Last Word

Strengthening families

September 14th, 2016

By Eliot Glassheim

press@eliot4nd.com

It's said that families are the building blocks of our society. But too often, politicians pay lip service to families without working for common sense solutions that actually strengthen families.

Whether they are heads of households or partners in supporting families, women in North Dakota, on average, are paid 71 cents for every dollar earned by men for the same work.

This means over a lifetime, women are cheated out of over half a million dollars in…

Food for thought

September 14th, 2016

By J. Earl Miller

jearl@hpr1.com

For the last few years we have seen a change in the restaurant and bar industry in our cities. I am a veteran of the industry starting as a dishwasher when I was 14 and retired from the industry as a manager over 10 years ago.

It was a long road working through the ranks of the kitchen, which ended at a front of the house position. I learned from some of the best in the industry and some of my fondest memories working are from that time -- our crew always…

A slow boat to nowhere

August 24th, 2016

By Tom Bixby

tom@hpr1.com

On April 22, 2004, a Brazilian ship full of soybeans arrived in the Chinese port of Xiamen. It was not allowed to unload its cargo.

AQSIQ is a ministerial administrative organ directly under the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, in charge of import-export food safety. AQSIQ inspectors said there were “poisonous red seeds” mixed in with the soybeans, and that any shipment with even one red seed in it, that is, one individual bean infected with…

Portland to the prairie: returning to my roots

July 27th, 2016

By Tessa Torgeson

Home is a tangled web at the core of all of our stories -- that beautiful ugly mess that we try to escape, sometimes denying the way that it shapes and morphs us. As we mature we realize that home is more than a dot on a map. Like it or not, home is a place that we will one day return to, although each of our pilgrimages veer in different directions. Home can haunt us, but it can also heal us.

I grew up landlocked smack dab in the heartland of Bismarck, North Dakota. I…

Soggy tea bags vs. concrete jobs

July 27th, 2016

“…by 1934 money was moving out through PWA [The Public Works Administration] into the hands of contractors, manufacturers, engineers, laborers, truckers, carpenters, architects, and deep into the arteries of the economy.” – James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, 1956

“Forty-seven percent of self-identified Democrats describe themselves as economic and social liberals, according to a Gallup poll released last June (2016). That's up from 39 percent in 2008 and…

That is not who we are

July 20th, 2016

By Anonymous

As we all click click click on our computers or phones, protected by the shield of the illuminated screen, we find ourselves obsessively reading manifestos in favor of political, economical and societal change. Sometimes we even muster up the courage to post a statement ourselves. It satisfies us; we find ourselves full with the feeling of altruism.

This virtual reality has us convinced that we are each advocates for every social issue, every minority, every Constitutional…

Snakes and ladders

June 15th, 2016

By Zac Echola

Fargo's city commission voted, among other tax incentives, to loan about $6 million to three of the richest people in the state, at least one of whom is still referred to as a philanthropist by the local daily in stories having nothing to do with philanthropy.

Meanwhile in Omaha, Nebraska, philanthropists there raised $7 million to create a new free library of laser cutters, 3D printers, computers and meeting spaces. Do Space gives gigabit internet to anyone in the public.…

Shopping center alert: inappropriate child labor

June 8th, 2016

Nikki Berglund was in her restaurant, Luna Fargo, 1545 University Drive South, in the Southside Shopping Center, at the beginning of the lunch rush.

“A little boy around four years old came in by himself and was selling plastic flowers with pens attached.”

“We asked what he was selling them for and he said so he could ‘go to Disneyland’”

He had no adult with him. Berglund asked him where his mom was. “He pointed to a vehicle outside. At no point did he make eye contact with…

Back to the Future with North Dakota Democrats

May 6th, 2016

“Democratic-NPL lawmakers called on Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple this morning to call a special legislative session to address…budget cuts to human services and property taxes. [They]said the budget cuts should be amended legislatively to fully preserve property tax cuts made to residents as well as programs used by North Dakota families that could be negatively impacted. The…proposal would move approximately $40.6 million from the Strategic Investment and Improvements Fund to…

BRUSH UP YOUR ORWELL, AND YOUR MOLLY IVINS!

March 30th, 2016

“Brush up your Shakespeare, start quoting him now…” - Cole Porter

“When the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom he destroys.” - George Orwell

“…there’s not a thing wrong with the ideals and mechanisms outlined and the liberties set forth in the Constitution of the United States. The only problem was, the founders left a lot of people out of the Constitution. They left out poor people and black people and female people. It is possible to read the history of this…

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