Dakota Beacon

DISSIDENTS PLEASE GO AWAY! Voting on a new UND nickname is underway -- those opposing the voting and supporters of the UND Fighting Sioux nickname were urged to throw in the towel by GF Herald columnist Tom Dennis -- he called their actions a distraction from more important UND goals. Dennis said that while the university once thought it had control of the nickname, that was an illusion shattered by the power of the NCAA. The NCAA required UND to secure approval from ND’s two Sioux tribes and UND failed to do so.

WHOSE FAILURE? The failure to challenge the NCAA and/or find an accommodation with the tribes is a major sticking point with nickname supporters. UND President Robert Kelley, his Athletic Director and his administration never fully supported the nickname. The result was a foregone conclusion -- the NCAA prevailed. Also, there is no clear reason why the Kelley administration could not pursue important goals while the nickname issue was resolved. If there was a failure to do so, it was theirs.

THE THIRD BOOM In his weekly Onlooker column, Mike Jacobs says ND is embarking on a third boom. The first was an agriculture boom and the second was a series of waves constituting an oil boom. The third boom is an aviation boom led by UND’s School of Aerospace and the Grand Sky park for unmanned aircraft.

"WE ARE BUCKING TRENDS AROUND HERE." -- Kim Meyer, EVP of Gate City Bank in Fargo, commenting on the bank’s expansion in ND and Minnesota. Alerus in Grand Forks and Bell State in Fargo report similar growth in both states. The growth of ND’s regional banks is a departure from national patterns.

“GRAFTON is still struggling, as are many other rural communities, with classic problems that include an aging population, population decline and an infrastructure that's aging along with its residents.” -- Executive Director of the Red River Regional Council.

BURN IT! “Rather than watching the church deteriorate, parishioners decided to burn it.” -- Lori Saure, a member of the 129-year-old St. Olaf Church in Reynolds. A radical solution to a challenge confronting the diminishing congregations of aging rural churches.

BEHEMOTH If you are not in farming, it’s difficult to stay abreast of dramatic technical innovations in the industry and their cost. A Netherlands company makes a self-propelled beet harvester now being tested in the Red River Valley -- the machine harvests at 4-5 mph and is 48 feet long with a bin holding 30 tons of beets. It takes a few beets to pay for one -- they run about $750,000.

FANCIFUL OR VISIONARY? The U. of Mary in Bismarck is a private four-year school with about 2,000 traditional students. Its trustees have announced a $272 million capital campaign. The first three-year phase is about $100 million and is said to be 40 percent subscribed. The other phases, covering an additional 12 years, include an eye-popping $63 million for a medical school.

PAY FOR PRESTIGE Minnesota has many fine private colleges, but sticker prices are high. The annual tuition, room and board cost at Carleton College passed $60,000. Colleges such as Macalester and St. Olaf exceed $50,000, while all Minnesota private colleges average around $50,000. The impact on applications varies -- Carleton receives13 applications for every spot in the freshman class, while enrollment at Concordia in Moorhead is dropping.

MN STATE COLLEGE & UNIVERSITIES have decreasing enrollment and rising costs. Eleven of the 37 MnSCU schools have been singled out for special attention.

THE BLACK LIVES MATTER protest movement held the spotlight recently in the Twin Cities -- politicians have been quick to jump on the band wagon not wanting to seem unsympathetic or out-of-touch. A commentary in the StarTribune this week indicates that much rhetoric is misplaced. The article states 6,000 blacks are murdered every year and they are killed at six times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined -- mostly the result of black-on-black crime. Blacks commit 75 percent of all shootings in New York City, although they are only 23 percent of its population. Nationally, about 400 people are killed by police each year and blacks represent about a third of the total -- a much lower rate than black crime rates would predict.

ARMED ROBBERIES in the Red River Valley in last several years appear, based on press accounts, to be largely committed by blacks. An example this week, “two black men” are alleged to have robbed a Mexican restaurant in Grand Forks. Is this an unfair stereotype? Blacks as a percentage of the population in Fargo and Grand Forks are in low single digits. It would be helpful if the Forum papers published a racial breakdown of violent crimes in the two cities.

CRAIG COBB, a white supremacist, terrorizes small ND towns by threatening to acquire vacant properties to make an enclave for confederates. The Fargo Forum awarded Prairie Roses to the tiny town of Antler for preempting Cobb by using crowd funding to buy the lots he wanted. Cobb has proven to be more bark than bite.

HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT A year ago, Wall Street estimated that Occidental Petroleum’s Bakken assets were worth $3 billion. This week, Reuters reported those assets sold to a private equity fund for $500 million. The assets consisted of more than 300,000 acres in ND’s Dunn and Stark counties and a new 21,000 square-foot office building in Dickinson. This is an extreme example of reappraisals being made as a result of low crude oil prices.

OH MY! “An oil fracking boom and subsequent bust have brought extortion, prostitution, drug dealing and theft to the remote prairie town of Williston, North Dakota.” -- A teaser for a National Geographic TV special called “Fracking Hell.” Locals said the network came “to Williston with an agenda, and didn’t bother to fact check.” Depictions of violence are said to have been fabricated.

DAKTOIDS: The short, fat woman who allegedly robbed two Grand Forks banks of $22,000 has been “ratted out” by relatives and was found in a Moorhead jail held on unrelated charges . . . A consultant’s study advises that Bismarck-Mandan needs 15,000 new housing units in the next 15 years . . . The oil industry slowdown is taking a toll on Dickinson -- Delta Airlines is suspending service initiated in 2013 . . . Despite the slowdown, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranked ND No. 1 among all states in economic performance.