October 7th, 2015
It’s that time of the year again, the 2015 High Plains Reader Cocktail Showdown is upon us where local bartenders and mixologists get to showcase their talents and present a craft cocktail for the staff of HPR to judge. This week, your humble judges will begin their efforts to taste and decide who is the best local bartender and what is the best drink.
The art of mixology has blown up in recent years with…
October 1st, 2015
Why have benches downtown if they are uncomfortable to sit on? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Recently the city of Fargo at the request of the Downtown Community Partnership installed new benches downtown without backs in order to deter transients from loitering on them. Apparently businesses are concerned about the number of homeless people downtown. The problem in downtown Fargo is not homeless people but rather intoxicated individuals. …
September 24th, 2015
The Fargo Native American Commission is asking that Fargo change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
The resolution voted upon unanimously by the Native American Commission Monday night goes before the Fargo City Commission Monday, Oct. 12 -- Columbus Day. We strongly encourage the adoption of this resolution.
And, for the sake of disclosure, this writer is one of nine on the Native American Commission and helped author the resolution.
The remainder of HPR’s editorial…
September 16th, 2015
The excitement and energy emanating from the Bernie Sanders presidential run is spreading to the Fargo-Moorhead area. It’s easy to see why, he is an unconventional candidate speaking the truth in a time of tremendous skepticism about politicians who have said one thing to get elected and done something else after. Young people, college students and other citizens not normally drawn to campaigns or politics are constantly talking about Bernie…
September 9th, 2015
The little newspaper that could turns 21 with this edition of HPR. We are proud as all get out and hope you bear with us as we reminisce and acknowledge.
The High Plains Reader no doubt has had a storied past. Good and bad. It’s never been easy, but whoever said building a business from scratch is easy? We’ve had our moments where we hit the ball out of the park and others where we fell flat on our face. Mostly, though, we went through the motions, the ups and the downs, and we grew…
September 3rd, 2015
Two weeks in a row we’re reading about the unfolding race for governor in North Dakota. Little did we know when we mentioned Drew Wrigley as perceived heir apparent to the post, that in a matter of days his political world would be rocked big time.
Among most political pundits and even rank-and-file Republicans, it was a foregone conclusion that Lt. Gov. Wrigley would seek and likely get the party nod to replace Gov. Jack Dalrymple. That assumption can now safely be considered a…
August 26th, 2015
HPR leans left. That’s no secret. We like many aspects of what people call progressive movements. Yet, we also advocate for fiscal prudence.
That said, it will not come as a surprise that we are eagerly anticipating the forthcoming race for governor in North Dakota. No doubt, Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s announcement this week that he will not seek reelection in 2016 has fueled immense…
August 19th, 2015
Dig into Pockets of culture
By Sabrina Hornung
At the beginning of the year I relocated to my hometown. I’m not gonna lie -- I felt pretty down and out, betrayed, heartbroken and downright disgusted. Everything I owned was hastily stored in my mom’s garage in no particular order. I found myself in Jamestown contemplating my life choices. Living out of a few boxes in my grandparents’ house and sharing my childhood bedroom with my two cats, “Lion King” sheets and twin-size canopy…
August 13th, 2015
The recent uproar over 100 refugees coming to Fargo in a resettlement program administered by Lutheran Social Services was indicative of how the media can twist things and stir people into a frenzy using misinformation and race baiting. When a legal immigration program is fused with images of illegal immigrants crossing the border and the origin of where those are coming from are constantly mentioned, you have to wonder…
August 6th, 2015
Throughout my three and a half years of being a leader in local media, I’ve gone from thinking “I’m HPR’s best editor ever” to thinking “How on all crevices of the earth would anyone have ever considered me to be an editor?” I didn’t even know how to spell the word spelled. I thought it was spelt.
I could go on. Growing up, I was a fabulous gym-class student but just an OK English student. I had no journalism…