701 Rundown: March 18, 2024

Here’s your weekly rundown of some of the most interesting headlines from newspapers across North Dakota.

Johnson pleads guilty to child neglect

After spending five months in jail, Ashley Marie Johnson, 37, of Grand Forks, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors Wednesday, Feb. 28, pleading guilty to child neglect and reckless endangerment.

In exchange for the guilty pleas, the charge of child abandonment was dismissed.

The charges stemmed from an incident that occurred Oct. 3, 2023, when Johnson left her 4-year-old child on the interstate near the 63rd Street overpass on I-29, approximately halfway between the Warsaw/Minto and Grafton exits.

According to court testimony, the child was left there for about 45 minutes before she came back looking for her.

By that time police were already on scene and arrested her at approximately 4:30 p.m.

On the child neglect charge, Johnson was sentenced to one year in prison, with credit for 148 days already served. All jail time was suspended on the condition she abides by the terms of her supervised probation, which was set at 2.5 years.

On the reckless endangerment charge, she received the same sentence, which is to run concurrently.

If she abides by all the terms of probation, which includes receiving a psychological evaluation and following through with its recommendations, then Johnson’s felonies will be reduced to misdemeanors.

(Story by Todd Morgan, The Walsh County Record)

Farm girl finds career in film, TV industry

Rebecca (Peterson) Tozier’s chosen career is one both foreign and intriguing to most of us.

Tozier, who grew up on a farm between Wildrose and Alamo, works in the film and television industry.

Lifelong residents of northwest North Dakota will likely remember Rebecca as one of the children singing her heart out on stage with the Peterson Family Band. These days, Tozier works mostly behind the scenes.

“I usually work in the costume department,” Tozier said.

On smaller projects, she often serves in the role of costume designer, which is the person in charge of the costume department. On larger projects, she is usually one step down from that: wardrobe supervisor.

Working in the costume department, Tozier spends a lot of time with the actors on a project.

“That’s a huge part of my job: interfacing with actors,” said Tozier. “I spend more time with the actors than most people, outside of maybe the director and other actors.”

Being in love with writing her own stories, at age 13 Tozier heard of a video contest hosted by author Chuck Black of Williston. The contest called for videos recreating a scene from one of his fantasy books. Tozier made a video.

When she was 16, Tozier attended an art camp in upstate New York.

“I went one year for acting and the next for filmmaking,” Tozier said.

It was at this camp that Tozier met film director George Escobar, who brought her on to work on his next feature film. She was 17 at the time.

She ended up meeting her husband Calder, who works in the grip and electric departments, on a film set in North Dakota.

Recent projects have taken the Williston native to Kentucky, Texas and South Carolina.

"A year-and-a-half ago, I worked on a feature film that is actually coming out in April," Tozier said. The movie, "Unsung Hero," is a faith-based family drama depicting the true story of another musical family, the Smallbones, two of which later formed the Christian music group For King and Country.

(Story by John Bayer, the Journal)

12-year-old Watford City hero

Twelve-year-old Daniel stayed calm as he called 911 on February 24 at 2:27 a.m., when he realized that his home at 404 Main Street North was on fire.

While Daniel relayed information to dispatchers, his uncle quickly worked to get the rest of the family out of the home.

“As a result of the action of Daniel, the Fire Department and Police Department were on the scene within minutes which resulted in saving some of the contents of the house and assuring the safety of all of the family members,” states a press release from the Watford City Police Department.

While there were six adults and six juveniles in the home at the time, everyone got out safely and no one was injured in the fire.

Officials say that there is an ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire, but it appears there is no foul play involved.

“The Watford City Police Department would like to recognize Daniel for his part in preventing a tragedy,” states the press release.

(Story from the McKenzie County Farmer)

Winter Park sees good numbers despite warm winter

With El Niño bringing dry and warmer weather to parts of the nation this winter, it has left a number of ski resorts with no choice but to close or not even open at all.

The Bottineau Winter Park, however, has worked hard to keep a snow base on their runs this season and have made a successful year for the guests at the park.

“It’s been a good year so far at the park,” said Dan Fett, ski school instructor for the Bottineau Winter Park. “We have had the normal challenges of a couple weekends where temps were minus 20.

“But the biggest challenge has been the warm temps that made it difficult to get the snow made in November and December and then to maintain our base through the warm winter weather.”

The Winter Park went to great lengths to preserve the natural and man-made snow this season. They did so in placing a good base on the slopes and even pushing extra snow into the trees to keep it at cooler temperatures to preserve it.

The park’s employees did such a great job in their attempts to preserve snow, it is expected that visitors’ numbers to the Winter Park this season will be no different than previous years.

(Story by Scott Wagar, the Bottineau Courant)