News

Can the Kirkbride be saved?

February 28th, 2018

Kirkbride exterior - photograph by Raul Gomez “While it is too early to know how events surrounding the Kirkbride in Fergus Falls will ultimately unfold, properties in the National Register occasionally do get demolished. In such instances, our office has a regulatory responsibility to review any documentation that is required for the project to proceed and offer comment. We are strong advocates for preserving our built history, and we always wish to find alternatives to demolition,” Denis Gardner, National Register Historian…

This time, a change

February 28th, 2018

M-16 at the shooting range - HPR contributor FARGO – Every time a mass shooting occurs, tempers flare, conversations crackle across social media platforms and Congressional podiums, and then fizzle. This time, after the 353rd mass shooting in America since 1966, something has changed.

Students are speaking up. They’re challenging senators, the President, principals, even the burly National Rifle Association. From Florida to Moorhead, Minnesota, students are marching, calling for stricter laws against assault weapons. Companies,…

‘A child can only take so much’

February 26th, 2018

FARGO – Christopher L. Thumb is a quiet boy, enjoys throwing a football with his siblings, listens to powwow music. New to Fargo after moving from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation at 15, he entered his freshman year at North High School last August.

First week, the bullying began. He was called names, his computer was frequently unplugged, people made fun of him, but no physical violence occurred until February 12. Names of others involved have been withheld due to…

No sweat improvements

February 23rd, 2018

FARGO – Water sizzles against scorched stones piled in a shallow pit center of Fargo’s only Indigenous sweat lodge. Faces gleam briefly before the glow fades, and the Native songs begin. Packed side by side, Anishinaabe, Spirit Lake, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, and a few wasi’chu – or white people – sing to the four directions, and for guidance in troubled times.

One year after Fargo police pulled Native Americans out of the sweat lodge for what they thought was an…

The high costs of low bail

February 21st, 2018

FARGO – To hundreds of Fargo’s inmates, a C-Note-sized bail might as well be a million dollars. Unaffordable.

On any given day the city’s law enforcement brings those who break the law to jail. It’s their job. Some offenders are violent. Some are entitled to a phone call and an orange wardrobe. Some are drug abusers, addicted. Others are repeat offenders, and then there are those who don’t see jail as any kind of deterrent.

A February 8 snapshot of the Cass County Jail’s…

‘We are the target’

February 15th, 2018

FARGO – Nearly half of the Walmart employees claiming discrimination from management at the world’s largest retail chain came before Fargo’s Human Relations Commission Thursday, to appeal for help, and the commission answered.

“My sense is that you all feel you are being discriminated against, for your origins or your clothes,” Barry Nelson of the Human Relations Commission said, after four of the women gave their testimonies. “We do not have an enforcement capacity, but I…

Drums in Fargo for missing Indigenous women

February 14th, 2018

FARGO – Native drums reverberated through Downtown Fargo Wednesday when more than 200 people marched to bring awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women, an epidemic that plagues the state and the nation.

Native Americans, tribal dignitaries, Fargo city commissioners, even the mayor showed up to support the cause. Valentines Day is now also proclaimed Missing Indigenous Women’s day by Fargo’s Native American Commission. Passing cars honked in support as the marchers passed.…

In the shadow of Walmart

February 7th, 2018

FARGO – Twenty Walmart employees blame concentrated racist and prejudicial managerial practices for their sudden firings or dwindling losses in hours and pay.

Those who say they’re affected, most originally from Somalia or Kenya, say there are more former refugees and immigrants afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs in the Fargo area, who are being discriminated against because of the color of their skin, or because they wear hijabs. A hijab is the traditional head…

Valve turner sentenced, behind bars

February 6th, 2018

CAVALIER – From the day Michael Foster plotted his course to turn off the Keystone Pipeline, he knew prison was a possibility. On Tuesday morning the activist was taken into custody after a North Dakota judge sentenced him to three years imprisonment with two years suspended.

The state’s prosecution wanted to make an example out of Foster to deter future instances, and recommended a sentence of five years imprisonment and three years suspended for Foster. The prosecution, which…

‘True justice for Brooke Crews’

February 2nd, 2018

FARGO – Minutes before the judge sentenced Brooke Lynn Crews to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the killer spoke, apologizing for her actions.

“I wish I could take their pain, there is no excuse,” Crews said. “I deserve every year I get, and I know it doesn’t help.”

Crews was describing the pain of Savanna LaFontaine Greywind’s family, and for one of Fargo’s daughters she killed, and for the infant she stole from Savanna’s womb while she was eight…

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