North Dakota’s district political conventions are about over, and state conventions are coming up, so I thought I might write a few political columns for the next few weeks. I’ve been hanging out around politics for a few years, and still have a pretty good memory (something my wife would dispute), and I still know a lot of the players …
It’s been a long, cold winter. I know. … After all these years of living in Minnesota and North Dakota, I should be used to it by now. In fact, I freely admit to having sneered with derision at those overmatched out-of-towners who complained all the way to the airport, upon spending a few moderately cool days here for Super …
I am blessed with several wonderful girlfriends, fellow travelers who love wild landscapes as much as I. Together, we have explored these places, on a regular occasion. We are of a similar age and share between us a deep love and commitment to the Bad Lands. These are very smart and strong and brave women friends. My life is deeply …
The National Rifle Association spokespeople like to use Justice Antonin Scalia as a supporter of the Second Amendment to the extent they claim you can’t place limits on gun ownership and use. The NRA is devoid of integrity. It espouses its “love for the right to own guns, any guns.” The moment POTUS 45 declared to the National Governors Association, …
Last week one night, I dreamed of the upcoming garden season, a dream filled with blossoms and bounty. The gardening season has begun here, in the basement, as Jim has planted the pepper seeds and tiny sprouts have emerged. In about a week, he will plant his tomato seeds. Many of the seeds we are using were purchased at Seed …
“Operation Snowbound: Life Behind the Blizzards of 1949,” by David W. Mills. North Dakota State University Press, c2018 (260 pages, photos) How’s this for timing? I finished this interesting new book, one of the many excellent books being produced by North Dakota State University Press, just as the biggest winter storm of the season is upon us. This is the …
This early morning quiet Many inches on the ground Falling softly still, six-fifteen Straight down, not a sound. The sagging branches, wet white Up north Dakota Territory The way of it at thirty degrees Another clean winter story. Tip toe up and down Whisper softly to each one No school today, ice and snow Maybe heaps before it’s done. Really …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team secured fourth place and gained home ice for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs with a 2-2 tie with St. Cloud State University on Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks (14-12-10 overall, 8-10-6 NCHC) picked up the extra point when Rhett Gardner scored just over four minutes into 3-3 …
The mailman brought me a small package this week, book-sized, postmarked and with a return address from the town in which I grew up, Hettinger, N.D. Well, it was obviously a book, and I love it when people send me books, so I opened it immediately. It was indeed a book, a very special book, with a letter tucked neatly …
Lexi Klabo scored a game-high 29 points and added 10 rebounds but it wasn’t enough as Portland State University defeated the University of North Dakota women’s basketball team 80-61 win in the Big Sky Conference regular season finale for both squads Friday night in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The win gave Portland State (19-10 overall, 11-7 BSC) the six seed …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team suffered a blow to its quest for home ice in the first round of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs with a 4-3 overtime loss to St. Cloud State University, the No. 1 team in the country. The Huskies (22-6-5 overall, 16-4-3 NHCC), who already have clinched the Penrose Cup for the …
Fish and seafood meals are a popular during Lent, and not just for Catholics, who are required to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during the 40 days that precede Easter. That was very evident to me when guest hosting one of East Grand Forks Sacred Heart Men’s Club-sponsored fish fries during Lent over the past several years. …
Thomas Jefferson had many opportunities to speculate in western lands. Many of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, were engaged in land speculation beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Jefferson quietly refused because he knew that at some point he might have to “legislate” for the public domain, and he did not want to be guilty of conflict of interest or even …
Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner went out early Friday morning to capture these images after a nice frost in the Grand Forks area.
