It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Are there works of literature, music or pop culture which somewhat describe current events in our nation’s capital? Could it be Dante’s Inferno? Could it be Alice in Wonderland? Could it be To Kill a Mockingbird? Could it be The Crucible? Could it be The Emperor Has No Clothes? Is it like watching One Flew

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Who did they blame?

“I got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it!” — Frank Costanza, Festivus 1997 In 1884, my great-grandfather crossed an ocean. At Ellis Island, he got off the boat in a foreign land where he didn’t speak the language. After that, he crossed half a continent by train

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What can Minot look like 20-years from now?

What’s the vision and how do we get there? These are the central questions of any town or place in transformation, and in Minot, we’re very much in the process of asking them. For us, both answers are in flux, but if there’s a common thread in all the competing answers it’s ‘prosperity’; each idea

Read & Share   sourced from: Forbes

Why Companies Are Moving Back Downtown

If you’re paying attention to local issues, you’ve likely noticed a renewed focus on Minot’s downtown. For a car-centric culture like North Dakota, that may seem a bit strange, but when trends from across the country are accounted for, it may be that we’re simply acknowledging and attempting to catch a wave of change that’s

Read & Share   sourced from: Governing.com

When it comes to parking, we’ve already embraced socialism

Equal and available parking for all the cars in all the places all the time! I don’t remember the street protest and social activism that secured this ‘right’ for us, but there’s no doubt that the wheels of government drove us straight to our current state of parking utopia.  Through on-street parking in front of

Read & Share   sourced from: City Observatory

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Could the library, cafe, market, or bar down the street change your life (and our community)?

Cover image credit to Prairie Sky Breads, find them on their website or on Facebook here. As more of our civic discourse moves online, we become less connected to our communities and real people — unless you frequent a local library, bakery, cafe, or bar. And it’s where we live in relation to these amenities

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Survey says American churches are in trouble

If you were running a business and your customer base went from 70% of the population to 50% of the population, what would you do? That’s the environment churches find themselves in over the past 20 years. Lloyd Omdahl writing an opinion piece for Forum Communications has more on the topic.

Read & Share   sourced from: InForum

North Dakota funeral directors weigh in on the future of final disposition

In the funeral business, final disposition is the last place we end up. And the business is evolving to reflect the preferences of the people it’s accommodating. The changing nature of funerals was a recent #GoodTalkMinot episode featuring local funeral director Jeff Brose. Now, other local media sources are pursuing the same topic. Check out

Read & Share   sourced from: Grand Forks Herald

Josh Duhamel talks about North Dakota roots and Hollywood career

Minot-native Jush Duhamel was awarded an honorary degree by UND last weekend. As a part of the experience, he sat down with WDAY’s Matt Henson and talked about North Dakota and what it means to him to be from this place. Follow the link below to catch the 7-minute interview.

Read & Share   sourced from: Grand Forks Herald

Farmers, watch your barns, especially if they’re old

When it comes to home styles, rustic chic is in, and that means old, weathered barn wood is in high demand. And no part of the country is being spared the scourge of thieves with an eye for farmhouse sinks. Quartz has all the details on a trend our grand parents wouldn’t believe.

Read & Share   sourced from: Quartz

Seeing Minot With New Eyes Through a “Walking Audit”

Do you view car ownership as a luxury or as the standard? Your answer to the question — probably — informs more about how you view our community and the investments we should make than you realize. And one simple way to consider a different perspective — get out and walk. For more perspective on

Read & Share   sourced from: Strong Towns

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Fargo’s West Acres Mall embraces arts to attract shoppers

Have you noticed the trends shaping our shopping malls? Across the country, they’re losing their big anchor retailers. North Dakota is not immune to this trend. What’s the solution? In Fargo, West Acres mall has chosen to embrace the arts. Get the full story from John Lamb writing for InForum, and then ask the question

Read & Share   sourced from: InForum

A wonderful send-off

My Gramma Brose lived in Broken Arrow, OK, when she died at the home of her daughter. She had lung problems and moved there from Minneapolis, MN, to get out of the cold, harsh winters. As her health deteriorated and it got to the point her son-in-law had to change her diaper, she decided that

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Hitchhiking to Egypt and ancient life on the Giza Plateau

This week’s second hour of #GoodTalk Minot featured Minot-native Dr. Mark Lehner, world renown authority on what life was really like at the time the Great Sphinx and pyramids were built. As interesting as the ancient Egypt side of the conversation is, you may appreciate the story of how Dr. Lehner found himself there in

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#GoodTalking Minot Baseball, Corbett Field, and all things Sabre Dogs

For last week’s second hour of #GTM, we were joined by Sabre Dogs top brass, General Manager Darrell Handelsman and Assistant GM Savannah Young. Tune in below for talk of summer, evenings at the ballpark, what it means to be a professional, and of course, all things baseball.

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Teen Suicide Spiked After Debut Of Netflix’s ’13 Reasons Why,’ Study Says

Television watching is vastly different today than it was even 10 years ago. Binge-watching and the viral-like consumption of content are major differences. And in the one case of one popular Netflix show from a few years ago with suicide story-line, researchers identified a spike in teen suicide following the release. While the researchers are

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR