Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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Walsh County Record (Grafton) Editor W. Todd Morgan reminded us last week that June observed the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Civilian Conservation Corps, an organization of young men 18-20 that did scores of public projects in North Dakota. And what the CCC didn't do, the Works Progress Administration did. While the CCC consisted of young men in a semi-military setting, commanded in barracks by regular military officers, the Works Progress Administration used older men that worked...
The Supreme Court’s rejection in the Steel Seizure Case of President Harry Truman’s assertion of an inherent executive power to seize the steel mills to thwart a nationwide strike, generated questions about the location in the Constitution of authority to confront emergencies. The framers of the Constitution were entitled to believe that they had succeeded in subordinating the executive to the Constitution. Indeed, that was one of their greatest accomplishments. Still, there remained the problem of emergency and it confronted the principle of t...
Wow! Will this really be my 19th Father's Day as a father? My biggest regret is that I've had to learn so much the hard way. To make life easier for other fathers and prospective fathers, I'm sharing reader-submitted pearls of wisdom: Resign yourself to the fact that the mother of your progeny will probably never admit that you deserved an epidural for the paper cut you suffered from the Lamaze brochure. Remember that whatever doesn't kill you only makes you available to encounter the next...
The story of my upbringing is not unlike thousands of other North Dakotans. I grew up in a very small, rural community – Ray, North Dakota – the same hometown of my parents, in a modest house that my parents built when they were married. That house was more than a building; it was our home, and the ability of my parents to access and afford a place of their own provided security, certainty, and satisfaction for all of us. I realize now the immense dignity they felt being able to build their family and raise their three kids within those fou...
In his 6-3 opinion for the Supreme Court in the landmark case, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), Justice Hugo Black rejected President Harry Truman’s assertion of an inherent executive power to seize the steel industry as a means of thwarting a nationwide steel strike. Black’s opinion, a historic rebuke to sweeping claims of presidential authority, provided a textbook lesson on the constraining force of the separation of powers doctrine and why it prohibited President Truman from issuing an executive order that encroached on leg...
The 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the Steel Seizure Case reminds us of the capacity of the nation’s High Tribunal to stand tall in the defense of the rule of law and American Constitutionalism. On 2, 1952, the court, in the extraordinary case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, reined in executive authority when it declared unconstitutional President Harry S. Truman’s assertion of “inherent power” to seize the nation’s steel mills to prevent a strike that he feared would imperil America’s conduct of th...
If you are like me, you were waiting for the release of “Top Gun: Maverick” for a while. A product of the ‘80s, the original 1986 film was among those I could watch over and over again. I had “Top Gun” on VHS as a teenager. When I was a junior in college, I rented an efficiency apartment in Moorhead. It was basically a one-room suite with a tiny kitchenette. A futon doubled as my couch and bed. At least it had its own bathroom. The laundry room was next door, which was also a plus. With no funds...
We had free access to guns when I was growing up. Common gun sense ruled the country. There was seldom the kind of mass shootings of kids as we see occurring today. Ironically, the strongest defenders of our killing gun culture are also the same people who allegedly stand for sanctity of life on the abortion question. When guns are involved, sanctity of life goes down the drain. Most gun owners, from single shot pistols to AR-15s, argue that these are necessary for self-defense. But if you know...
Fifty-five years ago, on June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia, struck down in the name of equal protection and due process a state law banning interracial marriage. The court declared that the right of marriage, though nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, is a fundamental right, the exercise of which is protected by the 14th Amendment. The court’s unanimous opinion, written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, represented a powerful blow to one of the remaining remnants of Jim Crow and Virginia’s eff...
The only worry I had was that Old Man Miller might be hiding out behind the shed trying to catch us running through his garden when we played "Tag" in our back yards. If you grew up in the '70s in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Our childhood was essentially a 1950s childhood, a great time to be a kid. We played outside all day long in the summertime and no kid was ready to come home for dinner or when the street lights turned on. We had zero involvement in...
Hollywood makes iconic catch phrases seem easy. Whether it’s McGarrett’s “Book ‘em, Danno” or Vizzini’s “Inconceivable!” in “The Princess Bride,” we take them for granted. But there is a dismaying amount of trial and error behind the relative handful of utterances that fully capture the public consciousness. For example, the magisterial “Make it so,” of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the “Star Trek” universe. Early versions of Picard’s command included “That’s what SHE said,” “Pretty please with a...
It is fair to say that the government’s preeminent responsibility is to provide for the nation’s defense. When necessary, civil liberties protected by the Bill of Rights must yield to the demands of national security. In Minersville v. Gobitis (1940), the Supreme Court, over assertions of religious liberty by Jehovah’s Witnesses, upheld a Pennsylvania state law requiring school children to salute the flag on the theory that the pledge of allegiance promotes national unity and national unity protects national security. The Gobitis Court...
