by Chris Hennen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | January 9th, 2014
Right before the end of the year, our region received what many consider to be an important wake-up call to the dangers of the oil boom in North Dakota. The state has been making national news constantly for all the economic benefits the boom has produced but for once we saw in raw, vivid detail what could be the downside.
The train derailment and subsequent explosion of a 106-car BNSF train carrying crude east…
by Chris Hennen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | December 19th, 2013
After years of waiting, relief is coming to Fargo cable customers. Midcontinent Communications, out of Sioux Falls, S.D., recently announced it will enter the Fargo market, supplanting Cable One as Fargo’s lone cable franchise. If, as is expected, the City of Fargo’s Cable Review Committee approves the franchise agreement crafted between the two parties, installation of the expansion will begin in the spring of 2014. Services would be provided in phases over four years.
Why the…
by HPR Contributor | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | November 7th, 2013
By Rick Abbott
For Winona LaDuke, it’s personal.
A proposed 610-mile pipeline would bring crude oil close to her Minnesota home. That’s part of the reason why she’s now speaking out about what she says are dangers caused by North Dakota’s burgeoning oil business.
A recent report by the Associated Press brought to light nearly 300 pipeline spills in North Dakota since January 2012 that were not reported to the public. These were part of 750 undisclosed oil field “incidents”…
by HPR Contributor | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | October 17th, 2013
By Sean Coffman
As part of the 63rd Legislative Assembly of North Dakota, Senate Bill 2252 was submitted to augment civil liberty protections. In February of 2013, the bill failed to pass the Senate by a 21-26 vote. Had it passed as originally drafted, SB2252 would have amended the state policy against discrimination to include sexual orientation.
“SB 2252 would have provided lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender…
by Bryce Haugen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | August 8th, 2013
Train’s “Marry Me” provided an appropriate soundtrack as the clock ticked toward midnight on August 1 and dozens quietly trickled into a Clay County courtroom.
A sheriff’s deputy on duty said he’d never heard music in the courtroom before. But for a night of firsts that was a trivial aside. Shortly after midnight, 18 gay and lesbian couples became some of the first to exchange vows under Minnesota’s new law that made it the latest of 13 states to allow same-sex…
by Bryce Haugen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | July 11th, 2013
A former congresswoman who has turned tragedy into activism dropped by Fargo last Wednesday with her astronaut husband to promote “common-sense steps” to curb gun violence.
About a hundred people gathered in downtown Fargo’s Atomic Coffee to hear from Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head more than two years ago at a meet-and-greet in Tucson, Ariz., and her husband Mark Kelly, who flew on four space shuttle missions. The short visit was one leg of a weeklong “Rights and…
by Bryce Haugen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | May 16th, 2013
ST. PAUL -- Hours before one of the most important votes he will ever cast, Rep. Ben Lien pointed out a statue of former vice president Hubert H. Humphrey as he walked to his office through the light rain falling on the capital city Thursday morning.
For Lien, DFL-Moorhead, and other legislators, legalizing same-sex marriage in Minnesota was a natural extension of the state’s pioneering civil rights tradition. At about 3 p.m., the House passed the bill 75-59. The Senate followed suit…
by Bryce Haugen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | December 13th, 2012
This time last year, Moorhead’s Main Avenue corridor was a regional mecca for those seeking glass pipes, one-hitters, bongs, grinders and other smoking fare. Now two prominent storefronts at the doorstep of the city sit empty, a visible sign of the drug paraphernalia ban the city council passed just over one year ago.
Only one of five stores has weathered the pipe ban with relative ease. Mother’s Music found a niche selling traditional tobacco pipes, which were exempt from the…
by Bryce Haugen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | March 29th, 2012
The petition is dead, but Moorhead’s nine-month saga over what police and prosecutors deem drug paraphernalia is not over yet.
At its Feb.13 meeting, the city council rejected a petition with nearly 3,000 signatures that would have forced leaders to repeal the divisive ordinance or send the question to voters in the 2013 city election. After a review process threw out about 1,800 names for a variety of reasons – most for not being registered voters – petitioners had 30 days to file…
by Bryce Haugen | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 1st, 2010
They couldn’t stay here legally. They couldn’t go back safely. Mercilessly exploited, profoundly ashamed and maddeningly frustrated, they waited, waited and waited some more.
The promise of permanent residency for their families in America and high pay seemed like a perfect opportunity for hundreds of skilled workers from northern India, many of whom had spent years working alone abroad. They obtained loans, sold ancestral farmland and jewelry…
FARGO – Two of the three Somali-American women threatened with murder two days ago by a white woman outside a local Walmart, met their attacker Thursday afternoon at the Fargo Police Department, and left in friendship.“We…
Did you know that there is a backside to the Internet? I guess we all have backsides, don’t we? The backside of the Internet has many functions, none of which you can access from Google. Dark Net sites are just like normal web…
Thursday July 27, 5pmDowntown CasseltonTake a day trip and cruise down to Casselton. Free car show, 50/50 raffle, cash, prizes, fun galore and just maybe an engine blow up. Hot rods on hot sod? Count us in. Hosted by the Swanks,…
Our opinion: You cannot fool all the people all the time, unless they are from North Dakota.This week Gallup poll reported that at 59% North Dakota has the second largest Trump approval rating in the nation, nipping at West…
A reasonable conclusion: “We should have killed our baby.”For some unfathomable reason, some people think they are immortal, that death is not a part of life. Our culture tends to teach us to avoid the topic of death as if it…
by Sabrina Hornung
The moment of truth has arrived. After seven weeks of sampling and judging some of the finest libations in the area the results for this year’s Cocktail Showdown have arrived. Christopher Larson, Raul Gomez and Sabrina Hornung…
On a sultry Thursday night, I sauntered into Luna. Situated on South University next to Bernie’s Beer and Wine, it isn’t exactly a hole in the wall, but it is certainly off the beaten path, and as described by their motto it is…
Most of us only hear about world records secondhand. Many might think they’re not up to the challenge, others might not see the point of breaking one, and others just read about them in books and think of them as an exotic…
Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” -- touted as the costliest independent motion picture ever made -- simultaneously melts eyeballs with its gorgeous visuals and narcotizes brains with its stiff…
Within the borders of North Dakota lie many worlds that are each expressing themselves in traditional art and culture. During his time as the state folklorist, Troyd Geist has been documenting a diverse array of cultural identities…
Summer Arts Intensive performs main stage musicalUnder the summer sun, something’s begun, taking over those summer nights. The 1978 movie and musical hit Grease is taking stage as part of the Summer Arts Intensive in West Fargo.…
“I don’t have a tour, like, on the back of a sweatshirt,” comedian Paula Poundstone says. “I go out every weekend. This weekend I went out Friday, Saturday and Monday. Mostly it’s Friday/Saturday or Thursday through…
Minnesota is certainly well known for being a hotspot for craft brewing. While most of the action has been centered around the Minneapolis metro area, yet another brewer from the Northern part of the state has decided to bring its…
Essential oils. They are all the buzz lately. It seems everyone has heard of them or is purchasing them. Some people know how to use them; others are just interested in the wonder of their complex scents.Essential oils are as…
By Elizabeth Nawrotnawrot@mnstate.eduI look up from my hotel lobby breakfast astonished to see a framed print of Wassily Kandinsky's "Mit und Gegen,” a masterpiece of color and composition that just happens to be my favorite…
“…the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” – Milan Kundera“It may seem kind of bleak to say that the future of our planet rests in large part on the consciences of Republican…
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