Around the State: January 31, 2022

The counties and cities within the state of North Dakota hold many interesting news stories.

Here are just a few of the feature stories that others are reading in communities around the state.

Sebeka man renews beef with county

Traill County commissioners recently traded barbs for a second straight month with a Minnesota man who claimed his constitutional rights were violated by a Traill County sheriff’s deputy last fall.

Joel Walsvik told the Traill County Board of Commissioners in December that a deputy had stopped and asked for his driver’s license while Walsvik was changing a tire on his pickup near Hatton.

According to Walsvik, the deputy took a photo of the driver’s license using a cell phone before agreeing to delete the picture after being questioned about his actions.

The Sebeka, Minn., man took part in a spirited back-and-forth debate with commissioners in December and returned demanding more answers about the officer’s actions during the encounter.

“Why did he take a picture? There has to be a reason,” Walsvik told the commission.

“Those photos are routinely deleted when no longer needed,” Traill County Sheriff Steve Hunt said.

“You can’t just go around doing it. You can’t,” said Walsvik. “Going by the Constitution, you have no right to do what you did to me. You violated my Fourth Amendment rights.”

Walsvik said he could file a civil complaint and allow a judge to weigh in on the matter.

(Story by Cole Short, the Hillsboro Banner)

Dunseith site for attempting world record

On a frigid night earlier this month, onlookers near Dale’s Truck Stop in Dunseith may have noticed a most unusual occurrence.

Despite temperatures hovering around 20 below zero, several people were gathered in the parking lot gearing up to help assist and/or watch a hot air balloon take off.

Bill Smith of Kentucky, was in Dunseith on January 10 to attempt a world distance record of 1,060 continuous miles floating in the air. He previously had broken the world record for flying his hot air balloon the furthest over a certain time limit. His goal was to land in Tennessee.

Smith’s balloon launched a few minutes after 3 a.m. with several people in their cars watching and honking their horns when he was airborne.

During the flight his fuel consumption was almost double the normal rate. Smith armed his basket beneath his balloon with four propane tanks along with four additional tanks tied to the outside. After about 500 miles of flying he opted to land in Iowa. His operation plan had recovery crews on standby in every state along the intended flight path.

(Story by John Rosinski, the Turtle Mountain Star)

COVID-19 cases skyrocket in ND

COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed in North Dakota as the omicron variant takes hold.

Active cases peaked at 9,811 statewide at the end of the second week of this month, nearly equaling the height of the pandemic’s severity on November 2020, despite there being only 1,500 cases at the start of the year.

“This is way more contagious,” said Dr. Paul Carson, an infectious disease expert at North Dakota State University, at a department of health virtual town hall meeting recently. “This has just exploded in the number of new cases.”

Omicron is estimated to be three times more contagious as the delta variant of COVID-19, which omicron has now displaced as the dominant version of the virus.

(Story by Jacob Orledge, the Tioga Tribune)

It’s getting tough to tell the difference

You’re sick. Is it a cold? Is it influenza? Or, is it COVID-19?

Many of the symptoms are similar, with very few significant differences.

Telling symptoms of a common cold have been sneezing and a runny nose. Those symptoms were rare in early coronavirus infections, but are now common with the omicron variant.

A sore throat is also common to colds, flu and COVID.

Loss of taste and smell was a symptom that was often experienced with early cases of COVID, but it is not a common symptom of the omicron variant of COVID.

Symptoms that are common to both the flu and omicron, but not to a cold, are headache, fatigue, chills, fever, dizziness, brain fog, and muscle pains.

Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing can also be symptoms of severe flu or COVID-19, but rare with a cold.

Almost as soon as omicron started spreading, doctors noticed slight differences in their patients’ symptoms relative to prior variants.

Still, doctors have noticed a clear gradient of symptoms based on a person’s vaccination status.

“People that are unvaccinated go through a little bit of a longer and tougher course,” said Dr. Jorge Moreno. “People that are vaccinated have a middle-of-the-way course. The boosted people, in many cases, it’s almost like an old cold: the sinus symptoms, the sore throat.

(Story by Terry Froseth, the Kenmare News)

Watford School will have growth for 10 years

A new study shows the enrollment for McKenzie County Public School District No. 1 will continue to have slow and steady growth over the next 10 years. But the lack of single-family homes in Watford City is going to be a major limiting factor for that growth.

Last year, Rob Schwarz, CEO of RSP, had projected that the district would have an enrollment of 3,000 students in 10 years. But because of the lack of new housing in the community in the last two years, they have lowered their enrollment growth projections.

According to Schwarz, in the past four years only 60 new single-family homes have been built in Watford City. And he says that is not near enough to increase the student enrollment projections.

(Story by Neal A. Shipman, the McKenzie County Farmer)

COVID cases increase 200 percent

The North Dakota Department of Health released information recently that the omicron variant is now likely to be at least 90 percent of the COVID virus circulating in North Dakota.

According to the CDC, COVID data tracker, Walsh County currently has 127 reported cases. That is a 202 percent increase over the last seven days.

(Story by Todd Morgan, the Walsh County Record)