News

Yazidi family’s journey from war-torn Iraq to America

MOORHEAD – Today, Ezzat Khudhur Alhaidar is safe from ISIS guns, but the memories of war still haunt him. In 2005, he donned a U.S. Army uniform and began working as a front-line interpreter, a position that put food in his belly and a target on his back.

He leans back into a leather sofa while his wife, Zaman Alo, finishes setting a makeshift table with a mound of biryani, steaming hot chickpea soup. Onions covered with…

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Over 7,000 miles yawn between Comstock, Minnesota, where the Begunahi Foundation is based, and Uttar Pradesh, the state in northern India, which Preeti Varma calls home. Yet, the charity has made higher education a reality for the young woman, who is now pursuing a master’s degree in history in her home country. She aspires to, one day, stand on the opposite side of the classroom, teaching university students.

On the backdrop of grim statistics, Varma is an exception. At 1.3 billion…

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FARGO – Nearly half a century has passed since North Dakota’s last milk war. In those days, when dairy farmers couldn’t make enough to live, years before North Dakota’s Milk Marketing Board began setting prices, farmers dumped milk on the streets in protest. Shots were fired, fences cut, fires set. Truck tires were slashed. Windows broken.

In 1964, two National Farmers Organization members were killed in Wisconsin when a cattle-truck driver ran them over as they attempted to…

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FARGO – Two suspects were arrested Sunday after a drive-by shooting in South Fargo.

Oscar Kayee, 26, of West Fargo, and Ryan N. Kitch, 21, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit attempted murder, both class A felonies, according to Fargo Police Deputy Chief Joe Anderson. Charges may be amended by Cass County State’s Attorney’s office at a later time.

After police arrived at the scene, 1500 East Gateway Circle South, they received a tip…

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MANDAN – Hundreds of trials for activists who stood against the Dakota Access Pipeline have seen the judge’s gavel, but only two, so far, received jail time.

Mary Redway, 64, a retired environmental biologist from Rhode Island, and Alexander Simon, 27, a teacher living in New Mexico, both were found guilty and sentenced Thursday to jail by Southeast District Court Judge Thomas Merrick. Both activists, known as water protectors, were arrested on October 22, 2016 along with 140 others,…

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FARGO – A week before William Fleck decided to attend an anti-LGBTQ speech at NDSU, a transgender friend committed suicide. Fleck’s friend was bullied. He was persecuted – locally – and driven to a desperate act.

Fleck knew what he was walking into when he entered the Memorial Prairie Rose Room on October 17, but the audience’s acceptance still shocked him.

He attended the speech entitled "Religious Freedom and the Constitution,” organized by the Lutheran Student Fellowship…

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MOORHEAD – The original day set for a white supremacist rally came and went without so much as a whimper from local hate groups.

Multiple protests originally planned as counter rallies merged into one rally, which took place instead on the same day, Saturday, attracting more than 150 people celebrating diversity, called Standing for Humanity.

As in August’s North Dakota United Against Hate rally, chilly rains dampened the atmosphere, and the rally was moved from W. H. Davy Memorial…

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VALLEY CITY – The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are targeting North Dakota university newspapers in a cry for help: a book banning.

So far, Valley City State University’s ‘Viking News,’ and NDSU’s ‘The Spectrum,’ have received a letter postmarked Fort Myers, Florida, with no return address, from someone claiming to be a “Loyal American Patriot,” asking for help banning a book titled ‘The Slave Players,’ by Megan Allen, published by Burn House Publishing.

“Dear…

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FARGO - Fargo City Commissioners passed a resolution to establish the city as a hate-free community on Monday, and one commissioner voted against the bill. 

The resolution was originally written by Moorhead City Councilwoman Mari Dailey, then passed to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, and then on to the Human Relations Commission in September, before it was handed over to city officials. The resolution requires city leaders to…

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CAVALIER – Friends call Michael Foster the valve turner a hero, the state is trying him as a criminal, and the Keystone Pipeline named him a terrorist for stopping their oil pipeline flow for eight hours in 2016.

After a week of trial and a five-hour deliberation, a jury found Foster guilty on all counts, except reckless endangerment, leaving felony criminal mischief, felony conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, and criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.

Foster’s co-defendant, Sam…

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