Eddie Grant, a Harvard Law School graduate and a former third baseman who played for the Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants, was the first major league baseball player killed in World War I. In all, seven other major league players lost their lives in the Great War. They are Lt. Tom Burr, plane crash; Lt. Harry Chapman, illness; Lt. Larry Chappell, influenza; Pvt. Harry Glenn, pneumonia; Cpt. Newton Halliday, hemorrhages; Cpl. Ralph Sherman, drowned, an...
The drumbeat for abolishing student debt is growing as students and former students feel the financial crunch of poor employment and increasing inflation. Forty five million (45,000,000) Americans owe $1.6 trillion ($1,600,000,000) for federal student loans. But there is a lot of hidden debt acquired from private sources that is impossible to calculate. We know it is big. Twenty four percent have student debt, leaving 76% without student debt. The political facts tell us that 24% will be eager...
It was about this time of year, 22 years ago, when I was on the precipice of my future. There I was, in my second semester of university, and my roommate had an epiphany: we should "go away" for the summer, she surmised. She had a poster in hand from the Ponderosa Ranch, an amusement park on Lake Tahoe, Nevada, that was built to celebrate the legacy of the popular western TV show, "Bonanza." Now this is where many of you, dear readers, will go down memory lane. How many of you watched...
In 1940, in Minersville v. Gobitis, the Supreme Court upheld a state law requiring school children to salute the flag, despite religious objections by Jehovah Witnesses, who said the statutory requirement violated their religious liberties under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Three years later, on June 14, 1943, in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, the court changed its mind and, in a landmark opinion, held that school children have a constitutional right to refuse to salute the flag. What was the court thinking? W...
May being Mental Health Awareness month, it seems appropriate for us to confront an issue that eludes our attention until it strikes home. It is odd that mental health has become a major problem in a country flowing with money and professionalism, both essential for attacking the problem. Nevertheless, Judith Warner writes a lengthy analysis in the Washington Post Magazine about young people: “Over the last several decades, we’ve been seeing an increase in mental health conditions in chi...
In 1962, in Engel v. Vitale, the U.S. Supreme Court, in one of the most controversial decisions of the Warren Court era, held school-led prayer unconstitutional for violating the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Engel was the first school prayer case heard by the court, but it was not starting from scratch in considering the issue of governmentally sponsored religious practices. The court had previously upheld against the assertion of an Establishment Clause violation a state program that involved busing children to parochial schools. I...
President Biden and those around him have a fondness for using historical disasters as points of comparisons to raise the level of outrage over outbreaks of violence and unrest that have plagued the nation for much of the last eighteen months. When confronted by images and news accounts of extreme behavior, their first reaction is to reach for superlatives like "worse than...more dangerous than...more horrifying than...more insidious than...a horrible reminder of..." There follow comparisons to...
“A few weeks ago, I was blessed to spend time with Turkish NBA star turned American human rights advocate Enes Kanter Freedom in the Peace Garden State. “His message is bold, yet simple. His message is brave, yet shared. It’s something we take for granted every single day living in the United States of America. Freedom isn’t free. “What is so special about Enes’ message is his conviction. Enes walks the walk and talks the talk. He truly practices what he preaches. “While in North Dakota, he delivered his powerful message at the iconic Belle...
I started my first business in the fifth grade when I convinced a neighbor to allow me to cut her grass with her electric lawn mower. That project ended in immediate failure. The mower was powered by a long extension cord — a cord I ran over and sliced in two shortly after I began mowing. Such is the life of the entrepreneur, a life typically filled with lots more failure than success. According to The Balance Small Business, an entrepreneur is someone who develops an enterprise around an i...
One can make the argument that communication may be the single most important aspect of human existence. I couldn't agree more. As a professional communicator, I strive daily to communicate as effectively as possible. I've found there's no better way to connect with those who aren't close enough to visit than through handwritten letters. From soldiers and their sweethearts corresponding during wartime, to close friends spread across the country keeping each other up to date on their lives, there...
The U.S. Supreme Court’s first major ruling on the meaning of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause was in Everson v. Board of Education, in 1947, when it upheld a state law that provided busing of students to parochial schools. The court’s entry into this constitutional maze foreshadowed the controversy that surrounds - to this day - governmental acts and programs that promote religion. At issue in Everson was a New Jersey statute that authorized local school boards to reimburse parents, including those whose children attended Catho...
In his unanimous opinion for the Supreme Court in the watershed case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Chief Justice Earl Warren asked the foundational question: “Does segregation of children in public schools based solely on race, deprive Black children of equal educational opportunities?” He answered: “We believe that it does.” Therefore, the court held, segregation violates the 14 th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. As Chief Justice Warren explained, the separation of children “solely because of their race generates a feeling of...
On his first day of his Presidency, President Biden signed many executive orders, including #14008, also known as "The America the Beautiful Initiative." In this simple moniker is a strong reminder of the power of words. Doesn't it invoke images of undulating prairie grasses as far as the eye can see; of the majesty of the dusky purple mountains and teary-eyes at small town sporting events? It seems to ratchet up the emotional determination in many of us that longs to preserve our picturesque...
