News

Is China using a Native American front to build a state-owned oil refinery?

December 5th, 2018

AIC Solutions Group logo - website

TRENTON – An oil company with deep ties to Chinese state-owned enterprises is attempting to quietly set up a refinery near a historical site in western North Dakota, raising red flags with locals about more than the possibility of water contamination.

According to Williams County Planning and Zoning Application records filed on November 13, 2018, John F. Melk, President of AIC Energy Corporation, a subsidiary of AIC Solutions Group Inc., announced plans to build a bio-diesel oil…

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City Hall open for business

December 4th, 2018

Mayor Tim Mahoney speaks before nearly 100 people in the new City Commissioners chambers - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – City Hall may have taken a little more taxpayer money than originally expected, but it is now fully operational and ready for business.

Although the 215 office workers began moving in following a ribbon-cutting ceremony in September, the City of Fargo officially opened to the public on Tuesday. Initially projected to cost $22 million, the 150,000 square foot city center ended up costing close to $30 million.

Newly completed City Hall’s location was chosen to defy the Red…

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As the world faces mass extinction from climate change, it’s business as usual in oil-rich North Dak

November 29th, 2018


On the busiest shopping day of the year the federal government published an eye-opening report on climate change, saying that warming temperatures could soon imperil the American way of life and harm the health of nearly every citizen.

Another report published earlier and conducted by independent scientists called for radical changes in the energy, transportation, food, and housing sectors, if the world is to survive.

The federal government’s version of the Intergovernmental Panel on…

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‘Do yourself a favor and don’t come to jail’ for Christmas

November 15th, 2018


Captain Andrew Frobig at his desk at the Cass County Jail - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – Early Tuesday morning Captain Andrew Frobig seated himself at his office desk, quickly discovering that the jail count was up. About 76 people had been incarcerated over the long Veterans Day weekend bringing the total inmate population at the Cass County Jail up to a number he wasn’t happy with, 305.

Frobig’s overall goal to reduce inmate population and lengths of stays is beginning to work, however, with the implementation of the Cass County Community Supervision Unit…

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​FEMA refuses to help Natives in state of emergency

November 14th, 2018

Hail damaged homes including windows, doors, roofs - video screenshot by Charles Banner

OGLALA, South Dakota – Hundreds of Natives at the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation face life threatening danger after the Federal Emergency Management Agency refused to assist the tribe still suffering from a devastating summer hailstorm.

Approximately 550 houses, trailers, many of which are FEMA houses that were set up in and around Oglala after an earlier tornado, suffered collapsed roofs, smashed in windows and doors, and little to no protective siding after the July 27 storm that…

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A Battle Lost, A War Not Won

November 7th, 2018


by Jacques Harvieux
jacquesthejock@gmail.com

At first, optimism filled the air on Election Day at the Fargo Billiards and Gastropub. Earlier, Cole Haymond, the political strategist and campaign adviser for Legalize ND, expressed his optimism.

Here's a rundown of what we've done in the last week:
1. Direct mail - mailed to households in Bismarck and Minot
2. David Crosby radio ad - Bismarck/Minot/Grand Forks
3. $14k in Digital ads targeting women under 40 statewide
4. Digital Ads IP address…

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​A ‘Democratic bloodbath’ in North Dakota

November 7th, 2018

Democrats react to outcome in the heated Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer U.S. Senate race early in the evening - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO — The promised blue tide didn’t sweep North Dakota; the state is redder than before. Across the nation, however, Democrats won majority of the U.S. House and Congress is now split. Republicans increased their hold on the U.S. Senate as one of the nation’s most watched races featuring Heidi Heitkamp fell to her opponent Congressman Kevin Cramer.

Cramer is now one of two Republican U.S. Senators in North Dakota, and attorney Kelly Armstrong took Cramer's seat, the only U.S.…

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​‘Standing Rock will vote’

November 5th, 2018

Dale Brave Crow holds up his Standing Rock Sioux Tribe ID card - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FORT YATES – The Standing Rock Sioux are not angry. After centuries of unfair treaties and mistreatment they’re shrugging away the latest government attempt to suppress their votes, and heading to the polls in record numbers.

Absentee ballots have quadrupled this midterm election from previous years with 320 received by the Sioux County Auditor’s office by November 5. More than 1,480 Standing Rock Sioux have already voted, and at least 650 more will vote November 6 after they…

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​Sen. Cory Booker: Heitkamp is ‘the antidote to what ails us’

November 2nd, 2018

Senator Cory Booker - photograph provided by North Dakota Democratic-NPL

CANNONBALL – As Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s four-day tour neared Standing Rock, Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey disclosed why he joined the North Dakota Democrat’s last push before Election Day.

“She corrals me all the time to advocate her issues,” Booker said. “God, I’ve got so many stories, some times things I’m really reluctant, but that goes to show the power that she has. She brings people together on both sides of the political aisle.”

As an example, Booker said…

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The final Democratic push for North Dakota

November 1st, 2018

Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Fargo Air Museum to kick off Bring It Home Heidi! final campaign stretch before Election Day - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – The differences between competing political rallies in North Dakota is palpable. Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s last push before Election Day – former Vice President Joe Biden attending – was lively, filled with people from all races, and featured Indigenous music performed by the Turtle Mountain Drum Group.

Few people among the hundreds that attended “Bring It Home, Heidi!” rally on Thursday at the Fargo Air Museum wore hats. Parents held months-old babies and swayed to…

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