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Schmid: Looking Back From the Left Coast

Saturday, January 05, 2013

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JANUARY 5, 2012

Ten years ago ND was gloomy and seemed to be dying. Terms like “outmigration” and “brain drain” added to the mood.  At the time, the Forum documented the mood in…...

Sunday, December 30, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - DECEMBER 29, 2012

Monday, December 31, will be New Year's Eve.  It will also be the day you get "The Ten Biggest North Dakota Stories of 2012."  Be ready! A Bismarck Tribune editorial…...

Sunday, December 23, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - DECEMBER 22, 2012

Dale Wetzel has covered ND government and politics for the AP for 28 years.  He resigned to host a radio show called “The Legislature Today”  to be aired on KFYR…...

Monday, December 17, 2012

SCHMID:LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - DECEMBER 17, 2012

“We’ve worked hard for our prosperity and now it’s time to make our prosperity work for us.” -- Gov. Jack Dalrymple recommending the largest budget in state history to the…...

Monday, December 10, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - DECEMBER 10, 2012

Minot has very interesting dynamics. The city is growing rapidly -- a population of 41,000 in 2010 is believed to have already grown to 50,000. The city has extraordinary demand…...

Monday, December 03, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - DECEMBER 2, 2012

“He was raised on a family farm between Hannah and Sarles, North Dakota, where he learned the value of hard work and persistence in the face of difficult situations.” -- The obituary of…...

Saturday, November 24, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - NOVEMBER 21, 2012

“Violence has been growing . . . including drug problems and gang activity . . . it has all greatly escalated since the oil boom.” -- Mark Fox, a director…...

Friday, November 16, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - NOVEMBER 16, 2012

Narcissism -- Excessive interest in one’s self (Webster’s). Chris Linnares’ “Happy Body/Hot Life” was a feature of the SheSays section of the Fargo Forum. Happy Body is closing down and…...

Friday, November 09, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST

ND election results held a significant surprise -- Democrat Heidi Heitkamp won the U.S. Senate race. Heitkamp’s strength came from Fargo and Grand Forks, while her opponent did well in…...

Friday, November 02, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - NOVEMBER 2, 2012

The Coasters had a top-ten hit in 1959 best known for the phrase, “Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” The Spirit Lake Tribe has taken a relentless beating in the…...

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST

Every week we get drips and drabs about ND’s oil industry until it becomes almost ho-hum. So, it takes something like Lynn Helms’ address to the ND Association of Oil…...

Friday, October 19, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - OCTOBER 18, 2012

The GF Herald made a fascinating study of growth in ND sales tax collections during the last decade. State collections increased 178 percent for the decade -- very impressive. But…...

Monday, October 15, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - OCTOBER 15, 2012

“Nice fantasy, but I think it would be better in Las Vegas than North Dakota.” -- Williston architect John Biggs commenting on a proposed $145 million pyramid near Williston. At…...

Monday, September 24, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - September 24, 2012

“Be calm and breathe.” -- Phil Jackson (67), Williston native, UND All-American, famed NBA coach and 1992 member of the ND Hall of Fame speaking at a seminar in Santa…...

Monday, September 17, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - September 17, 2012

For years, Jamestown has been fishing for a major tenant for the Spiritwood Energy Park and they have hooked a whale. The $1.2 billion Spiritwood Nitrogen Project will be the…...

Thursday, September 13, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - September 13, 2012

The British news magazine Economist has an article about ND and, for a change, it’s not about oil. The article calls the state conservative, elderly and rural. The magazine is…...

Thursday, August 30, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - AUGUST 30, 2012

“What’s most disturbing to me is that Spirit Lake seems to be a rudderless ship.”  -- Sen. Kent Conrad commenting on the child care crisis at the reservation.  “There is not a structure…...

Monday, August 27, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST

“What’s happening here in the Bakken . . . is quite special.” -- The president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.  Narayana Kocherlakota said he and his staff visited Williston because their…...

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - AUGUST 27, 2012

“What’s happening here in the Bakken . . . is quite special.” -- The president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.  Narayana Kocherlakota said he and his staff visited Williston because their…...

Friday, August 17, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - AUGUST 16, 2012

If I asked you about the Port of ND, you would probably return a blank stare.  The port is an intermodal facility in Minot which transfers product and containers between…...

Monday, July 23, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JULY 23, 2012

Everywhere you look, there are signs ND is in a period of “headiness”  -- superlatives bounce off the walls.  In its 2013-15 budget, the Board of Higher Education proposed $700…...

Monday, July 16, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JULY 16. 2012

Dennis Johnson, the State’s Attorney for McKenzie County, said there is a distinct group of people arriving in ND that remind him of Cher’s song “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.” Believe…...

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JUNE 22, 2012

The Fighting Sioux nickname controversy seems settled for the moment. While UND will be worse for the embarrassing way it handled the issue, life there will go on without much…...

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JUNE 14, 2012

Voters turned out in record numbers and sadly, reluctantly voted to allow UND to retire the Fighting Sioux nickname. As Tom Dennis of the GF Herald put it, “Neither UND…...

Thursday, June 07, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JUNE 6, 2012

The end could be near for the “Fighting Sioux” nickname -- “haters” may have their way. Earl Strinden, a former ND House majority leader and retired head of the UND…...

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST

“Holy cow, I didn’t think it would happen this fast” -- Ron Ness, president of the ND Petroleum Council, expressing surprise when March ND oil production moved slightly past that…...

Friday, May 11, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - MAY 11, 2012

Remember the parable of the ant and the grasshopper? The ant worked hard laying up supplies for winter, while the grasshopper laughed and played the summer away. Then winter came…...

Saturday, May 05, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - MAY 5, 2012

Scam is in the air. In March, I mentioned an Iowa company’s plan to use an idle Grafton ethanol plan to turn sugar beets into fuel. The plan seemed sketchy…...

Monday, April 30, 2012

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST -  APRIL 30, 2012

Last week, we had reason to think Minnesota attitudes towards ND were becoming kinder and gentler. How is that working out? Sorry, not so well, the meanies are at it…...

Friday, April 20, 2012

SCHMID:  LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - APRIL 20, 2012

The Fargo Forum displays a mixture of envy and concern about ND’s oil boom. A Forum editorial said wise monkeys in the Oil Patch (“see no evil,” “hear no evil,”…...

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