News

The long, strange saga of Jason Halek comes to an end

April 13th, 2017

Well, it looks like Jason Halek is finally going to the pokey.

Remember Jason? He’s the fellow who dumped more than 800,000 gallons of salty, oilfield wastewater into an abandoned oil well southwest of Dickinson in Stark County, and then attempted to cover it up.

And his partner in crime, Nathan Garber, might be sitting in the cell next to him after they are sentenced this summer by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in Bismarck, putting an end to a case that has dragged on for more…

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The high road

April 6th, 2017

“Jackie” isn’t ready to come out with her real name yet. She’s a heroin addict, a Fargoan clean for nearly a year. In her 20s she overdosed three times, then carried an overdose reversal drug in her wallet, which saved her life. She shot “downs” or heroin, free-based “ups” or methamphetamine.

One of the main questions she used to ask was, “Does it have legs?” Pure heroin, sometimes laced with fentanyl and known in the Upper Midwest as “China White,” has…

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​Nowhere to run: Senate passes HJR 69

April 5th, 2017

Despite wide opposition from the general public including many subsistence hunters, 52 members of the US Senate caved to special interest groups such as Safari Club International and the NRA and voted in favor of House Joint Resolution 69. If signed by the president, it will become legal for trophy hunters to kill Alaskan wildlife using cruel killing methods including the use of airplanes to spot bears, bear baiting, steel-jawed leghold traps, wire snares, and killing animals who are…

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​FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Targets Standing Rock Activist

March 23rd, 2017

Aaron pollitt - from facebook page

CANNON BALL - Joint Terrorism Task Force agents contacted an Indiana activist days after he returned home from Standing Rock’s fight in North Dakota against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Aaron Pollitt, 28, from Indiana, was charged on October 22, 2016, by Morton County Police with engaging in a riot and criminal trespass, according to Morton County Clerk of Court. His trial is pending.

After three weeks of direct action and living in the Standing Rock camps, Pollitt, listed as a water…

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​White Supremacist’s Church Burns In Nome

March 23rd, 2017

Alt White: The Siege of North Dakota. Part four in the series on racism in North Dakota. Pioneer Little Europe and the Creativity Movement plow ahead with plans in making an Aryan enclave in Nome, ND, but an old Lutheran church bought by Craig Cobb burns to the ground.

NOME - Either arson or “an act of God” left the Zion Lutheran Church in ashes Wednesday, according to law enforcement and one of the building’s owners, white supremacist Craig Cobb.

Nome - photo by C.S. Hagen

Residents of the tiny town of…

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​Valley City: Microcosm of the Nation

March 22nd, 2017

Russell J. Myhre, Valley City attorney in his office - photo by C.S. Hagen

Russell Myhre lit a second cigarette, pulled his wool coat closer against the February chill after proudly revealing a red heart tattoo on his chest. He waved to Fred Thompson, former Valley City Police Chief, from across the parking lot behind his law office.

“Hey, Mr. Thompson, come on over here, my friend,” Myhre said. “You just wandering around?”

“Nope,” Thompson said. No mistaking the man was law enforcement. Large-framed, shoulders slightly stooped, he eyed the area…

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​City of Fargo plans summer street improvement projects

March 22nd, 2017

32nd Avenue improvements, wastewater removal, buffered bike lanes and street light projects are all on the agenda for Fargo – coming to a neighborhood near you soon. In fact, the corridor on 32nd Avenue South has already begun construction.

Tom Knakmuhs, Division Engineer of Design and Construction for the City of Fargo, says that the 32nd Avenue project – which extends from 42nd Street S to 32nd Street South - will include widening of the bridge, improving pavement conditions, and…

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​Cormorant has gone to the dogs

March 8th, 2017

Cormorant is one of many small lakeside townships in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. With a population barely exceeding one thousand, the town may seem rather unremarkable if it weren’t for the beautiful view of the lake. There is something else that sets Cormorant apart from other small towns in Minnesota however, its mayor.

To explain, their mayor has four legs, a wet nose, and is covered with fur. That’s right, the mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota since 2014 has been Duke, a…

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​United Nations denounces North Dakota State Government

March 8th, 2017

Activists preparing to leave pause on the cannon ball bridge on highway 1806 - photo by C.S. Hagen

CANNON BALL - Bakken oil could be flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline within a week, but Standing Rock still hopes for a legal miracle as the United Nations condemns what it calls widespread discrimination and North Dakota’s militarized response.

As Standing Rock’s legal options diminish, an injunction filed by Cheyenne River Tribe, part of the Great Sioux Nation, was once again turned down by federal judges on Tuesday. Previous injunctions filed by the tribe to stop…

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​“Two Worlds Collided”

March 2nd, 2017

Fargo Police deputy Ross Renner - photo by C.S. Hagen

FARGO - Lamar Heidersheid brought his 15-year-old daughter Angelina to the Fargo Community Sweat Lodge for the first time last week.

He wanted the experience to be special for her, and to bring their Cherokee culture one step closer to heart. Instead, nearing the end of their fourth round in the sweat lodge, they were raided by Fargo Police. A fellow Native American, Zebediah Gartner, was arrested, and the group spent at least 45 minutes in the cold, wearing little clothing and covered…

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