Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Articles written by Michael Standaert


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  • While officials defend Legacy Fund decisions, others see 'mission drift'

    Michael Standaert|Feb 26, 2024

    Legacy Fund leaders and decision makers say a recent poll fails to capture the work already being done to steer investments back to the state. Others, however, say the overall mission of the Legacy Fund has not been adequately defined or has shifted from its original purpose. A total of 60 percent of eligible voters want Legacy Fund investments to be directed to development projects in North Dakota, compared to 18 percent who think the fund should continue to focus mainly on growth, according to the North Dakota poll released on Feb. 13 and...

  • Voters want more say on use of Legacy Fund

    Michael Standaert|Feb 19, 2024

    Eligible voters across North Dakota favor major overhauls in how the state’s Legacy Fund is managed and how its accumulating funds are used, a new North Dakota Poll conducted by the North Dakota News Cooperative (NDNC) found. This includes changing where Legacy Fund investments are directed and increasing transparency over what’s sometimes called “the people’s fund.” According to the poll, 60 percent of eligible voters want Legacy Fund investments to be directed to development projects in North Dakota versus 18 percent who want the...

  • Medora businesses, statewide tourism could suffer without wild horses

    Michael Standaert|Jan 22, 2024

    These equine influencers go by names like Grizz, Arrowhead, Flax, Little Bear. They're neither pets, nor livestock, and they roam wild in North Dakota's only national park. That may change pending an anticipated 2024 management decision by Theodore Roosevelt National Park staff to remove the nearly 200 horses, or cull to a greatly reduced number. The decision is being closely watched by many who've followed and named the horses on social media posts over the years and by owners of businesses in...

  • More creative efforts needed to 'Back the Blue'

    Michael Standaert|Jan 1, 2024

    Communities statewide are struggling to fill vacant law enforcement positions. Recent legislative measures for grants to attract officers with one-off bonuses and more advertising haven't filled the many openings, community leaders say. The situation is particularly problematic in smaller communities, they say, with housing and other service shortfalls. The recent deaths of officers in Fargo and Beulah this year also bring into stark focus the dangers of police work. Currently, at least 57 localities in North Dakota seek police officers,...

  • Crop insurance reforms needed, some say

    Michael Standaert|Dec 11, 2023

    Federal crop insurance subsidies grew to record highs last year and a growing chorus of farmers and other groups say the system needs reform. They say a lack of transparency about where the money goes and a system that favors a small segment of farmers on large commodity crop farms unfairly puts smaller, beginner and more diversified farmers at a disadvantage. Todd Leake, who farms 2,000 acres near Emerado just west of Grand Forks, said the crop insurance program, as currently constructed, is unfair to smaller and more diversified farms like...

  • Group, community say more flexibility needed in treating trafficked youth

    Michael Standaert, North Dakota News Cooperative|Oct 2, 2023

    Taryn Sveet, principal at Beach Public High School, is tired of an algorithm deciding when students are discharged from her classrooms only to see them ricochet back months later. “It is really hard to watch them come back the second and third time because every time a little bit more is gone,” Sveet said. “A little bit more of their hope for the future is gone.” Those students are residents at Home on the Range, a therapeutic ranch and qualified residential treatment program nestled on the rolling prairie just a few miles east of town....

  • Small steps pave way for pollinator paradise

    Michael Standaert|Sep 25, 2023

    North Dakota News Cooperative As a 4th generation beekeeper and honey producer, Zac Browning knows his bees. "Look here, this is a different type of native bee, this little hairy guy here," Browning said, his voice a pitch higher than normal as he moves toward a burst of flowers. Browning also knows what these pollinators eat. He points out remnants of alfalfa, giant red clover, native sow thistle, pods of common milkweed, white fanning fleabane and stalks of Maximillian sunflower stretching abo...

  • Threats to ambulance services increase rural health insecurity

    Michael Standaert|Sep 4, 2023

    A motorcycle crash on a deserted road. A cardiac arrest at a far-flung farm in a rural county. A farming equipment accident. A pregnant woman goes into unexpected labor at a small hamlet away from population centers.  When these emergency medical scenarios happen in rural communities across North Dakota, local volunteer first responders are often the first on the scene, the first to provide medical attention and the first to get patients to a hospital. Many of these services are in trouble, however.  A lack of volunteers and younger staff...

  • Potential for rural electric co-ops to tap millions for renewables projects

    Michael Standaert|Aug 14, 2023

    Rural electric cooperatives in North Dakota may soon apply for grants available in a federal program under the Inflation Reduction Act, which could set the tone for investments in renewables here over the next decade. A total of $9.7 billion has been earmarked for cooperatives across the country under the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The program is touted as the largest investment in rural electrification since New Deal-era investments in the mid-1930s. Some analysts say...

  • Changes to H-2A visa program wage rates expected to hit N.D. farmers

    Michael Standaert|Jul 3, 2023

    For farmers like Dunn County’s Lenci Sickler, recent U.S. Department of Labor rule changes that alter the pay rates for temporary seasonal foreign workers could cause his labor costs to skyrocket, he said, unless they are rescinded. Sickler supplements his staff with three workers from South Africa who travel to North Dakota on H-2A visas for seasonal spring through autumn work then return home in the winter. Most of the time the visa workers are involved in normal farm labor, from baling hay to tending to cattle. Occasionally they drive a...

