When neighborhoods start losing their character—when longtime residents get pushed out and familiar gathering places disappear—the usual response is to fight back with policy. But what if the real power lies somewhere else entirely? A national learning lab backed by The Kresge[...]
Section: Community & Culture
Curio |
This Rural County Is Taking Notes From Iceland’s Drug Prevention Model
Estill County, Kentucky, had the highest overdose death rate in the state in 2021. It’s since dropped to fifth—still grim, but heading in the right direction. What’s changing? A combination of harm reduction and a prevention model borrowed from Iceland, focused less[...]
News |
Minot’s new police chief believes department headed in right direction
When Michael Frye took over as Minot’s police chief in July, the department was heading toward 12-hour shifts just to stay functional. Six months later, staffing is nearly full, morale is up, and Frye is focused on what comes next: more training,[...]
News |
Minot high school students tell us something good that happened this year
A camera, a microphone, and a simple question: tell us something good that happened to you this year. That’s all it took. Students at Minot North stepped up and shared—big moments, small ones, the kind of memories that stick. It’s a nice[...]
Curio |
Learn and Watch: Carol of the Bells
You’ve heard it a thousand times—that cascading four-note melody that shows up in malls, movies, and church concerts every December. But “Carol of the Bells” didn’t start as a Christmas song. It started as Shchedryk, a Ukrainian choral piece sent to Europe[...]
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Curio |
A true story of sacrifice
In March 1920, a 16-year-old girl named Hazel Miner lay on top of her younger brother and sister as a blizzard raged across Oliver County. She kept them alive. She didn’t survive. It’s one of those North Dakota stories that gets passed[...]
Curio |
Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas
’Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all[...]
Curio |
Mathematician Shares 10 Festive Brain Teasers That Anyone Can Try
Mathematics is a “science which requires a great amount of imagination”, said the 19th-century Russian maths professor Sofya Kovalevskaya – a pioneering figure for women’s equality in this subject. We all have an imagination, so I believe everyone has the ability to[...]
News |
Cold weather, community fun: What to know about the different outdoor activities in Minot
The cold finally has an upside. Minot’s outdoor rinks are open, the ice is thick enough to hold, and the warming houses are stocked with hot cocoa and $5 skate rentals. Whether you’re at Roosevelt Park, Polaris, Perkett, or Corbett Ballpark, the[...]
News |
Poll: A majority of North Dakotans are givers
Times are tight, and North Dakotans know it. Groceries cost more, gas costs more, and holiday budgets shrank this year. But when it comes to giving, most people in the state haven’t pulled back. A new poll finds nearly 8 in 10[...]
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Commentary |
When it comes to a community, ‘just say no’ doesn’t work
There’s a pattern playing out across resource-rich communities: towns that once said yes to libraries, rec leagues, and big ideas are now governed by people who inherited what others built—and mistake it for something that just exists. They shout no to diversification,[...]
Commentary |
Goodbye to the Age of the Book
Reading hasn’t disappeared, but its place in American life is quietly shifting. Long, demanding books are giving way to snippets, screens, audio, and video—and with that shift comes a deeper question about how we think, argue, and learn. What once required patience[...]
Curio |
On Jane Austen’s Remarkable Endurance
Two hundred and fifty years after her birth, Jane Austen still commands an audience few writers ever achieve. Loved by readers who may never touch Milton or Wordsworth, she remains endlessly debated, adapted, and reread. And to mark the occasion of her[...]
News |
Community seeks to find warming shelter solution
When winter bears its teeth, the cold isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a threat to life. Since the closure of Project BEE, the city has lacked a dedicated warming shelter, leaving neighbors in tents and stranded travelers at the mercy of the[...]
Curio |
6 myths about rural America: How conventional wisdom gets it wrong
Roughly 1 in 5 Americans live in rural areas – places the federal government defines based on small populations and low housing density. Yet many people understand rural America through stereotypes. Media and political conversations often use words or terms such as[...]
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Curio |
What 38 million obituaries reveal about how Americans define a ‘life well lived’
Obituaries preserve what families most want remembered about the people they cherish most. Across time, they also reveal the values each era chose to honor. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we analyzed 38[...]