Commentary

Knights in shining armor need a bogeyman

Audio Article
Passing Dreams

“I’m not going to play this game anymore,” proclaimed an unsolicited and unwanted text message from “Don Jr.” Of course, the message concluded with a URL link to a web address where, with the tap of your finger, you could give up a credit card number and make a contribution to the elder Don’s presidential campaign. No thanks. Actually, strike […]

Gloves on, rings off for grass puppies

Audio Article
Fair Range


My oldest son locks eyes with me and says, “Don’t worry, Mom. Stay calm.” I am dashing back toward him with calving chains tossed around my neck, hooks in one hand and the mechanical calf puller/jack in the other. Lane has locked our recipient cow, which is the equivalent of a surrogate, in the head chute while she tries to […]

Interim legislative committees meet

Audio Article
Capitol Views

On March 5, the Interim Water Topics Overview Committee met in Bismarck. We received a number of reports. Aaron Carranza, director, Regulatory Division, Department of Water Resources, provided an overview of his division. Andrew Nygren, Water Appropriations Division, Department of Water Resources, went through the process of obtaining various water permits. Dr. Andrea Travnicek, director, Department of Water Resources, discussed […]

Speak out on our commentary page

Audio Article

The Journal encourages letters to the editor. Readers can submit letters on our website at journalnd.com, by email to journal@crosbynd.com or by mail to P.O. Box E, Crosby, ND 58730. Letters should be no more than 450 words and include the writer’s city and phone number for verification. Writings longer than 450 words will be considered for publication as “Other […]

Each phase of our lives is precious

Audio Article
Passing Dreams

My dad’s brain was filled with one-liners. One of my favorites: “The older I get, the better I was.” Or: “Growing old isn’t for sissies.” Or one that is commonly used across the country: “The golden years aren’t so golden.” They weren’t all about aging, but right now, as I age, those seem to be the ones I remember. It’s […]

The seismic shift happening in ND political parties

Audio Article
ND Matters

A seismic shift is taking place in the North Dakota party convention nominating system, with the fragmentation of power and resources and candidates bypassing the structured nominating system and going directly to the polls. While North Dakota history is full of erratic appeals to primary elections, the present fracture was led by U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer and Gov. Doug Burgum, […]

The Four Horsemen: A conservative Supreme Court bloc

Audio Article
We the People

The Four Horsemen of Supreme Court — not biblical — lore represented one of the most important blocs of justices in the history of our constitutional tradition. Their intractable opposition to New Deal legislation and reforms in the 1930s, in favor of an old-style conservatism that embraced laissez-faire economics and the view that the Constitution was an unchanging document in […]

Clear-cut answers to what perplexes America

Audio Article
Passing Dreams

There was a fellow who wrote a letter to the editor in the Bismarck Tribune the other day suggesting that plans for carbon capture and sequestration in North Dakota should be abandoned because they won’t solve the world’s climate change problem. It’s true, of course, but it makes you wonder how that view from behind the blinders would see another […]

Alabama IVF ruling raises so many hard questions

Audio Article
Whines & Roses

Last week’s Alabama Supreme Court decision ruling frozen embryos are children is the best argument yet to keep government out of people’s reproductive health choices. The reaction was nearly immediate: In vitro fertilization clinics across the state halted operations, throwing into chaos the hopes of couples needing help conceiving a child. And, with a single ruling, it cast into legal […]

Lincoln, Biden and the pardon power’s long reach

Audio Article
We the People

The intriguing Presidents Day news that President Abraham Lincoln granted a pardon 160 years ago to President Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather revived Americans’ fascination with the purpose, concerns, scope and history of this sweeping executive power. Thanks to the good work of historian David J. Gerleman, we now know that Lincoln pardoned Moises J. Robinette, a civilian hired as a veterinary […]


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