Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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I'm not a big fan of April Fools' Day, or any kind of pranks for that matter. Perhaps that's because I am more likely to be the one pranked than I am the mastermind behind the hoax. My husband, on the other hand, can pull a prank with the best of them. Our oldest was born the day after April Fools' Day, and I happened to go into labor on the dreaded day. My husband and his dad were out of town for work the four days prior, and I was anxious to say the least. I had been staying with his dad's...
The other night, I took a friend out for her birthday at an upscale French restaurant. The food is magnificent, as authentic as anything I tasted when I lived in Paris – cue the accordion music. But even perfection has its tics. Normally, service at this restaurant is sublime. But this night, I had a problem. After having a wonderful meal and then calculating a respectable tip of 20% on a pretty expensive bill, since the service was OK but not exceptional, I gave the waiter the money. He d...
President George Washington’s nomination in 1796 of Oliver Ellsworth to serve as the third Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was met with universal approval. Ellsworth boasted a record of experience that few then, and none since, could match. Above all, Ellsworth was a genuine heavyweight in the Constitutional Convention, among a handful of delegates who spoke frequently and authoritatively and played a key role in shaping the final version of the Constitution that the American people ratified in 1787-1788. Washington, who had known E...
Common good are those things that emphasize community, as compared to individual good which emphasizes self. Every level of civic society – national, state and local – needs common good to negotiate and provide the services to everyone in its jurisdiction. The national government must provide security, goods and services; state government supplements the national good with another level of security, goods and services; the county government adds administration while also providing local assistan...
After years of trying to develop what he called a “premium” hamburger, McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden surprised no one the other day by announcing that the company’s new focus is not making burgers better, just a lot bigger. The move won’t please nutritionists, but it fits perfectly with a growing desire among Americans for super-sized stuff. Consider ads for the 2024 Chevrolet Suburban boasting that, at 18 feet in length, the vehicle is “impossible to ignore.” Chevy refers to its massive SUV a...
The remarkable influence of the Four Horsemen, as demonstrated by their success in thwarting on constitutional grounds President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal plans to resuscitate an economy brought to its knees by the Great Depression, reminds us of the capacity, for better or worse, of the Supreme Court to rewrite Alexander Hamilton’s modest description of the judiciary as the “least dangerous branch.” The pitched battle between the Four Horsemen – Willis Van Devanter, James McReynolds, George Sutherland and Pierce Butler – and Preside...
During National Ag Week, all eyes are on the farmers and ranchers who are responsible for keeping the world fed. According to the American Farm Bureau, one U.S. farmer feeds 166 people annually in America and abroad. In the 1800s when North Dakota was first established, a farmer fed 3-5 people, most likely his family members or neighbors. In 1960, one farmer could feed about 26 people. Even though we have the world's third largest population to feed, the United States is still the world's...
The adage that the Supreme Court follows the election returns certainly did not apply to the Four Horsemen – Willis Van Devanter, George Sutherland, James McReynolds and Pierce Butler. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had earned landslide victories in the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections, but that was not discernible in the behavior of the four conservative justices who were in control of the Supreme Court. As he faced the most dire economic circumstances in United States history and the grim challenge of dispensing hope to a nation c...
The first iPhone was released by Steve Jobs and Apple in 2007 and the world has not looked back. Business and industry, education, healthcare and all the rest have been leveraging new discoveries made by digital hardware, coded software, blinking lights and data lakes. The current hot topic of artificial intelligence – or more specifically generative AI – promises to digitize our society even more. The United Nations says digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation in history, just 17 short years removed from that fir...
It's Sunshine Week, a national observance of the importance of public records and open government. Sunshine Week occurs each year in mid-March, coinciding with James Madison's birthday, March 16 (1751). Madison, one of our country's founding fathers and an advocate of open government, presented the first version of the Bill of Rights to Congress. He was later elected the fourth president of the United States. Sunshine Week, observed this year from March 10-16, highlights the importance of open g...
The earworm “1-8-7-7 Kars 4 Kids” always struck me as a stellar example of how insufferable advertising can be when its creators really put their minds to it. The organization behind the long-running ad boasts that the jingle “has quickly become one of the most memorable and catchy radio ads of all time.” Though I’m not keen on encouraging youngsters to misspell words like “cars,” and while I’ve never understood who among us has enough extra autos sitting around that they’d willingly give on...
We've just finished the football season and I'm looking at a painful correlation. In football there's a penalty for piling. A player's down and other players crush him. But in society, law enforcement, and sadly family, it's okay. It's stated in the Bible our debts are paid and put away as far as the east, forgotten. The court declares you've done your time and paid your fine, you're free. But in our little town we have court house officials, neighbors and even family that believe they are higher than our creator and the courts. In Psalm 56:8,...
When my husband and I moved to New Rockford almost fourteen years ago, it was because I had taken a position on the Spirit Lake Reservation to develop and teach a culturally-relevant college curriculum on natural resources. The first class I taught was on native plants and their uses, and half of the class consisted of elders who still remembered the plant names that their grandparents once used. It was a fascinating and collaborative effort as we navigated the space between indigenous knowledge and scientific methods. What I learned while...
