Dakota Beacon

JAMES HENRIKSON; TEX HALL; “FROM WENTZ HE CAME”; VIKINGS VS. EAGLES; HE MADE GRAND FORKS GREAT AGAIN; DON’T LIKE HAWKS; GRAND SKY; THE SPIRITWOOD ACQUIFER; THAT, DAVE, WAS A WEAK RESPONSE; THE ND STOCKMEN’S ASS’N; PROTESTORS TURN ROUGH; YUR OBITUARY MAY DEFINE YOU; DAKTOIDS

JAMES HENRIKSON (36) is big, bad and crazy, and serving life prison terms for a variety of crimes including hiring the murder of two men. Henrikson was the subject of a story (“A Dangerous Man”) on Dateline NBC last Friday. The Watford City man and ex-wife Sarah Creveling ran Blackstone Oilfield Services in Mckenzie County. He was already a convicted felon before being convicted of 11 charges earlier this year. Creveling cooperated with law enforcement after learning of Henrikson’s infidelities, but faces her own charges for money laundering and mail fraud.

TEX HALL, former chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes, was also mentioned in the NBC story. Hall was a business associate of Henrikson and is believed to have used his influence to divert business to Blackstone. To make things messier, Henrikson was the extramarital boyfriend of Hall’s daughter and the father of Hall’s granddaughter. The child was named Bentley -- Henrikson had a new Bentley in his Watford City garage. It’s an enduring mystery how Hall avoids prosecution for abusing his former position as tribal chairman.

“FROM WENTZ HE CAME” was the name of an NBC sports story about Carson Wentz and the ND phenomenon he became. One commentator called Wentz the biggest thing in the state since Roger Maris. Scheels has a center in its stores devoted to Wentz gear -- the number 11 Eagle’s jersey is worn everywhere and hard to keep in stock. The Eagles are intruding on the popularity of the Vikings and Packers in ND. Last Saturday, Wentz seemed to come down to earth in a loss to the Washington Redskins.

VIKINGS VS. EAGLES or is it Sam Bradford vs. Carson Wentz? Complicated story, but keeping it simple: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford was traded to the Minnesota Vikings making rookie Carson Wentz the new Eagles quarterback. The two meet at Philadelphia on Sunday. The game generates much interest in ND and Minnesota.

HE MADE GRAND FORKS GREAT AGAIN Rick Swenson set off on the Red River at Grand Forks on October 15th with the goal of paddling 26 miles to Oslo, Minnesota. He did and holds the world record for the longest distance paddled in a pumpkin. This was no ordinary pumpkin -- it weighed nearly 1,100 pounds. Oh, yes, Rick wore a Carson Wentz number 11 jersey for his nearly 14-hour voyage.

DON’T LIKE HAWKS “Again, let's be honest about the public's dislike of the new logo, which by the way, does not meet a single one of UND's own criteria. Well, OK, it's green.” -- From Glenn Dahlstrom’s letter to the GF Herald directed to the attention of UND President Mark Kennedy. Dahlstrom added: “Kennedy should realize that a lot of people are looking for a reason to get behind UND again. But without that reason, the wounds caused by feelings of resentment and betrayal will continue to be slow to heal.” The letter stated the selection of the new nickname and logo was not the choice of the “UND community.”

GRAND SKY is the name of a drone aviation and technical park adjacent to Grand Forks AFB. The 5-year-old park is developing slowly, but steadily -- it has two tenants who have built facilities. The park is connected to the AFB runways which can be used by tenants. Tenant recruitment is a major priority, as is obtaining Air Force permission to fly beyond line of sight on a commercial basis.

THE SPIRITWOOD ACQUIFER is a giant underground water supply which runs from Canada through eastern South Dakota into Iowa. The top of the acquifer is over 100 feet below the surface and the bottom over 250 feet. To get better definition, an MRI of the acquifer was made by helicopter in the Jamestown area. The survey is more than academic. The nitrogen fertilizer plant planned at Spiritwood by CHS was abandoned in part because of concern about an inadequate industrial water supply.

THAT, DAVE, WAS A WEAK RESPONSE Gov. Jack Dalrymple told KFYR in Fargo that pipeline protesters include about 200 people who “are into a more militant form of agitation.” Host Scott Hennen asked Dalrymple if he had ever asked Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault to ask the troublemakers to leave. Dalrymple said, yes, he had, but Archambault responded, “When building unity amongst tribes it’s never good to ask anyone to leave.”

THE ND STOCKMEN’S ASS’N offered a $14,000 reward for information leading to the identity of parties who killed, butchered and stole livestock near the main pipeline protest camp. The pipeline contractor has offered a $100,000 reward for arsonists who burned pipeline equipment in Iowa. There is a sizable criminal element at the protest camp -- of 123 who have been arrested, 43 had 276 previous citations, 7 had previous arrests for theft, robbery or burglary.

PROTESTORS TURN ROUGH "For both of us, it was most the terrifying experiences of our lives. They were holding us hostage at one stage, three cars blocked us in, all of them surrounding us." -- Journalists from FrackNation who claim to have been assaulted at the protest site. They were helped from the site by Morton County law enforcement and said, "There seemed to be no voice of reason there. Anything could have happened."

BE CAREFUL, your obituary may define you. Victor Reule (80) of Menoken was described thusly in his obituary: “He enjoyed spending time with family and his animals, especially his dog Yankee. He also was fond of watching The Animal Planet on television.”

DAKTOIDS: Radio journalist Amy Goodman is off the hook -- a judge in Mandan dismissed a proposed charge of rioting at a pipeline protest site . . . NDSU fell from its #1 football ranking to #4 as a result of a loss to South Dakota State -- UND moved from #22 to #19 as a result of a win at S. Utah . . . ND tax revenues are beginning to settle down -- in September general fund revenues roughly equaled projections . . . Solar power is not doing well in ND despite plenty of sun. Reason: Energy costs are too low in ND to justify a payback on solar.