SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - NOVEMBER 2, 2013
Some ND editors can’t help themselves -- an editorial in the Bismarck Tribune was captioned “N.D. numbers for science remarkable.” The Trib was referring to the performance of ND students in 2011 on the National Assessment of Education Progress. Well, the Trib was wrong, as it has been on this subject for many years. It wasn’t remarkable -- in 2011, white students in ND scored close to national averages for white students in math and science. For example, white fourth graders in ND scored exactly the same in math as their national counterparts. About 90 percent of the students in ND are white.
The Trib was able to manufacture superlatives by comparing ND’s overall scores to national averages which include high proportions of black and Hispanic students, groups which score about ten percent below whites. When a comparison is made in that manner, ND students are compared to those in Washington D.C. and Mississippi. The GF Herald, to its credit, recognized that ND’s standing on the NAEP tests is eroding. A Herald editorial said, “And when Minnesota and North Dakota . . . see their once-formidable leads erode as other states catch up and, in some cases, start posting higher scores, Midwesterners should pay attention.” The Herald believes “the NAEP results and their rigorous measure of students’ year-over-year progress” should become a big part of ND classroom life.
Out on the prairie, black people are particularly noticeable. Last week, Carrington and Medina had armed bank robberies on the same day. The robberies are believed to be unrelated, however, black male suspects were identified in each case. The Carrington suspect was nabbed shortly after the robbery about 50 miles northwest on Hwy 52. One of the Medina suspects, a parolee and former Dickinson State football player, was captured the next morning in Fargo. ND blacks are less than one percent of the population, yet commit a significant portion of the state’s violent crime, especially in the eastern part of the state.
Project Safe Bakken has the FBI and other federal agencies putting additional agents in western ND to help with major crimes. Federal law enforcement compares the crime spree in ND to cocaine cowboys in south Florida in the 1970s and Los Angeles street gangs in the early ‘90s. Meanwhile, local law enforcement is overrun with routine emergencies -- Watford City police received 41 calls in 2006 and 4,000 in 2011.
It’s monotonous, repetitive, but deadly -- the ND way of death. This week an Idaho resident died when he lost control of his pickup on Hwy 85 near Watford City early in the morning, overturned and was ejected. Terry Eckman, 48, was not wearing a seat belt.
Headlines in ND and around the nation shouted “hundreds of oil spills in ND not reported to the public.” An environmental disaster? It turns out the hundreds of leaks averaged three barrels each in 2012 and five barrels each so far this year. Most are small spills where pipelines hook up to wells. State officials are designing a website to report spills involving the state’s 17,500 miles of pipelines.
Altru “has really slowed down our capital investment.” -- Chief planning executive at Altru Health System in Grand Forks. He also mentioned Altru’s financial hardship, cost cutting and pay cuts for officers. Plans for remodeling the main campus are “on hold.” Altru is operating at a loss. This is a common failing among nonprofit organizations -- expansion plans that outrun operating cash flow.
Look what the bishop brought us! Bishops preside over parishes which, among other good deeds, administer to the sick and poor. In the Fargo Catholic Diocese, Bishop John Folda exposed congregations in Fargo, Grand Forks and Jamestown to hepatitis. Not intentionally, mind you, he met with the congregations before his condition was diagnosed. Folda attended a conference in Italy for new bishops where he contracted hepatitis A from food.
You’ve heard about Craig Cobb and his fellow white supremacists who are trying to get control of the tiny town of Leith, ND. UnityND is a civil rights organization which opposes Cobb. Unity has an unusual complaint -- Cobb and his evil ways are garnering too much attention from the press. Unity wants the press to instead focus on politicians whom it believes should deal with the Leith situation. The main problem in Leith is that no laws seem to be broken.
You know what they used to do to horse thieves. Fargo police found Dillon Asleson, 23, covered in blood and slumped against a building . . . and he wasn’t the main victim. Asleson has been sentenced to a month in jail and two years probation for stealing Michael Schmit’s pickup. Michael has his own problems -- he hunted Asleson and recovered the pickup, then badly beat Asleson with a metal pipe. Schmit is charged with aggravated assault.
Fargo people will have to make nice -- they want a lot of money. Estimates for their Red River diversion project are nearing $2 billion. That’s for flooding. But what if there is a drought? Then they will need water from the Missouri River and the feds aren’t anxious to help. The tab for a pipeline to do that job is about $800 million. Fargo needs the kindness of strangers (i.e., western Nodaks).
No further embankment raises will be needed. That’s the word from Devils Lake as they put the finishing touches on another project ($168 million) to raise their levee, which is now 12 miles long. Before water reaches the top of the new levee it will cascade out the natural outlet at Tolna Coulee . . . and will become Valley City’s problem.
DAKTOIDS: Traffic deaths in ND are leveling off, but the northwest district of the state is accounting for as many traffic fatalities as the state’s other three districts . . . September year-to-date airline boardings in ND were up about 10 percent from 2012, but Williston’s increase of 182 percent was the driver . . . Washington state is considering port facilities to load 800,000 barrels of oil per day -- much of it coming by rail from ND . . . The new “Queen of Mean” can be found in Fargo -- at Halloween she planned to greet fat children, not with candy, but a letter warning about obesity.
DakotaBeacon