I photographed the Forever Dance Spring Show at Carrington School last Sunday. It wasn’t the first spring show I’ve attended (or photographed), but for some reason this performance had me enthralled. It was an absolute joy to see dozens of young girls leave it all on the floor. The energy level was off the charts, and the costumes and props were spectacular. Even coaches Brianne Partlow and Jane Sauby got in on the jazz, wearing outfits adorned with sequins and sparkles. I thought the action was...
The intriguing President’s Day news that President Abraham Lincoln granted a pardon 160 years ago to President Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather revived Americans’ fascination with the purpose, concerns, scope and history of this sweeping executive power. Thanks to the good work of historian David J. Gerleman, we now know that President Lincoln pardoned Moises J. Robinette, a civilian hired as a veterinary surgeon for the Union army, who was court martialed on charges resulting from a brawl on the evening of March 21, 1864. Robinette was f...
A new scientific poll underwritten by the North Dakota News Cooperative has finally cast some light on citizen opinions about this $10 billion Legacy Fund filled primarily by oil and gas money. The money did not come from the backs of those “hard-working citizens” often used in political rhetoric but it is money owned by everyone in North Dakota. Therefore, everyone has a stake in the use of the Fund. Having taught polling at the University of North Dakota, I offer some cautionary advice. The...
When I read about the “silent book club” trend, it filled me with instant calm and hope. As it goes, in 2012, two friends in San Francisco came up with the idea for a non-formal social event in which book lovers can gather at a coffee house or pub, then read together in silence for an hour or so, after which they may discuss any thoughts about what they are reading and socialize. There is something very special about being immersed in a great work of fiction or nonfiction that brings about a p...
The photos and images of U.S. Supreme Court justices portraying earnest men and women wrestling with momentous legal issues and controversies, the resolution of which will shape American society, politics and the constitutional landscape, fairly capture the serious side of those seated on the nation’s High Tribunal. But that’s not the justices’ only side. There is another. In the beginning, indeed, on the first day that the Supreme Court of the United States convened – February 2, 1790 – the most important issue confronting the Justices...
Congratulations to Amanda Koepplin, third grade teacher at NR-S, on her selection as the Eddy County Teacher of the Year for 2023-24. I have the utmost respect and admiration for those who pursue teaching as a career, and even more so for those who dedicate their lives to teaching young minds. It’s a noble profession. When I was in elementary school, I often said that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. I had three younger siblings and four younger cousins to look after, and teaching seemed...
It comes as a surprise to no one that North Dakota, like every other state in the nation, is in the throes of an unprecedented teacher shortage. Long-time administrators will tell you that where once there were dozens of applications for each open position, they are now fortunate to receive one or two worthy applicants, if any. Many educators will tell you that K-12 education remains an honorable and vital profession with an ever-increasing level of stress. What both agree on is that the...
A couple of days ago, I retrieved one (of about a hundred) of our family doglets' chew bones from the seemingly unreachable chasm under my youngest and quietest daughter's bed using an ingenious invention of my own making – namely a straightened-out wire clothes hanger. This same apparatus also comes in handy for retrieving various undergarments (along with a metric ton of lint) that somehow fall behind – and then underneath – our washer and dryer. The clothes hanger/wonder hook prompted me to c...
When the U.S. Supreme Court, in Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia (1980), in the words of Justice John Paul Stevens, “squarely held that the acquisition of newsworthy matter is entitled to constitutional protection,” it was protecting under the First Amendment’s free press clause the essential foundation of our democracy. The conception of the press as a pillar of strength for a free people who mean to govern themselves is as old as the republic itself. In 1765, in his acclaimed treatise, “A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,” a youthful J...
It’s another year of “lasts” at the Wobbema house. Yes, I realize we are smack dab in the middle of our daughter’s senior year, but reality didn’t set in until just a few days ago. It all started when a fellow mom of a senior posted a picture of her son on social media last week. That night was the last time he’d play high school basketball on his home court, and she was wrestling with all the emotions that come with it. I replied that I was fortunate that NR-S was hosting the district girls’ to...
Now that my age has surpassed the mid-century mark and I'm more ancient than virtually all professional athletes, everyone in my department at work, and even my pastor at church, I've noticed that the old memory is not what it used to ... Wait. What was I writing about again? My cognitive decline became all too obvious the other day when I was at the Verizon store upgrading to one of those newfangled iPhone jumbo-large-print editions with a camera powerful enough to take photos of the porta pott...
The First Amendment’s free press clause, which Thomas Jefferson declared indispensable to republicanism, has long been regarded as the “people’s right to know.” Without knowledge of governmental programs, policies and practices, the people would have little ability to hold government accountable. The press, as Jefferson and the founders recognized, could provide the crucial informing function that would make self-government possible. Historically speaking, protection of the informing function is precisely why the Supreme Court has protect...
