I’m going to Hettinger, N.D.,my hometown, today. Class reunion. A chance to see many old friends. But I’d rather be in Chicago. Let me tell you why. Just about exactly 20 years ago, on the morning of July 8, 1995, I was sitting under the Gateway Arch at the Jefferson National Memorial in St. Louis, reading the St, Louis Post-Dispatch and …
Over the past couple of years, I have written several times about the decline in North Dakota’s wildlife population since the Bakken Boom began. It may just be a coincidence that numbers of game species (deer, sage grouse, bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope, to name a few) have been decimated at the same time as the big oil boom took …
If you head for the Bad Lands this summer, be prepared for some new scenery. All along I-94 from Dickinson to Medora, N.D., you’re going to see the latest abomination brought to us by the oil industry: “repurposed” semi-trailers painted up with advertising messages parked along the ditches beside the freeway. It’s what happens when greedy, tasteless money-grubbers stretch the …
A month or so ago, in an article I first wrote for Dakota Country magazine and posted later here on my blog, I talked a bit about my father and his love of North Dakota’s outdoors. If you missed that, you can read it here. I need to share a few more words about my father — and growing up in …
A Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad train went off the tracks near the small village of Heimdal, N.D., just east of Harvey, N.D., about 7:30 this morning. That’s not news any more, since the train was pulling 109 tank cars of oil, and when six of them caught on fire, it made national news pretty quickly because it’s just the …
These are the three things I enjoy most about North Dakota’s outdoors: Wading across the Little Missouri River with my hiking shoes slung over my shoulder, on my way to a silent day hiking in the Bad Lands wilderness. Watching my dog lean into a patch of brush, just a glimpse of red feathers under her nose, her nostrils flaring …
Let me start with this. I was sitting in my recliner last Sunday evening watching a rerun of the old Lawrence Welk show from the 1960s. It was one of Lawrence‘s “theme shows,” and the theme this week was Los Angeles. As the show neared an end, after renditions of surfer songs and Hollywood movie themes, the band and singers …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
“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 …
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 …
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 …