Dakota Beacon

THE DIRT DEVIL GOT HIM  Anyone who has spent time around ND fields is acquainted with dirt devils, the seemingly harmless little twisters that meander fields and throw up clouds of dust and debris.  Wade Samek, a Wimbledon farmer, saw two dirt devils join and approach him as one.  He decided to take refuge in his tractor cab, but, before he could reach it, the devil pushed him 20 feet and then lifted him into a patch of cattails.  Samek was largely unhurt, but said "It was the craziest thing I've ever been through.”  He has a t-shirt illustrating his adventure.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED  The first Democratic candidate for ND Insurance Commissioner this year was blocked because the state Supreme Court found she did not meet residency requirements.  The Democrats tried again by nominating Jason Anderson for the vacancy.  He was also rebuffed when the court concluded in a 4-1 vote that because the first candidate was not qualified there was no vacancy.  Former Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle dissented because he believed there was ambiguity in the relevant statute and the court should have, in the public interest, allowed a candidate.

THE CENSUS is especially important to the ND Oil Country because the census determines the level of federal benefits and the area had a big population bounce after the 2010 census.  The census count is frustrated for two reasons: First, a pullback in the oil industry has caused an undetermined level of recent layoffs and exodus and, secondly, census takers were hoping to catch residents at local public events, but those events were cancelled because of the pandemic.  Killdeer is one of the small cities affected — they believe their population doubled since 2010, but maybe not.

INDIAN COUNTRY has its own problem with the census.  ND currently has a 64% self-response rate (86% total response), while the Ft. Berthold Reservation, for example, had a self-response rate of 22%.  The reasons are historical and numerous, but most relate to indifference or trust.  The reservations usually improve the response rate by appeals at powwows, but there are fewer this year because of the pandemic.

INCENTIVE  If the Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion is not completed, 11,000 homeowners will  be required to annually pay $3,000 to $5,000 in flood insurance — that’s $30 to $50 million.  If the diversion is built, they are off the hook.

NO GUARANTEE  Lignite coal companies recycle land — farmland is stripped for mining and then restored for ag production.  The mining companies are self-bonded, that is, they agree, without collateral, to restore mined property.  Environmentalists are worried that coal company bankruptcies may make some agreements worthless in ND. 

SURPRISE!  Prior to a Sunday report, Stutsman County had a little over 100 active coronavirus cases.  Sunday, 49 new cases were reported — the previous high was 29.  The new cases were the result of testing over 400 residents.  Returning students at the University of Jamestown accounted for 8 of the new cases.  The county has 21,000 residents, the majority in Jamestown.  On Wednesday, Williams County (Williston) joined the surprise party with 67 cases — that represented 28% of the state’s new cases that day.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE  If you are Black or Indian in ND, you are roughly four times more likely to be under control of the Dept. of Corrections than if you are White.  Indians make up 19% of the DoC population, while Blacks account for 10%.  ND Hispanics in prison are relatively close to their proportion of the population.  A representative of a criminal justice reform group said, “Our history really got us here, and so it’s not going to be an overnight process to … remove the very complicated layers nationwide or within North Dakota.”

POLITICALLY CORRECT?  The suspect in a Minot shooting was described thusly, “Evans is a 31-year-old male with brown eyes and black hair.”  Would it have helped with his apprehension if they had also mentioned he was obviously Black?  Such selective reporting is part of an ongoing struggle for balance at newspapers.

LLOYD’S TAKE  Columnist Lloyd Omdahl has joined public figures urging ND to shift its biennial legislature to an annual schedule.  He thinks the need is obvious and says the real reason legislators oppose annual sessions is “a number of them would find it inconvenient to serve in annual sessions and the legislature doesn’t have the political will to cope with even a handful of disgruntled members.”

SUPERSPREADER is a term used to describe the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally because of a research report from San Diego State which blames the rally for over a quarter million coronavirus cases with a nationwide public health cost running into billions.  The report has been loudly denounced by South Dakota officials including the governor who called it a work of “fiction.”  The conclusions of the report seem rather improbable, since only a few hundred cases have been directly attributed to the Sturgis Rally.

MINNEAPOLIS QUANDARY  Mayor Jacob Frey and City Council President Lisa Bender have said the city was perpetuating racist policies resulting in poverty and housing segregation.  An “Opinion Exchange” in the StarTribune stated “These arguments do not survive scrutiny” because Minneapolis has been importing African poverty and exacerbating disparities which do not have roots in slavery.  Minneapolis has 74,000 refugees and the largest concentration of Somalis in the nation.  As an example, in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood 44.5% of residents are Black and 42% are foreign-born.

DAKTOIDS:  A Forum editorial observed “downtown Fargo is at risk of losing its luster because of its failure so far to deal with the growing nuisance of panhandlers, drunks and brawlers” . . . Because of the pandemic, many meat plants were unable to accept hogs, which then had to be euthanized at farms — according to industry sources, no state faced greater hog production losses than Minnesota . . . Due to the pandemic, the Jamestown airport expects to serve about half the normal level of passengers in 2020 . . . Rob Port noted ND no longer has any newspapers publishing 7 days a week.