SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - May 1, 2014
ARE THESE MODEST CLAIMS? “With no other comparable retail development in a 125-mile radius, we expect it will soon become the number one retail destination.” -- The claim of a Swiss firm planning a $500 million mixed-use development in Williston. Interesting! A 125-mile radius includes Minot and Dickinson, although Mandan-Bismarck lies outside that radius. Construction is set to begin in March 2015 and be completed in 2017.
A NATIONAL LEADER ND leads the nation in housing growth and five of the top ten counties in the nation for housing growth are in the state. Williams County (Williston) led the five ND counties with 16 percent growth in 2013. Stark County (Dickinson), also in the Oil Patch, was on the list, as were three counties not in the Oil Patch: Ward (Minot), Morton (Mandan) and Burleigh (Bismarck). The state also led the nation in job growth -- ND added 22,000 jobs last year for a growth rate of five percent.
IT’S NOT YOUR GRANDPARENTS’ FARGO The city is enjoying growth, but also getting a taste of urban maladies. Four Milwaukee, Wisconsin, women went on a shoplifting spree in the West Acres mall. Chased by a security guard, they struck him with their car and fled into Minnesota on I-94. A Clay County sheriff’s officer ran them down and Jasma Shanette (23), Marquita Deshawna (19), Charla Mickal (21) and Shuneka Shanell (23) are charged with felony shoplifting and more. The gang used shoplifting gear to steal over $5,000 of merchandise from Victoria's Secret and Justice.
WHATEVER Said Muse told police investigators in Jamestown “I attack him,” describing a machete fight with another Somali. At his trial, Muse said, “I meant to say he attacked me.” His attorney said, “My client said all sorts of stupid stuff . . . and has had no English training.” Jurors believed the first version and found Muse guilty of aggravated assault.
IT’S MY LUCKY DAY The 83-year-old ND woman could hardly believe it -- she was promised $19 million in winnings. She sent checks totaling $158,000 to facilitate the prize. Why not! A SD man obligingly sent a $14,000 cashier’s check to claim his $3.5 million and a new Mercedes. Of course, it was all lottery fraud targeting elderly victims in the Dakotas. ZJ Wah Wa, a prominent Jamaican disc jockey (imagine that), is among those arrested and will be extradited to ND. For the thousandth time, the U.S. Attorney for ND warned against such scams.
HOBBY FARMERS “More big farms, more small farms, fewer farms in the middle. And more farmers with off-farm jobs.” -- A U. of Minnesota Extension description of the changing characteristics of regional farms. In ND, just 57 percent of farm operators count farming as their primary job, compared to 72 percent as recently as 1997.
SPEAKA THE DEUTSCH? After English, what’s the most-spoken language in ND? Many would be tempted to say Norwegian. Nein! . . . it’s German. Where’s all this German being spoken? Try Lawrence Welk country, the sauerkraut triangle. ND is the only state where German is the No. 2 language. Minnesota and South Dakota? . . . it’s Spanish.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HARD QUESTIONS? Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson says the “Siouxper Drunk” T-shirts in Grand Forks provide a good time to ask “some hard questions about the current state of white-Indian relations in North Dakota.” Thence Jenkinson rambled on for 1,200 words about the difficult history of Indians in ND and then, with almost no transition, concluded, “At the very least it is time for all of us to insist on zero tolerance for cultural slurs and racism, stereotyping and cultural appropriation.” For many years, Jenkinson has been consistently sympathetic to the plight of ND Indians, but, like most everyone else, short of practical remedies.
HARD TO GET INDIANS INTO NURSING. ND has had programs to help American Indians get into nursing since the early 1990s -- UND has a special recruitment and retention program. Yet, Indians make up only one percent of the state’s nurses, while Indians are about six percent of the population and have higher rates of disease and death.
THE VOICES OF MODERATION The T-shirt incident did not involve UND, but that little fact didn’t slow down a few extreme opponents of the Fighting Sioux nickname. In a letter published by the Forum, Waylon Johnson of Fargo labeled it another “racist incident” at UND. He said the legislature should force UND to pick a new nickname and pleaded with the athletic director at NDSU to “not play them in any sports and let them wither on the vine.”
SLOW-MOVING DREAM Over six decades ago, naysayers predicted that the Crazy Horse (Custer’s nemesis) Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota would fail, but work still plods on. The memorial is envisioned to show the Lakota warrior on a horse -- a sculpture 641 feet long and 563 feet high (roughly the height of two football fields set on end) and carved out of a mountain. The work was begun by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski who died in 1982 -- the project was carried on by his wife Ruth who died this month. The carving is only partially complete and there is no estimate of when it will be finished -- millions in admission fees and donations finance the memorial. If ever finished, the work will be colossal, according to Ruth’s obituary “perhaps the largest modern sculpture in the world.”
TORNADOES AND RV CAMPS DON’T MIX A Memorial Day tornado touched down in an RV camp housing oil workers near Watford City injuring nine and destroying 15 trailers. Pictures after the incident show a scene that looked like a waste dump. What the pictures also showed were other clusters of RVs and mobil homes within a few hundred yards -- all relatively untouched.
IT COULD BE WORSE A tornado near Moorhead, MN, made weather history May 27, 1931, when it derailed five cars of the Empire Builder, killing one and injuring 57.
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