynne, dean of the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences.  Other ND health care professionals echo his thoughts.  The state’s isolation and weather are the primary problems.  ND has 1,700 licensed doctors -- about a third are from ND, another third are from other states and Canada, and the remaining third from the rest of the world.  About 300 ND doctors are from Asia with India and the Philippines leading the list.

Highway fatalities are climbing in the oil patch -- many involve drivers from other states.  Last weekend, an Oklahoma man was killed when he pulled a U-turn in front of a semi in McKenzie County; an Arizona man died when he lost control under icy conditions north of Kenmare.

“There must be ways to work together in building the state's economy without destroying its heritage.” -- A Minot Daily News editorial written in support of a study by the state Game and Fish Department to determine the oil industry’s impact on the state’s wildlife populations.  The MDN said, “We sincerely hope whatever the biologists discover in their studies is taken seriously by business and outdoor enthusiasts alike.”

“If we used the standard cohort model that takes a look at birth rates and death rates and in-migration and those kinds of indicators — that data lags so much that by the time that would be updated, it would already be obsolete again.” -- A NDSU researcher said they needed new models to project school enrollments in the Oil Patch.  One model predicts Dickinson could have 5,250 students by 2017 -- an 87 percent increase from today.

ND sheriffs are an uneven group.  Each of the state’s 53 counties is supposed to have a sheriff, even counties with populations under 1,000.  Pay is often low and the jobs are poorly structured.  It took one northern county two months to discover their sheriff was absent and working on a construction crew in Fargo.  The sheriff in Dunn County has just quit to become a truck driver in the oil fields.

"You are dealing with feral, wild kids, frequently high on drugs and alcohol." --  This sounds like a prosecutor’s statement, but it was, in fact, the statement of attorney Frederick Goerz defending men accused of being members of the Native Mob, a criminal gang alleged to operate in Minnesota and adjoining states.  Goerz was attempting to prove there was no organized criminal group.  Another defense attorney said the prosecutor’s charges were an "attempt to eradicate and eliminate a small segment of the Native American population," in other words, it was all racism.

Another Rosie the Riveter passes.  Laura Hoff (87) of Hurdsfield was one of those people who kept the lights burning on the prairie.  Laura worked with groceries most of her life -- when she was a young girl she worked at Herman and Flossie’s grocery store in Chaseley.  When WWII began, she traveled to Seattle to work for Boeing.  She returned to ND, married and spent the rest of her working years farming and operating a grocery store.  She was Hurdsfield’s Sunshine Lady entertaining one and all, a virtual Welcome Wagon.  Hurdsfield, Chaseley and Bowdon people stayed informed because Laura wrote the weekly news for the Foster County Independent in Carrington.

DAKTOIDS: Williston and Dickinson are ranked #1 and #3, respectively, as the fastest-growing micropolitan areas (populations between 10,000 and 50,000) in the country.  The Williston area (Williams County) and Dickinson area (Stark and Billings counties) were each estimated to have July 1, 2012 populations of 27,000.