Well, he has been, so I guess it’s possible, but it doesn’t seem proper to a hyena-fearing person like me. Maybe “shouldn’t” is a better word. Kevin Cramer’s intoxicating “piousness cologne” doesn’t quite overwhelm the stench of the $#itholes that Donald Sr. dug here and there and has been filling with “Trump Tators™” for most of his life. From the …
Forty-three North Dakotans have been honored with the rank of colonel in the North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt Rough Riders since North Dakota began giving its highest award to its highest achievers in 1961. It’s time to make it 45. The award was created by former Gov. William L. Guy as part of North Dakota’s commemoration of the Dakota Territory Centennial, …
When the current president of the United States calls someone a coward, he speaks as an expert on the subject. A coward is defined in a number of ways, each fitting him to a T. The dictionary says it’s a person who lacks the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things; one who is excessively afraid of danger …
Today (Wednesday) my mother Minnie Vogel Vorland would have been 95. She died in 1991, a few days after my father, Kermit Vorland. They are buried next to one another in a cemetery near the former family farm south of Wellsburg, N.D. This picture (above) was taken by Dad, from whom I inherited an interest in photography. I was about …
“Good morning, students. It’s time for announcements. The lunch menu today is hot dogs with macaroni and cheese. The vegetable is ketchup. Take that, Michelle Obama! Miss Swiffer from fourth grade will be walking point during recess. Also, I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” — The Principal. “Even if you took away all the guns, people would …
I am a single parent. It wasn’t what I set out to do. When Steve and I had Duncan and Ian, I had all the hopes and dreams of a young married mother, raising my children in a loving, intact family. However, that was not to be. Steve and I separated the weekend Ian began kindergarten and Duncan started second …
Chicken and rice is a popular combination. In fact, some people would say it’s unbeatable. This simple pairing has been around for ages. After all, rice is a staple in many countries around the world, and chicken is probably more widely available than any other meat. The two go together like spaghetti and meatballs, or peanut butter and jelly. Recently, we …
I’m proud to announce “About Faces,” https://aboutfacesfargo.wordpress.com/ a new community project featuring images and stories of people who illustrate — we hope — the extraordinary in our ordinary, work-a-day lives. “About Faces” is a collection of portraits — in images and words — about people who make Fargo-Moorhead and the surrounding communities what they have been, what they are and what they can be. Here …
“Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life,” by Edward O. Wilson (Liveright Pub., 2016, 259 pages, illustrations). In between watching the Winter Olympics these past weeks — wasn’t that fun! — I read this interesting book by the great Edward O. Wilson, one I purchased last summer and tucked aside for winter reading. The endorsement we heard last year from Paul Simon …
Grand Forks Central, behind a stellar performance in goal by Kaleb Johnson, won its second straight North Dakota boys high school hockey championship with a 4-2 win over Bismarck Century on Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Bismarck Blizzard claimed the girls title with a 3-0 victory over Fargo North-South earlier in the day. Johnson, the MVP for the …
It’s always summer. A few days until the Fourth of July in a small Minnesota town surrounded by lakes. For nearly 50 years, that was the setting each time I thought of my cousin, Dave. So I had the beginning written when I was invited to do his eulogy. Even though I never considered myself for this role, I didn’t hesitate …
President Trump wants a big military parade, the kind one saw in Stalin’s Soviet Union, the kind one sees today in North Korea. It might be useful to compare that notion with the republican dignity of the third president, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson broke with the habit of his two predecessors and sent his annual messages by courier to Congress. He …
Goalie Kaleb Johnson recorded his fifth straight shutout and William Lawson-Body scored two goals to lead Grand Forks Central boys hockey team to a 7-0 win over Grand Forks Red River in the semifinals of the North Dakota High School Hockey Tournament on Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The win for the Knights (23-1-2) sets up today’s championship game …
Hockey’s the word in Grand Forks with the North Dakota Boys and Girls High School Hockey Tournaments taking place at Ralph Engelstad Arena and the Fido Purpur Arena, and that’s where photographer Russ Hons has been plying his trade. In the opening round of the boys tourney, Grand Forks Central, Grand Forks Red River, Fargo Davies and Bismarck Century reached …