  • N.D. renews focus on sex trafficking

    Michael Standaert, North Dakota News Cooperative|Jun 19, 2023

    North Dakota residents Shayla and Nikki lost the prime of their youth to pimps who sold them as sexual commodities across the country. To this day they struggle with the trauma inflicted upon them by being trafficked, but through programs here in the state they are dealing with the aftermath and raising awareness of the plight of others caught in similar situations. For both, some of the biggest hurdles came after their ordeals. Held against their will, fear of harm to their children kept them from snitching on their captors. Even when arrested...

  • Dollar General contests worker safety citations

    Michael Standaert|Jun 5, 2023

    The parent company of six Dollar General stores in North Dakota facing total penalties of $2.5 million related to work safety violations is contesting those findings, according to U.S. Department of Labor representatives. Dollar General stores in Casselton, Garrison, Hillsboro, Killdeer, Minot and Tioga were inspected by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigators in the final three months of 2022 after state fire marshals found hazards at four stores and complaints were received about two others. The hazards were related...

  • First-time home buyers feel the squeeze

    Michael Standaert|May 1, 2023

    Add another factor into the challenge of attracting workers and families to North Dakota: the lack of affordable, modern, quality homes. With home prices at historic highs and interest rates double what they were a year before, first-time home buyers searching for a place to call their own are in the grip of a squeeze that shows no signs of loosening any time soon. With those high costs, and the additional increases in overall inflation, the number of homes on the market affordable for lower-...

  • Template found for foster family support

    Michael Standaert|Mar 27, 2023

    About half of all foster parents in the nation quit after a year, and only about a quarter make it past a second. "I would say that's a huge problem," said Annika Hapip, who felt her church needed to act. "You have a lot of kiddos who are in the foster care system, and they're waiting to be placed in a home, and foster families are stretched." Hapip's solution, the Lily Initiative, working within Evangel Assembly of God in Bismarck, aims to address burnout by supporting foster families and...

  • Community leaders aim to catch influx of new Americans

    Michael Standaert|Feb 27, 2023

    Patti Larson has many visions for Sheyenne. None of them include the town dying a slow death. That is likely its fate unless the town's demographics were to magically change. With two-thirds of its 185 residents over the age of 50, Sheyenne is indeed in its golden years. Community leaders in Sheyenne and other towns are hopeful that they've found a way to slow or reverse that aging process, but they believe it will take an influx of new Americans to do so. At the moment Sheyenne shows its age...

  • Recent tragedies highlight rural mental health, addiction crisis

    Michael Standaert|Jan 2, 2023

    Signs of trouble should have been obvious long before Robert Bracken shot his son Justin, his older brother Richard, his employer Doug Dulmage, and finally, himself, with a .357 revolver on Aug. 29, 2022. With an unthinkable scene of four dead bodies in a blue-skied North Dakota grain field, it appeared an act fueled by towering instability had taken place. A formal investigation into the incident continues, leaving the ultimate motive and circumstances unclear. It was one of two tragedies late...

  • School meal debt resurfaces as families struggle with inflation

    Michael Standaert, North Dakota News Cooperative|Dec 19, 2022

     A $2,300 anonymous donation wiped meal debt from the books of Stanley elementary schools just before Thanksgiving, bringing welcome relief for parents struggling with increased costs associated with inflation this holiday season.  "I didn't reach out to a lot, but the ones that I did reach out to were just very thankful, knowing that they were not going to have to deal with the stress of trying to pay off some of their debts," said Brooks Stafslien, principal to 400-plus elementary...

  • For some, the mail does not come through

    Michael Standaert|Nov 7, 2022

    Recent worker shortages and the increased workload of processing large packages have complicated the work of mail carriers who have long deftly overcome the obstacles of snow, rain, heat and the gloom of night to get mail to its destination on time. Here in North Dakota, the outer edges of cities like Minot, Bismarck, Williston and other areas have experienced severe delays in mail deliveries recently, with citizens not seeing anything arriving in their mailboxes for days, and even weeks, at a time.  For Howard Tweeten, who lives about four...

  • Labor shortages mean ex-cons get more opportunities for a second chance

    Michael Standaert|Oct 31, 2022

    It would be easy to pass Double J Manufacturing and Repair without giving it so much as a second thought. The welding, truck repair and fencing business sits at the top of a rise on a dusty rural highway that could be just about anywhere on any stretch of lonesome road around the state.  Sparks fly in the welding shop and wrenches crank in the garage as workers go about their day. What few would realize if they happened to poke their head into the shop is that some of the workers are not only rebuilding engines and battered fencing, but...

  • Rural communities desperately seeking workers

    Michael Standaert, North Dakota News Cooperative|Oct 17, 2022

    Rural communities across the state are desperate to attract and retain workers at small businesses like shops, restaurants, health centers, gas stations and other essential services to keep their communities alive and vibrant. From Bowman to Bottineau, Crosby to Harvey, they’re also in competition with each other for those workers, not by choice or desire, but out of necessity. Besides attracting labor, communities are becoming more concerned about losing crucial businesses as Baby Boomers retire without adequately establishing a succession...

  • Rural child care providers seek sustainability

    Michael Standaert, North Dakota News Cooperative|Aug 22, 2022

    For 37 years Anita Fettig has been the go-to for child care in Napoleon. From dawn until after dark each day she bounces between the care centers and the consignment shop she owns, which sits as an anchor in between the few city blocks where they are located.  Fettig runs four day care facilities which serve around 90 children, accounting for full-time, drop-in and after-school care. Managing that many children in four separate facilities near her home at all hours of the day, calls for...

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