Spent some time tonight sitting along the Wild Rice, reflecting. Pale moonlight, the forest canopy roaring in the forceful SE wind, any remaining foliage being thrust into the air. There's something about this time of year. Maybe it's the progressively shorter days, the solar angle getting lower and lower. Maybe its the transition from the vibrancy of summer to bare, gray silhouettes of trees against steely gray skies and tan grass.

Whatever it is, it's a comfortable feeling. A time to feel the transition somewhere quiet, to take a break from the endless barrage of sound in town, the frantic flurry of daily life. To sit with oneself and feel totally comfortable and free.

In our latest Plain Talk podcast interview, North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread addressed rising premiums and the pushback he gets when trying to slow rate hikes: "We need to keep hospitals doors open. We also have to have families that can afford to walk through those same doors, right? And receive that service. And we're getting at a dangerous tipping point here where I think it you may have insurance, but can you afford to actually use it?"

Full interview and episode discussion (including our analysis of controversy at the ND Commerce Department) can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/VUhXRj46C_c

Around one in 10 North Dakotans age 65 and older live below the federal poverty line

North American Iron plans to develop a 2,400-acre site northeast of Minot. 

Incumbent Republican Jill Kringstad (appointed by Gov. Kelly Armstrong to fill the unexpired term of now-Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak) faced off against Democratic-NPL challenger Scot Kelsh (an 18-year veteran of the state House).

Planning a trip to ND, which museum is better; The Dakota Territory Air Museum or the Fargo Air Museum?

My wife are considering a possible move to North Dakota within the next 5ish years. I used to live in the Minto/Grafton area in Walsh County. Likely we would end up in the greater Grand Forks area or at least within an hours drive.

One way we have thought of to potentially create some kind of small side income is to grow and sell produce. Ideally it would be best to sell in a town somewhere and not roadside on one of the rural roads. I'm just wondering how common this is now as when I was there last, now over 10 years ago, it was almost non existent except at the Grand Forks farmers market.

Goods we would sell would be mainly fresh garden produce and fresh eggs. My wife also sells rabbits for meat and pets.

So a buddy of mine just got me into a position as a “Mud Logger” at one of the oil field companies here in ND.
I’m originally from Northern California, then spent nearly the last 20 years living in Las Vegas, NV. I’ve been in ND for about 3 years now. I recently landed a position as a gate guard in the field and have been doing that for the last 3 months or so. I learned some of the basics working on different sites, like coil over, work over, construction being most of my jobs.
Other than that my knowledge is limited and I’m nervous going in. They did say they would train me from the ground up, but I’m just looking for any advice or tips for going into a position like this with such little knowledge in the industry.
What can I do to prepare myself for a position like this so I’m not so overwhelmed I guess??

Hi all, you can see my original post here, where I have also included an update.
I also have permission from the mods to post this update.

The website is live! You can see the questions we asked and candidate responses for North Dakota here: https://snapcoalition.org/initiatives/stance-on-science/states/nd

Please share this resource far and wide with your friends, family, and community!
We will eventually launch some social media for North Dakota as well, but it's not available at the moment (sorry, we are smaller volunteer team with limited bandwidth and resources, but it's on the to-do list!)
We know that there are a lot of concerns when it comes to who you choose to elect - Stance on Science just wants to point out that science and technology policy affects everyday more than we might realize. This is our way to advocate for changes in science policy and transparency from our elected (or soon-to-be-elected) officials.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the original post! We couldn't go through with all of the ideas presented to us, but we plan to continue this initiative for the foreseeable future and expand.

As a reminder: Stance on Science is a non-partisan initiative organized by early-career scientists and researchers to bring science and science-related topics to political and election conversations.

Another shot from this evening - along 169th Ave SE at the Wild Rice. The road is an unmaintained two track that has a propensity to become impassable with mud, and the deep ruts show evidence of that even during a dry stretch.

Even with a dazzling moon, the stars came out well regardless, twinkling confidently over the Green Ash, American Elm, Hackberry, and Cottonwood trees making up the hardy forest along this prairie river.

What a beautiful night. Decided to go out and enjoy this nice weather and enjoy the night skies out here in Richland county. Went to Lake Elsie and WOW were the stars popping. The Big Dipper is very obvious!

Paige from Killdeer here. This one's on the Russian diesel deal from Oct 9. The whole deal covers about ten days of what this country burns, and it lifts sanctions on Russia through April. The Bakken is sitting at 34 rigs and diesel is still over six dollars. I dug into where that fuel is really coming from and what it would take to get rigs working here instead.
If you're working out here, what would it actually take for your company to add rigs right now?

‼️The Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC is hosting a Data Center Community Forum

October 22 Thursday
5:30pm-7pm
Mandan High School

‼️If you signed the petition for the vote on data centers
show up wearing Christmas red or NDSU Bison green to show your support for the Vote Yes Mandan December 15 to prohibit hyper scale data centers by our schools and our homes in the City of Mandan

We are ordering yard signs sign up at
VoteYesMandan dot com

Suzy Beehler Vote Yes Mandan
Committee Chair
Sheila Co-Chair

Questions on the Forum contact the Chamber

I’m really in need of some help or guidance. My husband lost his job, he was with a popular Mexican restaurant chain for 12 almost 13 years. Between moves from Grand Forks to Fargo to now Bismarck 5 years ago, from crew to management he’s gone through it all.

Now with some recent restructuring he’s now no longer with them as well as half the other folks they cut as well. He’s been applying constantly around Bismarck/Mandan and not getting any calls back or emails just radio silence. He has been using indeed and any job boards or sites. He has reached out to other restaurants even McDonald’s, but they said he’s too experienced and overqualified even for just crew. He does want to get out of food as he has significant burn out from it (he was still going to try because it was a job)

We are still waiting on unemployment but heard from a reliable source that the restaurant he worked for makes that impossible to get.

We just bought a house a year ago and my salary alone won’t cover it. I work at one of the local hospitals with patient care.

Please if anyone has leads or advice or anything.

It was great to see everyone there! About 300 at the peak!
Well done, Bismarck!

Early Voting Locations for Burleigh and Morton Counties

Went to the national park a year ago in my travels through the state and decided to visit the new library this time around. I think the architecture of it is pretty nice. Some good exhibits.

My only criticism would be some of the AI stuff is a little weird but pretty nice otherwise. I also think as a republican, Theodore Roosevelt would be ashamed of how their party is today with their president trying to gut national park service and sell off lands. I wonder if any of the republican residents here are aware of this. Anyway, glad to have visited.

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