Curling has been in the forefront lately, with the U.S. men’s team reaching the gold-medal match with Sweden on Saturday in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games taking place in PyeongChang, South Korea. On Wednesday, photographer Russ Hons made a trip to the newly rebuilt Grand Forks Curling Club, which was founded in 1960, and here is what he saw. (Check out …
Of course, it’s about the guns. Let’s get past that right now. The 19-year-old who slaughtered 14 teens and three teachers at a Florida school so much like Fargo South or Moorhead High was able to buy a military-grade weapon undeterred … though a federal law from a saner era, the 1968 Gun Control Act, still prohibits him from buying …
It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so absolutely convinced that the future of our country will be secure. The reason is our youth … the youth who have been maligned, criticized and bullied by the adult world as though there were no good kids left. I’ve always understood the kids were taking an unfair hit from the superwise …
Please join me in saying NRA? No Way! and using #NRANoWay on social media. My Facebook friend, Steven G. Johnk, better known as Spider, created this graphic (on top of this blog). It’s right in line with what many of the survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting are saying. Here are the comments of three Marjory Stoneman Douglas High …
The National Rifle Association’s key talking point rolled out as predictably as the sad reality that another mass shooting will happen soon in a U.S. school. “This is not the time to discuss gun control.” Let’s add just one word to the key talking point: This is not the ONLY time to discuss gun control. In fact, it’s EXACTLY the …
Word comes this week that the organizing committee for a group of North Dakotans who want to raise North Dakota’s Oil Extraction Tax back to the level it was at before the Legislature cut it in 2015 has decided to postpone its initiated measure campaign. Postpone but not abandon. A wise choice, I’d say. Although the group already has its …
There is a meme that makes the rounds on my Facebook feed after every school shooting that makes my blood boil. It takes the form of two letters. The first says “Dear God, Why do you allow so much violence in our schools? Signed, a concerned student.” The response reads “Dear Concerned Student, I’m not allowed in schools. God” I find …
Because America leads the world in news, it is incumbent upon us to periodically review current events so that when an undocumented immigrant stops you on the street and asks, what the hell is going on, you’ll know. This may also come in handy on your ACT, SAT or POS test. 1. According to former North Dakota GOP chairman and …
A rare cloudy day in Arizona is a treat, “the mountains get moody and dramatic,” according to Eric Bergeson, who recently took a trip southeast of Tucson through some ranch country and then over the Santa Rita Mountain range.
Geno Crandall scored a team-high 28 points and Dale Jones added 16 points to lead the University of North Dakota men’s basketball team to a 86-81 Big Sky Conference overtime victory over Northern Arizona University on Saturday in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Marlon Stewart chipped in 13 points and equaled his career-high with nine assists for the Fighting Hawks (10-17 overall, 5-10 BSC). …
The University of Idaho men’s and women’s tennis teams swept the University of North Dakota by identical 6-1 scores Friday in Choice Health & Fitness in Grand Forks. In singles competition, Alex Mailes was the lone Fighting Hawk to earn a win for the men’s team, while Zahra Finnigan was the only UND woman to win a match. The men, 1-4 on …
Geno Crandall scored a game-high 17 points and Kienan Walter chipped in 15 points to lead the University of North Dakota men’s basketball team to a 61-57 Big Sky Conference victory over Southern Utah on Thursday in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The Fighting Hawks upped their season record to 9-17 overall and 4-10 in BSC play. Jade Cohee led the T-Birds …
Around the country and right here in Fargo-Moorhead, there are victims of abuse, both men and women, who suffer in silence. They are silent because few believe them when they voice their concerns. The dumbing down of America at the national level does not help. Look at the people who the president has surrounded himself with: Rob Porter, accused of …
Most of my Democratic friends have a hard time understanding why I like Kevin Cramer. I think it’s because they’ve never been a part of a brotherhood. Let me explain. I’m was thinking about this Wednesday because of Gary Emineth’s announcement Tuesday that Kevin Cramer would run for the U.S. Senate against Heidi Heitkamp. Thanks for that, Gary. I’m sure …
Grand Forks photographer Michael Bogert has braved the recent spate of cold weather to capture these wildlife and landscape in rural Grand Forks County.
For as long as the Art Shanty Projects have been around, a few years now, I’ve vowed to go — yet have never made it — until Sunday. Of course, 16-degree temperatures were no deterrent. After all, the sun was shinning. Plus, I have a warm hooded coat, terrific fur-lined boots and toasty leather gloves. Armed with my sharp metal-pointed German …