Dakota Beacon

THE BEAN FARMER’S GUIDE to Social Distancing and Personal Freedom was the title of Terry Wanzek’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.  Wanzek is a farmer near Jamestown and a member of the State Senate.  He described ND’s common sense approach to the menacing corona virus — trusting its citizens without stifling regulations.  He said, “We have to strike a balance between public health and economic well-being.

IMPACT OF STAY-AT-HOME ORDERS  “Importantly, in none of the models was the presence of a statewide stay-at-home order statistically significant. It never helped or hurt.” — Mark Kroll, adjunct professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota.  Kroll’s conclusions were the result of extensive modeling of coronavirus outcomes in all 50 states for the Star Tribune.  Future developments could change the conclusions.

THE NEW YORK TIMES sorts states into three baskets:  The first is where new corona cases are increasing: South Dakota fits that basket.  The second is where new cases have flattened — ND and Minnesota are in that basket, ND is kept there almost exclusively by nursing home cases in Cass County.  Montana is a leader in the third basket where new cases are decreasing.  Montana has days without new cases.

GLARING HOTSPOT  Cass County had such poor experience with the coronavirus that Gov Burgum appointed a task force to bring the infection rate there down.  Cass has over half the state’s infections and the Cass infection rate is over double the state average.  Thursday, 57 of 67 new cases reported in ND were in Cass County.

YOU DIDN’T EXPECT TO SEE THIS   A Forum editorial urged readers to ask Congress to help . . . the Forum and other newspapers by having all levels of government provide support by buying informational newspaper ads about the epidemic.  The Forum said the newspapers, more than before, are crucial to getting vital information to the public.

UNCERTAIN CONCLUSION  “North Dakota didn’t need a pandemic to push local newspapers closer to the brink.”  — Columnist Lloyd Omdahl.  Many community newspapers are in inevitable decline and the virus further weakens their advertising revenue.  Omdahl says subsidies from city or county budgets are one possibility for keeping the papers alive; however, that comes with the possibility of political influence.  The forces of change may settle the question.

CAN UNDERWOOD SURVIVE?  The decision to close the Coal Creek generation station in 2022 is sending shock waves through Underwood and Washburn, ND.  An estimated 60% of Underwood’s work force is employed at the plant or the related Falkirk coal mine.  Great River Energy, the plant’s owner, has agreed to pay $3 million a year for five years to McLean County to aid with transitiion.  

NEGATIVE REACTION  “That’s not long enough,” said Underwood City Commission President Leon Weisenburger, who indicated the community will be devastated by the loss of jobs and coal taxes. “Underwood will not survive this.”  An editorial in the Minot Daily News took a more straight forward approach saying, “Great River Energy has made its decision. Now it’s time for the state’s leaders to do their part, develop a plan and move ahead to mitigate the impacts of this closure.”

“HERE’S A GREAT IDEA” — From a letter to the Bismarck Tribune in which Bob Wefald advocates that the state of ND “should accept the gift of the Coal Creek Station and operate it for the benefit for the people of North Dakota.”  There are no buyers for the plant which has had years of deep losses, nor will any responsible party take it as a gift.

ESSENTIAL WORKERS in ND are 57% of the workforce, the second highest percentage in the nation.  Attribute this in part to the state’s rural and small town make-up.  SD was 50%; MT and MN were 46%.  The national average is 45%.

THE MINOT DAILY NEWS is the last of ND’s bigger daily newspapers to put online news behind a paywall.  Digital access will cost $20 a month; for an additional $1.45 a month you can also get home delivery — go figure.

ICONIC LOGOS  GF Herald columnist Chuck Haga attempted to connect two faintly related dots:  The decision a few years ago to drop UND’s Fighting Sioux nickname and logo and Land O’Lake’s recent decision to replace the Ojibwe Indian maiden on its packaging.  In each case, the logo had been designed by a respected American Indian artist and the designs had substantial support in their respective Indian communities.  

TIME TO MOVE ON?  Haga said, without regard to the rightness or wrongness of the decisions, it was time to move on.  “The feelings are so strong, so deep, they divided tribes. They divided families. The endless bickering took a heavy toll at a time when Indian people were dealing with plenty of serious matters: teen suicide, poverty, addictions.”  Haga’s column, while carefully written and nuanced, may have overstated the intensity of disagreement in Indian communities.

GOV. KRISTI NOEM of South Dakota has a scratchy relationship with the state’s Indian tribes.  The Oglala Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux have checkpoints on U.S. and State Highways to protect their fragile health care systems from visitors who may carry the coronavirus.  Noem ordered, “I request that the tribes immediately cease interfering with or regulating traffic on US and State Highways and remove all travel checkpoints.”  She said last Friday the state “would take legal action if the tribes didn’t remove the checkpoints in 48 hours.”  The tribes have so far refused.

DAKTOIDS:  The tallest tree in ND is a cottonwood in Sheldon; the champion American elm (state tree) is in Fargo . . . MN’s per capita virus cases exceed ND and the death rate from the virus is double ND . . . Minot canceled this year’s Hostfest — now add the State Fair to the list of casualties.  Cancelation of the two events cuts tens of millions of dollars from the Minot economy.