I was out of state on vacation the week of July 4th. Upon my return, it was interesting to note an unprecedented media controversy involving the Ward County State’s Attorney’s office and Judge Stacey Louser. As a former Ward County Assistant State’s Attorney and a former criminal defense lawyer (including murder, attempted murder, and manslaughter),
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It is common knowledge that the USA is the greatest country on earth. It is very hard for me to dispute that as a fact because to do so would be less than graceful. The USA has been very good to me. It has provided me with a wonderful public education system which was subsidized
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In today’s angry polarized political environment, I watch my good friend, Heidi Heitkamp being pilloried by the right as being too liberal and the left for being too conservative. To old school politicos such as myself, that tells me that she is probably doing a good job. The Democratic party, even in its hay day,
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On May 24th I attended a candidate forum for the candidates running for Minot City Council. It was sponsored by the Minot Daily News which I credit for its dedication to community awareness. Although the attendance was pretty good, I suspect the questions were not as detailed or as expansive as those asked by the
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It is difficult to predict the future. While the USA is restricting immigration, Canada is encouraging it. As a skeptic, allow me to speculate that if there were an influx of attractive young women from eastern Europe and/or Scandinavia seeking our borders, they may become more open. If we look into the past, this is
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George Orwell once wrote, “Political language, and with variations this is true of all parties………is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” This was written in the 1940s. Was he wrong or did he have the power of facing unpleasant facts? On the
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The Tuesday, June 14, 2016 election was a gut shot for several “establishments” in North Dakota. The establishment of the Republican legislative super-majority took it in the shorts from the voters who crushed the corporate farming bill. One of the legislators who had sponsored the corporate farming bill complained to the media about the “lies” of
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We can all hardly wait for the 2016 Presidential campaign to give us more information about the past sex lives of two men in their seventies. We have all been taught in school that one of the great things about America is that it is a classless society. I rest my case. What could possibly
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Because most of us have already made up our minds about the Presidential race to make America grate again, let’s shift over to the intraparty contest for the Republican gubernatorial nod. For full disclosure, once upon a time in the west, I served for eight years with Wayne Stenehjem in the North Dakota state senate.
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If election years are good for nothing else, they are good for irony. Our Republican friends seem to be preaching that socialism is a threat to America. We could become “European” and as substandard as German cars, Swiss chocolates, and French wine. Meanwhile, here in North Dakota, every statewide elected office in Bismarck is held
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In an earlier opinion piece, I referred to the USA as “The Divided States of America”. The never ending presidential campaign is doing little to reunite us. In theory, the best way to govern would be if we were represented by persons who had enough self-awareness and self-doubt to listen to those with differing opinions
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Just out of curiosity, during my February travels, I did some comparison pricing regarding a randomly selected prescriptive medication. The investigation involved a non-narcotic lotion which requires a prescription. The manufacturer in all three instances was the same. The portion in all three instances was the same. The strength in all three instances was the
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There is obviously a significant portion of the American electorate wishing to stick their fingers in the eye of “the establishment”. If one looks back through history, establishments come and go. Where is the Federalist party now? Where is the Whig party now? In the fifties in North Dakota, the state Democratic party and the
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It would be tempting to write about more compelling current issues such as Donald Trump’s hair, Bernie Sanders’s hair, Marco Rubio’s high heeled shoes, Chris Christie’s weight, why Jeb isn’t using his last name, why Ted Cruz still puts greasy kid stuff in his hair, or why Hillary didn’t divorce Bill. Instead, allow me to
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A family friend who is a psychiatric nurse recently shared with me a publication by Daniel J. Fox Ph.D., who is the staff psychologist at the Federal Detention Center in Houston, Texas. He was a recent guest speaker at a medical conference in Seattle, Washington she had attended. A most fascinating chapter of Dr. Fox’s
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Former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran has recently pled guilty to two felonies that would not have been detected and arguably not a crime if she had been an elected state official or legislator in North Dakota.Her crimes were that she admitted using campaign contributions for her personal use. In addition to having
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