SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - MAY 18, 2015
ILLINOIS HAS THE WORST RANKING of all states for credit quality, according to an insurance industry investment manager. Illinois is an outlier, most states are improving their financial position. What is the best state? You won’t be surprised to learn it’s ND. The state’s taxable sales for 2014 were $28 billion, an increase of 11 percent over 2013. Six of ND’s eight largest cities had increases in taxable sales in 2014 -- Jamestown and Wahpeton were exceptions. Results in the first quarter of 2015 are expected to dampen because of reduced activity in the oil industry.
THE AVIATION SCHOOL IS DIFFERENT “Military and corporate experience may not count for much in many academic fields; but in aviation, they're vital, and the Odegard School's open recognition of this has played a huge role in winning its sterling reputation in the industry.” -- A quote from a GF Herald editorial urging UND to recognize the unique role of the Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. Basically, the editorial urged that academic qualification be balanced with military, government and private industry experience when selecting a new dean for the Odegard school.
GOOD JOB “Overall, it was a solid performance by legislators, especially with the uncertainty of oil prices hanging over them. They went to work quickly, avoided lengthy distractions and accomplished their goals. A good job.” -- From a Bismarck Tribune editorial about the recently concluded legislative session. The Tribune’s opinion was broadly shared in the state, although Republicans agreed slightly more than Democrats. ND continues to conduct the business of government with less acrimony than most states.
THE FORUM GOT IT UPSIDE DOWN Nodaks usually take a level-headed approached to social policy and avoid political correctness which frequently rules elsewhere. The most notable exception was the panicky retirement of the highly regarded “Fighting Sioux” nickname when the NCAA threatened to crush UND’s athletic programs. The Fargo Forum criticized UND this week for taking a deliberate approach to choosing a new nickname. The Forum called the process “pandering” and “unnecessarily politically correct.” The Forum never accepted the nickname’s overwhelming popularity and respect, not just for UND athletics, but as a proud regional symbol for what has been called the University of the Northern Plains.
NO PHOTO FINISHES At 7:30 a.m. with freezing temperatures, 7,800 runners (6,000 of which ran the half marathon) emerged from the Fargodome and began the Scheels Fargo Marathon. As is often the case, a Kenyan runner won the men’s marathon followed several minutes later by a NDSU student. A Colorado woman won the women’s marathon -- her closest competitor was a Minnesota woman who finished eight minutes later.
OIL BOOM BRINGS A DRUG BOOM The Dept. of Corrections announced that its facility for women in New England is full due to a rise in female crime. The majority of convictions are drug related. In Stark County (Dickinson) the number of children sent to foster care has doubled in the last year, again, drug use by parents is the principal cause.
THE RIVERSIDE PLAZA HIGHRISES in Minneapolis were once famous as the home of TV character Mary Richards played by Mary Tyler Moore. Today, Riverside is famous again, this time as “Little Mogadishu,” the home of 4,000 Somali-Americans, twice as many residents as the apartments were built for. Residents in half of the units receive federal Section 8 housing vouchers. The residents are protesting services and demanding cultural sensitivity training for employees.
THE ECONOMIST (May 9th) describes the special danger posed by young Somalis who are recruited or self-radicalised to become Islamic State jihadists. The article is largely devoted to the 75,000 Somalis in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Some excerpts: “Somalis are one of the most troubled groups of immigrants . . . Minnesota’s Somalis are poor. Many are isolated from other immigrants and even from other Muslims, who find them prickly, proud and standoffish.”
THE AMBER LIGHT IS BLINKING There is further evidence that Minneapolis is flirting with terrorist risk. The StarTribune reports that a Somali man, formerly from the Twin Cities, is believed to have been an instigator of the shooting of artists at a Texas event. Mohamed Hassan left Minnesota in 2008 and is on the FBI’s most-wanted list. Hassan has followers in Minnesota and a terrorism specialist referred to Hassan as a “notorious cyber jihadi.”
TROUBLE MOVES FROM EAST TO WEST Carmen Berry is a 49-year-old mother of eight who left Detroit in 1997 and moved to the Twin Cities; she left north Minneapolis in 2000 to avoid violence and moved to Fergus Falls where she acquired felony convictions. Around 2011 she moved to Fargo for a fresh start. Her teenage sons have criminal records and are alleged to belong to a Fargo gang called the Lic Squad. Berry is thinking about moving again because she believes her family receives unwarranted police scrutiny -- an armed SWAT team recently visited her house. A man who dates one of Berry’s daughters believes the family is unjustly harassed by Fargo police and is trying to raise money for a civil rights attorney.
GOOD LUCK “Passengers with more than two pieces of luggage, or those who need to check luggage, will be referred to the Amtrak station in Fargo.” -- From an Amtrak announcement that after June 1, the Grand Forks station will operate as an unstaffed location, with ticketing, checked baggage and express services suspended.
“SHE WAS THE GLUE that held her family together.” With a few word changes, the obituary of Thelma Lindstrom (96) of New Rockford could be the obituary of many rural ND women of her generation. “She could fix fence, milk cows, butcher chickens, make the best buns and dark bread in the country, play a mean game of pinochle and drive school bus. Thelma spent her entire life in Eddy County.”
DAKTOIDS: Eagle Energy Corporation, which drills for oil in the northwest corner of ND, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a victim of low oil prices . . . Are Nodaks stubborn, naive or something else? ND residents had the poorest scores in the nation for detecting fake emails.
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