Around the State: August 22, 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.

Businesses looking to attract immigrants

Businesses across North Dakota are increasingly looking to attract new American immigrants and foreign workers due to challenges filling a wide spectrum of open positions in health-care, services, manufacturing, agricultural products and child care fields.

A question looming in the minds of those coming to North Dakota, however, is whether they are wanted or not. In the case of refugees, most do not have a choice in where they end up.

After years of steady arrivals of legal immigrants, resettled refugees and temporary workers to North Dakota, numbers dramatically declined under recent federal immigration, tightening pandemic travel restrictions, and the closing of Lutheran Social Services, a nonprofit group that had long facilitated refugee resettlement for the state.

Employers in Burleigh County now have nearly 3,400 open positions to fill, up from around 400 from the year before and are looking at all options.

In Bismarck, local group Global Neighbors have been working through Church World Service, one of nine national resettlement agencies, to sponsor Afghan refugee resettlement in the Western half of the state and also assist with Ukrainian resettlement.

The group’s executive director Julie Ramos-Lagos said she has seen increasing interest, especially in smaller towns, to bring in recently settled refugees to fill jobs. Around 60 percent of those being resettled have university degrees or higher education status, but may lack adequate English skills and degree certifications upon arrival, she said.

(Story by Michael Standaert, North Dakota News Cooperative, taken from the Kenmare News)

New threats from the proposed FuFeng plant

Should we be ok with a new Chinese investment in North Dakota? For some off reason, that question isn’t easy to answer for some politicians, over-eager economic developers, or corn growers.

After months of speculation and anonymity, the city learned that it was selected to receive a new Chinese-owned corn milling plant. That’s when the firestorm began.

It should be obvious to anyone watching that FuFeng, a company with strong ties to the Communist Chinese Party, should not be allowed to proceed with ownership in this location.

Here are just a few of the “ideal-breakers” that should call an end to this nightmare.

The Grand Forks Air Force Base has been assigned a new ISR mission, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance. The all-new Space Force Command has a presence here. The Commander of the GFAFB said there were 3 reasons this new mission was necessary: China, China, and China. It is said by credible sources that the ISR mission will move elsewhere if FuFeng is allowed to build this plant. Why would our new Space Force think it’s ok to have their #1 target a few miles down the road? This should not be a difficult decision.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was recently threatened openly by the Chinese government because of her trip to Taiwan.

Finally, U.S Air Force Major Jeremy Fox wrote in a recent memo: “Some of the most sensitive elements of Grand Forks exist with the digital uplinks and downlinks inherent with unmanned air systems and their interaction with space-based assets,” he wrote. And any such data collection “would present a costly national security risk causing grave damage to the U.S. strategic advantages.”

(Editorial by Scott Hennen, taken from the McKenzie County Farmer)

Four Bears to host world title fight

Live Mixed Martial Arts combat will be returning to the 4 Bears Event Center with a vengeance in August as it hosts the LFA (Legacy Fighting Allegiance) Flyweight World Championship match between top Brazilian prospect Carlos “TIZIL” Mota vs. top Russian prospect Rizvan “PREDATOR” Abuev on August 26 in LFA 140.

The main event of LFA 140 will feature a flyweight world title fight between top international prospects.

The LFA headliner will crown the promotion’s ninth 125-pound champion in what will be the LFA’s second trip to the Peace Garden state.

LFA 140 takes place Friday, August 26th at the 4 Bears Casino & Lodge in New Town.

(Story taken from the New Town News)

High court sides with landowners

On August 4, the North Dakota Supreme court sided with the Northwest Landowners Association (HLA) in a case of private landowners versus North Dakota SB 2344.

NLA argued the 2019 legislation prohibited landowners from obtaining any compensation for damage done by oil and gas operators, in essence, rendering their land worthless.

NLA filed a complaint in state district court asking that SB 2344 be declared an unconstitutional taking of private property. On January 21, 2022, the district court opined, “There is no choice in the matter. This is an unconstitutional taking of an inherent inalienable property right.”

The district court opinion further stated such taking is “for the improper purpose of economic development, by giving all value of those property rights to a private party for a non-public purpose.”

On August 4, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled, “SB 2344 constitutes a per se taking. It allows third-party oil and gas operators to physically invade a landowner’s property by injecting substances into the landowner’s pore space. Allowing such usage takes away one of the most treasured property rights because it takes away landowners’ right to exclude oil and gas operators from trespassing and disposing waste into their pore space.”

(Story taken from the Traill County Tribune)

Saturday morning break-in

In the early morning hours of Saturday, August 6, Hanson’s Bar and the Eagles Club in New Rockford were burglarized.

According to Eddy County Sheriff Paul Lies, sometime between the hours of 2:45 and 5:30 a.m. gaming machines were busted open at both locations, along with the ATM and dart board at Hanson’s Bar.

According to Lies, the Sheriff’s Department is in possession of camera footage of the break-in inside the Eagles Club and is currently reviewing that footage.

“The footage appears to reveal just one individual inside”, said Lies, and that he took his time rummaging through the building.

(Story by Nathan Price, the New Rockford Transcript)