by John Strand | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | November 13th, 2019
One more time, our senses are rocked as folks we know are spinning and reeling after yet another tragic suicide of a young woman who was known as a sparkplug in our community, to say the least.
Hardly any of us has not been touched by suicide. And, frankly, far too many of us have had moments where we weigh the value of life and wonder if it’s truly worth it.
Times like this are tough. Friends and family bowled over like they were hit with a Mack truck. Too often there’s no…
by HPR Contributor | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | November 6th, 2019
By Waylon Hedegaard
retiringwithcats@gmail.com
Does everyone find Facebook disturbing nowadays? Oh, I don’t mean the creepy way when after you search for a product, ads for that product are suddenly everywhere like bed bugs. Nor do I mean the way Facebook mines your core personality for every spending or voting habit and then sell that info to the highest bidder… Well, not just that anyway. Admittedly, that’s troublesome.
What really disturbs me is the way so many of us can coldly look…
by Sabrina Hornung | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | October 30th, 2019
School lunch has been a hot topic of conversation lately, especially with the mounting debt that has accrued. Let’s take a moment and talk about the importance of school lunch. According to frac.org, FRAC standing for Food Research and Action Center, school lunch is imperative to the healthy development of children, especially those in low income environments. It ensures at least one meal, and improves the student's overall health and brain activity. I mean, can you think properly on…
by HPR Contributor | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | October 23rd, 2019
By Davin Wait
davin.wait@hcsmuseum.org
Most folks in the Upper Midwest will remember the last week of October 1991 for a singular reason: the weekend heroics of Jack Morris and Kirby Puckett as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves in 7 games for their last World Series title. Of course, the world was busy with other things, too.
National and local media were still reeling from Anita Hill’s testimony during Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Across the…
by Sabrina Hornung | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | October 18th, 2019
Last week we had the opportunity to attend the Climate Change Forum at Standing Rock High School in Fort Yates. If there was one word to describe the experience it would be inspiring.
Tribal elders, Executive Director of Indigenized Energy Cody Two Bears, and teenage activists Tokata Iron Eyes and Greta Thunberg led the charge in expressing the importance of youth voices to a room of 500 youths. It was a positive message that many of us need to hear, old and young. Two Bears led the…
by John Strand | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | October 9th, 2019
As a country of people truly and clearly divided, it would appear there’s a moment’s reprieve coming. Folks are starting to take note of the disheveled state of our state and are bemoaning that we need to get along better and quit all the nasty bickering.
Well, hear, hear!
Without pointing fingers of blame, we all need to move past the truly toxic conversation that has become an apparent new low standard of decency and behavior. Truth is, people on every side of this divide need to…
by Sabrina Hornung | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | October 2nd, 2019
Last weekend, my friend and I were exploring the back roads of rural Eddy County, collecting wild plums and running dogs. We stopped into a little country bar, chatted with the locals and we were enjoying ourselves until one guy looked me in the eye and told me that “If it weren’t for f*ckin’ there ought to be a bounty on women.”
I thought I misheard him and asked him to repeat himself and he said exactly what I thought he said. He also went on to say that there’s too damn…
by Sabrina Hornung | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | September 18th, 2019
According to an article written byJohn Reinan in The Star Tribune last Friday, Sue Kern, chairwoman of Brainerd’s school board said, “You know, Darwin’s theory was done in the mid-1800s and it’s never been proven, so I’m wondering why we’re still teaching it.” I’m no math wizard but I’m willing to bet Creationism pre-dates Darwin’s theory and even Darwin himself.
According to the article, members of the faculty and district staff soon explained that the theory of…
by HPR Contributor | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | September 11th, 2019
By Zach Nerpel
zachnerpel@gmail.com
Every Summer, I perform the same tired dance routine trying to convince myself to make the most out of the limited weather. Go outside and experience nature more, you schlub! Walk around some trees or something and observe the woodland sprites, in the process learning more about yourself. Take it all in, breathe the air deeply because this air is warmer and full of the manic rush to enjoy it while it lasts. Partake in the frenzy!
Go to a lake, you…
by John Strand | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | September 4th, 2019
That the Reader has had 25 birthdays is nothing short of significant. It goes without saying we are proud as can be. Yet newspapers are challenged these days in unprecedented fashion. That said, The Little Newspaper That Could is reinventing itself so as to be relevant and important for its next 25 years.
Back in the beginning, HPR was a Grand Forks bi-weekly newspaper. We’ll always admire Peter Ryan, Len Schmid, Ian Swanson, Jim Johnson and others who were instrumental in those early…
By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.comFargo, ND – Mayor Mahoney issued a city-wide mask mandate on Oct. 19th, shortly after North Dakota became the state with the largest number of new cases per capita in the US, a record it…
Shawnee Kaseman of Wishek, ND was awarded the title of Miss North Dakota for America 2020 this past September, but instead of preparing to hit the stage in a glittering gown under sparkling lights,she addressed pageant judges from…
Thursday, March 19, 4:30- 8 pm1609 19th Ave N, FargoCass County Soil Conservation District is hosting their annual Ladies’ Ag Night supper event. This event has a goal of bringing together multiple generations of women involved…
In a news cycle where it’s tough to discern fact from fiction, you may have noticed that a number of conservative media consumers are announcing their dramatic exit from Facebook and Twitter. After Twitter labeled a number of…
Is There Personal Liberty? When Does It Begin And End?It was bound to happen to an inquiring mind. Scientists around the world are monitoring sewage for outbreaks of COVID-19 because victims of the virus have had the very…
To say that this year’s Bartenders Battle was the best display of talent in the six years since its creation would be an understatement and a disservice to not only the bartenders who made it into the competition, but also the…
Reviving Rural Grocery Stores in North DakotaBy Annie PrafckeFargo, ND – On October 7th, Gov. Doug Burgum awarded Milnor Market and the Forman grocery store project Main Street Awards, as part of an initiative led by the Office…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comMusicians and concertgoers alike unexpectedly found their plans disrupted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Artists and venues have been facing a situation that is unprecedented for most…
Sofia Coppola’s delightful distraction from national affairs sees the writer-director returning to her sweet spot: the tiniest whiff of autobiography in a story that, to paraphrase James Stewart’s Macaulay “Mike” Connor in…
By Jill FinkelsonWe’ve been hearing the word Unrest a lot lately. Unrest in the streets. Unrest in the capital. Unrest in our own homes as we struggle to hunker down in the face of the unseen pandemic. People are restless. They…
By Kris Gruberperriex1@gmail.comEloise Breikjern has been the Executive Director of Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre since 2013. She will retire in December.High Plains Reader spoke to her about the strength of her staff, the…
by Kris Gruberperriex1@gmail.comAdam Quesnell's last show at The Cellar beneath the Front Street Taproom in Fargo was in early September of 2018. He was embarking on a seminal move from Minneapolis to LA. As always, his comedy was…
by Jill Finkelsonjsfinkelson99@gmail.comFar North Spirits, located up in Hallock, MN, is the northernmost distillery in the lower 48. They may be young in the distillery world but the farm and the spirit reach far into the past.…
by Laurie J Bakeremsdatter@gmail.com Part of modern yoga is participating in the world around us. We live in a time of upheaval in society and nature, and of great suffering in humans of all ages. Most of us perceive this suffering…
By Ashlee Nordquisthpr@hpr1.comI've come to the conclusion that not everyone understands why my brother and I went on ventilators for covid and what that means. As I survived and my brother SO FAR is improving, I can make jokes and…
By Marc de Cellemarcdecelle@midco.netAs someone who has voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the last decade, and who has participated as both a poll worker and an absentee vote counter in the last five years, I feel it's my…
