Unheralded

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Well, We Were Warned …

Here’s an updated version of a story I wrote here a month or so — and for Dakota Country magazine’s current issue. Now we know that there will be no bighorn sheep season in North Dakota this year, for the first time since 1983. Nor will there be one in the foreseeable future. So, add bighorn sheep to the list …


Unheralded

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Good Luck, Farmers Union (And Other Sort-Of Related Items)

So, the North Dakota Farmers Union held a big rally Friday on the Capitol steps to kick off the petition drive to refer North Dakota Senate Bill 2351, which would exempt dairies and hog farms from our anti-corporation farming laws. It’s nice to see the spunk coming from the NDFU. I hope their referral effort is successful. It’s got a little …


JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Sometimes You Have To Be Careful What You Ask For

Tomorrow is the deadline for people to apply to become the next chancellor of the North Dakota Higher Education system. Given the chaos that exists in the state’s higher education system right now, I’ll almost be surprised if anyone applies. I said almost. Because anyone who does apply will surely be well-educated and reasonably intelligent, and so even though they …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — So Long, Bighorn Sheep

I learned about this earlier in the week, but today it became official, when my copy of North Dakota Outdoors arrived in the mail: Add bighorn sheep to the list of species for which there will be no hunting season in North Dakota this year. Or for the foreseeable future. At least not likely in my lifetime. The Game and …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Another Black Eye For North Dakota

Here’s an update to a post I wrote last night regarding North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Douglas Goehring. Thanks to Valerie Barbie-Bluemle for pointing this out to me this morning. You can read yesterday’s post by going here. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Inspector General released its report Monday that tells why it will resume federal inspections of pesticides in North …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Douglas Goehring And The EPA: The Real Story

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Douglas Goehring is all over the news media this week saying he was “blindsided” by the EPA. Looks to me like he was just blind. And pretty stupid, too, and now he’s going to cost the U.S. taxpayers a bunch of money, if the EPA has to send in a team of federal pesticide inspectors to …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Another Oil ‘Boom’

North Dakota’s oil boom was built on the back of lax regulation of the oil industry. Period. When Jack Dalrymple takes credit for the oil boom, let’s remind him: The train that blew up in West Virginia on Monday did not have to blow up. It could have derailed without blowing up. It’s easy to blame the railroad — they …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — A ‘Big F**cking Deal’

“We had a bunch of cash lying around, and decided this would be a good use for it,” a network executive said today. In an effort to boost their “NBC Nightly News” show in the under-70 demographic, the network announced that Comedy Central’s Daily Show host Jon Stewart will replace the recently fired Williams as anchor in their regular 6:30 …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Golden Bison Tomatoes And Thoughts Of Spring

Here’s a story about the best customer service ever. Even better than the lady who almost bankrupted Herberger’s. It started last March when Lillian and I attended a presentation by Robert Hanna of the Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation at the former North Dakota Governor’s Mansion. Robert’s Foundation has taken over the interpretation of the Oscar H. Will Seed …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — What If The Governor, The Attorney General And The Ag Commissioner All Went To The Pokey?

During last year’s campaign for and against Measure 5, the Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks amendment to the North Dakota Constitution, opponents of the amendment used as one of their sticking points the fact that there is already an Outdoor Heritage Fund in state government and it will provide $30 million this biennium for the same kind of projects the …