Editorial

A Clarion Call to Action

March 16th, 2016

HPR’s cover this week depicts three flags flying half mast. The flagpoles are syringes, such as those used to inject heroin.

Our community has been rocked. Three men died in seven days due to heroin overdoses. There have been other near misses. Law enforcement officials notified the public Sunday that heroin arriving recently in Fargo-Moorhead and the region may be tainted and or laced with fentanyl.

This situation is not only urgent, but tragic beyond words.

We have family members,…

Our Opinion / How about 53 gubernatorial debates?

March 9th, 2016

The Boom That Went Bust

Many state residents watched the North Dakota Republican Gubernatorial debate last week with Wayne Stenehjem, Rick Becker and Doug Burgum at the podiums. It was insightful and intriguing.

The predominant focus on declining oil revenues tells us a lot. Listening to the questions posed, one after another, a listener might think that oil is the only industry in the state.

But it’s not. North Dakota first and foremost is an agricultural state and a breadbasket of the…

Bathroom issues across the nation

March 2nd, 2016

Gender and sexuality have always been a hot button issue.. wait, let’s rephrase that. Sexuality has always been a hot button issue and a hot topic in gossip and conversation, but gender has been generating a lot of buzz in mainstream conversation as of late, thanks to Caitlyn Jenner.

The two do tend go hand in hand. Sure, one can assume that we’ve all been assigned a biological gender. Nurseries have been color coded for generations, but what happens when society no longer fits in a…

Our Opinion/The land and the people hold memories..

February 25th, 2016

There are multiple photographers throughout the state who have taken it upon themselves to explore the roads less travelled in hopes of documenting and exploring not only the landscape but small towns on the brink of disappearing from both our sight and our memory.

It’s hard to imagine that less than 100 years ago a town could be booming, with multiple banks, opera houses, blacksmith shops, schools, etc., but now all that’s left of these communities are crumbling structures and…

Our Opinion / Unenlightened leadership, destructive practices, bankrupt morals

February 17th, 2016

Countering America’s Imminent Demise

Ordinary Americans cannot continue to be blind to the unsettling reality that our elected congressional leaders are too often self-serving, pitifully inept, condescending con-artists, and not in the slightest focused on any of us or the greater public good.

Granted, this sentiment is bubbling up at the present moment due to the idiocy in our nation’s capitol after the death of a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

The Constitution spells out…

Would North Dakota rather poison the well or sip from it?

February 10th, 2016

Something Fishy is Going on

By the time this is published a renovation will have taken place -- and we are not talking about the renovation occurring at the High Plains Reader office that has left your editor squatting at John Strand’s desk for the past week.

According to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, a “chemical renovation” is taking place at the Raleigh Reservoir in Grant County, which is located in southwestern North Dakota. This “renovation” is intended to…

ND’s “Legendary” Black Eye

February 3rd, 2016

HPR joins the Andrew Sadek family in demanding elimination of laws allowing college students to be used as undercover informants

A hot topic in North Dakota in recent months has revolved around the desire to statutorily limit the use of college students as confidential undercover informants. This change is supported by the parents of Andrew Sadek, the college student at North Dakota State School of Science in Wahpeton who was strong-armed into becoming an informant after allegedly…

In our opinion /Sticks and stones may break my bones but words are replaced with emojis

January 27th, 2016

What we have here is a failure to communicate

Is the pen mightier than the app?

Social media is saturated with links with pages and pages of lists. One of which included “words that need to die in 2016,” such as “bae,” “fleek,” “hashtag,” etc. With the advent of social media, are we in danger of losing our regionalisms and colloquialisms -- i.e. phrases that distinguish us from the rest of the world -- and be faced with a strange universal social media slang?

Ya sure, you…

We fully expect the Governor’s race to be above board, provocative, insightful and positive

January 21st, 2016

Burgum Rocks ND

Doug Burgum’s formal announcement last week that he’s seeking the Republican Party endorsement in the North Dakota Governor’s race was an absolute game changer. And, for the sake of disclosure, we consider this development to be good news.

That said, the unfolding Governor’s race will undoubtedly be for the benefit and greater good of all North Dakotans. We have some terrific candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring. Three Republicans -- Doug Burgum, Rick…

Feats of animal cruelty and mourning the passing of an icon

January 13th, 2016

Police Dogs and Diamond Dogs

Police Dogs

A law was recently passed Under the Federal Law Enforcement Animal Protection Act, that anyone assaulting federal law enforcement animals could face up to ten years in prison and pay upward of $1,000 in fines.

What happens when the guilty party is another officer of the law?

What if said officer of the law is only charged with misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty?

Ramsey County (MN) deputy Brett Barry was caught on video picking up his K9 partner,…