The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
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As the State of North Dakota trumpets Project Tundra, experts outside of the state raise questions about capturing carbon dioxide emissions from two units at coal-fired Milton R. Young Power Plant near Center, North Dakota. The only real certainty is that the initiative will be expensive and will result in unabated carbon emissions at least through 2028, if not longer, under the projected construction timeline. Costs of producing energy will also rise due to the technology needed to capture the...
The parent company of six Dollar General stores in North Dakota facing total penalties of $2.5 million related to work safety violations is contesting those findings, according to U.S. Department of Labor representatives. Dollar General stores in Casselton, Garrison, Hillsboro, Killdeer, Minot and Tioga were inspected by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigators in the final three months of 2022 after state fire marshals found hazards at four stores and complaints were received about two others. The hazards were related...
About half of all foster parents in the nation quit after a year, and only about a quarter make it past a second. “I would say that’s a huge problem,” said Annika Hapip, who felt her church needed to act. “You have a lot of kiddos who are in the foster care system, and they’re waiting to be placed in a home, and foster families are stretched.” Hapip’s solution, the Lily Initiative, working within Evangel Assembly of God in Bismarck, aims to address burnout by supporting foster families and encouraging others to become foster parents. The...
After several years of declining scores, only one third of fourth graders in North Dakota are proficient in reading. Seeing that stark slide prompted one local newspaper publisher to act by providing a newspaper kids can call their own. Currently around 30,000 of the Kid Scoop News newspapers are being distributed to 70-80 schools in the western half of North Dakota. Hopes are, by the end of 2023, the paper could reach most schools in the state, according to Cecile Wehrman, owner of Journal Publishing in Crosby, which publishes the Journal of...
Patti Larson has many visions for Sheyenne. None of them include the town dying a slow death. That is likely its fate unless the town's demographics were to magically change. With two-thirds of its 185 residents over the age of 50, Sheyenne is indeed in its golden years. Community leaders in Sheyenne and other towns are hopeful that they've found a way to slow or reverse that aging process, but they believe it will take an influx of new Americans to do so. At the moment Sheyenne shows its age...
A relaunched effort to attract workers and families to settle in North Dakota aims to rely on local “community champions” to act as connectors between newcomers and local employment. Gov. Doug Burgum’s proposed funding of $25 million for the Find the Good Life campaign – revamped this past June – would focus on marketing North Dakota’s quality of life and initiatives such as bringing potential residents to communities across the state or helping businesses to entice them. Job Service North Dakota estimates 40,000 openings in the state with...
Most people just want to feel wanted. For Travis High, a friendly phone call with a relocation help desk representative was enough for him to drop everything and drive from Washington state to start a new life in North Dakota. "North Dakota was the first one to reach out and say, 'Hey, we want you here,' so I just started driving," High said of his relocation this past July. High, now a technician at ProIT in Minot, was the first of nine individuals or families to emerge through the pipeline of...
Signs of trouble should have been obvious long before Robert Bracken shot his son Justin, his older brother Richard, his employer Doug Dulmage, and finally, himself, with a .357 revolver on Aug. 29, 2022. With an unthinkable scene of four dead bodies in a blue-skied North Dakota grain field, it appeared an act fueled by towering instability had taken place. A formal investigation into the incident continues, leaving the ultimate motive and circumstances unclear. It was one of two tragedies late...
Recent worker shortages and the increased workload of processing large packages have complicated the work of mail carriers who have long deftly overcome the obstacles of snow, rain, heat and the gloom of night to get mail to its destination on time. Here in North Dakota, the outer edges of cities like Minot, Bismarck, Williston and other areas have experienced severe delays in mail deliveries recently, with citizens not seeing anything arriving in their mailboxes for days, and even weeks, at a time. For Howard Tweeten, who lives about four...
Nearly 20,000 residents of Coal Country in Mercer, McLean, and Oliver counties sit at the crosshairs of the energy transition. From West Virginia, to Beulah, to China, coal workers and their communities could disappear if decarbonization goals are met without carbon-free coal power in the mix. The United States' goal is a carbon neutral electricity grid by 2035 under Biden administration plans, and net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050. "We are very attuned to what is happening politically in...
Despite continuous warnings of rolling blackouts this summer, the grids serving North Dakota and the Upper Midwest held up. Pockets of record-breaking heat were manageable since they did not cover large swaths of the country all at once. No significant doldrums deadened wind power during heat waves. Yet concerns persist. A major winter storm or deep cold snap creating surges in electricity demand at the same time solar and wind power assets under perform keeps energy experts, regulators and grid operators up at night. Either significant...
For 37 years Anita Fettig has been the go-to for child care in Napoleon. From dawn until after dark each day she bounces between the care centers and the consignment shop she owns, which sits as an anchor in between the few city blocks where they are located. Fettig runs four day care facilities which serve around 90 children, accounting for full-time, drop-in and after-school care. Managing that many children in four separate facilities near her home at all hours of the day, calls for extreme...
