Early August rainfall could be a blessing for crops that were planted later than usual, area farmers and agronomists said this week.
The first week of August in southwest North Dakota — typically hot and dry — was defined by heavy rains, daily showers, early-morning fog and below-normal temperatures.
It’s not exactly the type of weather farmers like to see — at least in a normal year. But this has not been a normal growing year.
Continue reading “August rains could be good for late crops”
President Barack Obama’s visit to North Dakota and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation on Friday may have been historic, but it was also everything we imagined it would be. It was short, sweet and about as basic as it could have been.
When Obama speaks, he tends to go one of two ways. Either he’s bold, authoritative and makes memorable statements, or he plays it safe and speaks to his political base. He went the latter route in his visit to the reservation, which wasn’t surprising. Obama didn’t take much of a risk coming to Standing Rock.
Continue reading “Obama visit nice, short of what was needed”
On Wednesday, I made a quick trip to Southwest Grain’s Boyle Terminal between Taylor and Gladstone to take a photo of Delane Thom, the cooperative’s manager. He had been interviewed for a national story by Reuters titled “Grain trains scarce on the Plains,” that we ran Thursday on our front page.
I spent 15 minutes chatting with Thom about the issues facing elevators throughout North Dakota, particularly those out west in the Oil Patch areas. I came away with an even better understanding of what people like those in Thom’s position are facing as they head into another busy season, trying to appease producers tired of hearing that an elevator with millions of bushels of space has no room and then begging BNSF Railway to send a few more trains their way to help free up space, only to watch a train hauling 110 cars full of oil roll east past the facility.
So much attention is being paid to those train cars carrying Bakken oil and its volatility that most forget about the issues facing local grain cooperatives throughout the region.
You can visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. It only costs $7 to get into both the Bill Clinton library in Little Rock, Ark., and the Gerald Ford library in Ann Arbor, Mich.
These presidents each had their faults, yet they still have libraries to honor them and serve as historical research sites.
Somehow, Theodore Roosevelt — a man whose face is on Mount Rushmore and is considered one of our greatest leaders — is among the American presidents without a library.
The North Dakota Legislature has tasked Dickinson State University with changing that.
WATFORD CITY — There are days, Brent Sanford said, when he struggles to wrap his head around everything happening in his hometown.
Ten years ago, Sanford returned to Watford City to take over his family’s automotive dealership. He soon found himself on the city council and was elected mayor in 2010 — right as oil and gas exploration in the Bakken shale formation was beginning to put a stranglehold on northwest North Dakota communities.
Today, Sanford and other Watford City leaders are facing challenges few small towns in America ever have to endure. All the while, he said, they’re trying to keep their once-quiet community from becoming just another “dirty oil town.”
The goal, Sanford and other city leaders said, is to keep pace with growth that has gripped Watford City because of the unprecedented oil boom — it enters the construction season with $240 million in infrastructure needs, ranging from streets to schools — while maintaining its appeal as a progressive and welcoming home where people want to put down roots.
But that is more challenging than anyone could have ever imagined.
“Everything is in flux, basically,” Sanford said.
Dustin Monke 