May 24th, 2017
Katrina Klett grew up running in fields with bees stinging her bare feet. Her parents constantly reminded her to put on shoes, but she rarely listened.
Today, the family company she helps run in Jamestown, Klett Beekeeping, has more than 1,200 commercial bee colonies. She lives in southwest China, but returns home to help her father during the busier months. More than 10,000 miles away and at an elevation where any Red River Valley native would demand an oxygen tank, her main calling is…
May 23rd, 2017
By C.S. Hagen
FARGO - North Dakota, once again, topped national charts to become the deadliest state in which to work in America, five years running.
The 2017 edition of “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” compiled by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization, a national trade union center and the largest federation of unions in America, reported that for the fifth year in a row North Dakota had the most fatalities of workers while on the job,…
May 18th, 2017
By C.S. Hagen
FARGO - A federal officer who once hid cell phones in store dressing rooms to record females changing was found guilty and sentenced in Fargo for charges related to the exploitation of minors.
Michael David Rivera, 30, Bismarck, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Erickson to seven years imprisonment, five years supervised release, and fines, after his conviction of Receipt of Images Depicting the Sexual Exploitation of Minors, according to the U.S.…
May 18th, 2017
Jason Stverak and The Franklin Center
Working from inside a taffy shop in Medora, a little-known conservative nonprofit quickly rose to the national frontline by infiltrating statehouses with trained and like-minded journalists.
The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, part brainchild of former executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party, Jason Stverak, was registered in North Dakota during a record-setting blizzard on January 13, 2009 with one main goal: to…
May 17th, 2017
The collusion between might and money historically has been the beginning of the end for countless empires.
From China’s Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago to the American Revolutionary War against a corrupt monarchy, when power marries money, downfall always follows.
North Dakota government’s collusion with private corporations is “so expansive that there does not appear to be a sense in the general public where there is anything wrong with this,” Barry Nelson of the…
May 12th, 2017
By C.S. Hagen
FARGO - The recall petition of City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn fizzled out on Friday after two months of volunteers gathering signatures.
The recall ended because Pipekorn promised to obtain the list of all signatories on the “Scott Hennen Show” AM1100 “The Flag” on May 10, according to a recall committee press release.
“So when they turn in the signatures for the Freedom of Information Act, I am going to request a copy of the signatures so we can review them as…
May 12th, 2017
By C.S. Hagen
BISMARCK - Before the legal ink dried on North Dakota’s medical marijuana laws, Bismarck Police inspected two health food stores in the state’s capital city Thursday, looking for hemp derivatives.
Police targeted the stores selling products containing Cannabinol, or CBD hemp oil, a chemical compound found in the cannabis plant that contains less than 0.3 percent THC levels, and is known for its efficaciousness as an anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, and antioxidant,…
May 10th, 2017
“White Cloud came to us this way when she was brought in to Jamestown 19 years ago when she was brought in from Michigan North Dakota with the Shirek family. We picked her up and had a parade through town,” says Arnie Becker,White Cloud the albino buffalo’s former caretaker, “we went up and unloaded her in the pasture. That was back in ‘96 and here we are today having a homecoming for White Cloud as a full mount and placed in a museum. So we’re doing the same thing--having…
May 8th, 2017
As the two-hour-long Fargo City Commissioners meeting prepared to adjourn Monday, Erin Buzick, an organizer of the recall petition for City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn, was given permission to speak.
“Basically, I said that I understand that my inclusion in this community comes with a price tag to the city,” Buzick said. “However, I have never been reduced to a dollar sign. My intrinsic value has never been debated in the commission hall nor in the local media.” She addressed…
May 3rd, 2017
FARGO - After local watering hole Bison Turf caught fire last July, owner James “Pete” Sabo never doubted he would reopen.
It was only a matter of timing, he said.
Originally, he planned to open last October. Red tape, building permits, and a new water line for an indoor sprinkling system costing him $90,000, set him back months. The entire project will cost up to $1.2 million dollars, a price tag for which insurance companies are coughing up approximately two-thirds, he said.…