Around the State: December 11, 2023

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.

Spirit Lake rapper amplifies voice of Native youth

Stuart James, a hip-hop artist from the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota, raps about important issues that affect native communities.

The now 30-year-old started off as a shy kid. Though he liked basketball, James admitted he wasn't the most athletic person growing up.

After hearing his cousin's song on the radio, he became inspired to try out rap. Instantly, song-writing began improving James' mental health.

"I just started writing and it felt really cool to be able to say a lot of the things that I wanted to say musically or just like in life in general, and I turned it into writing poems and stuff. And then I started getting into trying it over a beat and I was like, 'Hey, I think I could do this.'"

"Getting to witness his start from the beginning to where he is now, it's been one hell of a trip," said James' brother, Ethan Lohnes.

Since he first began rapping when he was 16, James has produced his own albums and singles. Lohnes' favorite work from his brother is "3 a.m.," an 11-song album released in 2019.

While there are a lot of Native rappers, James said he had trouble connecting with their music on a personal level because it copied the mainstream too much.

"A lot of Native rap was very gangster driven and I didn't relate with that."

Now he tries to spread good messages and be relatable in his music so he can connect with rez kids. He also creates music about the issues, reality and joy of being indigenous. In the past, James said others have described his sound as "mood music" or the soundtrack of a movement.

(Story by Adrianna Adame, the Benson County Farmers Press)

Jason's Super Foods is still an enigma

One of the biggest questions in downtown Bottineau at the moment is if Jason's Super Foods is going to stay open. In recent weeks, customers have seen little food and merchandise on the store's shelves, making locals wonder if the store will close.

Jason Tracy, owner of Jason's Super Foods, has made posts on Jason's Super Foods' Facebook page where he explained what he is doing concerning a number of grocery stores he owns in the state. Tracy's chain includes two in Bottineau County with a store in Bottineau and another one in Westhope, which is seeing the same difficulty as Bottineau's grocery store.

Tracy has promised the communities that he will stay open until he can find a buyer for his stores.

(Story by Scott Wagar, the Bottineau Courant)

Ray school freezes open enrollment

Ray Public School will stop accepting enrollment applications for out-of-district students as its building and buses reach capacity, the superintendent and school board decided recently.

The freeze applies both to new open-enrollment applications from families in other school districts and to new tuition agreements with districts that have students attending school in Ray. It does not affect students already enrolled in Ray.

The school has a reported enrollment of 441 students as of November 21, after starting the school year with a record 442.

The school board had 11 open-enrollment inquires in just the past month, Superintendent Kris Kuehn said.

(Story by Jody Michael, the Journal, Crosby)

Family gives emotional plea to find missing man

A Burleigh County family is pleading for landowners, farmers and ranchers to take an extra moment while hunting and checking property to look for their father that went missing November 16.

Lisa Liken-Monroe and her husband Chad Monroe were canvassing rural areas of North Dakota on November 28 in hopes of finding Lisa's father Lloyd Liken.

Lisa and Chad are begging anyone who might be outside hunting, checking fence lines or cattle, to take an extra moment to check property lines, abandoned buildings and haystacks in the search for Lloyd.

An alert was issued for a missing man out of Bismarck who was last seen Nov. 16 near Wilton on N.D. Highway 83.

According to a flier issued by the family, Liken, 81, is a six-feet tall white male, with grey hair and blue eyes, weighing about 200 pounds.

The flier stated he was last seen by his family leaving the 4400 block of Turnbow Lane in Bismarck driving a gold Toyota Highlander with license plate number 745BMN at about 8 p.m. on Nov. 16.

(Story by Kelli Ameling, the McLean County Independent)

Spitzer becomes book author

It's about his solo adventure, canoeing the descent of North America's longest river; but his newly published book is about so much more.

"I hope people find it interesting; it's not all flattering, there's history and there's humor in it. It's about having an aspiration," said new author Mark B. Spitzer of his book, "Waterlogue."

Spitzer, who is a 1972 graduate of Streeter High School decided he wanted to be the first person to travel North America's longest river, the Missouri, from the start near the Continental Divide, where Idaho and Montana meet, to the state of Missouri, where the river meets up with the Mississippi River, down through Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico.

On June 13th, 1989, Mark, along with his sidekick; his dog Groucho, began the 3,800 mile adventure, which he thought would take about six months. His goal was to canoe or hike the whole trip and he could go about 30 miles per day, which didn't include the storm days. By the time he reached his destination of the Gulf of Mexico, it had been seven months and one day, January 13, 1990.

Throughout and after his trip, Mark journaled and wrote about his adventures.

Throughout the trip one thing Spitzer learned was the kindness of strangers. "People will help if you ask. I asked a lot of strangers for help," he noted about things like rides from here to there.

He said the toughest part of the journey was from Lake Oahe by Bismarck to Pierre, S.D., because it was 200 miles of lake; no current and lots of storms.

He said most of the book was written in the 90's, and he used parts of articles he sent to the Napoleon Homestead, Dickinson Press and Bismarck Tribune for publication.

"Waterlogue: The First Canoeing Descent of North America's Longest River" can be purchased through the publisher, buffalocommonspress.com

(Story by Jessica Wald, the Napoleon Homestead)